Sleepwalkers on the grass

Roger Waters and his band played everything very close to the original

The second Moscow concert of Roger Waters (the first took place in May 2002 and left an unforgettable impression) surpassed in scope all events ever held near St. Basil's Cathedral. The public began to be allowed in an hour before the scheduled start at 20.00, but even at a quarter past nine people were still walking and walking along Varvarka, taking up seats and filling the so-called dance floor, located to the left of the stage, from where the stage itself was almost invisible. But the people were clearly visible. Oh yes, we were a colorful crowd: all half naked from the heat and glistening with sweat. A real Woodstock on the Moscow River!

The Rabelaisian stage structure was installed by the JSA company, whose chief Alexander Strizhak told us that “this stage is the largest structure ever built on Vasilyevsky Spusk.” JSA specialists even had to specially go to a concert in Oslo to see with their own eyes how it all should look, although usually stage companies do everything perfectly according to the drawings. But this is what Waters is all about: everything connected with his work is marked by boundless perfectinism.

Let us immediately note the sound, congenial to the music - it’s not even quad, but downright 5.1 - all the sound effects flying from speaker to speaker, which Pink Floyd is so famous for among sound-obsessed music lovers, were and sounded “true”. And with all that, the show itself looked, to be honest, rather simple. Three screens with concept videos, an open fire right on the stage and above the stage, fireworks (which broke out on the first song, In the Flesh)... This is in the first part, which included the ballad Mother (from the Wall), the old psychedelic Set the Controls of the Heart of The Sun, Shine on You Crazy Diamond, as well as other pieces from the golden period of Pink Floyd and Waters' solo work. Plus a new song - stunningly beautiful, Floyd-like deep Leaving Beirut. The beloved song about “Brezhnev took Afghanistan” (that is, Get Your Filthy Hands off my Desert) was not there, but dear Leonid Ilyich was a separate line in The Fletcher Memorial Home, where the name of the Secretary General amusingly rhymes with the witch hunter Joseph McCarthy (.. .mr. Brezhnev and party/the ghost of McCarthy). How can you write rock songs about politics? Firstly, you can, and secondly, Waters draws inspiration not from posters, slogans or vulgar nationalist ideas, but from a much more subtle theme. Many of Waters' songs and entire albums (The Final Cut) grew out of the idea that the world of big politics is destroying a small family. That is why frequent mentions of real historical events and figures of modern and contemporary history do not seem vulgar and anti-artistically “concrete”. The same Leaving Beirut (a touching story about young Waters traveling through the Middle East, where he was treated with hospitality by good Arab people) contains an appeal to a certain Tony, “a great military leader.” It’s clear who this is and what the song is about, but, I repeat, first of all, this is a piece of music, stunningly beautiful and touching.

This was in the first part. In the second, as promised, they played material from the album of all times and peoples Dark Side of the Moon. Here the show was more colorful - due to more interesting stage lighting, and in general everything looked better simply because it was already starting to get dark.

They really played Dark Side from the first to the last note (and then even gave birth to an unexpected generous encore - Comfortably Numb, Vera, the imperishable "Walls") and really looked very much like the original. True, Waters' role in this matter turned out to be modest - he mainly played bass guitar, and the other members of the group sang. The black backing vocalist performed the famous vocalise in The Great Gig in the Sky very similar to the brilliant part of the mysterious Claire Tory... Very similar, but, I'm afraid, without the nerve and emotional ambivalence of the original. Yes, a great voice, yes, she sang all the notes, but the part seemed to be from some kind of r&b hit. “It seems” was a word that came to mind often during the concert. Everything is correct, everything is unmistakable and everything is somehow inexorably dry. To be honest, I was afraid that a live performance of such strong material would “blow the roof off” and we, the audience, would find ourselves in the role of a “sleepwalker on the grass” from the song Brain Damage. As you can see, it didn’t really go wrong. Gee, not really.

Alexander BELYAEV