Roger Waters In Toronto
17th September 2010

It was the wall - literally - that was the star Wednesday night at the Air Canada Centre as Roger Waters launched the 30th Anniversary tour of The Wall - Pink Floyd’s seminal 1979 double album which the British prog-rock act originally toured in 1980.

Certainly, the 67-year-old bass player-singer spared no expense in terms of theatrics and pyrotechnics which must have been mind-blowing for those in an altered state.

There was a large circular video screen, oversized inflatables representing the album’s character “Pink,” a school teacher, and others, and, of course, the large white brick wall on the stage and leading up into the stands on either side onto which words, images, video of the band, animation and graffiti were projected throughout two dazzling hours of music - basically The Wall’s track listing from start to finish.

The wall also grew in size as the show progressed with workers adding small pieces of it like a puzzle all night long until the show’s second half where it remained fully erect until, well, the very dramatic ending complete with red confetti.

But the concert’s first high point was more human than spectacle as Waters was joined by 25 students from The Regent Park School of Music at the front of the stage during Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2.

The second more intimate moment came when Waters, backed by 11 other musicians - including Robbie Wyckoff sharing lead vocals - played an acoustic guitar during Mother.

A concept album/rock opera, The Wall was based on Waters’ own childhood and early adulthood in England, losing his dad during WWII, abuse at the hands of his school teachers, an overprotective mother, and being deserted by his first wife.

Waters also showed pictures of people - soldiers, activists, and children - who had been killed in Iraq, along with firefighters who perished in 9-11. (”I would like to thank of all you have sent in your photos of your loves ones,” said Waters in a printed statement that went up on the wall during a 20-minute intermission.)

Before the concert began, a homeless man wandered through the floor with a grocery cart carrying a placard that said, “No Thought Control,” a line from Another Brick In The Wall as in “we don’t need no thought control,” as a police officer seemed to be ordering him off the premises.

Naturally, it was all part of the production…

After the intermission, during which a bagpipe version of Amazing Grace and other instrumental music was performed while more pictures of lost loved ones were projected, Waters and his musicians returned to perform the album’s second disc in its entirety leading off with fan favourite Hey You followed by Is There Anybody Out There?

But Waters only reappeared again during Nobody Home, on a living room set which sprang out of of the wall which saw him seated and watching TV while he sang.

The most political song of the night was Bring The Boys Back Home, during which images of war-torn countries, starving children, and ravaged countryside were projected, while singer Wyckoff appeared perched on the top of the wall during Comfortably Numb, the stoner anthem from The Wall, which ended with more psychedelic visuals.

By the time the entire band - all dressed in black hoodies - finally came out from behind the wall for The Show Must Go On, In The Flesh and set highlight, Run Like Hell, there was so much fascist imagery, pictures of leaders like Adolf Hitler, Mao Tse-Tung and George Bush Jr., coupled with a remote-controlled black pig covered in slogans like “Trust Us,” and “Them Not Us,” floating over the audience.

A night to remember …

Neil Chivers