Tacoma show….

Last year when Ron, Suanne, Michael, Ralph, Greg, Lorri and a few others went on the think Floyd cruise from Miami to the Bahamas i met up with a guy called Brady who had come on the cruise but his buddy had been unable to make it so he hung out with us the whole three days, we kept in touch and i was meeting him tonight with his friend Gary at a bar across the street from the Tacoma Dome venue. Another friend Bernard whom id e mailed and had used the Roger Waters message board for the last 10 years was coming along, we had missed each other on the 2000 touch and on the Dark Side tour in LA and he had now moved up to the area of Tacoma and would join us at the bar.

Kami and i arrived about 5:30 it was pouring down with rain and we were wet through after parking the car a  couple of blocks away and waking to the bar.

Brady and Gary arrived around 6pm and Bernard around 6:30 was great to meet Brady again and to see Bernard for the first time.

Gary, Bernard and myself                   Brady and I                                       Bernard and I

 

We chatted for a good hour talking about Roger and Floyd all while the DJ was projecting the Dar Side of the moon Synched up with the Wizard of Oz film!

Kami and Gary drink tequila to forget about the rain outside!

 

We left the bar around 7:15 for the 10 minute walk to the venue, it was still pouring with rain but the traffic was totally gridlocked all around the arena and it was far quicker to walk that to drive up in the car.

When i walked in the arena i couldn't believe the size of it, it was vast!! it was one big vast open space  just separated by banks of seating, but there was banks and banks of seats all the way back on the floor.

As we walked down to the floor John Joyce spotted Kami and i and came over to introduce his son to us. Its nice that they come and talk to us now and we don't feel uneasy pestering them and talking to them! Pat also found us on the floor and came over for a chat, he was saying how Roger was nearly in tears the night before in Vancouver when with the crowd been so loud and appreciative!

Post show in front of the wall              Brent and Bernard                            Brent and Kami

 

It was Bernard's, Brady’s and Gary’s first and only show and they were really looking forward to it. They al had good seats and we headed over to find where they were sat before Kami and i went to find out seats, 10th row on the floor centre on the aisle

Security was pretty much non existent at the show and although there were a few seating staff on the floor ushering people to their seats the aisle got crowded with people just standing in it minutes before the show was due to start and it took a good half an hour till some security lady came to start to check their tickets and move them out!

View of the crowd behind during In The Flesh.

The crowd were great again within minutes of the show starting you could tell they were gonna be a loud lot and they certainly gave the night before in Vancouver a run for their money!

The wall was bigger at this show, the top row of bricks was 48 wide as opposed to 44, this made the wall look so much bigger but even then it was dwarfed in an arena of that size! the projections were the same the extra bricks were on the ends of the wall the centre section was the same setup so this didn't alter the projections or the images.

HUGE venue, longer wall!

The band were as tight as ever and the sound which i was worried about when i saw the size of the venue was fantastic, there wasn't a single sign of echo or reverb, distortion or feedback at all, it was spectacular. The kids were very much welcomed onstage by huge applause during Another Brick Pt 2 and a few of them came out the front of the others to perform their own little dance routine. As normal Roger thanked them and again they got a huge applause from the audience.

The first half tonight seamed to go by real quick, for the first 45 minutes the two seats next to Kami and i were free, then 10 minutes before the end a mother and daughter arrived, the daughter was a bimbo and the mother was drunk out of her head. They had been driving round the car park looking for the venue for 40 minutes and didn't know the show started at 8!!! Great that's all we needed!!

As the last brick was going in the wall the whole centre section of the wall raised up about 6 inches and looked like it was going to fall forward. This happened at one of the other shows earlier in the tour and i commented on it however this was a lot worse. What happens is when the wall is fully built there are some hydraulic stabiliser bars that raise up in the inside of the bricks if the bricks are all not perfect then its easy for one of the bars to touch one of the metal framed bricks and put it up, this it obviously what had happened as you could see as soon as the lowered the stabiliser bar the whole centre section of the wall went down to its original position.

At intermission i went back to get Bernard from his seat as there was still an empty seat next to us and he came and sat in it for the second half. I told him what i told everyone else, during the second In The Flesh do NOT get caught up in watching the pig flying around the arena! its an inflatable pig and doesn't do anything! what he should be watching is Rogers nuances and his actions on stage as so many people miss these with looking at the pig!

There wasn't anything new in the second half that hadn't been in the other shows, it went by pretty quick and the highlight again was Run Like Hell which got thousands of arms in the air clapping and cheering.

I was really looking forward to the wall coming down tonight as it was so much bigger and i wasn't disappointed, its was great, the whole thing seemed to take ages to come down there was that much of it!! Due to the layout of the venue they were also able to let a lot of the sides fall down as there were no people underneath that area!

Wall falling in Tacoma

The band came out to a rapturous applause for Outside The Wall, wasn't as good as Vancouver but was a pretty good try. Snowy and Dave had a good laugh at Roger trying  some little things on the trumpet to spice things up a bit but sounding not too good at all. The band were clearly having fun and totally taken aback by the crowd yet again. All in all a fantastic show at a HUGE venue and probably one of only who knows maybe even one show where the wall was extended!!

Video panorama of the venue at the end of the night:

Full 360` shot of venue

 

Full album of pictures from the meet up and the show

View Full Album