IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE?

The Wall shows have always fascinated me, and they seem to me a unique contribution at a unique time for such a thing. I wish I could have seen them. Recreations are fun of course, be they from tribute bands, Waters in Berlin, or even Waters in 2010, but this is original, the real deal, the one that blew people away who didn't know what they were in for.

I have the boxset version, not the jewel case, and I have to say it's a great package. There are lots of beautiful color photos of individual players, the lightshows, and the puppets, and even some schematics. Put together with brief interview segments from major players, production people, and creative influences, this really does give me a sense of the sheer scale of the undertaking.

The music is also quite good. I find The Wall hit or miss, but I still find it fascinating, and can get new things out of it once in a while. Major benefits include longer solos on Mother, Young Lust, and Brick II. One major highlight is What Shall We Do Now?, which was supposed to come right after Empty Spaces. It works great, particularly live. If I had to cut The Wall into one disc, What Shall We Do Now? would still make the cut. How some of the filler songs remained and this didn't, I'll never know, but then again, I never said the album was perfect.

I also love Roger's intro to Run Like Hell. Even if you don't get into Roger's message, you can certainly tell that he does! You know he's getting a smarter-than-thou feeling getting people in the audience to cheer that they're weak. This is reinforcing his worldview--and it's a mildly demented one at that--but it is fascinating to hear it coming true, at least in Roger's mind, live.

Floyd have released their share of non-essential extra material. This is not in that category. A good buy for the unique place of these shows in prog history, and a must-have for big fans of The Wall.