What a great year for shows in Buffalo this year. I mean really folks, it's not even the end of June and my mind's been blown twice by two quasi-religious experiences, and both of those shows were shows that I was sure wouldn't happen in Buffalo. Like M83, I was fully prepared to go on the road when Roger Waters announced that he'd be touring with The Wall in 2012, and I was perfectly ok with it... until tour dates were announced and Buffalo dates were improbably included. These bands came to us, and in Roger's case, a second time in less than 18 months, and for that I have to thank him from the bottom of my heart. He didn't have to do it. Bypassing us on this tour wouldn't have been unreasonable or shocking, but Roger Waters didn't, and it was awesome and much appreciated. As Drew mentioned Friday in his review, it was more than a concert. I've never seen anything like it, and I saw Roger do The Wall here in October 2010. Roger pushed everything to the limit: the band was loose, tight, and total owners of the material; and the high definition digital projections allowed Roger to go even further when it came to blowing people's minds. The wall was literally a canvass on which Roger painted with light a staggering amount of ideas and themes, and amazingly this modern Wall was the best yet.
You have to understand, The Wall has been a fixture of my musical life since the summer of 19__ when I was introduced to it before my senior year of high school. The album, the album backwards, the movie and the VHS tape that was rented from Video Factory on a seemingly weekly basis, The Wall was studied in great detail by our high school "study group." Even in college after moving onto other music, Pink Floyd and The Wall were always there in the background; and as a dude growing older frankly Pink Floyd and Roger Waters make even more sense. Taking his major Pink Floyd works (Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall, The Final Cut) and his solo work (The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, Radio KAOS, Amused To Death), in some ways Roger became my rock Noam Chomsky. I didn't always agree with him, but Roger always made me think and question where I stood on the big issues (that this would happen while standing on the field at Darien Lake watching Roger perform Dark Side of the Moon was a nice bonus). Then to have Roger do The Wall in 2010 and again in 2012, well it can't help but feel that something's come full circle.
That's certainly true of Roger Waters and The Wall itself. The years have been kind to Roger; he's getting his due as the creative genius behind Pink Floyd's greatest work, and apparently therapy has improved his disposition to the extent that he can joke about the "miserable, ____ed up Roger" who created The Wall in the late 70's before doing a duet with that "miserable, ____ed up Roger" (via technology) of "Mother." Amazingly, this less miserable.more open Roger has gently transformed what was born out of pain and a sense of isolation into something almost joyful in it's connection with the audience. No longer hiding behind it, Roger instead uses the wall to be canvass upon which he paints with light a staggering amount of ideas and information, expanding his rock opera into a humanist manifesto about shared humanity in the face of oppression, and the human tragedies of war and fascism.
"Oh Max Schmelling was a formidable foe
The Ambling Alp was too at least that's what I'm told
But if you learn one thing you've learned it well
In June you must give fascists hell
They'll run, but they can't hide."
Oh I absolutely hold with Yeasayer on that. This is the month for sticking it to those mother____ers, and we were definitely doing that Thursday night at the FNC as Roger Waters and his magical band mounted The Wall for the sensory overloaded enjoyment of an insanely appreciative Buffalo audience. Indeed, we got our minds blown for a wonderful cause, and for that, and for coming to Buffalo again, I profoundly thank Roger Waters. Thanks, man.
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