Roger Waters The Wall

The atmosphere at The Palace in Auburn Hills outside Detroit was charged and sparking Sunday night as we meandered through the crowd tailgating in the parking lot, The Wall blaring from an assortment of car stereos. This is the arena where the Pistons play and it is set up to party. Several full service sit down bars serving everything from beer to shots to frozen foo foo concoctions were packed with noisy customers chatting in line growing louder by the minute. Restaurants included Big Boy, Buffalo Wild Wings and a large assortment of Detroit style dogs and sausages. My choice was poor and the coney style hot dog I ate was loaded with salt, the accompanying home made chips were absolutely awful, greasy, salty and not edible but fortunately we were not there for the food or beverages.

What we were there to see was one of the best concerts of my life, Roger Waters, one of the founding members of the super band, Pink Floyd was performing The Wall an album that was first introduced some thirty years ago. Waters wrote the wall when he was 38 and it is as relevant, stirring, politically rousing, honest appraisal of war and fear as you will ever witness on stage. Sound, color, fireworks, giant marionettes, airplanes, animation and strong pulsing vocals beat and hammer at your brain. The sound pushes through your body and the assault of fast paced video keeps your eyes jumping from image to image. Talk about sensory over load, it could easily happen to those who suffer from over stimulation.

I had never seen any Pink Floyd concert but I had a pal in the late 80's who was a Floyd addict and saw numerous shows always telling me what a great concert they performed. I think if I was ever to see just one show this would be it. While The Wall is not my favorite Floyd album the theme of war and fear was accurately portrayed through the theatrical presentation. Awesome is the best word to describe the event.

While I shot a lot of video mine was recorded from the nose bleed section and is not as good as many of the videos of this tour that are on You Tube currently. Check out those videos and see if you agree it was well worth the price of admission.