How do you follow one of the most successful rock and roll tours in recent memory? If you’re Roger Waters, you modify the support lineup with new players, enhance the set list with new material, and push the visuals and props into overdrive. That’s exactly what happened with the 2017-18 Us + Them tour. Inspired by the overwhelming reception to The Wall shows he brought to the masses around the world for three years (2010 – 2013), Waters issued Is This The Life We Really Want? in 2017 (his first solo album of all new original music in 25 years), and put a multimedia production together to dazzle the senses — a given whenever anyone from Pink Floyd goes out on the road. As with The Wall tour, shows from the run were filmed, ancillary footage was created to bridge the gaps, and Waters and director Sean Evans put together a movie called Us + Them. After a brief theatrical run in 2019, it’s become available on DVD, Blu-ray Disc and digitally.
Anything Roger Waters does reflects minute attention to detail and design. It’s always big, theatrical, political, graphic, technical, raw and refined at the same time. From the opening shot, the cinematic essence of Us + Them is what sets it apart from your garden-variety, run-of-the-mill concert film. For anyone lucky enough to catch one of these shows (I was when they came to Los Angeles, thanks to Ron Lyon), the atmosphere was thick with a very ritualized and reverent air — as if something extraordinary was going to happen. The sweeping vistas of the audience in Us + Them reveal a crowd mesmerized by every note, be it a Pink Floyd favorite or something from Is This The Life We Really Want? Anyone waiting for a song from any of Waters’ other three solo albums was out of luck. How astounding it is to see so many younger fans, captivated by the roar of the music as they sing each and every lyric Waters has penned.
For this particular show — shot in Amsterdam — Waters is unshaven and somewhat disheveled, relishing in the role of band leader and lead singer. Thirty minutes of Pink Floyd music and imagery fill the first portion of the film. It’s mostly songs from The Dark Side of The Moon, highlighted by singers (and occasional floor tom players) Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, mirroring each other in appearance and movement, and infusing their unique singing styles into the main artery of “The Great Gig In The Sky.”
Waters becomes more of a social commentator for the string of numbers from Is This The Life We Really Want? while video with loose story-lines support the execution of “Déjà Vu,” “The Last Refugee” and “Picture This.” Guitarist Jonathan Wilson takes the lead vocals on “Breathe,” “Dogs,” and “Money,” songs originally sang by David Gilmour. All the while, Waters happily roams the stage, singing along off mic, reminding everyone he was the main wordsmith during Pink Floyd’s heyday. On “Another Brick In The Wall,” humanity shines through when Waters gets all warm and cuddly with kids wearing RESIST T-shirts, dancing and chanting the song’s infamous chorus — “All in all it’s just another…brick in the wall.” There’s even a snippet of Roger Waters holding a puppy!
All bets are off when we get to the Animals portion of the show. A virtual replica of the Battersea Power Station, taken from the 1977 album’s cover art, falls from the rafters, dividing the floor in half. Smoke stacks rise around a levitating pink pig as the power station comes to life. After a dramatic reading of “Dogs,” the whole band brandishes pig masks and sips champagne. A masked Waters holds up two different signs: one says “Pigs Rule The World,” and the other, “Fuck Pigs.” From there, it’s right into “Pigs” where Donald Trump becomes a target, a “charade,” “een varken” (“pig” in Dutch), whom Waters encourages the audience to flip off while a large, black inflatable pig covered in graffiti floats overhead. It’s no secret Roger Waters isn’t afraid of working in his views and ideals into the program, and here it is without reservation.
Us + Them winds down with the second side of The Dark Side of The Moon. “Brain Damage” and “Eclipse” soar as a laser-made pyramid settles over the audience. A rainbow of lights and a silver ball showers the interior of the concert venue as Waters and his band blast through the climatic dénouement. The DVD and Blu-ray include bonus clips, including a short documentary called Fleeting Glimpse, plus additional performances of the classic “Comfortably Numb” and “Smell The Roses” from Is This The Life We Really Want?. No matter how you spin it, Us + Them captures everything you love and hate about Roger Waters. Maybe in this day and age, a good slap of mixed media and harsh reality is something we could all use.
~ Shawn Perry
