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As mentioned yesterday, it was a good cloud day, offering great scenery for my six hour drive from Ashland, Oregon to Palo Alto, California. In Palo Alto I met up with a friend who I hadn’t seen in over 30 years.
Time to wrap up this series on Roger Waters performing The Wall Live last week. I can’t get the show out of my head even though a week has almost past, but I will put those of you who couldn’t care less out of your misery with today’s final post on the topic. Tomorrow we will be back to our regularly scheduled program.
I will end this with a video I took of “In The Flesh.” Notice the flying pig. Also take note of Roger pointing at me when he says “There’s one smoking a joint… and that one’s got spots!”. Speaking of pot, I haven’t seen so much weed at a concert since the 1980s. With the decriminalization of marijuana in California, (many people have cards and even those without are only charged with a misdemeanor for a first offense) there was no search upon entry and security didn’t seem to care that people were openly getting high all over the place.
Another interesting turn of events is that not only were cameras tolerated (as they usually are these days), but an announcement was made just prior to the show to turn off your flash while taking pictures.
And finally, speaking of the pre-show, the warm up songs were some old Neil Young tunes and John Lennon’s “Imagine”. Lennon was killed just a few hours shy of 30 years to when this performance of The Wall took place.
Today’s video is of the end of “The Happiest Days of Our Lives” (complete with helicopter beginning at 2:06) and the very beginning of one of Pink Floyd’s more famous tunes. You’ll get to see the appearance of the “schoolmaster” near the end. He was one of several puppets employed during the show. You can see another one in the “Mother” video.
The moment of today’s photo was during the first song of the evening, “In The Flesh?”. Roger Waters was making his first appearance through the fireworks.
And today’s video is of his last appearance before the intermission, “Goodbye Cruel World,” in which the final brick is placed in the wall.
Today’s photo is from “Waiting for the Worms.” During the second half of the show, the wall served as a giant movie screen, only much, much wider with the “Surrogate Band” performing on the audience side of the wall.
The video below is from “Is There Anybody Out There?” and features Dave Kilminster and G.E. Smith performing through a crack in the wall. The song before this (“Hey You”) was performed completely on the other side of the wall. If G.E. Smith looks familiar it may be because of his role on Saturday Night Live during the 80s and 90s.
The Wall was phenomenal. I’ll share a few pictures and videos over the next several days. The photos and video don’t do justice to the actual experience so you’ll have to use your imagination too. This was well beyond any typical concert experience. The Wall was like a play, movie, and concert wrapped into one. Actually, it was more than that too. Tough to explain…
We had seats in Row 14. The photo, above, is the view looking back from that row about a minute before the show began. Given the size of the wall, there wasn’t a seat in the house without a good view. I was imagining the wall to fill the stage. Actually, it was much bigger. The wall went through the seats too, filling the arena from one side completely to the other. Even with my camera on the widest angle, I could only capture less than half of it with any single shot as you will see.
Let’s kick things off with “Mother.” Roger performed a duet with himself. The projected self was from 30 years in the past.
I’m heading south tomorrow morning to see Roger Waters’ The Wall Live in San Jose. It will be my third Roger Waters show, each more amazing than I ever dream possible. Anyway, there won’t be any updates for a few days because of this road trip, but hopefully I’ll have some decent photos and video from The Wall to share soon.
Voodoo Doughnut wasn’t open when we arrived at 11 a.m. so we decided to come back after lunch. For lunch we went to Toshi’s Ramen, a more-or-less authentic Japanese Ramen shop in Eugene. Someday, shops like these may be everywhere. Currently, they are limited to just a handful, most in big cities like New York or Los Angeles. We felt fortunate to find one in Eugene.
Toshi’s was packed well before noon on the morning after Thanksgiving. Is it always like this? I don’t know.
Pictured above is my bowl of Miso Corn Nin-niku Ramen. It was my first time having real Japanese Ramen with corn or green beans. The pork was different than any I experienced in Japan, but it was still a good bowl. Here is the full ramen menu.
Another photo from our visit to the fairly new Voodoo Doughnut in Eugene…
The line was long (about 30 people), but there is plenty to look at while you wait, just like the Portland stores. We drove by later in the day, on our way to a friend’s house, while the Duck’s were playing football against Arizona nearby. I looked in and only two people were in line. So if you want to avoid the line, go in during a Duck’s game. 😉
I have been in Eugene, Oregon the past couple days for the Thanksgiving holiday. Voodoo Doughnut, of Portland, Oregon, now has a shop in Eugene too. We headed there for breakfast the day after Thanksgiving only to find them closed until noon. So we came back after lunch for dessert.