The Dark Side Of The Moon is one of the best selling and most acclaimed rock and roll albums of all time, recorded by one of the greatest bands in history, Pink Floyd.
Tonight it was performed in its entirety by one of that band's founding members, Roger Waters. Waters seems to cherish and respect the music and legacy of Pink Floyd a little bit more than David Gilmour and company, and his performances come across as more poignant and personal. He also has no problem putting on a good old fashioned mind blowing stage show too.
My group of friends sat dead center in the reserved seating area right in front of the stage at the Wan Chai Exhibition and Convention Centre close to Central Hong Kong. The stage was centered by one of the biggest single video screens I have ever seen, and it was displaying, with amazingly sharp detail, a giant still life picture of a whiskey bottle and shot glass in front of a vintage radio.
Around 8.30pm, the menacing opening chords of "In The Flesh" tore through the pavilion, as the screen is filled with The Wall's giant marching hammers, and dozens of shooting flames nearly reach the stage roof.
The Band:
Andy Fairweather-Low - Guitar (Check him out in his new look trying to do a Bob Spencer impersonation)
Snowy White - Guitar
Dave Kilminster - Guitar/Vocals
Jon Carin - Keyboards/Vocals
Harry Waters - Keyboards
Graham Broad - Drums
Ian Ritchie - Saxophone
Katie Kissoon - Vocals
PP Arnold - Vocals
Carol Kenyon - Vocals
The entire first set was virtually non-stop highlights, but the back-to-back performances of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and "Have a Cigar" were especially powerful. "Shine On" featured several great images of Syd Barrett, and essentially served as a touching tribute to the late great Pink Floyd co-founder. Ian Ritchie's saxophone solo was also spot on and sounded incredible.
Dave Kilminster was the only notable replacement from Waters' In The Flesh tour, replacing Doyle Bramhall II on lead guitar and vocals who is currently touring with Eric Clapton who came through Hong Kong last month on his way to Melbourne. Kilminster was good and his guitar playing was impressive and he reproduced Gilmour's solo quite well. Snowy White's guitar playing was not as faithful to the originals, and not nearly as flashy as Kilminster, but he was equally as impressive.
"Leaving Beirut" is a new song which Waters explains was based on what happened to him when he was a teenager traveling through Lebanon when his car died stranding him with no money and nowhere to go. Eventually an Arab family took him in, gave him food and shelter, and treated him like an honored guest. The song is also one of the most in-your-face anti-war songs that Waters has ever written - particularly anti-Bush and anti-Blair. It made for a scathing summation to the string of anti-war songs that began with "Southampton Dock" in the first set, and carried on with such songs as "Us and Them" and "Bring the Boys Back Home" during the rest of the show. Whether you agree with Waters politics or not, the crowd was certainly cheering the anti Bush and Blair themes and cheered again when Muslim themes were shown on the screen. Interesting for a mainly Buddhist crowd.
The first set ended gloriously with the Animals classic, "Sheep". During this killer performance, a giant inflatable pig was flown out over the crowd, making its way out across the audience. It was fun to read all of the graffiti that was spray painted on the pig, as it was hovering overhead. Some of the slogans included "Kafka Rules OK! "; "Don't be led to the slaughter, Vote Democratic Nov. 2 "; and "Impeach Bush Now" - written right across the pig's ass. Even though I don't particularly subscribe to any political philosophies, it was all pretty amusing.
After a 20-minute intermission the exhibition centre lights dimmed again and famous heartbeat sounds of "Speak To Me" filled the air. From start to finish, the performance of The Dark Side Of The Moon was simply amazing. The accompanying screen projections and 3D affects were incredible and added significantly to the overall experience. The quadraphonic sound system employed on this tour made for the ultimate listening experience as music and sound affects seemed to surround and envelope you.
"Breath" sounded phenomenal. Carol Kenyon's powerful, note-for-note rendition of "Great Gig In The Sky" was nothing short of stunning. What a voice that lady has. John Carin took the lead vocals on "Us and Them" and he sounded excellent.
The finale of "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse" was one of the absolute highlights of the entire show. The band all came together for a well deserved bow before leaving the stage.
After a few minutes offstage and following lots of cheering from the happy crowd, Waters and the band returned for an encore set that exclusively featured songs from The Wall. "Bring the Boys Back Home" was especially powerful this night, as it seemed like the entire crowd was singing along loudly. "Comfortably Numb" magnificently brought the show to a close, in the only way a Pink Floyd/Roger Waters concert could. The perfect ending to one of the best concerts I have ever seen.
