Life in between the routine: Guest Post: Roger Water's 'The Wall' @ O2 Center, London 5-15-2011

Sunday night we saw a live performance what has been hailed as the 'Greatest Rock Show of all time' - Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' - performed by none other than Roger Waters himself. Now, I have been fired up for this for months - I've been known to go on periodic Pink Floyd streaks that border on obsessive, and this was essentially the first and last time this show would be performed live in its entirety for the first time in 30 years (sad-but-true fact: I started reading a 450 page book on the history of Pink Floyd to prepare for the concert. And, yes, seeing that sentence in writing makes me feel like a a huge douchebag... Apparently I'm a Star Trek Uniform away from the Leonard Nimoy Fan Club). Jannine on the other hand, was clearly biting the bullet because she saw how much I wanted to go. That said, I'm not sure she was totally prepared for the spectacle she was going to witness......I think Roger managed to win her over by the end of the show....

Sidebar #1: ~~I'm writing~~ I wrote this post from a Starbucks in London (on my iPad - dork status confirmed) . I have seen a few starbucks sprinkled across Europe (airports, some in Paris, etc), however, London is approaching US level store density. My curiosity finally got the best of me, so I had to check one out to compare and contrast vs the US (Sadly, no iced coffee, which i am dying for). I considered going all 'in n' out burger' on them and ordering off my own 'secret menu', but the confused look I got when I asked for a 'medium coffee' made me think otherwise. Bravo on the food selection though, and way better music - Howard Schultz take notice. Anyway, back to the real post.....

So we hop The Tube to the O2 Center, and grab a bite to eat at Wagamama, which is basically like a Pei Wei, but healthier and more authentic. It's t-minus 15 minutes to the show, and Jannine wants to eat. I am on the verge of having a nervous-wreck-meltdown because I think we are going to miss the start of the show. Jannine is trying to figure out why I am so worried about missing the opening, and I try to explain that what we are going to see is more akin to a play or an opera than a concert... 'Would you miss the opening act of a play?!?!' I say, instantly realizing how ridiculous I sound (as an aside, I just ordered my Spock uniform, extra large). Thankfully, the folks at Wagamama operate at lightening speed and we are in and out in no time (excellent spicy squid, for the record).

Enter the O2 center and I have to say, the place is outstanding. State of the art entertainment complex with restaurants and the like, and absolutely huge.....I would guess it holds 25k or so. At a $135 per ticket, my back of the envelope math says Roger is making a sh*tload of money this evening (ironic given what the wall is about). Anyway, we find our seats on the floor and settle in....

Explosions at the opening of the show

For those of you unfamiliar with the Wall, it is part anti-government/anti-war/'big brother'/fascism protest, part an indemnification of pop/rock star culture, and partly a thinly- veiled story of Roger Waters' childhood and rise to fame. The record has 2 parts, that are meant to be listened to in sequence, which is how it will be played tonight.

The show starts with Roger dressed in a military costume meant to evoke an image of a Nazi-like ceremony, and the fireworks literally start right away with a fake plane crashing into 'The Wall' and a series of impressive explosions.

Over the course of the next hour, the wall will be built brick by brick, until it eventually separates the band and the audience completely (meant to symbolize Roger's feeling of isolation from the fans).

Below: Great renditions of 'Another brick in the wall' and 'Mother' which were highlights the first half of the show. This lead to the single greatest invention in rock and roll history--'the intermission'.

Another brick in the Wall

'Mother'

Seriously, this happened

Sidebar 2: Despite a packed house, the line for the bathroom was only about 5 minutes long, and the line for beer was non-existent. dunno how this worked, but bravo O2 center. Second, in a country where the price of just about everything can best be described as ''exorbitantly expensive', beer and food at the O2 was surprisingly reasonably priced. A pint was £4.5 (~$8), which is a fair deal by US concert venue standards. Again, bravo O2! Back to the post.

Second half of the show Features an awesome version of 'Comfortably Numb', more militaristic theater, and the spectacular falling of the wall. The whole performance was something to behold - a modernized version of the original, updated to reflect the wars of recent times (and even inferences that Apple is the new Big Brother corporate figure) with much more multi-media than I would guess they used in the 80s, but true to the message and the music in the end. All-in-all awesome stuff....I'm pretty sure that is the last time any of Pink Floyd's members will do a Wall tour, so I'm pretty excited that we got to see it performed In The Flesh.....

Comfortably Numb: