Roger Waters, Jun 7, 2000 (Charlotte, NC)

by Nik Riviera

As we entered the blockbuster pavillion, we saw the huge screen and lights that Roger has set up and sat in awe for twenty minutes anxiously waiting for him to step out on stage. Enter the band, and then Roger walks out from left and walks on top of the elevated back of the stage. Roger spouted out some German ramblings I believe, and then the first blistering note of IN THE FLESH was heard. The setlist contined as follows :

1st set

In The Flesh
Mother
The Happist Days of Our lives
Another Brick in the Wall II
Keep Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert
South Hampton Dock
Pigs on the Wing
Dogs
Welcome to the Machine
Wish You Where Here
Shine on You Crazy Diamond I-IX

- brief 20 minute intermission -

2nd set

Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
Breathe
Time
Breathe, reprise
Money
Every Strangers Eyes
Perfect Sense I
Perfect Sense II
The Bravery of Being Out of Range
It's a Miracle
Amused to Death
Brain Damage / Eclipse
I won't tell you the encores because that would be an asshole thing to do.

After In The Flesh Roger cooled off with the dreary song Mother. Now, you've gotta understand that i was at the Blockbuster Pavillion in Charlotte North Carolina. So this place is packed with just dumbass people. The entire 3 hour concert everyone in the first 15 rows stood, so we were forced to stand to catch a glimpse of anything. They didn't even sit down for Shine On! Anyway, so Mother turned out to be utterly flawless, Waters gave the Gilmour vocal parts to his backup singers, who are extremely talented. Doyal Bramhal II did an astounding solo on it also.

Happiest Days of Our Lives and ABITWII were performed well. I'm not espeically fond of ABITWII anymore, it's an overplayed crowd pleaser. But I suppose that every band has one song like that, it was a terrific performance of it however.

A Missle sound was heard through the Quadraphonic psychadelic speakers for the initiation of the Final Cut songs, I really didn't know either of these songs being that I hate the Final Cut, but they still were performed well.

And on we move to animals. Roger busted out the acoustic for Pigs of the wing, this song, of course, led into DOGS, one of the highlights of the night. John Carin, played acoustic guitar, keyboards, and sang lead vocals on this song, an astounding guy. His voice was pretty good, not comparable to Gilmour's but still very good. The song was exceptionally performed. The double guitar solos performed by Snowy White and Doyal Bramhal II were flawless. It was performed the entire 17-18 minute duration. During the long keyboard solo Waters and the rest of the band excluding the keyboardists and drummer took a seat at the card table and played some poker while watching Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory. and finished stunningly.

And then on to Wish You Were Here. These were great performances also. I would have rather heard Have a Cigar over Welcome to the Machine however...The visuals and performances were amazing. The huge stadium sized projection screen shot scenes of Syd Barret and a projection liquid light (like a lava lamp). The performances were really aweomse. Bramhal gave the guitar solos a very blues touch, which I personally liked, some may not.

On to the second set. Strangely enough, they opened with the haunting Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun. The only piece Waters did from his older says. The visuals on it had young pictures of the band with Barret fucking around with some kind of dummy. By this time the stage was dark. The smoke fills the bottom of the staged which was amplified by laser lights all over the place. An unexpected and welcomed performance.

Roger then played the bulk of the DSotM. All great performances, with awesome visuals. A panning DSotM prism cover with green EKG beat measure. Looked really cool. The lights were amazing to this also.

Roger then played alot of his solo stuff from Amused to Death, that i really liked but was not familiar with at all, but I did enjoy, this sounds like an album everyone should pick up. he then closed up the concert with Brain Damage and the all concluding Eclipse which was the perfect ending.

So, if you're going into this show for a KICKASS lightshow because you wanna get really toasted and hear some floyd songs, then save your money loser. This tour is for real fans, he plays all the popular songs, along with the good obscure ones, and his light show isn't on the P * U * L * S * E level, but they're completely astounding. So don't going into this concert thinking you're gonna hear Gilmour floyd, you're not. From my point of view, after the wall, Pink Floyd ended, Pink Floyd was David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Rick Wright, and Nick Mason...not even syd barret. When Waters left he took away the Pink, and Gilmour is the Floyd, but neither of them can be PINK FLOYD until they get together which will absolutely never happen, so don't hold your nuts. But still, for any Floyd fan this show is probably the best you'll see in the next couple years, you won't regret it.

*************** BEWARE : BELOW THIS LINE I WILL MENTION ENCORES SO IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW PRESS THE <---- BACK BUTTON!!!! ********************

The first encore Waters played was Comfortably Numb, an awesome version of it too. Waters sang the first verse, and Bramhal sang the second verse, as Bramhal did sing on most of the concert. They sampled the orchestra from the album which, let me tell, sounds SOOOOOO much better than the keyboards that Gilmour uses on it. The second encore he played was Each Small Candle, his brand new song about a soldier in Bosnia. It was a great song. The lyrics were hauntingly printed in red on the huge backdrop so the audience could fully comprehend Roger's genius. The song was great and was the perfect ending to an awesome show.