Back in september I went on vacation and while I was on vacation I saw Roger Waters in concert in Mannassas, Va. After I got home I found these video clips from the concert I atteneded. Here are the links to some of them. It was the best concert I have ever been to.
Roger Waters
September 23rd, 2006
Nissan Pavilion
Bristow, Virginia

I pulled into the Nissan Pavilion parking lot about an hour before showtime and the place was already packed beyond expectations. During my long walk to the entrance gate, I noticed license plates from nearly every state on the East coast, which complemented the wall to wall tailgate parties filled with fans from every possible generation. This was more than just a rock concert for most people - it was the concert event of the decade.

The Dark Side Of The Moon is one of the best selling and most acclaimed rock and roll albums of all time, produced by one of the greatest bands in history, Pink Floyd. Tonight it would be performed in its entirety by one of that band's founding members and chief architects, Roger Waters. This had been done once before, in 1994, by a Waters-less Pink Floyd, and it was captured magnificently on the recently released Pulse DVD. Waters performance would be quite different.

The enormity of a Pink Floyd show during their prime will probably never be matched again - unless of course if Waters were to rejoin the band, but the music of Pink Floyd has certainly flourished in Waters' able hands, as this tour, and the equally brilliant In The Flesh tour of 2000, so remarkably attest. Waters seems to cherish and respect the music and legacy of Pink Floyd a little bit more than Gilmour and company, and his performances come across as more poignant and personal. He also has no problem putting on a good old fashioned mind-blower of a stage show too.

My wife and I took our seats in the 25,000 person capacity Nissan Pavilion at about 7:45 pm and were soon overwhelmed by the electricity and excitement that filled the air. Our seats were about two-thirds of the way back and dead center in the reserved seating area. Gazing behind us, the sea of people crowding the lawn seating area indicated an obvious sold out show. The stage was centered by one of the biggest single video screens I have ever seen, and it was displaying, with amazingly sharp detail, a giant still life picture of a whiskey bottle and shot glass in front of a vintage radio.

At about 8:00 pm, the still life comes to life as a giant hand pours a shot of whiskey and then returns the glass half full. The owner of the hand, who is yet unseen, exhales streams of cigarette smoke across the screen, and occasionally reaches up to change the radio station. Real smoke effects create a great 3D visual to enhance the screen images. The man eventually settles on the jazz standard "My Funny Valentine", which took us up to the real start of the show. It was all very surreal.

Finally, at about 8:20 pm, the menacing opening chords of "In The Flesh" tore through the pavilion, as the screen is filled with The Wall's giant marching hammers, and dozens of shooting flames nearly reach the stage roof. Waters' took it to the opposite extreme next when he sat down, acoustic guitar in hand, for a moving performance of his famous Wall ballad, "Mother". Next, the psychedelic sounds of "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" took us all the way back in the Pink Floyd catalog to 1968's A Soucerful Of Secrets, and bombarded our senses with both stunning visual imagery and the hypnotic mood music that this song exudes.

The entire first set was virtually non-stop highlights, but the back-to-back performances of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and "Have a Cigar" were especially powerful. "Shine On" featured several great images of Syd Barrett, and essentially served as a touching tribute to the late great Pink Floyd co-founder. Ian Ritchie's saxophone solo was also spot on and sounded incredible. "Wish You Were Here" just wasn't the same with Water's handling the lead vocals, and he probably should have handed it over to Kilminster or Carin.

Dave Kilminster was the only notable replacement from Waters' In The Flesh tour, replacing Doyle Bramhall II on lead guitar and vocals. Where I thought that Bramhall's brilliant guitar and lead vocals were one of the highlights of that tour, at least on the In The Flesh Live DVD, I only found Kilminster to be adequate. For the most part, his guitar playing was impressive and he reproduced Gilmour's solo quite well, but his lead vocals were not particularly satisfying. Snowy White's guitar playing was not as faithful to the originals, and not nearly as flashy as Kilminster, but he was equally as impressive.

I'm not the biggest fan of The Final Cut album, but Waters sounded superb on two of that albums finest ballads, "Southampton Dock" and "The Fletcher Memorial Home". "Perfect Sense, Parts 1 and 2" was the only solo song Waters played this night, and it shined as brightly as the Floyd material. It was certainly received as well too. "Leaving Beirut" is a new song which Waters explains was based on what happened to him when he was a teenager traveling through Lebanon when his car died stranding him with no money and nowhere to go. Eventually an Arab family took him in, gave him food and shelter, and treated him like an honored guest.

