Concert Reviews, Photos, Videos and Rock and Roll Stories from fans who love live music

So Ya, Thought Ya, Might Like To, Go To The Show….

This would be considered a “SPOILER” if you plan on seeing the presentation of THE WALL  featuring Roger Waters. This Tour will be remembered for sure. The few photos and videos I took from the 2nd row and what I am about to summarize  will for sure remove the surprise element from the experience for anyone who hasn’t see Pink Floyd or any of previous Roger Waters’ Tours.

……I saw the Radio Kaos Tour when Roger Waters stopped into Hamilton, Ontario around 1987 and both Pink Floyd tours after around the same time Delicate Sound, Momentary Lapse, Division Bell era.  Music aside the creativity that went into those tours set a new bar for me as a teenager early in my concert career. Now almost 23 years later the anticipation of seeing THE WALL in it’s original format was building by the minute.

When we first walked onto the floor and saw the Wall going up each side of the hockey rink the size of this show started to sink in…. heck if I hadn’t seen KISS just 6 nights ago it might have seemed even Bigger!.. But this still had a stadium feel at first glance.

“In The Flesh” – This was probably one of the best opening songs I have seen at a live concert. It was full steam ahead from the men on the bridge with flags, the fireworks, seeing Roger in his hoodie, lights swirling and that buzz under the hood of we’re seeing THE WALL !!!

… and of course the famous… “so ya thought ya might like to so to the show…” was truly electric and almost overwhelming. The lighting stretched back to the far end of the arena with additional speaker arrangements…above,  not sure if it was quadraphonic or just for effects… as we were too close to the stage to hear….but as the helicopter sound kicked in this lighting unit above the main stage appeared to have a small speaker stack on it as well and it moved forward with the spot light shooting into the crowd as if to be the light on the front of the helicopter, the sound moved with it…really wicked…

Some 25 lucky kids from The Regent Park School of Music ended up on stage to help sing over the track for Another Brick plus got to point at the floating 40 foot teacher. The overall sound was really good for a 1st show and most of the other musicians including Roger’s son on Keyboards were hard to see or get into with this large production unfolding…. except a little at the end of Run Like Hell as the band were in front of the wall closer to us.

I actually heard “Mother”start with Roger on acoustic and have the video it but I will spare you listening to the faint 1st verse that seemed to fall down with technical difficulties… the song never really got back on track for me.  The Wall of course was being built brick by brick as Side 1 Played out and the barrier starts to fill in… to the point yes where you could barely see the band.

After the intermission HEY YOU starts and the entire song almost is play behind the Wall…it’s cool and as the light shines thru the cracks and you hear the band playing it really shows what Roger was thinking about years ago of feeling that distance from some of the audience…those who were not engaged with him as he performed . Speaking of di-engaged…The guy beside me after introducing himself 4 times and asking about doing ACID kept praying for David Gilmour to walk out and join in. I didn’t feel that was going to happen. I didn’t feel it needed too….The Gilmour stand in did fine at most points and this was not Pink Floyd we were seeing… it is and was billed as “The Wall Live…featuring Roger Waters”

The imagery on the circle screen in the back dipped into parts from the Wall movie and the overall scenes on the 200+ foot WALL itself were quite thought provoking weaving in some of todays political issues and visuals from past Tours I had scene…all very cool to watch in a synchronized kinda way

“One Of My Turns” turned out beautiful as you can see below in the video and “Run Like Hell” with the flying pig got the crowd up, dancing and celebrating it seemed… ..as security  told the front row to move back… and we all started to chant along with “THE TRIAL”... “bring down the wall, bring down the wall..” the WALL did come down..crashing faux bricks.

No encore, just The Wall and alot of entertainment to go along with an amazing album… I will leave the comments open here for others who visit the shows as the tour unfolds.  ROGER WATERS SETLIST AND MORE PHOTOS BELOW…

One_of_My_Turns

RUN LIKE HELL

MORE PHOTOS OF THE SHOW !!

ROGER WATERS – THE WALL LIVE – TORONTO SETLIST

Roger Waters |Set List for THE WALL in Toronto | ACC

Are you going to see Roger Waters this Tour to witness The Wall? If so do not miss this video ! It explains the album in today’s context!

Come on….“Them Crooked Vultures” …even with the name they are off to a good start . The short videos on YouTube had me interested and well being a concertaholic I knew reputation was enough for me to get a ticket and experience these guys live. I’ve listened to more Zeppelin than Foo’s or Queens of The Stone Age… so I will not be detailing the guys careers here or have a big say in who they sound like most. Just the show as I saw it.

