A few weeks ago, Roger Waters (oblig Wikipedia link) came to the Shoreline Amphitheater to play a few songs. If you don't know who Roger Waters is, please click on the links =)
It's hard to describe the intensity with which I've listened to Pink Floyd in the past. It started way back in CTY '96, when I fell in love with High Hopes from the album The Division Bell...
Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young, in a world of magnets and miracles...
Leaving the myriad creatures trying to tie us to the ground, to a life consumed by slow decay...
At a higher altitude, with flag unfurled - we reached the dizzy heights of that dreamed of world.
I listened to that song constantly. It helped even more when Tarpy passed away, as it was a song we both enjoyed.
As time moved, I progressed to more angsty and cynical Pink Floyd albums, like their incredibly famous The Wall, which I still quote as my status message when I'm rather stressed (thank you, again, Jeff Blakeman, after these many years, for introducing me to the album):
I wanna go home, Take off this uniform and leave the show, But I'm waiting here in this cell because I have to know.... have I been guilty all this time?
And, of course, The Dark Side of the Moon. TDSotM is best known for its "integration" with The Wizard of Oz, but the songs on it are quite amazing in and of themselves. And many of the lines are still pertinent today:
"Forward!" he cried from the rear, and the front rank died... And the general sat, and the lines on the map, moved from side to side.
So all of this background and hullabaloo[1] is just lead-up to say that, although my favorite Pink Floyd album is post-Roger Waters, being able to see Roger Waters in person, and not only that but to see him play the entirety of "The Dark Side of the Moon"... well, that's an amazing life opportunity. So when my girlfriend invited me to go, how could I possibly say no?
And I'm so glad I did. He did not fail to perform perfectly to what I expected. The backing band was quite good. The female vocalists were incredible. The lead guitarist danced along the delicate line of the crowd's expectations to hear the solos from the albums they're used to versus his own desire to infuse ingenuity and personalization into the licks.
By the end of the show, I was bobbing all over - absolutely ecstatic about the show. It's been a few weeks, and I'm still overjoyed that I got to see it. I highly recommend catching the act if you get the opportunity.
[1] Did you know that hullabaloo is a real word? Oxford Dictionary defines it as "a commotion; a fuss".
Did you also notice the other little tidbit I dropped in this entry?