Roger Waters - Review

[BLOW]

If anyone has the time , I would suggest that everyone goes to see this show as its amazing, although chances of getting a ( good ) ticket would be very slim.

I saw the show last night ( At Rod Laver Arena - Melbourne ) and was blown away by it. My seat was on the floor on the same row line as the videoland about 8 seats from it so I had a perfect seat to take in this visual feast.

Lighting wise its pretty simple with strong theatrical looks from about a rig of about 100 moving lights supplied by PRG. I only remember seeing the lights move once and didn't see any gobo action at all ( And didn't miss it ). The show is all about intensity and iris/zoom action ( not done as an effect ) to contain light to the areas that need it. In fact the only lights that moved ( position ) were 2 followspots ( either side of stage ) which tracked up and down stage and moved up and down. These spots had spot chairs that move around too so that ops could point anywhere in the venue.
There is also had a large circular truss / projection screen hanging up stage which 24 moving lights around it. It was interesting that these lights were only used to back light the band ( in fixed focuses ) and not to do any of the cliche looks on the projection screen that we have all ripped off from Pink Floyd shows.

Audio.
It was crystal clear and came from 5 speaker arrays, Front ( Left & Right ) & Rear ( Left , Centre & Right ) Driven by 3 very large Midas consoles FOH. There was so much audio that I wouldn't be surprised that lighting guys would load out quicker that the audio dudes.

Projection.
Any seasoned tech nerd couldn't miss the projection ( and rear audio ) truss hanging above FOH control.
It was populated by 15 very large video projectors dividing the set into 5 areas each lit with 3 projectors. On top of this the larger circular projection screen , I guess would have at least another 3 projectors back lighting it.

The Wall
The major set piece of the show is a wall made of about 450 bricks about 4 x 2 ft in size. These are made out of specially made collapsable cardboard boxes ( for ease of transport ) painted in a special white projection paint to get maximum effect from the projectors. When you walk in the wall has about 100 bricks and the rest are installed throughout the first act and interval comes when the last brick of wall is inserted.
As the wall is built the content is unmasked brick by brick so that the content is only projected on to the wall without any spill or to the crew building the wall ( off lifts built into the stage ) The only time they deliberately light areas with the video package is to provide front light onto gigantic puppets. But this is again masked so the light is limited to the puppet.

The Content.
Its a mix of new and the original animation from when the show was first conceived 30 years ago. ( probably older than half the people reading this ) . In general the new content is used for the first 2/3 rds of the show taking full use of the modern technology to map content to individual bricks and to morph and distort. The older original content is used towards the end with great psychedelic & animated effects on the full wall.

Other Notes,
The majority of the stage rig is rigged off a very large about 70ft x 50ft x 60ft 4 legged ground support system.
The opening pyro effect is amazing and just goes on forever.
There are numerous other ingenues pieces of the design I noticed but don't wont to give too much away for people who are going to see the show.

$0.02

[BenniW]

Thanks BLOW!!

[Marcus]

Thank you Sir,
That was a great read and a better more concise review of the show than anything else I've read on the interwebs.
Feels like I've seen all the elements of the show I wanted to see without forking out for tix.

[Scott Allan]

Remember reading this from BLOW at the time (and not being able to respond - something to do with the secure Administrator of this forum, rest assured, it is secure)...

Thanks so much for a detailed and more impressively, relevant account of the event. This is such a rewarding read and the numbers show folk are reading!

I would encourage more like this from our membership, sharing their experiences....

Thanks BLOW...!
_________________
Regards
Scott
sallanld.com

[Andy Ciddor]