Roger Waters @ Entertainment Centre, Adelaide 16/2/2018

It was a massive crowd that witnessed one of the greats Roger Waters bring his Us & Them Tour to Australia. So big was the crowd it caught Adelaide Entertainment Centre napping with huge queues to get in and long lines at the box office. Fortunately the start time was pushed back so that people didn’t have to miss the first part of the show waiting in line. With that to one side music fans will talk about the greatest shows on Earth and names such as Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC come to mind but no doubt Roger Waters should be in the same company.

How would anyone describe Roger Waters Adelaide show? Perfection! Like the perfect tapestry. Every fibre woven perfectly with such intricate detail to create something quite amazing. It was visually stunning and a musical performance to leave fans in awe of his genius. This stadium spectacular was worth every cent of the asking price fusing together performance art with nostalgia but having a deeply political message running right through the show. Previous tours have focused on the iconic albums such as Dark Side Of The Moon but this show is much more. Politically charged focusing very much on war, inequality and our political leaders who are dominating the headlines.

Roger Waters, 74, is in peak condition and powers through a two and a half hour show delivered over two sets. The band consists of two guitarists, two keyboard players, two backing singers and a back bass player. Behind the band is a huge stadium size screen with projections that tie in well with Floyd classics such as Time and Welcome To The Machine. The first is brilliant and features some really big, ultra-massive Pink Floyd hits such as One Of These Days, Wish You Were Here and the song that needs no introduction Another Brick In The Wall Part 2 and Part 3. There was a strong representation of Waters 2017 album Is This The Life We Really Want with Déjà Vu, The Last Refugee and Picture That going down well. Waters works the stage with the crowd responding with rapturous applause of appreciation.

The school kids which featured in Another Brick In The Wall Part 2 did a great job and no doubt an experience they’ll remember forever. Waters rarely spoke but only enough to thank these children for joining him stage (something they have done right around the world for quite some time) and to announce there would be an intermission. When your back catalogue is as good as Waters there’s no need to pad the set out with pointless banter.

It was the second set where the Adelaide Entertainment Centre really came alive and the show lifted another notch. A replica Power Station that appears on the Animals album complete with steaming chimney stacks (later serving as a platform for addition projections) literally hovers over the seated floor section where the next part of the set picks up Dogs and Pigs (Three Different Ones) which are both essentially commentaries on the elements of modern society today through the lens of 1977. During Pigs Trump’s image is constant and a call to arms for people to resist which was another strong word pushed through these images. The pig floating through the venue was a testament again to the imagery.

Songs the classic album Dark Side Of The Moon including the likes of Money, Us And Them and Brain Damage would have made even the staunchest diehard very happy. The laser light show was bloody great and tied in well with everyone getting their mobile phones to get a quick snap of this awesome spectacular they were experiencing. The show came to end with some more moments of brilliance with Mother and my personal favourite that I had been hanging out to hear Comfortably Numb. No doubt Waters left the crowd wanting more and there’s probably other songs that could have made the set but didn’t highlighting the strength and depth of the Pink Floyd back catalogue. If you have a chance to go, get a ticket and if you procrastinated and didn’t go you really did miss something quite amazing.

Review by Rob Lyon

Set List

Set 1
Breathe
One Of These Days
Time
Breathe (Reprise)
The Great Gig In The Sky
Welcome To The Machine
Deja Vu
The Last Refugee
Picture That
Wish You Were Here
Another Brick In The Wall Part 2
Another Brick In The Wall Part 3

Set 2
Dogs
Pigs (Three Different Ones)
Money
Us And Them
Smell The Roses
Brain Damage
Eclipse
Mother
Comfortably Numb