I was lucky enough to see Roger Waters and co perform The Wall at Staples Center on Monday night. I wasn’t planning to go but was invited by a friend and damn I was glad I had a chance to witness it. More theatre than rock show, they construct The Wall during the show and by the time of intermission the band is fully behind it. The music is great, true to the record with not one but two David Gilmour impersonators (one vocal and one guitar) and Thin Lizzy’s (and original touring member of The Wall circa 1980) Snowy White. But the highlight for me was the non-stop projection on the ever-growing wall. The production value was HIGH and FLAWLESS. Roger Waters is 25 days older than my dad and The Wall is 30 years old; I’m not going to pretend it’s cutting edge material (while watching I couldn’t help but wonder: “What if we were watching the Bob Ezrin-produced concept record from a year later — Music From ‘The Elder’ — at Staples Center 30 years on?”). Regardless, it was great. I’m glad I had the chance to take it in.
I was 7 when The Wall was released. The AOR radio station near where I grew up (Goshen, IN) was 95.5 WAOR (in Niles, MI). My mom won $95.50 worth of records at Just For The Record in Mishawaka on WAOR. That was a *lot* of money to spend on records at the time and particularly to me, a budding eight year-old record collector, it seemed like you could buy every record in the place with all that cash. Mom told me she’d buy me one record out of her allotment. I requested The Wall a) because I wanted it desperately and b) it was a double record and I’d have never been able to afford it on my own. She acquiesced and I lived with that record for the next 8 years of my life.
I’m not sure I can back the ticket price, but if you get a chance and can swing the cost, you definitely want to see this show.
ian