 Pics taken by freefour
 Pics taken by freefour
My eyes.....are baked
potatoes. That's what they felt
like, anyway, as I found myself driving through the
Mojave heat toward a dream 13 years in the waiting.
Vegas loomed ahead of me, unseen, but felt. I had
spent the last year reading post after post of the
great experiences at the 99 leg of the ITF tour, of
the gathering in Atlanta of the Amused To Death
mesage board people (www.ingsoc/waters.com), and
now...... it was my turn. I passed some little town
with a self proclaimed 'world's tallest
thermometer' which proudly proclaimed a balmy 116
degrees F. pheeeeeewwwww! My eyelids scraped each
time I blinked. I drove on. I found my hotel room and
collapsed in air-conditioned comfort, relaxing for
the next few hours. Eventually, I ventured over to
the Las Vegas Hilton and checked out the Star Trek
Experience, part museum, part ride. If you even
remotely like Star Trek, or are the hardest-core
Trekker, you must check this out...very cool. The
next day found me wandering in to the MGM Grand to
check things out. Just as I entered the lobby I saw
Roger's face being televised over this huge 20' x
100' video screen mounted above the check-in desk;
I mean the screen is just massive! He was flying a
helicopter screaming "YOU! Yes! YOU!..." I took it
as an omen. I saw some other event posters around
the place of Roger sitting with his guitar by the
pool(you know the one), except they had made his
eyes a strange metallic blue color and his guitar
had a watery face that blended with the pool in the
background. Someone got happy with Photoshop 5.0. I
killed the 6 hours I had left before the gathering
at Ricardo's wandering around, gambling. Finally,
4:00PM came and it was time to meet the ATD folks.
I strolled into Ricardo's and before I knew it I
was having a great time hanging with Simon, Ben,
Phil, Patsie, DB, Billy from Toronto and Co.,
Wiltwatcher(LOVE the story behind the name) and
Andie(sp?), Gary and wife from FLA, PLS and
Jeanine(who both win Best Dressed; very cool cats,
those two), Sgith, FP, Dr. Who, Pam, Roger V. and
Heather(who un-ashamedly hiked up her dress to show
us her killer Floyd-themed tattoos), and everyone
else I'm forgetting. We talked and we drank until
the church bells rang....and the burning in our
hearts....the memory smolders on.....Suffice it to
say, it was great to put faces with handles. PLS
then invited all of us to his room for some more
pre-show festivities. After our first beers, the
good Doctor proposed a toast to all those who
couldn't make it, and we listed off quite a few
names. We downed our drinks and soon it was time to
go to the show. Security at the Garden
was...nonexistent. We strolled in and Sgith and I
found our seats. I was very excited being we had
floor seats about 25 rows back. Then....
The lights dimmed. The
crowd roared. Thirteen years of waiting was over.
The dark silhouette of Roger walked across the
screen....Eins! Zwei! Drei!...a rush swept over me;
it was actually happening....I was in awe. As the
concert progressed, I quickly became impressed with
how the band sounded. They were very tight. When
Roger got to Mother, I was moved to tears. Katie
Kissoon sang Dave's vocal parts, she completely
added a new dimension to the song, and singing the
last line.."healthy and cleeeeeeeaaan..." uh...it
killed me. The set then moved on to Filthy
Hands/Southampton Dock, two great songs, both of
which were cut short and stuck together and over
before you knew it. That was kind of a downer. But
the band more than redeemed itself with "Dogs".
WOW! The Animals album has always been stuck in the
back of my Floyd/Waters listening rotation; but
that has definitaley changed. The live "Dogs"
absolutely knocked my socks off, so much so that
over the next subsequent shows I was to see it
become a favorite. Jon Carin did an awesome job.
The card game was a cool theatrical touch. I think
Roger put it in, partly, as a way to maybe peel
down one more layer between Rock Icon and fan;
saying, hey! we're just regular blokes with our
whiskey and card game, like you, who enjoy the
company of friends above most everything, like you.
That's my take. So they ended Dogs to rousing
applause and moved into proven warhorses from Wish
You Were Here. Now, I love that album. It's the
best one in the whole Floyd canon. So I was very
judgmental when it came time for Doylie to hit
those notes. He killed. Doyle is a perfect choice.
