I am off work. In the AM I went to the mall to get more cardboard boxes, a haircut, an international drivers licence, and more razor blades. The guy from the alarm company came around and checked the house’s alarm, which has been acting up. It seems OK now.
My house contents, and thereby my life, is being triaged: Throw away, put into storage or take along.
So much stuff, so many consumer goods, so many things bought to make us feel better, and all of it is landfill in the long run, if not now then in 20, 50, or 100 years time
The day was hot and muggy, pregnant with moisture but withholding rain. It is still over thirty centigrade.
Cape autumn is a little spring, when the heat and dry weather finally breaks in March or April. But I won’t be here to see that this time around.
In the evening, live in concert, Roger Waters, on the first date of the “In the Flesh” tour. I Noded this when I got back.
I’ve been looking forward to this concert for while, as it’s the closest that I’ll ever get to a Pink Floyd gig.
The venue was the Belville Velodrome. For those of you who don’t know Cape Town, this is a moderately sized stadium. They mostly filled it.
I had bought a good ticket early on for R330 ($33). Though these tickets had been recently sought for more than that, I had no interest in selling. I love Pink Floyd and own about two thirds of their albums.
I got there about 7pm. The hall was still filling up. This was definitely not a teenybopper scene. There were many greying or balding people wearing tie-dyed clothes. And some younger, and some more smartly dressed. Quite a mixed crowd, ages 18-80, but centred somewhere over 30, which I guess is me. I was conservatively dressed: blue jeans and black T-shirt.
I counted somewhere between seventeen and twenty guitars propped up on their racks on the stage while the roadies pottered about. I was near the front, only two people in front of me.
When the concert started, the spotlight came up on a sprightly Rodger Waters, singing in his understated voice and holding a bass guitar. It took me few seconds to remember that even though he’s the star of this show, he’s not going to play lead axe, he always was the bassist.
The show started off with fitting words
So you thought you might like to go to the show
To feel the warm thrill of confusion that space cadet glow
I got some bad news for you sunshine
Pink isn’t well, he stayed back at the hotel
And they sent us along as a surrogate band.
Which is true enough, there were eleven musicians total, and only Mr Waters from Pink Floyd. I passed on the souveneer T-Shirt (R130 is just a rip-off), and on the booklet (Too many people around the stall after the show), but it looks like the lineup was quite similar to the one that
bozon describes.
The sound was good but not overly loud - i was happy without my usuall earplugs. I recall when the prodigy played that venue a few years ago, they were deafening even with plugs in.
The setup was simple - well-chosen visuals projected onto the white cloth behind the band, and a whole lot of great musicianship.
I’m quite glad that I decided to forgo the psychedelics. Tripping in a large crushing crowd is IMHO not a good idea.
The first half of the set started with songs from The Wall, followed by a run-through of Wish you were here, and then some tracks off Animals.
Besides Waters, there were three axemen on stage, all of them excellent. The first lead was a guy called Snowy White, and they certainly did justice to David Gilmour’s licks between the three of them. Money was particularly well done.
After a 20-minute break, they were back. The second half opened with Set the controls for the heart of the sun, which made me very happy, as I had become resigned to them not playing any really early Floyd, after that, parts of Dark side of the moon, and on to Amused to death. Unfortunately, nothing from Radio Khaos or The Pros and con’s of hitchhiking.
All in all, for someone like me who knows lots of Pink Floyd, or likes fine blues-rock guitar playing, a really really wonderful experience.