Caught a train to antwerpen
(antwerp,belgium, to us american sorts!) Beautiuful
day, sunny, upper 60's with a nice cool breeze.just
about perfect! the train ride was only about 2
hours down there, and we went to get a
hotel.....got one for 60 bucks....2 people, right
next to the train station. We then rode a tram 5
stops over to the sports palais of antwerp
belgium....where a certain pink floyd genius named
ROGER WATERS was going to play to a sold out crowd
of 15,000. The place reminded me of any hockey rink
i have ever been to. We were gonna hunt down
tickets when a line began to form to the left of
the internet ticket line......and we jumped on it
early. So what happened was they had extra seats
that had become available to the right of the board
on the floor. 45 euros later......we were in 36th
row dead fuckin center on the floor!!!!!!!!! And
thru my dat heads and other tapers sites on the net
i HEARD waters was almost "allowing"
recording.....and i quickly noticed the signs
saying....no video, no flash cameras....but no
where did it say no recording! So across the street
was a old timey bar with 1 dollar (i should say
euro, but its basically the same!) beers! So they
started letting people in, and i watched the
security....or should I say LACK OF IT!!!!!!!!!!!!
People walking in with backpacks on completely
untouched!!!!! So me and candice quickly filed
in....me with my whole taping rig intact in my
backpack! So we went to our seats, which could not
have been much better (prolly 10-15 rows behind the
primo FOB taper area....the sound ended up being
exquisite. So heres what he
did...........................
IN THE FLESH PT II............what an opener!
the crowd was extremely into it, but remained
unbelievably quiet, even thru the "theres one
SMOKING A JOINT!" part!;) Taper paradise....in
fact, they didnt stand till the last song, so i sat
in my seat with the schoeps in my hat the whole
time....right about 20 feet from the soundboard.
Awesome! Lots of gesturing from roger, sound was
good at the start, but just got better!
HAPPIEST DAYS OF OUR LIVES.....cut the thin ice
and another brick from the last setlist i had seen
in 99.....but that was ok...he almost made up for
it later!!
ANOTHER BRICK PT II......what can you say about
this one, the crowd obviously liked it. Great
vocals from roger....the childrens choir was piped
in for the "we dont need no...." part, but while
this was going on, roger was walking all over the
stage, visibly singing to the crowd and gesturing
with his arms and bass guitar....lots of smiles. I
guess roger has really grown to love his fans as
much as weve always loved him! Candice cruised up
front, told me later he looked like richard gere up
close.............hahahah!
MOTHER....great choice, the day before being
mothers day and my birthday (just like it was when
i was born!)....great version....funny, the crowd
was DEAD QUIET for this....roger playing acoustic
guitar and singing perfectly. On the part
"....break....my BALLS....."part he stopped
strumming abruptly and then launched right back
into it. Funny, in the USA everyone woulda screamed
bloody murder at that line (you know how WE can
be!)...in antwerp it was quiet as sin! Awesome for
the tapes, crystal clear....the schoeps kicking ass
like i knew they would!
GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF MY
DESERT>SOUTHHAMPTON DOCK.....the only songs from
final cut....and i must say the older i get, the
more i like that stuff. When i was younger i went
more for the gilmour-y stuff, but right now, roger
is king! then the factory scene with the flying pig
appeared on the 60 foot video screens.....and they
launced into the 1st 30 minutes of animals!!!
PIGS ON THE WING
I>DOGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.............this was
siiiiiiiiiiiiiick stuff. Rog seemed to play pigs a
little faster than normal, but it was ok. The bomb
was the dogs.....more than likely one of the 3 or 4
super intense parts of the show!!! The only person
who can even come close on this one is les and the
frogs!! Great solos....when harry waters took the
long keys solo that comes in the middle of dogs,
roger, andy fairweather lowe, and snowy white sat
down at a poker table onstage and they all played a
quick hand......wonder who won
(rog??????????????????/!!!)
then the suprise (for me anyway!)
