Submitted By Bryan
by Ed Mazley
There are those among us who believe the stage is not the place for artists to share their political views. A Roger Waters concert is the last place you should venture if that’s how you feel.
Fans entering the Pink Floyd bassist’s This is Not a Drill Tour stop in Glendale on Monday, Oct. 3, were greeted by a woman distributing stickers that read “U.S. militarism fuels climate crisis.”
Just behind her, two men were encouraging people sign a petition to stop the U.S. extradition of Julian Assange. A banner at their table read “Free Assange” and depicted the WikiLeaks founder being muzzled by an American flag.
It was the type of greeting you’d expect if you’ve been following Waters with even one eye since the ’70s.
“If you’re one of those ‘I love Pink Floyd but I can’t stand Roger’s politics’ people, you might do well to (expletive) off to the bar right now,” he announced in a video message just before he took the stage. Hilarious yet sage advice.
This is a man whose greatest works include a conceptual treatise on capitalism loosely based on George Orwell’s satirical fairy tale, “Animal Farm,” dividing humanity into three groups — power-hungry pigs, conniving dogs and easily manipulated sheep.
I love that album.
A set list interspersed with political statements
It’s rare to see a concert as politically engaged as Waters at the recently rechristened Desert Diamond Arena, which sadly was not temporarily renamed Shine on You Crazy Desert Diamond Arena anywhere but this review.
As the 78-year-old musician led his band in “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2,” the words “control the narrative, rule the world,” and “propaganda” scrolled across the screen behind him.
“The Bravery of Being Out of Range” was introduced by video of Ronald Reagan’s farewell speech, superimposed with the caption “War Criminal: Killed 30,000 innocents in Guatemala.”
And before you file your grievances of “liberal elites,” he then applied the same charges to every US president since Reagan, from George H.W. Bush (“the Road to Basra”) to Joe Biden (“just getting started…”).
There were video tributes to victims of police brutality, calls to free Assange, shots fired at the oligarchs and a helpful reminder that “the (expletive) pigs will kill us all” going into the iconic sax on “Us and Them.”
He pulled out of an epic suite of classics from the back half of “The Dark Side of the Moon” by introducing “Two Suns in the Sunset” as a “rather gloomy song” about dying in a nuclear war.
“And you may think ‘Why is he gonna do that?,'” Waters said in perhaps the concert’s most impassioned diatribe.
“Well, it’s something we should be thinking every day because our lunatic leaders are drifting in the direction of poking other lunatic leaders in the eye with sharp pointed sticks,” he said. “And all of these lunatic leaders are in charge of extremely dangerous nuclear weapons and they could kill us all in a heartbeat.”
The song itself included images of people being vaporized in a nuclear explosion.
Did it feel a little heavy-handed? Yes, of course — as did several moments in the course of Monday’s concert.
It’s a heavy-handed calling, one he rose to with conviction.
A message in the context of classic songs
What made the concert so engaging was the way he managed to incorporate his thoughts on our lunatic leaders in the context of the songs themselves, which sounded great and covered much of what your average Pink Floyd fan could even reasonably hope to witness.
From the time he took the stage, he set the controls for the heart of the Pink Floyd demographic with a haunting rendition of “Comfortably Numb,” the first of 17 Pink Floyd songs in a 24-song set, played out against a post-apocalyptic skyline.
He even included a really sweet tribute to the great Syd Barrett on “Wish You Were Here,” during which he recalled their decision to form a band after seeing Gene Vincent in concert, and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” accompanied by the message, “When you lose someone you love, it does serve to remind you this is not a drill.”
Stripped of any real-world context, what he did would constitute a fairly flawless Pink Floyd greatest hits experience. The fact that it was so much more than that is what makes Waters’ concerts feel more relevant than any other artist of his generation.
The production was spectacular — cross-shaped staging and stunning, if occasionally glitchy sound that felt like it could crush you during those scenes of nuclear annihilation. And there was a flying pig. But if you’ve ever seen a Roger Waters tour, you knew that.
I may not agree with everything the British rocker has to say. But I wholeheartedly agree that he should scream whatever feelings he is feeling from whatever rooftop an arena tour provides.
Roger Waters 2022 tour setlist
“Comfortably Numb”
“The Happiest Days of Our Lives”
“Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2”
“Another Brick in the Wall, Part 3”
“The Powers That Be”
“The Bravery of Being Out of Range”
“The Bar”
“Have a Cigar”
“Wish You Were Here”
“Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX)”
“Sheep”
Set 2:
“In the Flesh”
“Run Like Hell”
“Déjà Vu”
“Déjà Vu (Reprise)”
“Is This the Life We Really Want?”
“Money”
“Us and Them”
“Any Colour You Like”
“Brain Damage”
“Eclipse”
“Two Suns in the Sunset”
“The Bar (Reprise)”
“Outside the Wall”
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Go Astros!
Astros 5. NY Commies 0.
Of course…
Syd Barrett founded Pink Floyd with Nick Mason, Richard Wright and Roger Waters.
David Gilmore was the magic that changed it all for me.
Dark Side Of The Moon.
Before Dark Side….
Obscured By Clouds is the album by Floyd that has some of the best songs. Wot’s Uh The Deal, has great lyrics.
Free Four
The memories of a man in his old age
Are the deeds of a man in his prime
Shuffle in the gloom of your sickroom
And talk to yourself as you die
ONLY Floyd could make that unhappy picture into a decent song!
Right before that Meddle is pretty good. Listen to Fearless or A Pillow of Winds – Fearless is awesome.
I always liked this lyric from Sheep (Animals):
“Wave upon wave of demented avengers
March cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream.”
They come around about every 80 years or so…Demented Avengers, that is. What a truly apt description of shitheads like Shwabe, Gates, Fauci, Pelosi, and the rest.
Demented Avengers indeed.
The number of “Roadies” taken with high school buddies while listening to full albums of Zeppelin, Beatles, Floyd, Ozzy, Tom Petty, Talking Heads, The Police and so many more…IS A LOT.
It’s all good music with lyrics that often mean enough to suck you in for decades as real life and a song lyric coincide…again, and again and again…
I’m going to Ramble On now and think about some Friends because Tomorrow Never Knows what kind of crap may result in Burnin Down The House…
And those are just the song titles.
About time some of them stood up, he was around during the time of Nam, and since, he’s seen and had enough, nail them to there own damn wall Mr Waters. More power to him and may he have safe travels. /tiphat
Pink Floyd makes the music for what is coming down the pike, kids:
Some jam.
One of these days, very soon.
Be careful with that axe Eugene!
I’d rather be in a cave grooving with a pict…or setting the controls for the heart of the sun.
Considering the uneducated rantings of the typical musician these days, I would say that Roger at least is on sound ground. At his concerts, when the line “mother should I trust the government” is sung, the overwhelmingly loud response from the crowd is NO!!!! Worth the price of admission just to hear so many say that loudly (and it doesn’t matter which worthless major party is in power, the response is the same).
He’s reportedly on the Ukraine kill list. Nice puppet government we’re running over there.
Hat tip to Roger for standing up on a key matter, nowadays.
But I miss any (visible) reflection by him, for example about how his/Pink Floyd’s understanding in the late 1960’s/early 1970’s of the penultimate evil [at least in the UK] compare to what is going on today, and to all the things Roger has politically followed in the meantime, for the past decades.
Because those previous worldviews don’t look very reasonable, much less very profound anymore.
Take my up vote. maybe he had an awakening
I wish they had come to Albuquerque.