Review: Roger Waters Relives The Wall at AT&T Park

The Wall has been hailed one of the most theatrical and glorified rock shows since its stage debut with Pink Floyd in 1980. Despite conflicts within the now disbanded Pink Floyd over liberties and rights, whether performed by Pink Floyd in 1980 or Roger Waters in 2012, the show continues to deliver a poignant political message. 

The wall that served as the focal point at Roger Waters’ AT&T Park tour stop—also, the primary thematic element in Pink Floyd’s classic 1979 album The Wall—on Friday was twice the size of the 12-meter wall in Waters’ normal arena shows. Before the show begins, the wall is already half-built, white bricks stretching from either side of the stadium. Two soldiers in uniforms bearing a crossed hammer emblem symbolizing the fictional corrupt government of The Wall drag a stuffed doll representing Pink, the character that Waters employs to tell the semi-autobiographical story.

Waters brings the audience in as part of the show from the start as he croons “So you, thought you, might like to go to the show,” leading into the crescendo of the opening track with the projection of a bomber plane on the wall and on-stage fireworks. From the start it is clear to see that Waters’ band for The Wall is huge, featuring numerous musicians and back-up singers.

The theatrics of the show are impressive, from the projections on the wall to the three giant inflatable puppets, including the monstrous green-skinned schoolteacher puppet with glowing eyes that dropped from the ceiling during “Another Brick in The Wall pt. 2.” Local school children lined up at the front of the stage, chanting “We don’t need no education,” while pointing at the grimacing schoolteacher puppet in defiance. During “In The Flesh,” the enormous black pig puppet, graffitied with slurs at capitalism (“drink vodka,” “fear builds walls”) is guided on ropes around the field of the stadium. The wind from the bay blowing into AT&T park on Friday night was almost enough to push the pig out of control.

The video projections that light up the wall as it is slowly constructed are an intricate weave of footage from the 1982 feature film and imagery supporting the concept story, but what stands out is the addition of a powerful and blatant anti-war message to the motif. The strongest images were pictures of soldiers and civilians from all over the world who died in wars since WWI, emphasizing photos of those who died as a result of recent conflict in the Middle East.

War airplanes dropping bombs shaped like religious symbols, dollar signs, the hammer and sickle, and company logos are also part of the message. Making Waters’ pacifist message especially clear, graffitied words “No F*cking Way” are scrawled in red across the wall during “Mother” in response to Waters’ lyric “Mother, should I trust the government?” “Bring the boys back home” is also blasted on the wall several times.

In the original context of The Wall, these images and statements promoted pacifism in the face of a world that, less than 10 years after the end of the Vietnam War, was fed up with the pain and trauma caused by armed conflict. Today, in the midst of a very real war in the Middle East and revolutionary conflict sprouting up across the globe, The Wall confronts an issue very close to the hearts of many in the audience. In 2012, a year weighted with apocalyptic connotation, The Wall asks, “How long will we put up with the problems caused by war and when will it end?”

The story of Pink, the Waters-esque rock star character who questions his reactions to events in his life that have resulted in a disconnect (aka: the wall) between his inner-self and his exterior, resonates powerfully in this 2012 context. Are we becoming more disconnected with each other as a defense against the consequences of a corrupt society and a corrupt government that plunges into devastating war? Waters uses Pink to show what can happen to anyone (especially in a society like The Wall, overly-focused on sex, drugs, fame and violence) when burdened with the pressures of loss, restriction resulting from overprotective authority and a lack of loving support.

Waters doesn’t hesitate to allude to his own struggle, announcing to the audience that he will play “Mother” alongside a projected video of “that poor, miserable little Roger” from the 1980 tour. Waters appears now to be far from miserable, with a voice that has been so well preserved that it hardly, if at all, differs from the voice of “miserable” Waters 30 years ago.

With such a cast of talented musicians in addition to Waters’ own impressive vocal strength and a lineup of fireworks, puppets, lights, sound and of course that magnificent, unbelievably large wall, The Wall lived up to its grand expectations. The size of the large arenas and stadiums that Waters is touring, alongside the sometimes shocking ticket prices, can be enough to scare would-be attendees off.

Don’t buy into the fear. This 2012 tour will likely be Waters last. The Wall live is a once in a lifetime experience, a show mixing music and theater and circus like no other has been able to do, that only a few generations will live to tell of.

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