We all met up at the hotel bar again with the exception of James who had flown back to Newark, NYJearlier that day. He’s an airlines steward and was hoping the Iceland volcano ash would cause problems with his flight so he could see the second show, however the wind had changed and the ash had died down.
After walking the 15 minutes to the venue we all made our way in, Jackie and Dave were seated tonight, Kami and i took our usual place on the left side a bit further left tonight in front of the Hotel room. Kevin joined us later on with Philippe. I have a friend, Shane, from the USA who is in charge of all the pyrotechnics for the show, we had a chat before the show and he commented on how they had added more speakers due to the way the sound was the night before. It should be a lot better tonight he said.
Sure enough as soon as the first few notes of In The Flesh started it was clear that the sound had indeed being improved from last night. Roger and the band were on fine form tonight, I've noticed before when I've seen Roger in Dublin (2002 and 2007) that he loves the Irish crowd and they love him back. He likes to put on his Irish accent and have a chat to the fans, tonight was no exception with him telling an amusing story about him and “the boys” in the late 1960’s out late at night coming back from a gig and getting stopped by the Garda. Roger seems to have this problem with dates, I'm not sure if its his age or what but there's been a lot of times during the tour he has referenced dates and shows and got them wrong. He mentioned tonight of the In The Flesh tour date they played in Dublin on the 24th June 2002 when in fact it was the 24th July. Don't get me wrong I'm not having a go we all make mistakes, it just seems odd knowing how much of a perfectionist he is with anything, he seems to get a lot of dates mixed up!
The crowd were good tonight but i think last nights was a little better. The band themselves just seem to get better and better and i wonder at what point they just wont seem to be able to improve! I get the feeling now that Dave K could play the set with his eyes closed! his solo on top of the wall tonight was unreal, i had very little view of Dave on top of the wall tonight due to being so far forward so i closed my eyes and listened to the solo without watching the actual show, it was faultless. One thing i would say is that whilst the “money shot” of Roger hitting The Wall is spectacular it does tend to take your attention away from Dave K’s solo, and the best part of it too! If you are seeing more than one show then i would really recommend just closing your eyes for the solo during Comfy Numb and just listen to the music without seeing the visuals.
Exploding walls for the guys.
One thing i do like watching during the show is the faces on the crowd on the front row, I've seen shock, amazement, disgust and tears at some of the shows I've seen.
I think I've mentioned this in an earlier review of the shows but during the second In The Flesh when the flag bearers come out and stand on the podiums at either side of the stage one of the roadies comes out and holds a cardboard sign up at the flag holder on the left as you look at the stage. The writing on the sign is different at every show and is always to try and make the guy holding the flag smile and laugh” Early on in the shows this worked but i think the guys a bit used to it now so he hasn't been laughing or even breaking as mile! Tonight was a bit different though, Liam(one of Rogers security guys) and the roadie spoke to the audience in front of the podium at half time and i could see what was going to happen as they were talking.
All became apparent when during In The Flesh the crowd in front of the flag bearer held up pieces of cardboard (parts of an old brick) that said on the four pieces “ We love you Dave Butcher XOXO” Liam had handed these out about 5 minutes beforehand and asked the audience to keep them behind the barrier, at his say so they took them out and held them high all in a row. The guys face was a picture, at first he didn't get what had happened but then when it dawned on him he smiled and then laughed out loud. The members of the audience were rewarded with a guitar pick each but left their pieces of the wall on the other side of the barrier.
Laughing flag bearer
There’s a few things like this happen during the show that most of the audience don’t see, I'll mention a couple of these in later reviews.
As the wall came down i quickly turned the flash forced ON and took a couple of pictures of the wall mid flight, these came out ok but because of using the flash it highlights all the dust that's in the air, I'm trying to refine this picture taking and will hopefully get a few better ones at future shows.
All in all two great shows in Dublin, a very enthusiastic crowd at both nights and it was great to see the show in such a unique and intimate venue.
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