Okay, look, I’m lying. This particular foodie blog post is about
Roger Waters, The Wall, and Pink Floyd.
After what I saw last night, it has to be.
I had fully intended to write
about my meal at Jaleo and the usual tapas I eat (the shrimp and the beautiful,
gorgeous ham atop bread smeared with tomato) and new things I tried (the salted
cod pastry with honey) before going to hear and see The Wall. Really. And I will. But right now, I have to pause and pay homage to
Roger Waters.
When I was 10 years old, I
heard my older brother listening to The Wall. It was spectacular.
Although I wasn’t using the term “mind blowing” at that age, that’s what
it felt like. I heard it first on
a record, and eventually, with saved up allowance money, I bought The Wall on
cassette tape. It was
glorious. I listened to it over
and over again, never tiring of the reverberating anguish. I recognized that it was dark, but I
also recognized that the darkness was beautifully written and composed.
It stayed with me through
middle school and high school. I
was in a trigonometry class and after the class had finished a test
early one day, my classmates and I launched into an analysis of The Wall. In earnest.
Freshman year at college I met
one of my best friends, and I was horrified to learn that she had never heard a
single Pink Floyd song. What kind
of life is that? So I sat her down
one evening in a quiet room, and played my tape of The Wall, and later
that semester, Dark Side of the Moon. I should have had a CD player by
this time, but that’s another story.
(FYI mom and dad: I have a
CD player AND I have The Wall on CD now. Hope you’re happy.)
The concert last night was
everything I expected and more. It
was the movie and the album blown up into an opera, and in your face, inside
your ears, and running through your body.
There was not one sound last night that you could not feel. It was loud and shocking and
moving, just like the album.
An actual wall was seamlessly
built on stage throughout the concert, and then, elegantly crumbled down at the
end to thunderous applause. Images
on the wall from the movie and newer, powerful anti- totalitarianism, anti-war images were
truly breathtaking.
When I was running, I always
had “Run” in my mix of music I listened to on my runs. There is energy and intensity in that
song when you listen to it -- running or otherwise -- and it is magnified exponentially in
this concert.
Waters was a perfect gentleman
with the audience. He says The
Wall is as relevant today as it was more than 30 years ago when it was
released. He is right. And he now has the benefit of
technological advancements for The Wall to visually be in a concert what he
probably imagined when he wrote it.
Okay. That is my homage to
Waters, who I am sure had a good meal or two when he was in town. More photos from the concert will be on my Flickr page.
