Friday, August 2, 2013

"The Wall" Live in Athens. Review & Footage.





I watched "The Wall Live" before two years, and a couple of days ago as well.
The first time the event was held at a closed basketball stadium with a capacity of almost 15.000, and two days ago at the Olympic Stadium, with a capacity of almost 70.000 people. The first time all 3 concerts days were sold out weeks before the event. This time there about 35-40.000 people gathered, and that was kind of frustrating.
 The concerts were almost similar in everything. Same scene set-up, same special effects, same video projections on the wall etc. The only real difference was the size of the place. In this last concert because of the stadium's size, the wall was really huge reaching (I think) over 100 meters in length.
   The whole show lasted almost 2.5 hours (including a 20-minute intermission).
 The start of the show is particularly impressive, with many fireworks and an airplane that flies over the stadium and "crashes" on the stage.
First impression: The sound is unbelievable!
There will be sounds of airplanes, helicopters, machine guns etc during the concert, and I really can't describe the feeling you get from this special designed quadrophonic sound.
  At the start of the show, the wall is half-build, (as you can see in the picture above), leaving a big empty area in the middle for the band. During the first part of concert the wall is slowly slowly closing, and when it's the time for the intermission it is totally build. Throughout the show there will be hundreds of projections on the wall, that are showing the band from close,
parts from the movie, political messages, pictures etc...
The whole set up is really impressive I must admit!
  After the intermission the second part of the show starts, and the whole band is hidden behind the wall.
But that's only for a couple of songs, because later on they will appear for a while in front of the wall to perform a few songs, and then go back again. In some songs huge mechanical dolls that represents the familiar figures (from the movie) of the teacher, the mother & the wife will appear in front of the wall, giving another nice note to the concert.
 (The big surprise that Mr.Waters was holding for us was the fact that he decided to make a 5-minute speech to the audience completely in Greek! Yeap! It's rather known that Roger Waters has some special bonds with Greece the last 30-40 years, but even knowing that, it was a real surprise to us)...
   And when the concert reaches its end, there is a huge explosion, followed by the destruction of the wall in front of the audience's eyes. The band reaches out, they play a last small song, Roger Waters presents the members of his band one by one, and they are leaving the stage...
   Concluding this post, I have to say that this show is a really expensive production, that everyone should watch it at least once! (Assuming of course that you are fond of Pink Floyd and their music).
   And then you will need a couple of days to "digest" what you show there, and surely you will think about it again and again in the following days...
Thank you Mr. Waters for a perfect show!
   Here are a couple of videos from this concert that will maybe help you to get a (very small) idea of what was happening in this concert.
     
     
                                         
                                           
  

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