Dallas show review……

So its just over an hour since the show ended, I'm back at the hotel room and thought id try do a review of the show while its fresh in my head!

A friend of mine called Jeff was at tonight's show, i met him in Dallas in 2000 and we hadn't met since! we exchanged a few e mails over the years but that was all. He sent me a text and we met up about 6:30 outside the venue, was great to see him again and meet his wife, cant believe its been over 10 years since we were at the Dallas show together in 2000!! we both met Roger at the same time that day too.

Jeff and I (with a bad hair day!)      American Airlines arena, Dallas

 

Mark Strand joined us around 6:45, he had been in Houston the night before and we had met up and he’s also going to Denver tomorrow, we've seen a few shows together and tomorrow is his last show before heading home to the cold winter weather!

The four of us headed in the venue, mark went to take his seat on the first level off the floor towards the rear and Jeff, his wife and i went down onto the floor. I sent Dave a text and he came out to see my friend Jeff who was a keen guitarist. he posed for a couple of pictures and then headed back to get changed for the show.

Jeff myself and Jeff's wife.                             Dave K and Jeff

   

As we were talking to Jeff  my friend Patrick came over whom id seen at the show last night in Houston, he had chat with Dave K before heading back to his seat a couple of rows in front of mine which was 10th row centre on the aisle. Jeff hadn't seen the show yet and had tried to stay away from spoilers at all costs and i was looking forward to hearing what he thought of it at intermission.

Roger came out for the opening of In The Flesh and has taken to actually running across from one side of the stage to the other, not walking but actually running. He’s done this for the last 3 or 4 shows and is clearly enjoying himself from the second he steps on the stage!

 

The crowd were VERY reserved tonight, the centre and right section all sat down after IN The Flesh and i counted at least 3 people around me all sat on their Iphones/Blackberry's all on Facebook!! WTF!! I tried to not let it bother me and enjoyed the show the best i could while still sitting down!

The kids tonight weren't very good at all, they seem to have really gone down hill the last 4 or 5 shows, not sure why! Three of them did run over to the left hand side of the stage and stood on the riser there and did a bit of air guitar but it wasn't anywhere near as good as Chicago or Philly or some of the other places. Snowy made a couple of mistakes on his solo that were really noticeable, i think that's the first time I've heard him mess that up!

Kids on the riser

When Roger introduced Mother tonight he did the whole Thank you, No Thank YOU thing about four times tonight and at the end of it said, “pantomime, don't you just love it” When he explained what he was going to do with the track Mother he told the crowd  “I'm going to sing along with that poor fucked up miserable Roger “ He was clearly having fun tonight.

   

I noticed the vocal separation a lot more on Mother tonight, usually you cant hear the new and old Roger  vocals much but tonight there was definitely two separate tracks, a lot more noticeable than any other show I've seen and it sounded great. The projections have gone back to the original for Mother as well with the red blood NOT coming in front of the camera tonight!

There's a real interesting read at the link below about the projections and how they are doing it while on tour!

Interesting read on the animation and projections

Goodbye Blue Sky was just as good as ever and i think the symbols at the end falling down works really well now, a lot better than how it was before.

  

I had to laugh tonight and in front of me was a family of three, what i presume was mother, father and son. When the images of the naked women came on the wall  during Young Lust the father covered the kids eyes and wouldn't let him look at them! i thought he was joking at first but he was being serious, the kid was probably 11 or 12 and his dad just wouldn't let him see them!! as soon as they had gone he took his hands away from his eyes!!

Don't look at the pictures below  if your younger than 12 please!!

 

Just as the last brick had been placed in the top row of the wall there was a huge problem!! it looked like the whole middle section  of the wall was going to fall down! It juddered and the whole middle section raised up about 6 inches!! I'm not sure if one of the hydraulic lifts moved when it shouldn't have done or if one of the  hydraulic rams that go through the bricks was caught on something but it could have been a huge problem if the bricks had cone down and it really wasn't far off from that happening! the roadies came out and started to manoeuvre the bricks on the first 5 or 6 rows back into place and soon sorted it out.

One thing I've been meaning to mention is the lyrics in Empty Spaces specifically the line “ send flowers by phone” it still amazes me that that line was written 30 years ago and has so much relevance even today as its something that's done even more so these days, the lyrics are just timeless!!

Few random images from the quick flashes on the wall. i only just realised that the lyrics go “I have seen the writing on the wall” when all these are shown! i didn't even notice this in all of the 38 shows I've seen!!

