Roger Waters: Anything but comfortably numb BEVAN HURLEY Last updated 09:28, January 25 2018 
GETTY Lorde, if you're listening, Roger Waters really, really wants to catch up.
REVIEW: Lorde, if you're listening, Roger Waters really, really wants to catch up.
The irascible master of theatrical rock had just left Spark Arena spellbound with an overwhelming, four dimensional cinematic display - accompanied by one of music's great back catalogues.
After an overtly political show, Waters promised not to make any long rambling statements.
GETTY "What a better world this would be with out nuclear weapons," he says.
But he couldn't resist a shout out to a 'very special young lady' - and let slip he'd been trying unsuccessfully to get in touch.
"I can't let this chance go by without a hat tip to one of your musicians... who stood up for... the Palestinian people," he says.
"I'm really proud of her and if anyone knows her tell her to come to one of the gigs. You're a strong brave woman and I admire you."
It was almost 30 years ago to the day that Pink Floyd played to 80 - or maybe even 90 - thousand people at Western Springs, depending on who you believe.
Waters wasn't there that day due to a legal spat with the other band members - but on Wednesday night he brought all of Floyd's bombast to an all-seated Spark Arena.
The evening begins with a 20 minute, meditative piece of music set against the backdrop of a woman with her back turned, sitting at the beach.
Once Waters and his band take the stage, they launch into a battery of Floyd classics, including Time, The Great Gig in the Sky, and Welcome to the Machine.
The familiar thud of Waters' bass sets the tone for a few long instrumental jams around new tracks such as Deja Vu and Picture That, where he implores listeners to "picture prosthetics in Afghanistan".
The 74-year-old activist's anger with the state of the world is obvious.
Waters has stated he doesn't listen to other people's music, and it shows in the lyrical and melodic styling of his new tracks, which heavily reference earlier Floyd work.
But it's the classics that everyone has come to listen to, and Waters doesn't disappoint, launching into Wish You Were Here - sung by his 'Gilmour' Jonathan Wilson.
As the familiar guitar riff of Another Brick in the Wall begins, a troupe of small hooded figures in orange jumpsuits traipse on stage.
The Guantanamo eleven rip off their hoods to reveal the bodies of young children wearing T shirts with the word 'Resist' - a common theme for the evening.
After a 20 minute intermission - who else but Waters would have one of those? - we return to find London's Battersea Power Station arising from the middle of the arena as giant screens bisect the crowd.
With most of the crowd cut off, and only part of the band and stage visible, there's not much you can do but sit back and enjoy this extraordinary visual art installation.
Then things get really interesting. Suddenly Donald Trump is everywhere. There's his face on a pig, as a white supremacist, and in an increasingly grotesque series of images. It becomes clear this is a deeply personal vendetta for Waters.
The band don pig masks of their own and clink champagne flutes.
And soon enough, of course, an enormous flying pig emerges.
"God bless German engineering," Waters says of his giant inflatables, "not that there is a God".
The stage show keeps evolving throughout, the giant screens withdrawn to reveal cathedrals of light for an epic finale of some of Floyd's best-known tunes.
"This is the start of a long summer for us," Waters says, before listing all of the destinations his seemingly endless Us+ Them Tour would reach before he'd see another winter.
His feelings for Lorde aside, the Waters clearly still loves the adulation, and seems to have a genuine affection for New Zealand and its anti-nuclear stance. "What a better world this would be with out nuclear weapons," he says.
The messaging at times might at times seem a little heavy handed but when you're the ex-co-front man of Pink Floyd there are plenty of converted to preach to.
And when it's over, all in all you're left anything but comfortably numb.
* Roger Waters plays a second show at Auckland's Spark Arena on January 26 and then in Dunedin on January 30.
- Stuff
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/m ... tably-numb
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