I went to the Roger Waters' Dark Side of the Moon show at Key Arena in Seattle last night and I have to say that it ranks at the top of the many, many concerts I've seen over the years. First off, the music was incredible. I found myself smiling involuntarily with each Pink Floyd song brought back to life by the man who shaped the band's sound during its heyday in the 1970s. I have been a Pink Floyd fan as long as I've been listening to rock music. But I have never seen a Pink Floyd or Roger Waters' show in all those years, so it was a joy to see and hear the music brought to life.
As we entered Key Arena, our seats were a little above stage level at the opposite end of the hall. The stage was dwarfed by a truly huge video screen that featured the image of an old transistor 
radio, a bottle of scotch, a shot glass, and a toy World War II era model plane.
We got to our seats at about 7:30 and the arena was more empty than full, so we had a lot of crowd watching to do. This was one of the oldest crowds I've seen. Lots of gray hair (or no hair) and well-expanded waistlines. But there were a lot of young kids, too. Some with parents. Others on their own. It was cool to see families coming out to the show together.
This was the whitest audience I've ever seen. We looked and looked and counted only 2 blacks; ironically, in our section. Pink Floyd's music was always pretty caucasian-focused, and Seattle's a pretty white town, but still I was a little dismayed by the lack of color.
Oh, and America, lose some weight. Wow, what a bunch of fatties. It never fails to amaze when I go to a show, the astounding number of really, really heavy people.
By 8 PM the arena was nearly full and people started cheering whenever a section of lights went off. The stadium's PA was playing old rock and rockabilly songs. Then, I noticed that smoke from a cigarette was wafting up on the video screen. Soon, a hand reached out and changed the dial on the radio, selecting several songs, before settling on "My Funny Valentine."
As the song faded, the band took the stage and erupted into the opening chords of In The Flesh. The band hit the show running with this song, rocking hard, while the familiar marching hammers and other Wall visuals danced on the screen behind. After that, Waters shifted sharply into the acoustic song Mother from The Wall. The three back-up singers enhanced this song a great deal, as did back-up vocalist Katie Kissoon, who took over Waters' mother lines from the original. This was followed by Set the Controls to the Heart of the Sun, from the band's 2nd album, released when I was oh, about four years old. The highlight of this song was the hippy, trippy lava lamp visuals on the screen, and a wailing alto-sax solo from Ian Ritchie, followed by a searing guitar solo from Dave Kilminster. The song also featured footage of the band in that era, probably from a promotion during the time. The next song, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, was an out and out tribute to recently deceased mad genius and Pink Floyd co-founder Syd Barrett, with several photos of Barrett displaying on the screen while Waters and the crowd sang out chorus.
The next song, Have A Cigar, was the show's musical highlight for me. This Floyd classic was never one of my favorites, but live, Waters' band transformed it into a different musical beast altogether. The band played the song with a slightly faster tempo that gave it an edge and urgency the original lacked. Again, Kilminster played ferocious lead guitar on this song.
Overall, except when he sang David Gilmour's vocal parts, Kilminster was exceptional. He played the guitar parts faitfully to Gilmour's original work, but added enough of his own style and flash to take it beyond the album work. Kilminster is a replacement for the In The Flesh tour's Doyle Bramhall II. I prefer the latter, for his flash and originality, as well as superior vocals. That being said, I was not disappointed in the guitar work.
With Pink Floyd fans, you're either in the Roger Waters' camp or the David Gilmour camp. For me Gilmour's a wanker, but I will say after last night's show, that I missed his vocals. Kilminster and keyboardist Jon Carin were adequate in filling in for Gilmour. But if Gilmour and Waters and the rest of the band reunited, I would pay to see that. I think the original vocalists would bring the music even higher than the lofty place it was at last night.
The radio sequence of the album version of Wish You Were Here was played out on the radio on screen, as the crowd cheered the opening guitar licks of the song. This song has long been one of my favorites and one with deep personal meaning and I almost felt moved to tears listening to Waters sing it live. Unlike the original, the song was played with only acoustic guitars and Kilminster recreated the original slide solo on acoustic. It was a lovey bit of music.