The song is also one of the most in-your-face anti-war songs that Waters has ever written - particularly anti-Bush and anti-Blair. The lyrics were even put right up on the big screen in the form of giant dialog bubbles.

Oh George! Oh George!
That Texas education must have fucked you up when you were very small.

Not in my name, Tony, you great war leader you
Terror is still terror, whosoever gets to frame the rules.

It makes for a scathing summation to the string of anti-war songs that began with "Southampton Dock" in the first set, and carried on with such songs as "Us and Them" and "Bring the Boys Back Home" during the rest of the show. Considering our current state of affairs, these songs couldn't be more relevant today, whether you agree with Waters politics or not. I didn't hear any boos from where I was sitting, but at some of the U.S. shows there was quite a bit of booing during this song.

The first set ended gloriously with the Animals classic, "Sheep". During this killer performance, a giant inflatable pig was flown out over the crowd, making its way out to the lawn seats, and eventually cut loose to fly off into the night sky. It was quite a site to see the giant thing flying off, hundreds of feet in the air, but it was equally fun to read all of the graffiti that was spray painted on the pig, as it was hovering overhead. Some of the slogans included "Kafka Rules OK! "; "Don't be led to the slaughter, Vote Democratic Nov. 2 "; and "Impeach Bush Now" - written right across the pig's ass. Even though, I don't particularly subscribe to many of Waters philosophies, it was all pretty amusing.

After a 15-minute intermission the pavilion lights dimmed again and famous heartbeat sounds of "Speak To Me" filled the air. From start to finish, the performance of The Dark Side Of The Moon was simply amazing, so I will only comment on a few individual aspects of the performance. First of all, the accompanying screen projections and 3D affects were incredible and added significantly to the overall experience. The quadraphonic sound system employed on this tour made for the ultimate listening experience as music and sound affects seemed to surround and envelope you.

"Breath" sounded phenomenal, but once again Kilminster's vocals didn't live up Gilmour's original masterpiece. He sounded a little better on "Money", which is a little less demanding vocal-wise. Carol Kenyon's powerful, note-for-note rendition of "Great Gig In The Sky" was nothing short of stunning. What a pair of lungs on that lady! John Carin took the lead vocals on "Us and Them" and he sounded excellent. Maybe he should have handled all of the Gilmour parts. The finale of "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse" was one of the absolute highlights of the entire show. The band all came together for a well deserved bow before leaving the stage.

After a few minutes of wild cheering, Waters and the band returned for an encore set that exclusively featured songs from The Wall. "Bring the Boys Back Home" was especially powerful this night, as it seemed like the entire crowd was singing along loudly. "Comfortably Numb" magnificently brought the show to a close, in the only way a Pink Floyd/Roger Waters concert could. The perfect ending to one of the best concerts I have ever seen.

Set One
In the Flesh
Mother
Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-3)
Have a Cigar
Wish You Were Here
Southampton Dock
The Fletcher Memorial Home
Perfect Sense, Parts 1 and 2
Leaving Beirut
Sheep

Set Two (The Dark Side of the Moon)
Speak to Me
Breathe
On the Run
Time
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 II
Vera
Bring the Boys Back Home
Comfortably Numb

The Band:
Andy Fairweather-Low - Guitar
Snowy White - Guitar
Dave Kilminster - Guitar/Vocals
Jon Carin - Keyboards/Vocals
Harry Waters - Keyboards
Graham Broad - Drums
Ian Ritchie - Saxophone
Katie Kissoon - Vocals
PP Arnold - Vocals
Carol Kenyon - Vocals
Roger Waters performing Comfortably Numb part. 1
Roger Waters performing Comfortably Numb part. 2
Roger Waters performing Another Brick In The Wall II
Roger Waters - Comfortably Numb
Roger waters doing Breathe
And one of my favorites
Roger Waters - Brain Damage
Brain Damage
(Waters) 3:50

The lunatic is on the grass.
The lunatic is on the grass.
Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs.
Got to keep the loonies on the path.

The lunatic is in the hall.
The lunatics are in my hall.
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
And every day the paper boy brings more.

And if the dam breaks open many years too soon
And if there is no room upon the hill
And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.

The lunatic is in my head.
The lunatic is in my head
You raise the blade, you make the change
You re-arrange me 'til I'm sane.
You lock the door
And throw away the key
There's someone in my head but it's not me.

And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear
You shout and no one seems to hear.
And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.

"I can't think of anything to say except...
I think it's marvelous! HaHaHa!"