I was extremely fortunate to be invited by my new friend Barry Dennen to attend the Roger Waters concert at the Hollywood Bowl Sunday night. Barry’s friend Nettie happens to be married to Pink Floyd’s drummer Nick Mason and she gifted Barry with some sweet tickets right up front. I picked up Barry at his house in the hills behind the Bowl and we brought some snacks and a bottle of wine, which we carried in a plastic bottle to avoid detection.
The traffic was jammed outside the Hollywood Bowl and thankfully Nettie had provided valet parking for us. When we showed our valet pass to the traffic cops they stopped the other cars and let us proceed against traffic into the valet parking area. First class, huh?! The valets took our car and we walked down the hill into the VIP entrance. The security guard checked our bag and asked what was in the plastic bottle. Barry replied, “Grape juice.” “Enjoy your evening sir,” said the guard.
We made our way inside and an usher escorted us to our box seats in the front section of the Hollywood Bowl. The show had already started and the music and crowd were pumping. Pink Floyd has a dedicated following of enthusiastic fans who like to get stoned and listen to the band’s music and let me tell you the air at the Hollywood Bowl was clouded in pot smoke. Not only did I get a contact high from all the second-hand smoke, I may have developed a case of black lung.
Roger Waters played bass and guitar for Pink Floyd and became the major creative force behind the band's biggest 1970's hits. At Sunday’s sold out concert (his third and final night at the venue) Waters performed a mixture of songs, mostly Floyd classics and rarities, plus a beautiful and moving new song about his experience as a young man traveling in Lebanon when a kind Arab family took him in as their guest. The highlight of the evening was the performance of The Dark Side of the Moon, the group's 1973 monster hit that continues to be one of the top selling albums every year. Original Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason appeared on stage to join the band for Dark Side.
For the duration of the performance, there were stunning video projections -- abstract psychedelic images, pictures from space, animations and photo montages -- on a huge yet crystal-clear screen behind the band. Late Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett’s face appeared during a moving rendition of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”. Video cameras provided close up views of Waters and the other players on the Bowl's overhead video screens. It was cool to see close-ups of the guitar solos. The show also featured several explosions and bursts of flame reaching sky high behind the band and also above the band shell of the Hollywood Bowl. At the finale of Dark Side a huge crane above the band shell lifted high a smoking triangular prism with a beam of light diffracted into a rainbow, like the iconic Dark Side of the Moon album cover. Oh, and did I mention the fireworks at the end of the encore "Comfortably Numb"?
Yes, Mr. Waters likes to put on a show for his audience. The show was very political and topical throughout, with many references to war, dependence on oil, corporate greed, political corruption, racism, and pop culture. At one point in the middle of the show, a man dressed in a blood-stained butcher's smock and wielding a knife appeared from the wings of the stage holding the strings of a huge inflated balloon of a pink pig floating above him like some Macy’s Thanksgiving Day perversion. The pig was decorated with graffiti and political slogans such as "Impeach Bush". Surrounded by a strong security detail, the butcher paraded with his pig through the delighted Hollywood Bowl audience, from the expensive front box section where we sat, all the way up to the top bench seats. There were huge cheers and many flashes of camera phones during that part.
The sound design was also spectacular. The show was advertised as having "quadrophonic surround sound" and the surround effect created great moments of swirling keyboards and echoing sound effects. My favorite sound moment was during the Dark Side song "Brain Damage" with the line "the lunatic is on the grass" and the creepy, crazy laughter from the album came from behind us and bounced around the entire venue. Awesome!
Waters played bass guitar and led the band, switching a few times to acoustic guitar for some of the quieter numbers. He rarely spoke to the audience but sang well and did a great job of communicating his music through gestures and facial expressions, and he developed a rapport with the audience by making eye contact both personally and via the video cameras. He also spent a lot of time rocking with his bass guitar at the front corners of the stage in front of the amplifier stacks. It made for some classic rock moments during the band's longer jams.
As if the performance itself weren't enough, Barry's friend Nettie also provided us guest passes to the band's VIP party after the show! We made our way through the crowds leaving the theater (I passed by Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn looking for the party) and proceeded to the artist's entrance. A security guard escorted us through the gate and into the small VIP lounge where a crowd of friends and admirers were partying and congratulating the band. It was fun to laugh and mingle with some interesting and polite people, and quite of a few of them were famous.
Oscar-nominated actor Geoffrey Rush stood outside the entrance chatting with some blokes. Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason greeted us at the doorway and we spoke a few minutes with him. Comedian Gary Shandling shuffled nervously near the bar at the back of the room. I almost didn't recognize him -- he had a bad haircut and too much cosmetic surgery. I wasn't sure it was really him until I moved in front of him and heard him talking on the phone. Rosanna Arquette swam through the crowd looking for Nettie. About that time I got bumped from behind by a man who was affectionately playing with his pre-teen son -- it was Val Kilmer!
There were many Britons there and English accents filled the air. Barry and I talked a long time with the gorgeous and adorable Nettie Mason, who is tall and thin and resembles Elizabeth Hurley a bit. One of Nettie's best friends was also there and she had just been certified as a submarine pilot the day before. She was very attractive and definitely has a thing for younger men: "I like anything that's dangerous, darling." Schwing! We also spoke with a handsome director from Scotland named Guy and his lovely American girlfriend, who looks like a movie star but is instead a child psychologist. Everyone was so charming and polite.
Barry and I ate delicious hors d'ouevres and drank a couple glasses of hearty red wine. We had fun meeting a lot of different people and we congratulated the band members and the beautiful black backup singers for a wonderful performance. After seeing so many famous and beautiful faces, Barry commented, “If you sucked all the Botox out of this room, you could float a ship on it!”
Finally, Roger Waters arrived and the well-wishers surrounded him. I waited for a while until the crowd had subsided then made my move. He had just finished autographing someone's concert ticket when I touched the side of his left arm and told him how much I had enjoyed the concert and what a thrill it was to meet him. He smiled warmly, shook my hand, and thanked me. It was a fun moment.
Barry and I said our goodbyes and made our way outside to the parking lot. The crew were furiously dismantling the stage equipment and loading it into several big rig trucks. As we walked toward the valet parking to retrieve my car, an attractive young black man posing nearby called to me and asked if I enjoyed the show. He approached to talk with us and we shared our favorite moments from the performance (he and I were both impressed by the inclusion of "The Final Cut"). He seemed to recognize me and asked who I was and if I was a musician. I told him my name and gave him my guest pass so he could get into the party.
The car arrived and we made our way around the block to drop off Barry at his home. I made my way down the hills of Hollywood to my Melrose apartment. It was quite late and I had to teach in the morning. By the time I got home, the wine and the excitement of the evening really began to hit me and I felt quite drunk and sick. The hangover this morning was no fun at all -- but it was well worth it!
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