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…..I take my hobby serious and jumped into the rainy line-up around 4pm. Only 20 people in line so far…so the front row was going to happen for me and it did. After a few hours of swapping concert stories with various music lovers including two fathers with their teenage kids… we headed in and I locked myself onto the rail directly in front of where one of the world’s most talented bassist’s would stand for 90 minutes.

With no CD out yet and very little information about the band… the rumours were no opening band and no encore. Fine I’ll take what I can get. Only moments away we are about to witness…Josh Homme on guitar and lead vocals, Dave Grohl on drums and John Paul Jones teaching bass. Plus, there was a fourth Crooked Vulture Alain Johannes on rhythm guitar.

The house music stops, the vultures walk out…say hello and explode into “Elephants”. The groove was on, the roll was heavy and goosbumps happened at 30 seconds into a song I’ve only heard twice on YouTube. Grohl gang banged his drum kit and I learned quickly that Homme knew what to do with a guitar… and John Paul Jones…. well it hadn’t really hit me that it was him 12 feet in front of me.

After the first song the crowd erupted and moved in closer as Josh started to introduce his Crooked band mates. He saved Jones for last and rather than say his name, he simply pointed over to him….and the entire crowd started chanting “JOHN PAUL JONES, JOHN PAUL JONES, JOHN PAUL JONES”  a slight smile from the man himself and that was just one of those moments you talk about for the next 10 years a parties!

The following 80+ minutes was a thunderous music demonstration from multiple genres along with creating one in the middle of it all. The direction changed too many times to remember with layer upon layer it seemed like a tennis match at times… for myself trying to decide who to zero in on as the boomerang of rock, blues and psychedelica bounced around in between flashes of light. For chemistry I noticed Josh really connecting with JPJ a few times…along with numerous vocal fills from each of the guys including John Paul Jones.

Here is Scumbag Blues to give you a feel…

As far as musicians from different bands hooking up… I saw Chickenfoot and for the money in a small venue it was fun although the music didn’t make much sense to me. This evening’s performance and this band made sensek. There is thought behind all Them Crooked Vultures… from the Bonham pounding Grohl to John Paul Jones playing that piano outro on Daffodils…straight on over to Homme who stood tall, proud and confident of what he and bandmate Alain Johannes were delivering.

In short…Elephants as a first song took me to a place many encores never have and the pace throughout was amazing right up to the last couple of  songs…… here is “Nobody Love Me” just deadly…..

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….and then… the closing tune  “Warsaw” . This was so killer  I couldn’t lift my arm to video and the insane jam for the final few minutes..was paralyzing….. they drew us in… playing harder and harder and then it ENDED. Done Right there. No Encore.

I got it…they had me… I wanted more. 90 minutes of songs I’ve never heard and I wanted another “set”

If you are following this band, were at this show or any shows this tour please leave us a comment or quick review of what you are digging about Them Crooked Vultures.

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We got down to the venue early and out back of Massey Hall is also the backside of a theatre showing a premiere of ONDINE. There was a small crowd waiting to see Colin Farrell & U2′s Bono and Edge. We snagged a brief video of their exit and then headed towards the front doors of Massey Hall for the presentation of the 1985 Album LOVE by THE CULT.

We arrive at our seats in row 2 on the right side and I begin to hear security telling the front row that they will not be allowed to go up and approach the stage.? So I asked the person what they said and she told me that security was told that we are not allowed to STAND UP ? Are you kidding me. This is THE CULT. This is rock and roll. The security guard went on to tell us that the new promoter doesn’t want the people behind us to get upset and ask for refunds. He also said it was up to the band.

Out walk the band and the entire place stands up and they begin with NIRVANA… the first song off of their album LOVE. As the crowd gently leans into this song and the next few Ian Astbury says ” We’ve got a few more of these songs for you while you get your work done, texting & cell phone bullsh*t… then we’re gonna have a ROCK SHOW!”  The crowd answers with a scream… the aisle beside us started to fill up with cell phone photographers and the first free spirit who dropped her purse and started her trance-dance close to the stage. Security moved her back…abit not much.

Now…during the last 30 seconds of Brother Wolf, Sister Moon…a handful of music lovers approach the stage and the same security guard appraoches them quickly with his arm to say no… Ian Astbury finishes the song and walk to the edge of the stage and puts his hand on the security guy pushing him aside and calls ALL OF US to the Stage. We bolted right up to the edge and hugged a mini monitor in front of Billy Duffy.

