Live: Roger Waters, Houston

This guy I sorta know was going to Roger Waters’ concert Sunday night (May 4) in Houston’s Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion.  He was going to call or e-mail with a short review, and of course, he’s nowhere to be found.  I really wanted to go, I just couldn’t get there.  So I’m going to wing it.

This is only one of four U.S. performances that Waters has scheduled.  The first half of his show he plays some of his solo stuff and Pink Floyd songs that he wrote.  The second half, he performs the entire Dark Side of the Moon album and encores with a handful of Floyd’s best, including “Another Brick In the Wall” and “Comfortably Numb.”  Somewhere in the middle (during “Sheep”) he releases a flying pig and everyone gets off to that.

Because Waters apparently hates the rest of the Pink Floyd band members (and they hate him), it looks like there won’t be a reunion tour any time soon.  Roger Waters live is probably the next best thing.  He relies on a crack band to fill in all the rest of the Floyd parts (Waters plays bass and some guitar, so they fill in a lot).  Think of it this way: Waters live is to Pink Floyd like Brian Wilson live is to the Beach Boys.  You ain’t gonna get the old lineup, you get one guy (who wrote all the stuff) and a faithful facsimile of the music. 

Compare this 2006 performance of “Comfortably Numb” with David Gilmour’s version, in the radio post from earlier today.

MP3: Mother by Roger Waters (live)

MP3: Comfortably Numb by Roger Waters (live)

UPDATE: You can go here to download 43 minutes of live Roger Waters from the Coachella festival, held April 23-25 in California.