062512 Roger Waters, Ottawa, ON

On June 25th, 2012 I saw Roger Waters perform The Wall in Ottawa for the second time in two years.  It’s astounding to me that I got to see his incredible rock opera at all (let alone twice); the original tour only stopped in four cities worldwide which is personally irrelevant as it happened a good two or three years before I started going to concerts anyway.

The reason the original tour had such a limited run was due to the huge cost of mounting the elaborate production compared to the pittance they were charging for concert tickets back then.  Now that consumers have been conditioned to pay premium prices for live musical experiences several artists have remounted popular tours from their past and given a new generation of deep-pocketed fans a second chance to witness history.

I find the whole practise somewhat distasteful but I’m a sucker for it all the same.  It’s like the Sausage McMuffin (without egg); I crave them and find them somewhat nauseating at the same time.

But when it comes to Pink Floyd I have to cut a little slack and in the case of The Wall; well, I’m going to the show and that’s all there is to it.

This show was a one-of-a-kind for me – I was in a box for the first (and to date only) time.  A friend had won the box through a fundraising auction for his daughter’s school.  He had gotten such a steal that after dividing it up twelve ways the seats came to about half what I had paid for the cheapest seats in the house.  I dumped my original tickets at cost and had a great time up in the box with a bunch of friends.

Despite the personal bar service, the privacy, the comfortable seats and the chill lounge area I would normally suggest that the box doesn’t offer a great view of the stage, but being so far back at a show like The Wall was no problem at all.  It turned out to be a perfect vantage point for the massive entertainment undertaking that included crashing aircraft, enormous inflatable characters and the building of a massive wall several hundred feet wide.

While the concert seemed virtually identical to the performance I had seen two years before, somehow Roger Waters had tweaked the show to be even more amazing than the last time.  I can’t believe that it was better the second time around but it was, no question.

Now, would I shell out good money to see it a third time?  Of course I would.  In a heartbeat.

We’re talking The Wall here.