Review: Roger Waters at BC Place

By Cinema Scoop columnist Rene Gross

Photo: Contributed

Back in June of 2007 I saw Roger Waters live at GM Place doing The Dark Side of the Moon, and at that time, I thought it was the best show I had ever seen.

Not only did the concert I saw this past Saturday night surpass it but it blew my mind completely.

Roger Waters The Wall Live at BC Place Stadium was an all out assault on the senses, both visually and auditory. This was the first major musical concert to be held at the newly renovated stadium and I have to say that the sound quality was quite good. At the beginning of the show, a sound clip from Stanley Kubrick's film Spartacus echoes throughout the stadium as the arrival of Nazi-esque troopers - symbolizing the "establishment" - appear on stage, hauling a floppy, stuffed rag doll of a man. Devoid of any features, the figure is meant to represent the fatigue and defeat of oppression. As the troops toss the doll into a pit lining the massive stage it signals the edgy opening of The Wall and gives us a taste of what's to come. Blaring lights flash, fireworks explode and In The Flesh? starts up amidst swirling airplane and machine gun sound effects that come at you from all around the stadium. The song ends with a replica airplane flying through the stadium and crashing and exploding into the wall. I'm telling you, it was unbelievable.

The Wall is of course based on Pink Floyd's massively popular concept album from 1979 which was written primarily by Roger Waters and deals with themes of totalitarianism, oppression and the walls we as a society surround ourselves with. On a more personal theme however, Roger was writing about the war that took his father and he rails against disciplinarian teachers, his cold ex-wife, his overbearing mother and his own increasing stardom which became more and more difficult to handle. After an incident with a fan at a Montreal concert in 1977, he came up with the idea of literally building a physical wall between the band and the audience allowing the band the safety of playing unencumbered while the audience stares at a stack of white bricks on the stage.

With this current show Roger has created one of the most incredible visual experiences as various images are projected on the 500 foot wall that is built on stage. It is a spectacular, mind boggling mixture of theatricality and technological wizardry. I have never seen a show with the shear scope and production value that this one has. Quite frankly I doubt I ever will again.

It's hard to break down the highlights of the show because the entire concert was a highlight. Obviously a popular portion was when he sang Another Brick In the Wall Pt. 2 and featured a group of children wearing t-shirts with the words "fear builds walls" emblazoned across them as they sang the classic "We don't need no education" chorus all while railing against a massive school teacher puppet that hung from above. Other highlights were Comfortably Numb, Run Like Hell, Hey You, Young Lust, The Trial, Vera, Bring the Boys Back Home and one of my personal favourites Goodbye Blue Sky which featured amazing images of bomber planes dropping religious symbols and corporate brand logos such as Shell, McDonalds and Mercedes.

By the end of the show, when the wall literally comes crumbling down, the 40,000 or so fans in the stadium were on their feet screaming and applauding for what was one of the most dazzling concert going experiences anyone is likely to ever have.

Wow, just wow!