It’s telling that the title of this CD/DVD is from a song off The Wall containing the lyrics “Pink isn’t well, he stayed back at the hotel…We’re going to find out where you fans really stand.”
You would think, then, that Waters will all but ignore his old band and play his solo music on his terms, take it or leave it. Problem is, he can’t shake the Pink Floyd past. That’s what the people want to hear, after all, so in essence we’re treated to half a Pink Floyd concert and half a Roger Waters solo show.
The front half of the music is all classic Floyd: “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” “”Money,” “Time” and a couple lesser-known cuts from The Final Cut, which was pretty much a Waters solo album anyway. Only an unexpected cover of “Dogs” rises above…and Waters doesn’t even take the lead on it. The beauty of this music – evidenced more on the DVD – is that Waters seems less a dictator than a band member, sharing musical duties and the spotlight with his fellow musicians. The other surprise is the 1968 chestnut “Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun,” one of the first songs Waters wrote.
The solo numbers, as expected, fail to generate the heat or spark one associates with the best Floyd music. However, in a live setting, songs like “It’s a Miracle” and “The Bravery of Being Out of Range” sound better than the studio counterparts and may be enough to make you consider picking up Amused to Death, probably the best of Roger’s solo albums.
Points are docked for the irritating liner notes, in which Waters refers to Pink Floyd as “another band,” takes credit for The Wall and Dark Side Of The Moon, discusses a hate of large concert venues, and then goes and closes the show with “Comfortably Numb.” Floyd did the exact same thing on PULSE. Actually, Floyd also played “Shine On” and “Another Brick in the Wall” at those shows too, and Waters’ versions are no different or better.
For Floyd fans, this is a fine show, but unless you like Waters’ solo music, there’s no reason to pick this up over any live Pink Floyd show.
