Roger Waters

Rarely does one find a nugget of truth in reality TV — let alone in I Love the '80s. "If you never got high and watched The Wall, you were never a teenager," lectured one of the show's pudgy, ponytailed commentators when the Pink Floyd album came up on the VH1 show. But for a specific generation, The Wall — on film or on vinyl — really is a vividly memorable piece of pop culture. ("Comfortably Numb"? Pulling on a bong in the back of your friend's mom's station wagon. "Mother"? Your awkward, toothy first kiss.) Roger Waters has taken his rock opera back on the road at a full paranoid gallop. This isn't the first time Waters has resurrected a Pink Floyd masterpiece: 2006 found Waters on tour playing the sprawling Dark Side of the Moon. The Wall is a much more troubled, bombastic narrative, and the stage show is fraught with just as much delusion and neurosis as the album itself. The imagery has been updated with a geopolitical twist, but Waters' rendition treats The Wall like a sacred text in its faithful interpretation. Besides, little else needs changing: Waters' Big Brother visions are just as chilling — and apt — as ever.
Tue., May 1, 8 p.m., 2012
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Elke Mermis
Contact: Elke Mermis