This is an elaborate review of my trip to Roger Waters' brilliant concert in the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto
on August 1st. I'm just a 21 year old student and I came all the way from Belgium on my own for a week to the
Toronto area just to see Roger (and some other things), even though I had never before even flown in an aeoplane,
let alone left the European continent. You may think this sounds crazy and you're right, but if you see where I'm
coming from, you'll understand why I did this.

This all started during the summer of last year when I battled Hodgkin's Disease, a Cancer of the lymphatic system.
At that time I made a promise to myself that when I'd recover I'd start to enjoy life more and take any opportunity
that would come my way, no matter how hard it would be practically to realise that opportunity.

So when Roger Waters announced a tour for this summer it was like a dream come true and I immediately tried to get
a ticket for one of the shows through Ticketmaster Online. At first, all these attempts failed because apparently
my internet provider didn't have the right software to make an order on the form of Ticketmaster. Afterwards that
was my big luck, because I tried to get a ticket for the show in Syracuse, which was cancelled and rescheduled 2
weeks later in Albany. If I had booked my one-week trip there I would have certainly missed that show.

After that I tried the Canadian Ticketmaster Online and there I didn't have any trouble ordering the ticket for the
Toronto show. I then booked a trip to Toronto. Unfortunately I had to stay in a business hotel in Mississauga for
the first 3 days of my trip, and on the day of the concert I moved to a hotel in Downtown Toronto. After that I had
a great stay in this beautiful city, seeing all the major attractions of the city, including the CN Tower and the
Skydome and even a trip to Niagara Falls.

But I digress. On the day of the concert I was extremely nervous: I bumped my head at least 3 times and my leg 2
times! But eventually I got to Ontario Place, the family amusement park in which the Molson Amphitheatre is located.
As I was walking across its parking lot I saw the Molson Amphitheatre and suddenly I became very emotional: all the
memories of my struggle against cancer, the 3 months of chemotherapy and 4 weeks of radiation therapy, came back to
me. But I had survived all that and now I couldn't believe I was here, on the other side of the world just to see
one of my idols perform live! This was so amazing!

It was about 6:30 when I picked up my ticket at the box office and there I chatted for a short while with an
Austrian who also had flown in from Europe, but he also went to see the shows in Quebec and Montreal, which were
fantastic, according to him. He also had a videocamera with him, so it's possible that he taped the show, but I
lost track of him before I could ask it. When I got in I wanted to get as close as possible to the stage, hoping to
hear parts of the soundcheck. I was succesfull in doing so and heard at least part of it. Unfortunately I couldn't
hear it all that well, because a nearby bar was playing 'The Wall' on their PA system. How's that for irony? I'm
not sure how much of it I heard, but I did hear:

-'In The Flesh' played about halfway through the song 
-A jam which included 'Syd's Theme' from SOYCD 
-A song sung by Doyle Bramhall thatI didn't recognize, probably one of his own songs 
-The clocks from 'Time' without any follow-up music.
-And probably some other stuff I didn't immediately recognize

I don't know if they played songs like 'Let There Be More Light' and 'Pigs (3DO)' like it has been said in some
reports, but when I listened to it I surely didn't recognize any other Floydian Tunes. But then again I couldn't
hear it al that well, because of the music in that nearby restaurant.

After the soundcheck I strolled a bit on the grounds of Ontario Place, waiting for the gates to open. It was nice
to see so many Floyd fans, I even saw someone wearing a KAOS tour T-shirt!

At about 7:00 PM the gates opened (showtime: 8:30 PM) and I immediately bought a LOT of merchandise for myself
and friends and family in Europe who were less fortunate than me and had to stay behind. I then went to my seat
and was a bit disappointed to see it was so far away from the stage, about 30-40 metres (90- 120 feet). I did know
that my seats in section 407 wouldn't be very close to the stage, but I didn't expect them to be so distant. I
wanted to kick myself in the face for not taking the tickets the guy I met in the train offered me: they were in
section 202, about 10-15 metres (30-50 feet) from center stage AND underneath the covered section of the
amphitheatre. But I didn't want to spend the extra cash, which -in retrospect- was a mistake.

