The Wall Comes Down In Las Vegas

Hey You!!

I saw "The Wall" by Roger Waters in Las Vegas last Friday.
I walked a mile in the 35 degree evening and I am glad I did. What a spectacle!
I have to say I am not the biggest Pink Floyd fan. "Dark Side OF The Moon" is in my all time
top 10 album list, however. I saw the original band perform it at the Hollywood Bowl in 1972 before it even came out! Yet most of their albums have left me cold. The WALL (LP and movie with Geldof) just seemed too depressing. But its one of the biggest selling albums of all time.
Finally I realized why.

I did not plan on going to the Vegas show until I hit a football parlay bet on Thanksgiving.
I took the money to the MGM Grand and scored a ticket for $50 (face value $75) from a couple who were happy to get the money. And there's not a bad seat in the MGM Grand, an arena without luxury boxes. I think I liked this more than seeing Waters do "Dark Side" on his own a few years ago. That album really needs David Gilmour as a singer (after all he sang "Money") and guitarist. "The WALL" is really a Roger Waters masterpiece and he did much more singing and performing. I loved it!

With the massive WALL looming you could have sat in the last row and not missed a thing:

-The dramatic opening with the airplane crashing into the just developing WALL.
-"Another Brick In The Wall" with local Vegas kids out on stage and miming the lyrics.
- Waters singing along to a video of himself performing "Mother" live in London 1980, maybe my favorite part of the night.
-"Comfortably Numb" with the guitar soloist (I know, not Gilmour!) spotlighted on top of the impressively tall WALL.
-The WALL almost complete so you can only see small squares with narrow glimpses of the band.
-The rocking moodiness of "Run Like Hell" which Waters (still looking like an older Richard Gere) dedicated to the audience.
-Those damn HAMMERS!
-And of course the WALL finally crashing down.

On my way out I asked a fervent fan the meaning of it all and he said:

"Each of us has our own WALL to break down."

I couldn't have said it better myself.