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New projections during the “I’m Spartacus” speech at the beginning of the show. They project the words I’m Spartacus on the wall in various languages, then they plaster the entire wall and fade away.
Roger’s mic was messing up during Nobody Home. He wasn't real happy! Review and details tomorrow.
Album of pictures below:
Didn't do much on Friday. Philippe did a great BBQ in the evening after going to pick up Matt Amore at the train station in Brussels. My good friend Matthijs De Jonge and Marc Olivier Becks came over for food and drink, and we chatted things Floyd and Roger most of the night.
I take over as chef While Philippe enjoys his food.
After a short walk to see the local bridge and then a quick drink at a coffee shop down the street from Philippe’s house, Philippe, Matthijs, Matt, and I started the drive over to Werchter for tonight's show.
Charlie Sheen etched on a beer glass! Matt says it’s 5 o’clock somewhere! Canal bridge
Due to it being outside and the middle of summer, the start of the show wasn't due until 10 pm. Philippe had arranged for us to park the car at a friend’s parent’s place who owned a bar about a 20 minute walk away from the venue. All of the town centre streets are closed when a show is on. It’s a small Belgian Village that hosts three or four shows a year. The last, I believe, was Muse. I was staying at a hotel about 10 minutes away from Philippe's tonight, as I was heading back to the airport on the train first thing in the morning, and the hotel was right next door to the station. We called in the hotel so I could check in and drop my bag off. As I walked into the car park, I saw Nick Waterfall and his wife, his sister, and her partner unloading their car. They were staying there tonight too. After a quick chat, I dropped my bags and got back in the car.
We arrived at the bar around 4:30. Matt immediately took full use of the bar’s urinals, which were actually mounted to the side of the garage that was in the middle of the parking lot! We sat at the bar for a couple of hours before starting the walk over to the venue,
Philippe, Matthijs, and Matt made their way into the venue. I met up briefly with Nick Waterfall again and then headed in to catch up with everyone else. It was still only 7:30 pm—we had over two hours until show time. The venue reminded me very much of the one in Quebec where Roger finished the 2012 tour. It was a large open field with a few trees. The only difference was it wasn’t banked up like the field was in Quebec. The wall looked HUGE, as did the stage, and especially the roof! It was even bigger than the roofs that were used at the outdoor ball parks in the USA in 2012. As it happens, the stage and roof are actually built in Belgium where the biggest stage builders, StageCo, are based. I also noticed the giant crane that held the wire leading to the stage that the Stuka would be falling from tonight.
I found Marc Olivier in the Golden Circle and also met up with Jacques, who I hadn't seen for a long long time. I bumped into another friend, Jasper, again, that I hadn't seen for a while. We caught up, and I then headed out to find Matt and the others. Of course, I found them drinking beer!
Myself and MOB Matthijs, Philippe and Matt
Matthijs and Philippe wanted to watch the show from the back of the golden circle. However, Matt and I decided to not only watch the show, but FEEL the show down on the front rail between Dave K. and the hotel room in the wall. At around 9:50 pm the 6 track pre show music started, and although the sun had gone down, it was still pretty bright out.
We were too close to see the fireworks go off on the top of the roof, but we certainly weren't disappointed. We not only heard the opening notes to In The Flesh, but felt them right in our chests! The sound was loud, but not just loud—it was incredibly clear. This show just lends itself to the outdoors. The size and the loudness needed to get to the rear of the field, and the size of the projected wall just make this show at home in an outdoor venue. Unfortunately, the Stuka was a good 10 seconds behind the end of ITF, and the crew shook their heads as they looked up when it crashed through the wall into the flames. Not only were the band enjoying tonight's show, but as it was the first night of the tour, a lot of the crew kept coming out to see how good the gig looked.
I did notice the projections were nowhere near as clear as they were at the Arnhem show. They were still bright, but I'm pretty sure the section we were in front of was just slightly out of focus. The rest of the wall looked better, but due to the projectors being a lot further back than they were in Arnhem, it still lost a little bit of the detail. There were certainly a lot more tickets sold for tonight's show—40,000 in total, I believe.
