| The above will search Ashland Daily Photo. |
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.
As promised, above is another photo of Built To Spill playing at the Historic Ashland Armory a couple nights ago.
Here is a video from that live performance of “Stop The Show” off “Perfect From Now On,” not the most accessible Built to Spill, but it’s the only one I had the camera running for.
A week ago I had never even heard of “Built to Spill”. A friend said they may be worth checking out at the Ashland Armory last night so I listened to them constantly for the past few days and became a quick fan.
The show was really good, and I’m paying the price for that goodness today. 😉 Tomorrow I’ll post another picture and a video. If you like Neil Young and/or The Flaming Lips then I highly recommend picking up Built to Spill’s latest CD, There Is No Enemy. I can’t get enough of it.
Another photo from last week’s Zepparella gig at the Ashland Armory…
The last Led Zeppelin show in the USA happened just a few miles from my home. It was one of those “Days on the Green” that Bill Graham did. Being only 8 years old at the time, I wasn’t there. However, I did read Hammer of the Gods between innings at A’s games held at the same location in 1985, and I owned their entire collection on CD before the 80s were over.
Seeing Zepparella twenty-something years later is the next best thing. Actually, Zepparella probably play the songs a bit tighter live, and they are easier on the eyes anyway. 😉
As mentioned a few days ago, last night I made good on my decision to see Zepparella at the Historic Ashland Armory. This place is much better than other venues in Southern Oregon. Compared to the Medford Armory, Main 1 Arts Center, and Rogue Theatre in Grants Pass (which is the worst) the Ashland Armory is in superior condition, has a better stage, better lighting, sound, etc. The size is also perfect. The Main 1 Arts Center is too small and the stage is too low. The Medford Armory is too big and hollow. All bands should come through the Ashland Armory instead of those other places.
Anyway, Zepparella were great. I had the best seat in the house, front row next to Zepparella’s lovely and talented guitarist, Gretchen Menn. The front row is great for the view, but the sound isn’t so excellent. I could hear her guitar and the drums well, but the bass and vocals were coming out of speakers to my sides or above me so my position didn’t allow for a good mix.
The green shows are gone until things warm up next year, but here are a couple more songs from Mitsuki Dazai.
The first is a curious version of “Sakura, Sakura.” First she sang the song without the koto. Unfortunately, my camera wasn’t running when she sang as she sounded great. Then she played the song you see below. This video has not been clipped and I didn’t miss any of the song. She performed the song, which usually clocks in at over 5 minutes, in just 40 seconds. I’m not sure why she didn’t do a fuller version.
This next song was really cool. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize it was more than 9 minutes in length. My SD card filled up after about 4 minutes. For the full version you’ll need to buy her CD. It’s really good.