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06/21/2014 Entry: "Madison WI Camp Randall Stadium 7/3/94 Review!"

Date: Tue, 5 Jul 94 22:51 CDT
From: astanley@icicle.winternet.com (Adam Stanley)
Subject: ZZZ Madison WI Camp Randall Stadium 7/3/94 Review!
To: echoes@tcs.com

The Players:

Jim, a big RushFan(tm), who has hung around Adam too much in college and
picked up far to much Floyd trivia & knowledge. Owns DSoTM, TDB, and two
boots. Couldn't recognize Echoes if he heard it, but likes Crumbing Land
and Raving and Drooling. Didn't Acute Perception come out at about the same
time Critical Mass did?

Adam, co-winner DSOM-aholic contest 1994! Finally given up trying to have
the US, UK, and Japanese version of all the PF CDs. Trying to decide if he
wants to give up collecting radio shows (at Citibank's request). Has had
ECHOES on licence plates since before AMLOR and has a cat named Cymbaline.
Tries to educate the RushFan(tm) about everything Floydian.

J: Snuck in to stadium at 2 pm or so. Adam got pics of the stage. Unable to
sneak in for soundcheck. All we needed was a concessions pass, and we'd
have been in with cameras rolling for the soundcheck.

A: No problem getting past security. Made a big mistake not just staying
in the stadium until soundcheck. I'll try to scan in pictures when I get
them developed. Soundcheck was actually really really short. They did
the beginning of KT and then the whole thing and then the last minute of
AD.

Set One:

Astronomy Domine

J: Fantastic! Guilty confession: Not being the biggest Floyd fan, I
couldn't remember what this sounded like until I picked up the TIB single.
In retrospect, I wish they would have had the wiggly oil projection for
more songs. Nice to see Dave singing the high descending part (wheeeeeeee).
A: Fabulous! The five of them sounded so nice and tight I don't see why
they think more people on stage. I'm still not so sure about that AD to
LTF transition. The oils are great, much more psychedelic than the lasers!
I don't really understand how people could have thought that it was taped
or at least lip-synced.

Learning To Fly
J: Got a decent response from the crowd. Perhaps it was the first song they
recognized? Heck, most of the crown, when hearing AD thought "Hey! This
isn't on the new album, the Wwall, or Dark Side! What gives?" Also, could
someone please chain down Gary Wallis the percussion monkey. Do we need two
drummers? Why no Learning To Fly film from the last tour?
A: I have to admit that the first time I saw Gary Wallis was with The Power
Station (a horrible concert, but OMD opened, so I was happy). Tim Renwick is
slowly turning it into his song with his solo at the end. And I am surprized
that they are STILL putting the Young Lust riff in at the end.

What Do You Want From Me
J: Rain began. And didn't stop!
A: I wanted Dave to give me a raincoat!

On The Turning Away
A: Good response, but I think that it is time to retire it and add another
TDB song. The version in Ames, Dave sounded truly inspired, this one he
was just going through the motion. It's also neat to see how Dave goes
to the Bruce Springsteen school of band control to tell everyone that he's
finished soloing.

Take It Back
J: The hit single. Nice version, sounded like a different arrangement (new
age TIB?).
A: I really didn't notice a big difference, except that the beginning was
a lot longer (like OTTA on the ALMOR tour).

Great Day For Freedom
J: Groan. Looks like no Poles Apart. Damn.
A: Would have killed for Poles. Out of three shows I get GDFF twice. Yea!
Almost cleared the stadium as fast as Put It There at McCartney in '89.

Sorrow
J: A real good showcase for dave to go braaaww with his guitar. For fun,
try counting how many songs have the brrraaawww sound starting the guitar
solo. It's fun!
A: I'm a big brrraaaawww fan! Sorrow just keeps getting better and better.
Why does Guy have to jump during the end though! Definately one of the
highlights of the whole show (Sorrow, not Guy jumping.) Brrraaawwww!