At intermission i went over to see Jeff and his wife, they were absolutely speechless and were completely blown away by the whole show! I know Jeff's and  HUGE Gilmour fan and i knew he as a touch worried just how well Dave K handled the guitar parts  but after hearing the first half of the show he wasn't worried a bit and was really looking forward to hearing Dave’s solo on Comfy Numb.

I went back to my seat with a couple of minutes to spare before staying seated for Hey You, Is There Anybody Out There and Nobody Home, the crowd finally started to rise out of their seats at the end of Vera and remained standing for most of the second half which was great!

  

Dave missed a couple of notes on the Comfy Numb solo last night in Houston and he commented on this when we were chatting before the show, i love when this happens as you just know that he is going to be putting 200% into the next nights solo and he did exactly that it was absolutely fantastic.

Roger during Comfy

 

Dave during Comfy

The second half was totally faultless, and the more i hear it the more it is m favourite half of the show, i was actually never a huge fan of Waiting for the Worms or even the Trial but its so much better live and takes on a whole new meaning seeing it performed and acted out in front of you.

He again used the  light flashes when he uses the machine gun and i managed to capture it on a video clip tonight, it does look a lot better in person at the shows though.

Gunshot flashes

The new images that have been at the last three shows.

The crowd had just about woken up during Run Like Hell and i have to say i think more people were clapping along with Roger than at any other show I've seen! i looked around the venue when Roger encouraged everyone to “enjoy yourselves” and  it looked like at least 75% of the crowd were clapping!

I love seeing the hammers when they are full screen all the way across the wall, i never tire of seeing these projections! As i said above i also enjoy the trial a lot more now after seeing it performed live!

The way the wall came down tonight was excellent, the top 3 rows fell forward and then it looked like the rest of the rows were all going to fall backwards but just before they did they actually al fell forward, i counted about 8 rows falling all in one block onto the front of the stage, i got a great “wall wind” about  ten seconds later!

The band then came out and the confetti came down.

   

Roger has started to talk the last few shows about the alienation he felt 30 years ago and how he doesn't feel this any more but feels the connection to the audience (see the video clip below)

Rogers speach

Full album with more pictures:

View Full Album

Atlanta to Houston…….

Woke around 7, showered, packed and made my way out to the airport. My flight out was at 10:45 a little later than i remembered but i was there on time and stopped in the Delta lounge for some juice and breakfast.

The flight was just under two hours and i fell asleep within minutes of getting on the plane and cant even remember take off! i woke around 30 minutes later and realised id seen a sight on the outside of the plane saying “wireless enabled” they had Wi-Fi on the plane!!!

I signed on and sure enough it was a mega quick connection and i downloaded the latest episode of Gossip Girl so id have it to watch in Houston,lol I took a couple of pictures of the clouds outside and put them on my facebook page.(by the way, if anyone on here who reads my blog has facebook then drop me an e mail with your details and i will add you, i do put a few more pictures and things on facebook as I'm travelling round more than i do on here!)

Clouds from the plane                                 Texas down below

  

The flight went really quick with being able to surf the net and i i started writing a few bits from my blog which i put up yesterday. The captain said the weather in Houston was sunny with a temperature of 75` and no chance of rain, i was happy! Took me 30 minutes or so to pick up the rental car due to the line and by 1pm i was on my way to my hotel on the outskirts of Houston. I had decided not to stay in the centre as i got a great deal on hotwire for the Omni hotel out near the Galleria mall, it was about 12 miles west of Houston but i was there for two nights and they had a great pool and gym so i knew id have some comforts for a couple of nights.

Hello Houston!                                   Nice Malibu i saw

   

I arrived around 2pm after hitting a bit of traffic on the highway and check into my room. The view from my room isn't anything special but i could see the pool and it looked so inviting. I put my swim shorts on and headed down there for a couple of hours while the sun was still warm. I headed back to my room and a couple of hours later went for a 30 minute workout in the gym. Then headed back up to my room and chilled out. I wasn't gonna go out for anything to eat but i hadn't eaten all day, had been swimming and then used the gym so at around 8pm i had a look at what was around me online and found  a Chipotle :) i also called at the local CVS Pharmacy and picked up a couple of things including some thing to hopefully kill my throat and cold problem that's seemed to still be just kicking around.

Pool at the Omni                                                  Gym at the hotel

 

I got back to the hotel around 9pm, got into bed, had a quick chat opn the phone to a couple of friends and the next thing i know i woke around 6am this morning.