I didn't spot any mistakes by the band tonight, though one of the projectors threw up the words “change the air filter” onto the wall for 30 seconds, but apart from that, it was a flawless show. In Arnhem they didn't put the “No Fucking Way” on the left side of the wall in the local language. I got my cell phone camera ready just in case, and they did indeed do it tonight.
Roger has now also changed the “Thank You” and “THANK YOU” between ITF and Run Like Hell to the local language, so tonight’s said “Danke U.” He’s also changed the “Are there any paranoids…” speech to the local language, too! Matt and I couldn't believe just how loud it was all night. We were constantly feeling the bass in our chests! The guy next to me took out a pair of ear plugs and had them in for most of the show after hearing how loud it was after the first couple of tracks.
The pig was brought down into the crowd after the wall came down, and the band came back onstage for Outside the Wall to see the pig being ripped to bits. It was nearly 1 am when the gig finished, and I have to say, it’s definitely up there in my top ten of the now 126 Wall shows that I’ve seen! Philippe dropped me off at the hotel at 2 am on the way back, and as I walked into the car park I met up with Nick again who had just arrived back from the gig.
I’m presently back home in the UK and fly out to Milan on Friday where I’ll take the train to Padova for the show there. Then I travel down to Rome to see the show there. More soon!
After getting over the shock of just how empty the venue was, the second thing I noticed was the projectors mounted at the rear of the venue. Unlike the 2010 and 2011 shows, where they were suspended from the ceiling, and a lot of the outdoor shows in 2012, where they were on top of towers obstructing views in the middle of the venues, they were all now about 10 feet high along the back wall of the venue, with 36 in all.
Ready to be fired up In action Pig caught in the projections
This gives a great effect when the shows is on and you look behind you. It also casts a shadow of the pig onto the wall, which, again gives a great effect.
Philippe and Kevin decided to stand half way between the mixing desk and the stage. I was going to do the same until I saw how empty the rail was! I headed down to the middle on the rail and met up with my friend Raymond Steeg. I hadn't seen him since the 2006 Gilmour shows, and it was nice to see some of the show with him. I say “some” because the place was that empty, that as you can probably see from the pictures, I was running around all over the place taking shots and then returning to my place on the rail.
I have to be honest and say that I was expecting a lot more changes than there actually were. There were a few subtle ones here and there, but for the most part, it was the show that we've seen for the last few years with the addition of Roger’s tweaks to the projections and music here and there.
The six pre show music tracks were identical, starting off with Leadbelly’s “Take This Hammer” and ending 18 minutes later with The Impressions’ “People Get Ready”. Pink was led out by the two guards, looked around at the sparse audience to the I'm Spartacus speech before being dropped onstage, and then was kicked by Roger onto the photographers below the stage after donning his black leather over coat. (I’m sure Roger gets huge kick out of doing this to the press guys!)
Pyros were pretty much the same, but bearing in mind it was an indoor venue, I'm sure these will be stepped up for the outdoor shows like they were in 2012. The Stuka came down right on cue and crashed though the wall with fire and smoke as before.
At first I thought the crowd were a little quiet due to there not been many people, but there was certainly enough people to make more noise than they were, and all through the first half, they seemed to be very subdued by the whole experience.
After In The Flesh, I was buzzing. It was back!! The Wall live was on again, and all the memories from the last 3 years came flooding back—all the memories of things to come in the show, the nuances, the solos, the smiles, the smirks—damn I’d missed them and didn't really realise how much until it was bang in front of my face again! It was a great feeling knowing this was the first show of many—all the shows I had yet to see!—but most of all, it was good knowing the people I’d be meeting up with again and the memories we’d be creating. I missed having Kami by my side a lot. As good as the experience was last night, it still felt as though a certain someone was missing.
