Roger Waters…Taking us beyond the “Dark Side of the Moon”

“We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found? The same old fears.”

The legend rocked the MMRDA Grounds and how…I went there expecting an extravaganza, and drowned myself in the sounds.

Let me put it this way, he came, he performed, he conquered. Not too old to rock and roll…the joints lit up, the distinctive smell of grass filled the air…and we rocked, to sound that has reverberated for 20 eventful years.

The audience was this strange mix of teenyboppers, and 40 plus rockers. I have heard Pink Floyd ever since a child,the first album was “Dark side of moon”.

I had once done the “rebel without a cause” thing on the last day of school, after the tenth standard. Along with some other girls I stood up on the chair, to loudly sing….”We don’t need to education.” Too late to expel me.

Of course, music like this draws you in, and there was so much to listen. Their albums, “Wish you were here” and “Animals” eventually became my favorites.

But here he was…with everything that Roger Waters had to offer.

The show started a tad late, and there was no opening act, thank goodness. The music played earlier to the show had me a bit worried. For a while, there was Abba …was I in the wrong place…?

And then the giant screen behind moved…radio knobs, the cigarette ash …and it started straight off. Roger Waters did not waste time, he was already connected to the audience and you were just taken in… I must tell you, Harry Waters, the legends son, was a part of the group.

We all screamed, ….for this 63 year old man…who still defines youthful rebellion. He belted it out…from “Wish you were here”, to Shine on you crazy diamond, Animals, some of the best songs of Pink Floyd. “The Dark Side of the Moon” was yet to come. The Pyrotechnics were mesmerizing, while the giant screen had all the stuff happening. If you know something about the group, some of the images would be familiar “Shine on you crazy diamond” had the pictures of Sid Barret….

Among all the old songs, a new one called “Leaving Beirut” was rendered. Before the song, the legend talked about his visit to this war torn capital in 1961, a long-long time ago…
The lyrics questioned the entire US and British strategy in Middle East, these were shown in a comic format on the giant screen behind the audience sang on. I along with others, appropriately screamed when the anti Government slogans came on…come on we are standardized rebels are we not?

While this was on, a completely mixed up guy behind me shouted “David Gilmour rules…we want Comfortably Numb.” He is but young, so it’s all right…rock and roll legends do get a little confusing.

Then came the break and a bit of a retreat before the storm….and what a storm it was. The Dark Side of the Moon…unleashed. The group sang “Speak To Me”, “Breathe In The Air” , “Time”, “Money”, “Us And Them” and “Brain Damage”. Oooph…. By then I had inhaled enough of second hand grass and was quite high. The giant pig flew across, when pigs fly they make a statement. All the standard rebellious stuff written on it, stuff, included some specific to the Indian audience. It floated off off…into the night sky.

The Dark side of the moon part came to an end with lines taken from the album, “there is no dark side of the moon.”

The show was not over, the grand finale, the encore wrapped it up with“We don’t need to education” and “Comfortably Numb” with one of my favorite songs, “Vera”. Now the 40 plus danced made their spaces among the really young ‘uns, and grooved. One young fella whispered in my ears, “This place is full of aunties and uncles.” (In the darkness enveloped by the smoke I suppose I looked younger) I had to tell him, “When the granddaddy of rock is here, uncles and aunties have to jive”

During “We don’t need to education”, I sang loudly along with the rest of the audience, “Hey teacher, leave them kids alone.” Quite forgetting that I had got after my daughter about her math’s homework the evening before.
Comfortably numb as usual gets you there….so perfectly.

All good things come to an end, Roger Waters, he still rocks on, as remarkable as ever before.