Over the weekend, I was at Perth's Burswood Dome for the first shows of the 2012 tour (even though if they could logistically bring it to Singapore, it would still not be approved by our conservative government, given the show's overtly political and subversive overtones). For the first night sitting at the middle grandstand, I got a perfect unrestricted view of the stage and the projections on the wall. And the sound, oh my god the sound, was really really really fucking good -- right from the first second of the opening notes. Usually in the case with rock concerts, the sound starts out kinda distorted and then gets better as they progress. But for this Wall show, everything was crystal clear and loud, real loud. No distortion, no echoes, none of the crappy acoustics this particular venue was infamous for.
Also sitting directly under the 'special' quadrophonic-like speakers (which emits the many sound effects of the show), you get the full surround-sound effect. Paired with the visuals projected on the wall, it's like watching a really awesome movie, in which you don't want it to end even after 2.5 hours. And the visuals are what makes this show so mindblowing. I'm not going to spoil anything here, but there will be moments and images which will make everyone in the audience laugh out loud, get pissed off, shake their heads in disgust, cringe, and especially, ball their eyes out. A myriad of emotions.
The reason why I went to see again was that the ticket prices were drastically lowered for the second night, in attempts to fill up the venue as much as possible. Besides, the first night took a very long time to sell out and the second faired much worse. So this round, I sat at the extreme side, another unique perspective, being able to see Roger (and the huge puppets) up close, but missing out on a number of visuals and the band playing as the wall gets built during the first half. Personally I didn't feel as much emotional connection as compared to night 1, but experiencing the whole of Comfortably Numb from that distance absolutely killed me. Even from the side, the sound was still damn good.
Finally, I can't give enough credit to the backing band. Very very tight and explosive, with the singers and the guitarists faithfully recreating David Gilmour's parts. Thanks Roger, for showing us the truth and how screwed up the world really is, and for making us think hard, long after the show is over. Post-concert depressions has still not gone away, but I'm so relieved to have witnessed something of this magnitude. I resisted the temptation to overtake too many pictures, as this is the kind of show which you definitely don't wanna watch from a camera. Here are a couple from both nights:
