Santiago Felipe

See more photos from the Yankee Stadium show in our gallery

Roger Waters
Yankee Stadium
Friday, July 6

Better than: The Yanks taking three of four from the Red Sox.

Size matters. Roger Waters proved this Friday night at Yankee Stadium when he put on his biggest-yet production of one of the biggest albums of all time, his former band Pink Floyd's double-LP The Wall, which has been certified 23 times platinum. With Macy's-rivaling fireworks, vivid animations, 360-degree sound effects and giant puppets, it was one of the most stunning stadium rock concerts ever, presented in one of its largest venues yet, tweaked by its auteur for maximum impact.

In a way, Waters has proven himself to be the George Lucas of hard rock, having embellished the original version of his masterpiece with new scenes and characters (luckily none on par with Jar Jar Binks). Since its 1979 release, The Wall has grown from Waters's Hamlet-like roman à clef about an arrogant rock star internally avenging the memory of his father's wrongful death and into a statement about resisting tyranny. It's a big theme, but thanks to an incredibly impressive stage show—a few subway stops away from the Great White Way, no less—Waters's production was up to the task. In 1980, a New York Times reviewer called Pink Floyd's Wall residency at Nassau Coliseum the "most spectacular, lavish show in the history of rock," and, as Waters proved Friday night, it's still a fact.

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http://yfrog.com/1xeafoj

Roger Waters Performs The Wall
Madison Square Garden
Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Better Than: Homeroom

If you've never seen a man use a remote control to fly a massive inflatable black pig to the delight of 20,000 or so people--you really should. It's fascinating. Such a beast emerged next to me, from the shadows of a largely constructed white wall that had been erected over the last hour and a half. And ducking next to the end of an empty, obstructed view row was a bearded man, probably in his early 30s, controlling this flying pig with precision, as Waters and his band chugged through one of The Wall's most beloved tunes, "Run Like Hell." Never was there any doubt that this pig was going to crash into us--that's how smoothly it glided through the Garden.

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It's a pretty intense week for visual excess at Madison Square Garden, beginning tonight and tomorrow with Roger Waters doing The Wall in all its stadium-rock glory (with another date Nov. 6) and continuing Friday with Gorillaz, everyone's favorite cartoon band, rolling in with several members of the Clash and De La Soul, not to mention, uh, Mos Def and Lou Reed. That oughta be suitably ridiculous. In the meantime, the band/"band" just released a new single, "Doncamatic (All Played Out)," should that interest you:

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Gustavo Turner

Our fine cohorts at the L.A. Weekly report on the recent, ill-advised street-art exploits of one Roger Waters, who has apparently commissioned folks in both L.A. and NYC to tag a Dwight Eisenhower quote onto various graffiti hot spots to promo his latest tour. Haven't seen evidence of this around here (have you?), but out on the West Coast, the result wound up on an Elliott Smith memorial wall. (Which apparently gets futzed with fairly regularly, but still.) Folks are most displeased. Somebody better be keeping an eye on that Shepherd Fairey mural.