IN THE FLESH (DVD)

Roger Waters decided to tour in 2002 despite not having any new album or really any new material to play. Despite that, though, he toured with a colorful cast of musicians at his side and ultimately came out on top musically. As you would expect, most of his set contains classic Pink Floyd numbers spanning most eras of the group (natrually neglecting the albums he wasn't on). For this tour, he enlisted a cohesive and talented group of cohorts to help him trudge through the classic material as well as his own solo material (which is more or less hit and miss). Amongst the musicians chosen, two Floyd veterans were featured, one being Snowy White, who played guitar with Floyd during the Animals and Wall tours, and Jon Carin, who played with Floyd on A Momentary Lapse of Reason, the Division Bell, and the subsequent PULSE tour. All in all, Roger shows with this release that he doesn't need Gilmour, Mason, or Wright to pull off the classics in a most fitting and rewarding fashion.

Naturally, Waters plays mostly Pink Floyd songs on this video. In fact, fifteen of the twenty four songs on this video are Pink Floyd songs. On the set itself he goes about playing the songs together according to album. He opens with songs from The Wall. In the Flesh, Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2, and Mother are the songs played here. Now, the songs themselves are played brilliantly, but they also sound great as well. The audio on this video is stellar and you really get a nice warm sound from watching this. Next comes two shorter songs from The Final Cut, Get Your Filthy Hands off My Desert and Southampton Dock (both featuring Waters on acoustic guitar). Pretty faithful renditions and nothing to really write home about. Next comes two songs from Animals, Pigs on the Wing part 1 and Dogs. Dogs is a real treat to watch, because during the synthesizer/drum interlude. The rest of the band actually take off their instruments and sit at a table and play cards! Very humorous to watch indeed. The Wish You Were Here stuff is also really well done, with some great soloing from Snowy White during Shine On You Crazy Diamond, and a nice rearrangement of Welcome to the Machine to accomodate to all the instruments.

After that comes Set the Controls to the Heart of the Sun, which has a nice modulated solo from Snowy White and some creative saxophone work (I forget the sax players name at this moment in time, though). Next comes work from The Dark Side of the Moon, with some creative arrangements of Breath, Time, and Money. Pretty faithful to the studio renditions and nothing really out of the ordinary. After the Dark Side material finally comes some Waters solo material. He seems to have chosen the best songs from two of his solo albums, although only one song from The Pros of Cons of Hitchhiking appears and the rest is dominated by Amused to Death. The best of these are The Bravery of Being out of Range, which has the rockiest feel of any Waters song I've heard, and It's a Miracle, which has a great solo interlude from Snowy White. Brain Damage/Eclipse and Comfortably Numb end the regular portion of the concert, with Numb being of particular interest because of the dueling guitar solos between Brahmall and White. Each Small Candle ends the concert, it's a bit of a harrowing, melodic tune, that takes cues from quieter Waters pieces and is a bit of a rarity these days.

In the end, the In the Flesh tour musically is brilliant. Visually, there isn't much going on, though, especially when put into comparison with PULSE. Another complaint of mine is that Brahmall isn't the strongest of singers, and he appears to be the most arrogant member of the band, one can see when he plays the solos in Dogs and Comfortably Numb a little faster than they should be and he doesn't retain that emotion that Gilmour so had. Other than that, though, this is a great video that no fan of Floyd should go without. I should say , though, that I wouldn't recommend owning both the 2 CD version and this version of the concert because odds are you'll want to watch it more often. 4/5.