Roger Waters

On Saturday December 11th, I went to see The Wall concert at the Tacoma Dome.

The wooden structure with sound boards vibrated so much terrific noise that even the whistles behind you made your ears bleed with happiness.

The fashion statements were plenty of mullets, dreads, and of course balding. Aww but those were only the die hards of the times of 1989 when the Berlin Wall was chipped away and the last time that The Wall was performed in it’s entirety. I had a guy while I was waiting outside the women’s restroom tell me that he was counting how many mullets he sees through out the day, within thirty seconds, he had spotted three. If you were there and counted feel free to respond with your numbers.

I however was more impressed with how much weed was smoked within the building. Walking into the women’s restroom was like walking into a cloud of fumes which made me smile at the thought of how much fun someone is having without me.

I stood in line at the wine bar for a merlo and had a bit of it spill on the ground, what a waste, when many people scrambled to make sure they were seated appropriately to catch the opening act. I decided then that I should probably down 1/3 of the cup just to make sure that no more spilt wastefully. It was a wise decision.

As I waited for the lights to dim and the guitar to play there were explosions of lights from the stage! Yes, explosions of magnificent fire works lighting the stage in a festive manner. And then I heard the words of Spartacus, “I am Spartacus!”, “No, I am Spartacus.” and every time the speakers repeated the Spartacus chant the crowd began to rise. At first slowly a couple from the front close to the stage and then the masses rose shouting, ” I am Spartacus!”

It was the people speaking of freedom and a world free of war. The performance from beginning to end of Roger Water’s life story screamed of anti-war symbolism not to mention a mantis like wife, a demonize teacher, and a creepy inflatable mom for the song Mother.

My favorite song was towards the end where he talks about being crazy in , The Trial. The full wall of the set was built and a video feed was projected on to it with the mantis wife, the creepy mom, and of course the judge. “In all my years of judging I have never heard before of someone more deserving of the full penalty of the law.” It was disturbingly delightful and then the wall came crashing down. The whole crowd screamed and I couldn’t help but feel freshly apart of something memorable. The only way the event could have gone better would be if the band got back together.

Which I am told that one of the performances the band was going to join in and though the event was terrific I am unfortunately not one of the lucky who gets to see Pink Floyd together again, the band broke it off before I ever got to see them in concert together.

But Roger Waters really pulled it off even with the duet. He had said, “At risk of being naurssistic I will being doing a duet with myself.” Of course himself being the younger version of himself on video played against the wall on stage.

Wonderful performance.

I heart you Roger Waters!