There is no way I would expect him to be a Gilmour
clone, and he's not. But both he and Dave have
blues roots and Doyle had no trouble hitting the
"important" Floyd notes we all know and love and
then interspersing his own Texas/Blues style in the
mix once in a while. It freshened up some of the
classic songs and it was treat to hear. The
repeated ending verse they added to "Wish You Were
Here", sung by the girls, was a nice
touch. As the band moved toward
the end of Shine On, up came the swirling,
mirror-encrusted-Jiffy-Pop-popcorn-rock-show-prop.
Please. I'm sorry, it was kinda cool, but I
couldn't help thinking it would've been much more
effective if the great homage to Syd that Shine On
is ended without the disco prop and just had the
girls singing the word "Shiiiine" to slowly
changing pictures of Syd in his more joyful days
with The Floyd. I also must say that I enjoyed the
backdrop/lightshow up to this point. It was simple,
effective, and the heated, bubbling acid-trip like
projector cell was a cool throwback to when the
Floyd made a name for themselves with their
psychedelic light shows in places like San
Francisco. In fact, there are a couple of satellite
shots of the San Francisco/Bay area that show up on
the screen during a later song. But anyway...
Well, the first
intermission came and Sgith and I went up to join
Doc and Church in the side seats since Sgith is
three feet tall and couldn't see much on the floor.
We hung out and chitchatted. I was glad to actually
be in seats where you could something in seated
comfort. If you're not in the first 10 rows on the
floor, then floor seats blow. The second set started
with Set the Controls and moved into Breathe,
Time/Breathe reprise, and Money. Graham Broad added
a little excitement with his Time drum solo, which
was very well done, and Doyle's vocals on Breathe
reprise were great. All throughout Snowy was
providing excellent accompaniment with Doyle on
lead and mild-mannered-in-the-shadows Andy
Fairweather Low did his rock star solo on Money,
along with the essential sax played by a local
talent. I must say that Roger's band did an
excellent job with all the Floyd material.
I was awed. The show then
moved through Every Stranger's Eyes and into the
Amused To Death material. I wasn't paying attention
to the Every Stranger's Eyes controversial
lip-synching moment, and thus have no comment on it
(though in a later show the question came up). I
would have loved to have seen something more from
P+C and maybe Four Minutes/Tide is Turning from
KAOS, bet the set list is in stone, I guess. The
ATD material floored me. It was obvious that not a
lot of people new this material intimately, like
us, and I sang along with P.P. Arnold on Perfect
Sense part I and was in heaven. Was anyone not
moved as she sang her heart out?..."and they gave
him command, of a nuclear submarine, and sent him
out, in search of the Gaarrden of
Eeeeeddeeeeeeeeeen......". Wow. A definite
highlight. Bravery absolutely rocked and It's a
Miracle, though not my favorite, had a great
theatrical impact at the end when Jon and Andy
Wallace laid out this great sonic angel-like choir
while Snowy finely held those last great guitar
notes just as the background screen slowly
brightened from dark to light with the image of the
sun's glow, seen from space, coming over the edge
of the earth in a new dawn. Wooooooohoooooo. All of
us were on our feet. When the song Amused to Death
came on, I was psyched! Absolutely one of my
favorite songs. The taped dialogue of the guy from
one of the home-shopping networks is such a
brilliant idea on Roger's part..."rock bottom...get
em out of here...not
170.75....One..sixtynine..seventyfive." I felt like
I was the only one there who knew the lyrics, and
when the "keen-eyed look out" line came and the
girls sang "Our last hurraaaaaaaaah!", my heart was
in my throat. God, what a great song. As Roger wound the show to
a close with Brain Damage/Eclipse and Comfortably
Numb, I again was impressed with Doyle's guitar and
vocals. His voice is different enough from Dave's
to make the old songs take on a slightly new face,
but he sang with heart and his voice is good and
strong. It was fun watching Doyle and Snowy trading
licks on Comfortably Numb up on the platform behind
the band. The crowd was quiet enough
to allow Roger to explain ESC's birth as a song
when they came out for the encore. All except for
one thoroughly inebriated fan who kept screaming
incoherently.."uuuuuggggghhhhhhhh!" over and over.
Only when I looked up toward him did I realize he
was screaming "Vera! Vera!" and then he just stood
there cackling a very drunk laugh. I just shook my
head in amazement. C of P was equally amazed at the
professional display of drunkenness. Anyway, I
think ESC has come a long way and am really
interested to hear the studio version when it comes
out. The barbed wire motif on the screen with the
blood red lyrics was simple but effective,
especially, I think, that it forced everyone to
read Roger's meshing of the original poem from
South America and his added parts. It was very
powerful. And when he held up the single flame in
his hand right as the stage went dark, the entire
audience was focused on the light that Roger was
holding up, further drawing everyone to connect
with him and the message. It was so simple it was
genius. The lights went up, the
show was over, and I was dazed. Somewhere in my
head I thought this evening couldn't get better.
