Roger Waters Revives Pink Floyd Once Again

There's no question as to who the genius (after Syd Barrett) behind Pink Floyd is. Without Roger Waters there'd be no Wall, no Wish You Were Here, and a whole generation of mushroom ingesting hippies would have never discovered the power of hallucinogens. As a performer, however, Rogers is slightly above average. The guy's just a bass player, which, unless you're Les Claypool, is a pretty boring instrument to play for three hours.

To supplement the fact that this musical savant has nothing to add to a live show, Waters came to the Air Canada Centre equipped with a giant TV, a floating pig, a helium filled astronaut, bubbles and confetti, all of which combined to turn the show into a giant party. Predictably, the invitees to this soiree were baby boomers, their 15-year-old kids who came dressed in their best Pink Floyd garb, and a lot, and I do mean a lot, of guys.

Fortunately, Waters put together a great show. The first of two sets was varied. Songs from The Wall, Wish You Were Here, A Saucerful Of Secrets, The Final Cut and Animals kept the first half of the night engaging, while the visuals, which included pyrotechnics, were rarely cheesy. (A Syd Barrett photo montage during "Shine On You Crazy Diamonds" was especially welcome.)

The slow spot in the set came at the midway point, when Rogers played Dark Side Of The Moon. Perhaps because of its ubiquity, or the fact that Waters refused to sing David Gilmour's parts — "Money" was sung by a guy in his band — Dark Side felt incredibly slow and tired. Luckily, the show ended on high note with "Another Brick In The Wall," "Vera" and "Comfortably Numb."

While it's hard to complain about Waters' set list (except for the way-too-earnest solo song "Leaving Beirut," which is about George W. Bush's attacks on the Arab world) you couldn't help but miss Gilmour's presence. Sure, two guitarists played Gilmour's parts note for note, but it's less than exciting to watch no-name axemen recreate the legendary instrumentalist's parts. And Pink Floyd liked to jam, so almost half the set consisted of these guys soloing while Waters wandered around the stage in the dark playing his bass.

But, it's easy to make excuses for these old guys, especially when it comes to Pink Floyd. Watching the creator of some of the 20th century's most important music play his hits live is pretty damn good.