Which one's Pink?

In 1994, I had the opportunity to go and see Pink Floyd. Long story short, I skipped the show for a girl that I had been dating for about four years and as it turns out, we broke up that night. I never got to see them and I always was disappointed and annoyed about that.

*BITCH*

Anyway, fast forward 12 years.
My daughter got sick over the weekend (see my wife's post here for all details) and passed it along to both of us. I got tickets for the opening night of Roger Waters' US tour at the PNC Bank Arts Center for this past Wednesday night. I did not want to miss the show, but I did not feel well enough to go to work. As they day went on, I felt better and so did my wife, so we decided that I should go. Yes!! FINALLY!

The show was awesome. There are a lot of details about the show that are hard to explain, but I’ll do my best. Before the band came out, while people were still finding their seats, there was a video of an old 1940’s type radio sitting on a table with a full ashtray in front of it. Occasionally, you’d see a hand flick a cigarette into the ashtray and possibly even fill up a glass with Johnny Walker. As the show got closer to starting, the hand began changing the radio station, which in turn changed what we were all listening to.

When Waters came out, he opened with “In the Flesh”, not “In the Flesh?”. (I specify this for a reason that I will get to shortly.) They then played “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” & Shine on You Crazy Diamond” in tribute to Syd Barrett. Next was “Have a Cigar” and “Wish You Were Here”. Between Cigar and Wish You Were Here, the 1940’s radio appeared on the screen again and the hand changed the station in sync with the filler between the two songs. I thought it was cool. The only Roger Waters song that was played was a new song that was anti-war and political. About 1/3 of the cheered and the rest boo’d him. They the quicky went into the final song of the set, “Sheep” and out came the giant, floating pig balloon. Anyway, the reason I mentioned the “In the Flesh” thing is because the lyrics of that version say this:

Pink isn’t well,
He stayed back at the hotel.
They sent us along as a surrogate band,
We're gonna find out where you folks really stand.

…….and Have a Cigar Says this:

Oh by the way, which one's Pink?

I think this was Roger Waters’ way of saying, “HEY GILMORE! You don’t want to tour and perform Pink Floyd material, huh? Well I’m gonna do it alone then!” Just to kind of rub his nose in it. Of course I tend to read too much into things sometimes, so I could be way off base here.

After a 15 minute intermission, out came the whole band and they performed “Dark Side of the Moon” in its entirety. I have to say that everyone sounded really good, but I’d like to give a lot of credit to the lead guitarist. He did a great job playing like Gilmore. Also, the back up singers were composed of three women, and one of them did an outstanding job on “The Great Gig in the Sky”. She hit every note perfectly. I wish I remembered their names, to give them proper credit.

The encore consisted of “The Happiest Days of Our Lives”, “Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2”, “Vera”, “Bring the Boys Back Home” and Wrapping it up with “Comfortably Numb”. Overall it was an awesome show. I recommend it to anyone that is a Pink Floyd fan. I’m glad I didn’t miss this one.