By Marian Daniells, news staff
Despite the gray hair and wrinkles, Roger Waters has still got game.
As predicted, the former Pink Floyd bassist rocked his eargasmic show Sept. 30 at the TD Garden. The spectacle, which combined chilling back-up vocals by the Lennon boys of the folk rock band Venice with massive balloon puppets of “The Wall” characters and a blinding light show, wowed the audience of more than 11,000 attendees.
Rogers crooned songs from the revamped 1979 “The Wall” double album, as brick upon brick was added to the wall behind him.
“Fear builds walls,” Waters sang, and each brick represented some fear. The numerous bricks, which doubled as TV monitors, complemented his performance, depicting scenes from the movie.
Instead of bombs, planes dropped crimson crosses, pigs rocked out to iPods and hammers marched in unison as Waters re-contextualized the anti-war, anti-violence, anti-media attitude of the album’s lyrics. But the most impressive backdrop was a Dwight Eisenhower quote which read: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.”
The show climaxed as “Comfortably Numb” blasted through the speakers. People removed the joints from their lips to sing along with David Gilmour replacement Robbie Wyckoff. “The Show Must Go On” followed, the Lennons showcasing their own vocal talent and their knack for harmonizing.
The tension of the stadium was cut when the wall finally came crashing down. And as Waters and his musical posse stood up among the wall’s ruins for the finale, the thunderous applause was well deserved.