RAIN started and the place erupted into a Rock Show….”Hot sticky scenes you know what I mean…..” We’re singing it and I am pumping my fist like I’m 16 and at my first concert pressed against the stage… Duffy is 2 feet in front of me, there is clapping, screaming, dancing, guitar solos, energy and now the smell of a concert from the 80′s….the smoke rises past us and over the stage… There were no security guards to be seen now.

What a vibe taking place. The balcony dwellers were standing too and those who weren’t got challenged by Ian at one point….As the strong riff begins to the PHOENIX…the energy goes up another notch. The spotlight was on Billy Duffy for this song and most of the night while Ian seemed to be in darkness zone…

HOLLOW MAN continues the rock-train…. and up next is REVOLUTION. This is one of those tunes that you can go a decade without hearing because the other Cult songs get the radio play…but the beginning guitar riff has those 2 chords that put me on the bus going to grade 9 with my sony walkman on. We get some war scenes on the big screen and best of all we get everone singing Revolution, Revolution. Oh and Billy commanding that Gretsch White Falcon…. wow.

I can swear I hear Ian introduce this next song as “This is for Chris Sheppard“…which he may be referring to because alternative radio back in the mid 80′s was CFNY 102.1 and Chris was a DJ who would have given them airplay for sure. Thats’ a guess… and  during this song or one of them Ian frisbees a tambourine right up to balcony level. Here the video shakes  a little more cause I am jumping with the herd-of-rockers around me who some seem to be in another time zone… the anthem – She Sell Santuary

After that scream-along Ian Astbury introduces BLACK ANGEL as a softer number and we should “act accordingly”…This song has a creative groove and lets us all down softly from the 56 minute rock & roll balloon ride.

The band walks off and we catch our breath here with only the video screen showing us images that just won’t register because I’m thinking of the songs to come.

The after album set seem to follow the same as the previous nights on this tour…so I believe ELECTRIC OCEAN is first and then WILDFLOWER which features Billy taking his guitar over to the right of where I was to some other fans who had “picks” in their hand and he allowed them to attempt/stroke/play the popular riff for wildflower …which you can see 30 seconds into this iphone live video feed I was doing into my facebook. Poor quality but you get the idea.. and I was back to my kid-like fist pumps on this one too after I put the camera away.

Up next is SUN KING. I said I put the camera down…right but now The Cult’s Leader is looking at a young boy (maybe 8 or 9 ) on his fathers shoulders, arms pumping and he motions him to come on stage. So I flip the video back on so we can see Ian coax the little guy to join in singing “Sun King BABY”

DIRTY LITTLE ROCKSTAR (video) comes off real well live with some great bass & drums …being from their 2007 album it is the newest song we get to hear and the crowd loves it …how can’t they. Ian asked if they wanted a rock and roll show and his band was delivering… This song reminds me of the guitar riff in “Under Cover Of The Night” by the Stones.

Ian at one point is calling out @strombo ‘s name as in George Stroumboulopoulos  of  “the Hour”. he continue’s “where are you…you better be out there”…. Another tambourine is airborne in front of the stage, a Rose ends up on the stage and everyone is still on their feet and chanting FIRE WOMAN (video) – The train doesn’t want to slow down… but Ian now mentions that this old place has a curfew… and that this is their last song.

This was not the best concert I’ve been to….  where I was the lead singers vocals were low as was the lighting at times on the frontman… I am not compaining about all that great guitar I got thrown in my face….it was epic…. andconcerts are not just measured on the lighting, the sound and the venue… it’s a mix of the above and what happened tonight …and in this final song was one the finest “concert experiences” I’ve been part of. It was the attitude of the band, the rock and roll delivered and the connection with the audience right up until the end of the show.

Astbury says “this is for KC and Finnigen” and they Launch…LOVE REMOVAL MACHINE…  we all got our groove on one final time and near the end of the tune Astbury signaled a couple people up on stage and as I was video’ing 3-4 people dancing around I decided to join them and jumped up for the final 10 seconds….What a rush.. as I bee-lined for the drummer John Tempesta and said Great Show man… and then proceded to ask for a drumstick. Which you can see at :31 seconds of this video. Score! …all the while I kept the video rolling…. Gave Duffy the Nod as headed off and eventually we got down from the stage…people were helping themselves to guitar pics and setlists.  the setlist we got is from Boston.

To turn around and look up off this historic stage was quite a finale to this “real rock concert” . If you were at the show please leave us a comment…down front, onstage or balcony. Let us hear your take. Thanks.

Jeff