Roger Waters’ The Wall @ Phillips Arena

Last night I had the pleasure of experiencing The Wall live at Atlanta’s Phillips Arena. I have never seen Pink Floyd, but I have seen Roger Waters once before in Las Vegas playing Darkside of the Moon on his last tour. What I witnessed last night blew the previous show away, and that’s saying a lot, since I considered the Darkside of the Moon show the best I’d ever seen. I was brought up listening to Pink Floyd whether I knew it or not my whole life. My father’s second favorite band only behind the legendary Zep, and even that ranking sometimes flip-flops. My dad once had a chance to see The Wall when he was around my age, but he didn’t go, and last night he was able to remedy that.

I knew the actual physical Wall itself was going to be huge and awe-inspiring, but I had no idea the length of greatness the presentation went through. The Wall is basically a bunch of bricks that serve each as their own screen. It is slowly built brick by brick in a seemingly random order, but nothing is random in a Roger Waters production, and every single projection had meaning. Timing was everything, and the whole show went off perfectly. Our seats were some of the best I’ve ever had for any show, and much closer than the last time I saw Waters. When the Wall was fully built, blocking the majority of the stage at the end of the first half of the album, I felt relieved. I had always imagined getting to see this show since I’ve known anything about the album/film, and while I don’t have a bucket list in actuality, this experience would have surely been on top.

The first half featured some of the most interesting moments of the show. All of the puppets were featured during this half. We had the School Master visit during the “Another Brick in the wall/Happiest Days of Our Lives” portion, then a brick version of Waters’ mother for “Mother,” and lastly the flower monster version of Waters’ wife at the end of “Young Lust.” Seeing the school kids from a local Georgia Art school come on stage to tell the teacher to “leave them kids alone,” was pretty awesome. The scale of the monstrous teacher looming over the children as they danced on stage was pretty sweet to see. I guess that’s the first moment during the show that you truly feel the scope of the entire thing. By the end of the first half The Wall stood completely built.

The intermission featured memorials for casualties of war. Waters’ father, Gandhi, and many other people were featured brick by brick on The Wall.

The second half began with the entirety of “Hey You” being played behind The Wall. We sat and watched with “itchy feet and fading smiles,” waiting for Waters to come back. For “Is Anybody Out There,” a piece of The Wall was removed to show Pink playing guitar, and then for “Nobody Home,” the Wall opened a platform for Pink’s hotel room where Waters sat in front of tv and window, singing. Then for the rest of the show we were all trapped inside The Wall with Waters/Pink. “Bring the Boys Back Home,” was a standout live. Comfortably numb was amazing, as Waters was on the stage near the bottom of the wall, while the Gilmour parts were played by Robbie Wyckoff (Vocals) and Dave Kliminster (Guitar) on top of The Wall. The second “In The Flesh” was a scaled down version of the first, as the whole band was now in front of The Wall with Pink. The flying pig also came out around this time, and was hovering right around our seats the entire time it was out. My dad who is 6’7″ was mere inches away from being able to grab the pig from his seat.

“Run Like Hell,” “Waiting for the Worms,” and “Stop” all melded together for a most epic projection sequence on The Wall. The Hammers marching from the film, and The Wall becoming deeper and deeper through more layers being shown. Then the Pink doll fell of The Wall, and “The Trial” began. I thought for sure we were going to be treated with the giant puppets again for this sequence, but instead they opted to go with a majority of the film’s animation of the sequence played out on The Wall. Then it was time to “Tear down The Wall!” Watching it fall down was just as epic as I’d always dreamed it was going to be. It crashed layer by layer all over the stage, and then the whole band came out to play “Outside the Wall,” with an assortment of string instruments (Banjo, Ukulele, etc). The show ended on that note, perfectly as I could have imagined.

I don’t know if I’ll ever see a show as good as this one again. It was the experience of a lifetime, and I hope anyone who reads this has a chance to witness it for themselves someday. I’ll never forget this night, and if Rog ever tours again, I’ll be sure to be there for the third time (Final Cut tour please!). Thanks for reading my first concert review ever! Let me know what you think on Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr!