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OK here we go. I saw RW at the Time Warner Arena in Charlotte. There was a partially constructed wall in a big "U" shape where you could see the band in the middle. The wall was made of massive white blocks. There was also a large white circular screen above the stage. It turns out the wall was to be used as a large projector screen! We were towards the back, but on the bottom level and near center stage. The overall mix sounded phenomenal right from the get go. They pretty much played the Wall front to back, with oddities like "What Shall We Do Now?" (an omitted track from the LP) thrown in. RW's voice sounded awesome (more on that later). Robbie Wyckoff handled Gilmour's vocals and is a sound-alike as far as that goes. GE Smith absolutely ripped on the solos. Gilmour is all about phrasing and melody and feel, and he could really nail it. He played a Les Paul the whole show. He would play the original solo note-for-note, and then sometimes throw in an improvised solo after it. That was really killer, because Gilmour's solos are epic and you want to hear them played correctly. On the previous tour DVD, Bramhall took a lot more liberties with the solos which pissed me straight off.
There were a bunch of props like airplanes flying into the wall, a flying pig, and huge "the teacher" and "the mother" dummies. As the show went on, sections of the wall were being added in the middle. If you weren't paying attention, you would suddenly notice more blocks up in place. At other times, I observed the stage hands lifting the blocks into place.
So this show was really all about RW. Eventually, the band was blocked out by the wall and you couldn't even see them. There was pre-recorded footage of RW (new and old) singing the songs which was projected on the wall, in sync with the live RW. It looked really cool. At one point he was sticking his head out of a single missing block in the wall, at another point a part of the wall opened up to reveal a small hotel room with a TV that he was sitting in. Very cool! It was really part performance art. It could not have been done the way it was done as Pink Floyd .
The TWC Arena is somewhat hellish. There was an intermission with massive slow-moving lines at the restrooms (which had like 4 stalls each). You are cramped in like sardines, and when the lights go down you are pretty much not going anywhere.
They did the movie version of "Empty Spaces", complete with the original animation projected. However, RW has updated the Wall to be more current. Some of the animation was augmented/updated with what looked like CGI. There was video of various atrocities from the war on terror, and at one point you could see dozens of faces of war victims (mostly civilians) projected on the blocks. I have mixed feeling about that because for me the Wall will always be associated with WWII. But, at least it didn't feel like a bare-minimum "cash grab" show either.
There was a harsher anti-governent theme, and also an anti-capitalism theme as well (there was an animated scene where bombers were dropping bombs that resembled Mercedes, McDonalds, and Shell Oil logos). Eventually, the entire band including RW is behind the wall, and yes they tear it down at the end with a bunch of pyro going off (very cool).
At one point, RW was in the iconic fascist uniform, and was firing a machine gun into the audience with gunshots coming through the sound system (very unsettling!)
So, now I understand there is some controversy regarding RW lip syncing some or all of the show. Here is a different review of the CLT show:
I didn't see the dropped mic. The only suspicious things for me was the polished mix, the RW screams from the LP that seemed to come from nowhere, and his age (68). He never seemed to duck a high note or make a mistake. So, who knows. There was certainly a click-track going with all that synchronization. All I know is I got my "The Wall" fix (I never got to see Pink Floyd live).
There were a bunch of props like airplanes flying into the wall, a flying pig, and huge "the teacher" and "the mother" dummies. As the show went on, sections of the wall were being added in the middle. If you weren't paying attention, you would suddenly notice more blocks up in place. At other times, I observed the stage hands lifting the blocks into place.
So this show was really all about RW. Eventually, the band was blocked out by the wall and you couldn't even see them. There was pre-recorded footage of RW (new and old) singing the songs which was projected on the wall, in sync with the live RW. It looked really cool. At one point he was sticking his head out of a single missing block in the wall, at another point a part of the wall opened up to reveal a small hotel room with a TV that he was sitting in. Very cool! It was really part performance art. It could not have been done the way it was done as Pink Floyd .
The TWC Arena is somewhat hellish. There was an intermission with massive slow-moving lines at the restrooms (which had like 4 stalls each). You are cramped in like sardines, and when the lights go down you are pretty much not going anywhere.
They did the movie version of "Empty Spaces", complete with the original animation projected. However, RW has updated the Wall to be more current. Some of the animation was augmented/updated with what looked like CGI. There was video of various atrocities from the war on terror, and at one point you could see dozens of faces of war victims (mostly civilians) projected on the blocks. I have mixed feeling about that because for me the Wall will always be associated with WWII. But, at least it didn't feel like a bare-minimum "cash grab" show either.
There was a harsher anti-governent theme, and also an anti-capitalism theme as well (there was an animated scene where bombers were dropping bombs that resembled Mercedes, McDonalds, and Shell Oil logos). Eventually, the entire band including RW is behind the wall, and yes they tear it down at the end with a bunch of pyro going off (very cool).
At one point, RW was in the iconic fascist uniform, and was firing a machine gun into the audience with gunshots coming through the sound system (very unsettling!)
So, now I understand there is some controversy regarding RW lip syncing some or all of the show. Here is a different review of the CLT show:
I didn't see the dropped mic. The only suspicious things for me was the polished mix, the RW screams from the LP that seemed to come from nowhere, and his age (68). He never seemed to duck a high note or make a mistake. So, who knows. There was certainly a click-track going with all that synchronization. All I know is I got my "The Wall" fix (I never got to see Pink Floyd live).
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