Roger Waters Live Last Night in Glendale,AZ


My first concert in a while. Last was Sia. 

Roger has a message for his audience

that comes with the music. Somewhat off-putting

I must say. I went for music not politics. Not saying

I totally disagree with his. F-bombs galore. All our presidents

past and current are mass murderers. Could be a bit strong.

He is 79 and British.  Has some fun stories. I can live without

the other messages though. Is this messaging common nowadays?

128x128jeffseight

Gents, I drilled down pretty deep into this in a earlier (long winded) post, but have a few additional (short) comments.

The country is divided. It’s not getting better. Our common links and connections are fragile and being compromised on a daily basis. Concerts are one of those areas where magnitudes of people can still gather and share their passions, experiences, and (positive) energy, regardless of their background or belief systems. As far as performers are concerned, there’s a diffferce between talking TO your audience (Graham Nash) and talking DOWN to your audience. The goal of a concert should be to have a greater sense of unity and loyality to the artist than before. If this didn’t happen, something is amiss. There is no problem with someone sharing their view of life provided they make EVERYONE in attendance feel welcome, and valued. Stomping around, breaking links and connections, and having your audience feel guilty about foreign policy decisions and government corruption that happened well above their paygrades (or, before they were born) is not showing proper respect for the audience who are just there to show admiration for YOU and your music.

When thousands (or tens of thousands) attend their concerts to celebrate the artist and their work, the musical content (and, comments about all things related to the music) should be "the thing". I take issue with the assumption that it’s THIER concert and they can do what they want. The concert goer paid for tickets. Its a business transaction and the performers is "on the clock". I don’t think many of you would enjoy a restaurant owner walking up to your table and spreading mayo all over your steak "because it’s his business and he can do what he wants to". They have an obligation to deliver for the customer. PAID entertainment should be no different.

Waters is an artist and not merely a paid entertainer. It is facile to compare going to a Waters concert with a visit to a restaurant.

If you don't like his art then you might be better off going to see an entertainer instead.

There's no shortage of those.
 

Waters on the other hand, to me, is more like edgy Lennon to Gilmour's crowd pleasing McCartney.

Together they are fabulous but apart they're somewhat diminished.

A bit like Simon and Garfunkel, Morrissey and Marr or David and Bacharach, it's their differences that makes their work interesting: but those differences often also end up eventually driving them apart.

 

If you really want to go see Pink Floyd, well, you can't.

However there must be plenty of tribute bands out there who will do a good job.  I saw one myself about 10 years ago, and they played the Barrett era/pre Dark Side Floyd.  

Pretty good they were too, and very loud with it.

I also remember seeing a Sex Pistols tribute band playing in a local pub and they too put on a great show.

However, that's all it was.

Carefully nuanced but fairly predictable fare delivered like a well prepared 3 course meal.

It was nothing like the chaos I imagine that an original Sex Pistols gig would have been like.

Listen to Roger Waters' soundtrack contribution to the film,  When The Wind Blows. Given the current political machinations and sabre-rattling of the war pigs, it'll scare the crap out of you. 

To those who are bothered by Roger, I have one message. The truth hurts! To those who believe in free speech and enjoy Roger's art, rock on!