After In The Flesh, when they start projecting the fallen loved ones on the bricks, it was immediately noticeable how much better the projections were. They were almost 3D! The images were so much brighter, and there was so much more detail. I’d heard from my friend Shane (who’s in charge of the Pyros) before the gig that I would be blown away by the new projectors. He wasn't wrong at all, as they were now mounted at the rear of the venue, they had to be a lot more powerful to throw the images onto the bricks and still be seen at the outdoor shows when it was still daylight at the start. (Although tomorrow night’s outdoor show in Werchter doesn't start until 10:00 pm!) Philippe just reminded me that it was so cool to be able to actually read all the text on the fallen loved one images that were projected onto the wall at the Intermission, something that's always looked a little out of focus to me. Well, not anymore!
My camera was still a touch out of focus, but you can see the clarity of the images compared to years past.
There was a slightly different start to Another Brick with Graham doing a lot more drum rolls at the beginning. The “new” Jean Charles De Menezes track is still present and nothing’s really changed on that. Again, I have to say, I was just continuously looking for changes in the projected images, but they just weren't there!
One thing I did notice is that the bricks look to be a lot more refined and fit together better than they were. There were very few gaps that let any light through whatsoever. Maybe it was because they were all new, and it was the early stages of the tour. We’ll see how they hold together as the tour goes on, I guess.
Dave K. mentioned a couple of days ago that Roger had said to the guys that he thought they sounded the best they had ever done, and I have to agree with that. The sound in the venue was incredible, and the band were ever so tight playing together.
Hey You again showed just how bright the new projectors were. The projected bricks on the fill length wall had much more detail in them and were so much brighter. Robbie's voice sounded as good as ever, and Snowy absolutely nailed his 20 seconds long note. When the track Is There Anybody Out There was half way through, I turned around and walked to the rail right in front of the hotel. It really was that simple to do. There was no pushing, no crowd to fight through, just lots and lots of space, and I had the whole rail to myself until 30 seconds after the room came down out of the wall, and the rest of the people realised why I was there and joined me!
I headed back to the middle as the room went up and again took my place on the rail. One thing they have changed back is the animation for the wall break as Roger hits it during Comfy Numb. I was never a fan of what they did to this late on in 2011 and 2012. They changed the way it broke up and made the rocks a lot bigger, and rather than shatter outwards, it all seems to fall down towards the floor. They’ve changed this back now—the shattered rocks are smaller, and whilst they still fall downwards a little, it is a much better effect now that it was last year. I'm hoping they don't mess with it again!
Dave's solo on Comfy was, again, absolutely flawless. It just never ceases to amaze me how powerful it sounds and how insanely loud it gets. Dave, please mess up just once so it’ll give me something to write about! :)
Run Like Hell—if it isn't broke, then don't fix it! It was never broke, yet Roger continues to fix it, and it just gets better and better. The brighter images make the 3D pop out a lot more, and the silhouette of the pig on the wall looks great. Although the crowd had started to get into the show a little more, even after a couple of mic problems for Roger when shouting the Thank You and trying to get everyone to clap in unison, they just didn't get into it as much as I’d hoped for. Roger has a nice new shiny machine gun! He’s still not back to the adlibbing talk at the beginning, which I miss a lot, but he has certainly been practising his video synching and moving the same as the green screen images (the ones that were shot in New York last year and are projected on the sides of the wall trying to make it look like it’s a live feed!)
Dave’s guitar sound came out great, but he did look to be having a couple of problems, continually turning around and trying to adjust his amp during the firs couple of minutes of the track. I’m guessing it’s just opening night niggles, and I’m pretty sure these will be all ironed out within the first couple of gigs.
Oh how I’ve missed having a little Wall wind!! It wasn't till I had my camera up to my eye ready to snap a picture of the falling wall and I felt the air rush past my face that I remembered just how good it felt! It’s good to be back :) The wall fall still looks as good projected onto the sides of the wall, and the live LIVE feed is still used for the guys as they come out and perform Outside The Wall. Harry, for some reason, looked very Australian wearing his Tilley hat!
All in all it was a fantastic show, very unique, and, as I said earlier, it was more like a select few had been invited to a dress rehearsal—and for the people that realised this, it felt like our own personal show. This show is a MUST see. It’s the last time you’re going to get to see it, so if you haven't bought a ticket yet or are wondering whether to go, then DO IT!!
Again, click on the pictures link below to see the full album of pictures.