Little did I know that it
was about to. We congregated back at
Ricardo's and hung out for a couple of hours. Two
beers later I was twisting Ben's ear (one of the
lads from England) about politics when someone told
me that Graham Broad and Snowy White had just
walked by us on their way from the venue to the
casino. HUH?! I think everyone was too dazed to
actually know to go up to them, say thanks, and may
be get an autograph. Well, the ATD crowd didn't
have to told a second time, no. A short while later
someone spotted more people coming out and we
recognized Doyle. I noticed the ATD girls react
with extra vigor and we all walked up to Doyle and
Co. Some bouncer guy told us to get in a line,
which we did, and one by one we thanked Doyle. Some
told him he performed great, others were asking him
what it was like to play with Clapton and BB King.
He seemed kinda aloof, but maybe he was just tired.
All his replies were one-word answers. Oh well.
Doyle's wife, Susannah, was there and probably got
the biggest compliment of her life from Sgith, who
proudly declared that she had the best legs of all
the backup singers. Susannah cracked up. Soon, the
session was over and they went on their way. We
hung out for quite a bit longer, but finally
decided to head out of the casino. We bid goodbye
to the others and about six of us straggled along
out of the covered strip mall within the casino
when someone spotted more people coming from the
venue toward us. "Hey, that's Jon Carin!" We
pounced. Jon was walking with
another gentleman and as we approached, I couldn't
help thinking that this other guy looked very
familiar. It was driving me crazy that I couldn't
put my finger on who he was. Jon, in the meantime
was being bombarded with questions all at once. He
had this whimsical, overwhelmed look on his face as
if he was trying to answer all these questions but
didn't know where to begin. Someone asked him who
he liked playing with the most, Roger or the new
Pink Floyd. He quite tactfully answered that he
would take one from this band and three from the
other. someone else asked him about the new tracks
on the upcoming new album, to which he answered
that there is just simply some really incredible,
amazing stuff on it. That got me psyched! At this
point Steve(WI) got the other gentleman to
introduce himself. When he said James Guthrie, a
momentary hush fell on us. I thought "F*CK!". I had
planned on bringing my vinyl version of the Wall
with me to Vegas in case I got a chance at an
autograph, but I left it at home. Now, here I was,
and against all the odds, I run into someone who
had a part in the legendary Wall album! I swear.
Sgith, in the meantime has slowly been advancing on
poor Jon, who backs up a couple of steps every
minute or so until Sgith has him literally up
against the wall. She invites both Jon and James to
Thanksgiving dinner at her house (!!!!!!...everyone
was cracking up) to which James replied that he'd
like to but he had a deadline to keep. When asked
for what, he told us the tour was being recorded in
Phoenix(whom he said were very loud, which was
great for atmospherics on the recordings), Las
Vegas, Portland, and Seattle. He also mentioned
that he had to have it wrapped up in time for
Christmas. I don't know if that meant the finished
CD would be in the stores by then, although that
would make perfect cents, or he just had to be done
with his end of it. We'll see. All in all, these
two were extremely gracious and spent a good 15
minutes us. We gushed and thanked them up and down.
Jon took a picture of us for his own collection,
someone handed him the ATD website address and he
said he would try to post(!), and finally Church
gave Jon an ESC shirt to give to Roger. We ended it
all with a picture of us, thank you Church, and
Sgith couldn't let them get away with out screaming
"Kisses!" and gave a stunned Jon Carin and James
Guthrie a peck on the check each! We all waved
goodbye as did they. Wow. The evening ended at that
point and I bid my farewells to those that I wasn't
seeing later in the week in Southern California.
It was an absolutely
unbelievable night. Magic. My only regret is that I
didn't get a chance to talk with everyone at
Ricardo's more. My thanks go to Gary in FLA for
organizing the gathering, PLS for allowing us to
re-enact the TV through the window scene from the
Wall movie up in his hotel room(ok, not really, but
thanks for the impromptu party) and everyone else I
met and talked to and got to know. We must do a
gathering like this again on the next tour. Thank
you all for providing your parts to an awesome
night and a fantastic memory. Lycurgus
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