An old man who looked like a hobo wearing tattered clothing and wheeling a cart containing all his worldly possessions over the floor at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, and carrying a sign that on one side said “We Don’t Need” and the other side reading “No Thought Control,” greeted the public making their way into the auditorium. Fans were psyched up that they were getting to see Roger Waters in concert. People were whipping out their cameras and making videos to chronicle the hobo man who became an instant celebrity.
Once the lights were dimmed images showing fallen soldiers, along with other individuals caught up with war, were flashed on a gigantic circular screen located in back of the stage. The audience within minutes experienced a shower of rotating pyrotechnics and airplane crash. After that Roger Waters and his team of musicians strode onto the stage to amaze the fans with music that was mind blowing. The band quickly broke into “The Wall.” The crowd went wild and the ACC was soon pervaded with the smell of burning vegetation. At stage left there was a gigantic inflatable teacher with menacing cane that looked reproachfully down on the audience, seeming to pick a spectator out and give them a strong hiding. As the song was ending, a group of locally recruited school children come on the stage to join in “teacher leave those kids alone” chorus. It was truly magnificent.
As the show continued workers on stage started to, piece by piece, erect a cardboard wall right in front of Waters and the band as the musicians continued to play the song “Mother” and other mesmerizing music. A gigantic inflatable “Big Brother,” complete with folded arms, was at stage right and looking warningly down on the audience. “Goodbye Blue Sky” came next along with other songs with the wall being built all along with only a few spots open where the audience could visibly see the band from behind the wall. Finally the wall was complete, stretching across the stage with no view of the band. Then it was intermission time.
During the intermission, images were shown of fallen heroes, Mahatma Gandhi and other people of peace, and people of war, flashing across the gigantic wall.
The second half of the show started out “hey you out there in the cold” followed by “is there anybody out there” with the band not visible playing behind the wall. The auditorium once again was filled with vegetation heaven. Psychedelic tripped out visuals flashed against the wall was reminiscent of the movies “Yellow Submarine” and “Fantasia.” The band then broke out “Comfortably Numb” with additional vegetation wafting through the auditorium. It was super sensory overload and uber pure rock nirvana.
The concert continued with psychedelic visual and unparalleled music, with each moment continuing to surpass the last. Of course there was plenty of political commentary along with their signature inflatable pig flying through the sky. The wall finally came crashing down with the band taking a bow. That was a well deserved bow.
This concert was truly memory. For all the fans that attended it will be forever etched in their minds.
