Sao Paulo
You could say that Roger Waters created a monster. The show that the English singer and musician presents on Saturday evening (11) at Allianz Parque in São Paulo is monumental, it is magnificent. The almost 40,000 people in the Palmeiras Arena experience an unforgettable night, but they receive so many sensory impressions during the performance that it becomes exhausting.
Waters founded Pink Floyd, one of the most daring bands in rock history, which never held back from wild experiments in the conception of what was commonly referred to as psychedelic music. Waters’ show truly challenges the audience’s sensibilities. At any time there is something to hear, something to see or read, something to feel in your own body vibration.
On his fifth tour of Brazil since his first visit in 2002, he faces the challenge of putting on a more ostentatious show each time. If in 2012 he built a wall on stage, a reference to “The Wall,” and then tore it down, and in 2018 he turned every performance into a loud rally against Bolsonaro and his ilk through political leaflets, this time he combines psychedelics and activism, sound, images and text.
After traveling through five cities across the country, no one was surprised by the opening sentence that appeared on the huge screen and was subtitled by Waters’ hoarse voice. Without much ado, he orders those who like Pink Floyd but turn their noses up at his political speech to leave the audience and stay in the stadium bars.
It’s not just this initial provocation that repeats itself with every lecture. In the seven shows of the “This Is Not a Drill” tour in Brazil, the last on Sunday (3), also in São Paulo, it is proposed to reproduce everything to the millimeter. There are so many resources orchestrated at the same time, the songs, the images on the screen, the lights that move through the stadium and over the audience, the political messages with Portuguese subtitles, in short, there is so much that there is none Room for improvisation.
So in every performance there are always the same 24 songs, in the same order and divided into two acts with a 20minute break in between. Of these programmed songs, 17 are from Pink Floyd albums, leaving seven to sample Waters’ solo work, which, as incredible as it is, compares favorably with classics such as “Money”, “Us and Them” or “Wish” “You were here is just an afterthought.” They are moments that touch the emotional memory of the different generations of fans in the audience.
During this undeniable communion between artist and audience, the stadium is bombarded with political denunciations. By exposing oppressed factions such as women, blacks, transgender people, Palestinians and indigenous peoples, Waters made a name for himself by labeling countless world leaders as war criminals. This aspect of the protest leaves room for a criticism heard by many in the arena: There’s too much talk!
To pay attention to these musical derivatives, it is necessary to abstract the visual paraphernalia a bit and focus on Roger playing multiple instruments during the set. He is surrounded by an efficient squad, but they will never be immune to comparisons from fans. There is persistent criticism that a guitarist as good as David Gilmour is missing or that Waters’ hoarse voice “ruins” some Pink Floyd classics that were immortalized by Gilmour’s more harmonious singing.
Including texts and images, countless loving homages to his childhood friend Syd Barrett, with whom he founded Pink Floyd. Due to psychological problems, he left the group before the second album. After his death in 2006, he was more present than ever at Allianz Parque.
The show practically has no less interesting moments. It is impossible to remain indifferent to someone who has brought and continues to bring rock to a different level of perception. Roger Waters is 80 years old and this is probably his last tour in Brazil.