Roger Waters, Constitution Square, 28.08.13

Oh my God, I can die happy now, I saw The Wall and it was BRILLIANT!!!! I had always loved Pink Floyd, I had always loved the album, but I never listened and understood it as I did the other night. So much anger, so much frustration, so much sadness, so much hate for everything that is wrong in the world, all magically put into music, words and images in such an overwhelming way. Overwhelming is probably the best word to describe this experience.

Starting from the airplanes and guns that sounded so real that for a fraction of a second I think everyone thought we’re truly being under attack and thought of the irony of it happening at a Roger Waters concert, and ending with the loud chanting of “tear down the wall” from 50 000 mouths, everything was fascinating, mesmerising and beautiful and sad and burdening at the same time. I didn’t want to watch a single second of the show beforehand and listening to all the news and reviews raving about this concert, I expected something along the lines of a Rammstein concert (with less sex and fire, of course :P), but it was very different from that. It was atmospheric, it was powerful, it was filled with meaning, it was hard to swallow for some, it was… yes, I’m going to say overwhelming again! My mind was racing to decipher all the symbols and understand all the meanings and see all the dozen things happening on stage, on the wall, on the buildings, on the screen…. It really is the kind of concert I should see a few times more in order to catch all the tiny details.

And I loved that the audience was incredibly warm and welcoming and at the same time incredibly quiet. It was the first time I ever went to a concert where no one was yelling during the quiet parts of the songs. There was a 20 minute break designed like a homage and small memorial to those who died because of wars and terrorism and I can’t believe how quiet it was! People were indeed talking, but in a very low voice and a lot were just listening to the background music and watching the images on the wall. And during the whole show, they were really trying to grasp and take in everything and contemplate and be fascinated, just like I was, in silence and in awe. And then they’d make up for their silence during the songs by cheering loudly as soon as the song would end. I loved that, people were really treating this show like a theatre performance and less like a rock concert.

It was one of the most intense experiences of my life and oh my God, that album is pure genius!! Everything, from music to lyrics and message is genius! And seeing it brought to life like that enhanced it all the more. And Roger was such a great performer, you could tell he genuinely believes in what he’s doing and he’s pouring his heart into every single moment and he was so warm and down to earth and sweet and I knew he was going to speak in Romanian, but I was expecting a few words, not a whole speech (suck it, Manowar :P). Also, during the “Mother should I trust the government?” part they projected on the wall “la dracu, nu” (meaning “hell, no” in Romanian) and everyone started cheering, it was hilarious. I loved the attention to detail and how they tried to reach the audience, especially since to so many people of the audience the message of the album was real and personal, with Romania undergoing so many years of dictatorship. And I think so many of us resonated with the messages and feelings of the main character, it was very powerful, at least for me. It was beautiful!