My review of last night’s Wall concert at Fenway Park… Incredible.
This was my 15th time seeing "The Wall" but it was my first time seeing it outdoors. I was sitting with good friends, one being the webmaster of Pinkfloydz.com, Col Turner, who came up from Australia! We sat in section 4 to the right of Pesky’s pole and had a nice unobstructed view. I was worried the projector towers would block our way. The view was perfect. Being off to the side, however, did have an effect on the sound from where we were positioned. Things sounded out of sync (but weren’t) and I was a little concerned with the people directly under the rear stacks of speakers. The stacks were positioned strangely and surprisingly close over the crowd. Every time a sound effect went off it scared the hell out of everyone. It was a little too loud with the rest of the mix, but then again, it would have sounded different if I was closer to the FOH soundboard.
The size of the wall was amazing… to see it so wide and tall. Before the show I bumped into John Carin, who is “an official unofficial”, member of Pink Floyd and Roger’s bandmate (keyboards, guitar). I spoke to him a brief moment and welcomed him to Boston.
The first set was sublime. Roger and the band were in really good form, excited and happy to be there. The breeze was great, and the people were around me weren’t too obnoxious. My biggest complaint was the assisted video Roger uses. It’s not live. It was filmed in Athens and everything is synced up, well almost. For me, it ruins the suspension of disbelief. I think that production aspect is a huge mistake. Even the local children during ‘brick 2’ were diminished by a pre-recorded video showing different children. Makes no sense. Either show live video, or, don’t show it at all. Just my opinion. It seemed the crowd wasn’t too interested in the message Roger was trying to convey after ‘brick 2’ about Jean Charles De Menezes. As a side note, I’ve noticed many people (not just at this show) just didn’t get it or understand the important message Roger is sending.
The performance of Mother was very memorable and the best I’ve seen. The rest of the first set was perfect as well 'till people in front of us got up and blocked our view of the most climatic part of the show at the end of ‘Goodbye Cruel World’ (they couldn’t wait 20 more seconds for intermission). Anyway, all in all, "The Wall" is now a fine tuned, well oiled machine.
I took notice to how many people observed the importance the intermission. It was very moving to see all the names and faces of fallen loved ones. Especially on such a wide wall. The size of it all was amazing. During the intermission, Roger only meets with disabled veterans from the Wounded Warrior’s Project.
Set two was also great.. but by the third song in, we were distracted by a group of feisty chicks that must have been from Revere. Security came three times to sort them out but every time they would start up again, yelling obscenities at each other like there was no tomorrow while totally ignoring the show without any care for anyone else around them. It was almost a full blown cat fight. It was ugly and they were totally obnoxious. I will never understand why people do obnoxious things, like getting up every three seconds, using flash cameras, talking or doing whatever, when they paid so much money to see such a great show. My friend Col even turned to me and said that his opinion of Boston crowds had gone down a bit after that. I agreed with him, it was an embarrassing and pathetic display.
As the set went on it got less distracting and Dave Kilminster did a cracking solo with Numb. ‘In the Flesh’ and ‘Run Like Hell’, one of my favorite highlights was also superb. I love that Roger allows the crowd to tear the pig into bacon for the outdoor shows. At first I don’t think the crowd realized they were allowed to tear it up but then the pig was taken to slaughter. It was like watching a sinking ship in a sea of faces. My good friend Franz “the butcher”, who was in the thick of it all, got out his small pocket knife and started carving. He got away with the pigs entire right rear leg with the word “capitalism” painted in white. We all got a nice rasher for each if us.
The Wall "fall" was GREAT! One of the better ones I’ve seen. The sides of the wall fell or appeared to of fallen but it was a projection. I thought it was real at first and then the center stage wall fell and it was epic!
Keep in mind ‘The Wall’ was/is intended for indoor arenas. Having said that, I still prefer it inside over a “stadium” any day but it is very cool to see. My next and probably my last Wall concert will be in NYC at yankee stadium (non capitalization is intentional because the yankees SUCK).