SET THE CONTROLS FOR THE HEART OF THE
SUN!!!!!!!!!!....PLAYED ALL 60'S-ED OUT true pink
floyd at its earliest best....in my face in
2002.....wow. Gotta love it!
Sounded just like a 60s version other than the
really cool sax solo in the middle of it. The
traveling sax guy they got this year is really
great!
then to close the 1st set(!!!!!!!!!!)....he
played wish you were here in its entirety except
for have a cigar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SHINE ON YOU PTS 1-4>WELCOME TO THE
MACHINE>WISH YOU WERE HERE>SHINE ON PTS
5-9......harry waters, rogers dreadlocked son,
really kicked ass on these ones....really
impressive! I guess its in the blood! All the
inflections were perfect, roger put a lot of
passion to this part...extremely cool to see him
sing shine on and wish you were....both songs david
gilmour would normally sing! Great way to end the
set.....what a sick 79 minute 30 second set it
was....perfect cd#1 for all you bullboarders who
care!(are you printing this yet, nana????????)
Set 2..........another fat 80 minute chunk of
floyd/waters!
Started with a chunk of DARK SIDE!!!!! SPEAK TO
ME>BREATHE>MONEY.....ALL with their original
70s videos and sound effects in 4 speaker
stereo....wow....from the 36th row the sound
effects were right over my left and right
ears....sounded extremely intense! Came out crystal
clear with the schoeps!!!!! then came the solo
stuff....and i just love it!
EVERY STRANGERS EYES...from pros and cons, great
version!
PERFECT SENSE PTS 1 AND 2.....NEWER STUFF I AM
NOT SUPER FAMILIAR WITH, BUT I REALLY LIKED IT. i
MAY HAVE TO BUY AMUSED TO DEATH....A GOOD FRIEND OF
MINE loves IT. It is definatly growing on me! then
a new tune from 2000...
THE BRAVERY OF BEING OUT OF RANGE....during
which he showed a brief shot of george bush on the
video screens....most people had no clue who it
was! What he is saying is exactly how brave is it
for him to be calling the shots while he is safely
tucked away hidden. Upbeat song, kinda rockin, not
slow like some newer roger can be. I quite like
this!
ITS A MIRACLE....another amused to death song,
played amazingly well....kinda reminds me of a
cross between echoes and saucerful of
secrets....killer spacy shit on the screens for
this.
AMUSED TO DEATH....with the marv albert lead
in....for those of you not familiar, you should
check out this album....like an updated the wall
with jeff beck on guitar instead of gilmour!
then closed with the end of dark side....
BRAIN DAMAGE>ECLIPSE....well played, gotta
love it, rog pulled out the mirrored ball for this
one....great effect!
COMFORTABLE NUMB....AFTER A BAND INTRO, THEY
launched into this....really nice version, tasty
licks by chester kamen, snowy white, and andy
fairweather lowe all taking solos on this
one....and roger sounded PERFECT on this one. One
memory i will take with me is of roger singing
along without a mic to that song and when he got to
the part "my hands felt just like 2 balloons..." he
held up his hands to us and smiled with the
funniest look on his face! Great closer. So
apparently it is always either every small candle
or flickering flame as the encore....it was
flickering flame at our show....its a brand new
somg they just started doing 2 months ago that
roger just wrote this year. He said it was about
love. The other song, each small candle he wrote in
99, and maybe he will do it tomorrow night in
rotterdam! We will be there, mny friends. Team
schoeps euro division is back on!maybe even do tool
this weekend in germany......we will see!
So before this gets too long (too late!!!!) i
will let you all go. Candice and i say hello and
send our love back your way. Thanks also to all the
replies on my birthday post...you all really do
kick ass! Cant wait to get some of the tapes
out.soon my friends...soon!
Peace out, love each other, Jimbo
Thanks Jimbo
