|
|
 |
Roger Waters |
In The Flesh |
|
A Personal Tribute To The Legendary Roger Waters |
|
By Ken Potts |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
The Show (Must Go On)
On August 22, 1999, I was fortunate enough to attend the Roger Waters - In The Flesh concert in Atlanta, Georgia. The concert began promptly at 8pm and ended at 10:55pm. The show was almost exactly as I had been eagerly expecting: A packed, small venue, with Roger performing a full range of his work. I should add that also attending this show was none other than Richard Wright and his wife! Of course they had front row seats and spoke with Roger briefly at one point.
We arrived several hours early and mingled with the growing crowd. I spoke with many fans of Roger, some of whom had driven much farther than I (four hours, one way). Most of the people that I spoke with spoke of Roger as if they had been lifelong friends, a feeling that I could relate to. This being my first opportunity to see "the man" live, I was actually feeling nervous as we sat in our seats waiting for the concert to begin! It was almost as if I were about to finally meet my long-lost famous uncle.
The show itself
was nothing short of spectacular, with none of the "stadium fluff" that Pink
Floyd had employed in the past. No flying pigs, lasers, or even lighting
trusses. Roger felt that these things were very nearly required props
for the large stadium shows - simply to give everyone, no matter their location
in the stadium, something to actually see. With the smaller venues,
Roger has done away with the props, using only a large video backdrop and
spotlights. I was very impressed with this "clean" approach.
My only complaint of the show? Roger's lack of movement around the stage. Our seats were located towards the right of the stage and Roger basically stayed towards the left of the stage. Small complaint, I realize, but I had to find something!
The Pilgrimage
The trip to Atlanta took us roughly four hours and was nearly uneventful, save for one slight problem: we were heading to the wrong venue! We had stopped at the Georgia welcome center to stretch and grab a couple of maps. As an employee of the welcome center was marking our map with the best route to the Chastaine Park Amphitheater, a woman approached and said, "Oh, you're going to see Roger? Well, he's moved the show to Lakewood, didn't you know?" Uh... nope. Long story dramatically shortened, we arrived at Lakewood (four hours early) and were notified that our tickets would be exchanged when the ticket booth opened.
The Photos
Yes, we snuck a cheap throw-away camera in, not that we were the only ones. The pictures, those that actually came out, are decent enough. Being twenty rows from the front, I was able to capture only the basic figures of the band, not much detail I'm afraid. If you attended one of the shows and were able to get photos as well, please send them my way and with your permission, I'll gladly add them to the photo page and give you full credit (if you want it).