As I was waiting for the start the PA was playing several classic rock tunes and the crowd was very slowly starting
to take their places. At about 7:45 Jim Ladd's voice could be heard saying: "Roger Waters: In The Flesh" which
caused the first cheers of the night. I was starting to get a bit worried whe most seats in my section were still
empty 15' before showtime. I feared that I would miss the first minutes of the show, because of those latecomers.
But fortunately almost everyone was in their seats on time. Another thing that had me worried before the show were
the six 'fans' 2 rows in front of me: they had no Floyd or Roger shirts on and were drinking some big beers. I
was sure that they were just here for the atmosphere and that they would spoil my evening by shouting and screaming.
Fortunately I was wrong about them: they behaved themselves, like almost everyone in the crowd, for almost the
entire show. One other thing about them: I smelled them smoking something of which I was almost certain that it was
more powerful than tobacco. My suspicions about this were confirmed when they waved their arms and pointed at
themselves when Roger was singing: "There's one smoking a joint" during ITF. That was one of the funniest moments
of the evening, mostly because I expected them to do it.

A few minutes after 8:30 the band came onstage and everyone started cheering. I have to say that this was a
wonderful crowd for most of the show, a few exceptions notwithstanding. They were always very enthusiastic when
they cheered and no one ever cheered at an inappropiate time. Must be that Canadian upbringing: very polite J.
Roger climbed on the elevated stage behind the band and waved to us, which made us extatic. He then went to the
microphone: "Eins, zwei, drei, Alle!" and we were off for a great show. Roger's voice sounded great throughout the
show, especially when you consider that he 56 years old. It certainly sounded better than his performance in
Sevilla in 1991.

Before I discuss the performance, I'd like to say that I was a bit disappointed with the sound. I didn't have the
impression that it was a quad sound from where I was sitting. I didn't see any speakers in the back behind the lawn
section, only those on the stage and on the top of the roof  of the covered section (which was spanning about 20
metres away from the stage), both some pointing inward towards the covered section and some pointed to the rest
of the seats and the lawn section. It's quite possible that the people in the covered section had perfect quad
sound, but the rest of the crowd beyond that apparently didn't have that privilege. IMHO this was a major mistake
of the sound equipment team and it's unfortunate that two thirds of the crowd had to be left out in the (relative)
cold. That being said, the sound wasn't all that bad, even still better than your average rock concert; I just had
expected it even better.

I'll just make some observations about what struck me the most about the show:

-"IN THE FLESH" is a nice opener, but it's not as great as "SOYCD", like I saw in 1994 with the "other" Floyd.
SOYCD immediately drew you into the magic that is a Floydian concert, here it took a while before that magic
seeped in. I was also disappointed that I could in fact see almost nothing on the distant stage. Fortunately there
were some nice close-up video images shown on the large monitors hanging from the roof of the covered section. On
those monitors we could see that Roger was clearly enjoying himself.

-When I first heard Doyle Bramhall sing during "THE THIN ICE" I was reassured that Roger had found someone who
could perfectly take care of Gilmour's vocals and he later also confirmed his capabilities on the guitar. IMHO
there aren't that many guys who could have pulled off this task so well: he played and sang everything close
enough to the original in order to keep the magic of the songs without sounding like a Gilmour clone.

-I already knew the setlist and I was really curious how they would make the segue between "ANOTHER BRICK IN THE
WALL (PART 1)" & "MOTHER", so imagine my surprise when I heard Roger shouting: "You! Yes, you! Stand still,
laddie!" and "THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF OUR LIVES"  & "ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL (PART 2)" were performed (with an
extra chorus after the 2 solos). Still, very nice. Those 3 songs should always be played as a whole, IMHO.

