Roger Waters Concert Review and Play List 2008

Roger Waters
May 2, 2008
Superpages.com Center (the old Smirnoff)
Dallas, TX
8:00 PM

Concert Review
by Paul Ridenour email

An excellent concert as usual. It has been eight years since I last saw Roger Waters.

Roger Waters is one of the most anti-war, anti-Bush, anti-Blair guys out there. We all knew that. Here are some of the things he sang about and some of the things written on the flying pig or on the video screen:

Shame on you Bush
Cheney is a ****
Pictures of Bush, Cheney, Reagan, Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Mao, and Stalin together as if they are all equal
Obama (then a box with a check mark)
Don't let the Christian Right **** everything up for you
All religions divide
Fear builds walls

I am not sure if Roger Water realizes it or not that if he lived in the USSR and said those things against the leaders of the USSR, he would have been shot. And if he said those things in an Islamic country today about Islam or their leaders, he would have his head chopped off. I guess Waters doesn't know that Stalin killed 40 million of his own people. That's ok though - it just proves what Mark Levin always says - "Liberalism is the philosophy of the stupid."

The concert started out with a video of someone smoking, drinking, and listening to the radio, but never showed who it was. The first song was Elvis' Hound Dog. Then a hand changed the radio station and you hear Abba's Dancing Queen. It is changed immediately to an old version of My Funny Valentine. For the first few Roger Waters songs, the hand is changing the radio to the various beginning of the songs and you see the last of that video for awhile at Wish You Were Here.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Have A Cigar, and Wish You Were Here were just great.

Southampton Dock, The Fletcher Memorial Home, Perfect Sense, and Leaving Beirut were the bulk of the anti-war songs. That is when most of the people, fat and drunk, got up and went to the bathroom or bought more beer. Leaving Beirut was just plain stupid lyrics and boring.

Some stupid lyrics of Leaving Beirut:

Not in my name, Tony, you great war leader you
Terror is still terror, whosoever gets to frame the rules
History's not written by the vanquished or the damned
Now we are Genghis Khan, Lucretia Borghia, Son of Sam
In 1961 they took this child into their home
I wonder what became of them
In the cauldron that was Lebanon
If I could find them now, could I make amends?
How does the story end? [I'll tell you how the story ends. They were killed by a terrorist blowing himself up - Paul]

But everyone was kind to us, we were the English dudes
Our dads had helped them win the war
When we all knew what we were fighting for
But now an Englishman abroad is just a US stooge
The bulldog is a poodle snapping round the scoundrel's last refuge

I have heard Waters do Dogs before but was looking forward to Sheep, which did not disappoint. During Sheep, out came the large pink pig with stupid things written all over it. At the end of the song, the pig is let go and as it flies away, there is a huge spotlight on it. It is pretty cool looking as it gets further and further away, like a huge pink pig-shaped spaceship.

After Sheep was the intermission and Roger said we will be back to do The Dark Side of the Moon. That is what everyone came to hear anyway.

Seeing and hearing The Dark Side of the Moon from beginning to the end was just fantastic. My favorite Pink Floyd song is Us And Them. Dark Side started with a picture of the moon and a satellite blinking red lights to the heartbeat as it got closer and closer to the moon and then passed it. Everyone cheered with the ticking and alarms of the clocks. There is basically no difference in listening to Roger Waters and Pink Floyd with David Gilmour. Pink Floyd cannot do some of the Waters songs but Waters can do Gilmour songs because he has a singer that sounds like Gilmour. Waters' guitarist is perfect. Still, I prefer Gilmour over Waters. I do not remember Pink Floyd being political at all.

Much of the videos during the entire concert were about smoking, drinking, smoking weed, doing pills, and at least one scene with a guy smoking weed while driving. I am assuming that Waters is promoting this kind of behavior, or is familiar with this lifestyle.

The encore was after Dark Side and everyone was on their feet during Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2). More anti-war stuff with Bring the Boys Back Home.

We finally get to see who the person is in the room smoking a cigarette, drinking, and listening to the radio. A guy is sitting in a chair and basically numbed out of his skull and feeling Comfortable Numb.

The sound was fantastic for an outdoor concert and it was loud. There were seven musicians onstage and three female singers. Several people I knew were there including Gary Malone, Corky Schalchlin, Ed Brown, and Gary Frederick. My wife Dottie has seen Pink Floyd with David Gilmour back in the 1990s but had not seen Roger Waters. She said "the music was great, the politics were hilarious, and the pig was cheap looking." I agree. They have to have a cheap pig because it is let go at every concert. Australian Pink Floyd has a cool pig and a pink kangaroo.

Over all, if you like Pink Floyd, you will enjoy this concert. If, however, you are easily offended by liberal politics, you may want to stay home.

Set List

[best songs *]

In the Flesh
Mother
Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
Shine on You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V) *
Have a Cigar *
Wish You Were Here *
Southampton Dock
The Fletcher Memorial Home
Perfect Sense (Parts 1 and 2)
Leaving Beirut
Sheep *

(break)

The Dark Side of the Moon
Speak to Me
Breathe *
On the Run *
Time *
Breathe (Reprise) *
The Great Gig in the Sky
Money
Us and Them *
Any Colour You Like
Brain Damage
Eclipse

Encore

The Happiest Days of Our Lives
Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) *
Vera
Bring the Boys Back Home
Comfortably Numb *

"Wish you were here"