After this, the band played two songs from The Final Cut album, Southampton Dock and Fletcher Memorial Home. A large number of the crowd took the opportunity to leave to use the restrooms, buy a shirt, or a soda pop. I stayed and enjoyed.
The only real disappointment of the evening was Waters' only new song, Leaving Beirut. It is a stridently and simplistically anti-Bush and Anti-Iraq War song. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just not a very good song. The song is crafted around the story of an encounter that Waters had with a very kind, generous Lebanese family during an ill-fated trip through Beirut as a teenager. He didn't speak much to the crowd, but in introducing this song he spent some time talking about the experience and how much it affected him. Despite the song's weaknesses, I found it interesting how much Waters opened up to the crowd and was more than willing to indulge him in a little klunky politicking.
The first set closed with Sheep from Animals. With this return to Floyd standards, the band righted the ship again, with a rendition that eclipsed the original. 
The Flying Pig was set loose and proved to be a distraction for most of the crowd. It never amazes me how much people love flying gadgets at sports events and concerts. Anyhow, the pig was festooned with anti-Bush and vote Democrats graffiti, which was kind of funny. 
I know some people on other blogs were quite unhappy with the over politicizing. Is America so brittle that we can't have people speak their minds, even if we disagree with them? Does anyone really think that a flying pig is going to swing an election? Geez, get over it and enjoy the music.
After a 15-minute intermission, which only seemed like 5, a full moon appeared on the screen as the lights dimmed. 
The pulsing beat of Speak To Me began as the band took up its instruments. As the cacaphony of taped clanking and the female vocalist reached a crescendo, a satellite emerged from the moon and seemed to crash. It was perfectly timed with the beat of the song.
I won't describe the entire set as most people are quite familiar with Dark Side of the Moon. I will say that I was keenly anticipating this set and the first set accentuated my interest. Waters' band did an incredible job of performing the album front to back, even capturing the time between tracks. Highlights for me included Time, one of my favorite songs, and Brain Damage and Eclipse. Carol Kenyon's vocals on The Great Gig In the Sky were otherwordly good. She has an incredible set of pipes. Indeed, the trio of femal backing singers were just outstanding and brought several of the songs higher.
The keyboardists were excellent and captured this central element of the Pink Floyd sound. Snowy White had a couple of soloes and collaborated with Kilminster on two dual lead solos during the set. The saxophonist, too, was spot on throughout. Altogether the band played as a very tight and professional unit. I would see them again in a heartbeat.
And Roger Waters was wonderful. To me, his voice is Pink Floyd. Certainly, his songwriting and lyrical compositions are the heart of this great 1970s band. He sang wonderfully, even the high notes, and only had trouble at one point during the show, and that was when he was talking to the audience and his voice cracked a bit. I missed out on seeing him on the Radio KAOS tour and so I was extremely happy to finally see him, and see him in such fine performance.
After the Dark Side set, the band re-emerged after a short time for the obligatory ovation (which was quite enthusiastic) and performed Another Brick in the Wall, which had people singing and dancing in their seats. This was followed by Vera, and Bring the Boys Back Home, which was a much more subtle and I think, effective anti-war statement and had the entire arena joining in for the chorus. Finally, the show was closed with an out-of-this-world rendition of Comfortably Numb.
Waters took extra time leaving the stage, signing autographs and waiving to fans. For an artist who once had so much trouble with fans and the concert business, he seemed to be truly enjoying himself. I know I did. Great show.
One other note on the show. I've been to a lot of concerts over the years and the incidence of cigarette and pot smoking has almost disappeared. Apparently the remaining smokers (of both kinds) are Pink Floyd fans. There were a number of people old enough to know better, who were smoking illicit drugs. One late-40/early-50ish couple in the next row were particularly funny, doing their thing while trying to conceal the joint and looking around furtively to make sure they weren't caught. I kept thinking how much trouble they'd be in if their kids found out! I should've taken their picture.
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