IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE?

As a disclaimer, if you didn't like The Wall, this won't change your mind about it. The Wall, Pink Floyd's magnum opus, was released to the masses towards the end of 1979. The subsequent tour would be one of the most ambitious rock shows ever produced (possibly more ambitious than Rick Wakeman's King Arthur On Ice shows). The live set presented here is a complete performance of The Wall (with a few additions), and in my opinion it fares better than the original album itself. There are many extended versions of some key pieces on the album that really are a lot better than the studio counterpart (and if you consider at what point of the show it was at it just makes the experience a little more better). At this point in time Richard Wright was officially out of the group, but they decided to hire him to keep the fans happy, and he does a wonderful job on the keys live.

The first disc opens with a live addition of a Master of Ceremonies (who makes an introduction before both In the Flesh pieces). It gives a more official atmosphere to the performance, until the group (purposely) interrupt him to begin the piece. Highlights of the first half include extended soloing from Gilmour during Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 and Mother (which are both played wonderfully, despite Another Brick being not one of my favorite Pink Floyd pieces). Also welcome in the addition of What Shall We Do Now?, which was a piece that was cut out of the original album for continuity reasons. After the song ends, it allows for a brief pause and Roger to speak to the audience briefly. The Last Few Bricks is a brief instrumental piece between Another Brick in the Wall Part 3 and Goodbye Cruel World. It reiterates many of the themes in the first half of the show and is actually a pretty cool instrumental bit.

The second disc doesn't have really any added numbers, but the additions to Comfortably Numb (which must have been a memorable moment for those who watched it, as Gilmour would climb to the top of the large wall on the stage and have the lights cast a gigantic shadow over the crowd as he belted out arguably his greatest guitar solo ever). Run Like Hell also gets a nice synthesizer excursion and Rick Wright really comes out of his own on this piece. The version of Outside the Wall also gets a nice extension as well, with all the members coming out and playing acoustic instruments to help bring the entire show to a close. Sonically, the overall mix of this album (as with most Pink Floyd albums) is great and there's enough light shed on all the musicians and the vocals (which are the focal point of the album itself) are for the most part pretty good.

In the end, Is There Anybody Out There? is a nice live set that really shows the last shows of the four piece Pink Floyd were a spectacular gala of sight and sound (more emphasis on sight, though). If you're a fan of live albums and really loved The Wall, then this album is for you. If you didn't like the Wall in the first place, this won't convert you to like it. I still think, though, that this live album is a better representation of what The Wall was than what the studio album did. But that's just a matter of opinion. 4/5.