Firstly, I'd like to start by putting my utter amazement in context: I'm by no means a concert-going virgin, I've seen Guns N' Roses, Eric Clapton... Hell, I've seen the fucking Who. But this stands out. The visuals on the huge rear screen were lovely, and it was put to good use right from the start, displaying a radio while pre-concert music played. Every once in a while a cigarette-bearing hand would reach out and change the station, which was also a great segue into Wish You Were Here.
This use of the radio was calming, and lulled us into a nice false sense of security when the show suddenly started. "You!! Bugger!!" slammed us into In The Flesh, complete with the lyrics you can't put on the radio. Shine on You Crazy Diamond and Wish You Were Here were accompanied with a nice visual tribute to Syd Barrett, before the political messages started. The lyrics of Fletcher Memorial Home weren't changed, but Hussein, Bush et al were shown in the video, rounded off with a bit of Roger's solo material.
This was all just a warm-up, however, for Sheep. Right at the beginning of that song, they released a shower of confetti, and the iconic flying pig. This one had glowing red eyes, and all sorts of political messages on it, like "fear builds walls", "all religions divide" and "impeach Bush." The last was of particular note, being on the pig's posterior. Last night I saw a flying pig that said "Impeach Bush" on it's ass.
Not surprisingly, there was quite a bit of marijuana smoking going on at this concert. Following the intermission, I actually got lost trying to get back to my seat, and only got there on the third try.
And then the show really started with that familiar heartbeat, followed by 42 minutes of pure bliss. Breathe and Time all but put me in a trance, and the visuals for On The Run were basically an acid trip. The racing colours and spirals got so fast, that my eyes went unfocused at one point.
The Great Gig in the Sky just made my hairs stand up on end with the vocalizations, probably the best part. The second-best was during Brain Damage, when the prism suddenly appeared floating in mid-air, a nice use of the laser displays. And just when we thought it couldn't get any better, right as Eclipse starts, light shoots "into" the prism, and the rainbow comes out the other end, and sweeps over the audience. Awesome.
A nice encore of singing along to Another Brick In The Wall Part II, Bring The Boys Back Home and Comfortably Numb polished the show off. Hey! Teacher!! Leave them kids alone!!
When I first heard The Dark Side of the Moon, I basically sat in my chair for half an hour afterwards, stunned. This was 10 times better. I'll use a term I coined after that first hearing of The Dark Side of the Moon: eargasm. If you ever have the chance to see this show, do it. Cancel business meetings, don't pick your children up from football practice, just go see it.