-It was very nice to see Roger with an acoustic guitar during "MOTHER", "GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF MY DESERT"
& "SOUTHAMPTON DOCK" (which had the explosion from the intro on the album played nice and loud here and sounded
just like on the KAOS tour) and "PIGS ON THE WING (PART 1)"

-During "SOUTHAMPTON DOCK" they showed a very nice picture of The Wall live in Berlin, with "Bring The Boys Back
Home" written on the entire stage wall. I always thought that was one of the best effects of that show and it
was nice to see it here once again. In fact, almost all the images during the show were a reference to Roger's
past, with or without the Floyd. That showed how well thought out the great, albeit not spectaculair, light show
was.

-The first absolute highlight of the show was, of course, "DOGS". Everything was right about this song: Jon Carin's
vocals, Roger's vocals (of course), the synth middle part and the guitar solos, especially the one that gets
played twice during the song, the 2nd time right before the final verse ("Who was..."); and that last verse
absolutely ROCKED! The images during it showed once again the intelligence of the light show : during the synth
middle part animations were shown of the inflatable family that was lifted in the air during the performances of
Dogs on the Animals Tour in 1977, another excellent reference to Roger's past.

-I was a bit disappointed with the version of "WELCOME TO THE MACHINE": it lacked a bit of energy it had on other
tours. Furthermore it's also a pity that only motionless slides of the original animation were shown. It would have
been sooo much better if they showed the real thing.

-"WISH YOU WERE HERE" started out just like on the album, with the transistor radio followed by the soft guitar
notes. I was a bit surprised to see that it was Bramhall playing the rhythm part on his electric guitar, instead
of an acoustic one. For the rest this version just sounded like the one on the KAOS tour, with the fortunate
omission of the abysmal sax solo. The song ended with a bizarre picture of Syd Barrett on the screen, which was
also shown frequently during the next song, "SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND".

-"SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND" was a very good version here, although it did miss the presence of a Mr. Gimour on
guitar. A psychedelic slideshow like the one for Astronomy Dominé in 1994 was shown during Parts 1 & 2. The
transition between part 4 (vocals) and part 6 should have been a lot more smooth and the sax solo wasmissed here,
but it was redeemed with a very tight and uptempo version of part 6: those synth and steel lap guitar solos sounded
almost twice as fast as on the album, yet for some reason that didn't sound wrong at all. After the last verse
Bramhall and the girl singers kept singing "Shine, shine,..." before part 1 was reprised while a diamond shaped
mirror ball was raised from behind the stage. A very nice ending to a great version of this classic. Roger then
announced they would take a break (I guess...In between songs the crowd cheered so loud it was almost impossible to
hear these announcements or the transitions between songs).

The DSOTM songs after the break were quite good, but not really that special. I guess I've heard them too often
for them still to be special. It struck me how little they differed from the performances of Pink Floyd(1987). 

-Once again Bramhall did an excellent job replacing Gilmour, especially on the vocals. "BREATHE" was a fine example
of this.

-Graham Broad also did a great job with the drum solo on the intro of "TIME". It was very weird to hear Roger sing
the verses while Bramhall did the bridge.

-I thought the short "GREAT TEASER IN THE SKY" was quite pointless. Nothing prevented them from doing the entire
song and I had certainly hoped for it, since I knew ABitW was now performed in the first half.

-'MONEY' was obviously an obligatory song, but I still liked it, especially because all 3 guitarist were given one
part of the 3-part guitar solo in the middle to do their own thing with it.

The most interesting part of the show was,IMHO, the solo songs:

-"EVERY STRANGERS EYES"' started with a very loud sound effect of a truck starting and leaving and the voice of
Cherry Vanilla. This was a great version, just like it was supposed to sound. I was amazed and so glad that Roger
perfectly hit the high notes during the pinnacle of this song. Of course, at that time I didn't know about the
lip-synching deal, but even that doesn't take away the fact that this was an excellent version of an excellent
song.

- I was a bit surprised that "THE POWERS THAT BE" didn't immediately start after Jim Ladd announced it, like on the
album. ButI was even more surprised with the quality of this version of it. It was amazing how powerful this song
was and how much it rocked. I guess you can compare it a bit with the way Gilmour rearranged 'Run Like Hell' to
sound more ass-kicking for his tour in 1984 and the subsequent ones with the Floyd.

-"WHAT GOD WANTS" was a good version, but not that special. Snowy did a great job trying to emulate Jeff Beck's
solos, but naturally he fell a bit short, although he brought his own style to them. Nevertheless, the only one
who can do such solos is Beck himself. The image on the screen was beautiful: on the left the eyeball in the TV
screen and on the right a gorilla seated in a comfy chair on a background of stars. IMNSHO, this is the way the
cover of ATD should have looked like. The background and the image on the TV changed in the same way, perhaps
trying to say that nowadays TV is sometimes nothing more than moving wallpaper.

-Next was the absolute highlight of the show: "PERFECT SENSE PARTS 1 & 2". When it started with the monologue of
HAL from "2001" I immediately thought: "Wow, this sounds so RIGHT" Now I can see why Roger was so pissed that he
couldn't use the monologue on the album. Until then I always thought that it was an OK song, nothing more, but
since this show it's become one of my absolute favourites! The rest of part 1 was also excellent, especially PP
Arnold's vocal, which almost got a standing ovation from the crowd. But that didn't happen until part 2: Roger got
everybody on their feet for the Global Anthem, but unfortunately most of them didn't know the actual words. Still,
we were very enthousiastic and we almost couldn't even hear the song itself. The atmosphere was glorious! The
images here were also great: during part 1 the bone on a background of stars, which faded into the shape of a
submarine; and during part 2 the picture as seen from the periscope of a submarine which slowly gets an oil rig in
its cross-hairs.

-After that "IT'S A MIRACLE" & "AMUSED TO DEATH" were almost anti-climaxes, great as they were. But they didn't
add that much extra to the album versions. It was nice to see Roger walk around and shaking hands with the first
row during the last verse of "IT'S A MIRACLE", though. And Snowy almost perfectly emulated Jeff Beck's blistering
solo at the end of this song. Also nice were the pictures of models during "AMUSED TO DEATH" ("And the children
on Melrose strutt their stuff"...)

-After this there was only relatively mild applause, probably because most people couldn't keep their attention
during the long outro featuring the monologue of Alf Razzel. Roger the introduced his band, who got relative small
applause, except for Doyle Bramhall and Jon Carin.

-During the encore "BRAIN DAMAGE" Roger got everyone on their feet for the end synth solo by waving with his hands
like a preacher, but strange enough, when you'd think they'd remain standing for the rest of the song, everybody
sat down again during "ECLIPSE" only to rise back to their feet at the climax of that song. Crazy Canadians ;-)

-After the normal thank yous and goodbyes the band started to leave, but just when Roger was about to leave a young
fan jumped onstage and went to shake Roger's hand; Roger looked back to him surprised and shook his hand before
security dragged the cheering fan away, while Roger calmly went further to the exit. I thought it was very classy
of Roger the way he calmly handled this incident: he didn't even spit J. But I hope the responsable person of
security was heavily reprimanded, because even though this was just a funny incident, it could also just as well
have been the next Mark Chapman.

-After that we cheered for a couple of minutes wanting (and expecting) them to come back, while the house lights
went on. Of course they came back to do "COMFORTABLY NUMB", which became a very special version, because Roger
fucked up his lyrics in the first verse. He sang the last line a couple of lines too soon, which caused a short
empty spot in the song, but then he noticed his mistake, said something I couldn't understand, but it was obvious
he could laugh about it(according to other reports he said something like "Oh, fuck it! You all know the words").
What a difference with the stories we've heard about Roger the controlfreak from 10-20 years ago. The rest of the
song was great and went very smoothly. Aurally that is, not visually. Because the guys controlling the spotlights
fucked up when both Snowy & Doyle were on the elevated stage doing their thing: Snowy had just finished a solo and
Doyle was now playing one, but the spotlight remained on Snowy, even though he motioned they should point it to
Doyle. All this made it a fantastic and funny version and a great ending to a brilliant show.

Overall, it was a marvellous experience, both the trip and the show itself. Thank you Roger, for making this the
best summer of my life, only 1 year after the worst summer of my life.

Philippe Van Roy