Keep Talking
J: Second hit single of the night!
A: The quad sound was pretty cool where we were sitting, but it was funnier
to hear Stephen Hawking before soundcheck with no other music.

One Of These Days
J: Now I'm biased here. When I hear one member of a band play a really neat
part, I expect the others to follow suit (is it obvious that Rush is my
fave band?). It could have used a Les Claypool bass solo though. Pretty
good version, though I liked the one big pig version better. (Check out the
Here Comes The Pig ROIO that Adam has for a good version) Since it was
Madison, shouldn't they have been cows or badgers?
A: I thought that the pigs were too evil looking. I also would have liked
it they wandered around a bit. My big question is: Why does everyone who
isn't playing anything (including Dave) have to leave the stage? Liability?
Also, did the pigs get tossed out at all of the shows? At Ames they stayed
in their pens. About the Here Comes The Pig ROIO/VOIO, when Jim and I saw
PF in Cedar Falls in '88 a guy next to us was videoing the whole show.
During OOTD, his friend says "Here comes the pig" and it really stood out!
So naturally then the shot shifts to the pig. What directing!

Set Two:
J: You see, I like the old stuff live. OK, so its really the overplayed
DSOTM/Wall stuff. So sue me!
A: Those intermission keep getting shorter.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 1 - 5
A: I still don't get the video. I thought I saw Anjelica Houston in
one shot though.

Breathe
Time
Breathe Reprise
A: It's nice to get this instead of the On The Run/Time duo of the last
tour. For those of you left to see the show, here's something to watch for:
When Nick is done hitting the toms with his neon (hi!) sticks, Gary
(always picking up the slack) starts playing the main part of the song
while Nick gets back to his seat. Then Nick takes over and Gary goes
back to being a monkey. Kind of interesting to watch; pretty well done.
J: OK, "tolling of the iron bell" was nice, although it should have been
only once. You didn't have to lead it into High Hopes so obviously.
A: I agree! Too much bell too early and it was mixed too high.

High Hopes
J: Good. I think it fit in just fine here. Nice film.
A: I guessing that Dave thinks that HH is a keeper and thus put it into
the second set. Film is good. Who was it that saw them filming it in
Cambridge? Now that Roger's gone, Nick has to play gong.

Great Gig In The Sky
J: OK boys and girls, lets play the great gig game. Who sang their part the
best? Tonight's winner was contestant #2! Durga! Dugra! Durga!
A: Durga is the hands down Gig champion, but if Rachel Fury was on tour...

Wish You Were Here
A: I like the radio intro and Dave sitting down, but by this point of the
show I feel sorry for him because he really can't wander around too much.

Us And Them
A: Nick shines on this one! I'm not sure why, but his drumming really
stand out during Us And Them.

Money
J: This is my winner in the "What old sing should we get rid of?" contest.
We didn't really get any of the "Get up money children" reggae stuff.
Bummer.
A: I used to really look forward to Money. On the last tour it just kept
getting better and better and longer and longer, and this time, it's just
not happening. However, at least we don't have to watch Scott Page sliming
around Dave. No instead we get the backup singers aerobisizing around
Dick Parry (who doesn't really play that much: yet another reason to do
more new stuff in the first set). I STILL don't get this film either. Jim
could explain up to the UFO, then he got lost.

Another Brick In The Wall Part 2
J: Is the backup stuff rerecorded? The kids sounded different. I would have
liked to hear the phone ringing and Roger ranting (or at least Jon ranting).
A: I thought so too. (I also thought that the cash registers in Money
sounded off tempo). The hey teacher was neat to finally see. (At Ames
and MPLS I was on the floor and couldn't see it.) The intro is a definate
keeper, but they should jam a bit more at the end.

Comfortably Numb
J: Three keyboard players? Hey, don't they trust Rick or something? He's no
Tony Kaye, but just who the hell is? :)
A: I think Dave cut the solo short due to the rain. The mirror ball was
really cool in the rain (and at this point it was coming down in droves).
I liked the AAAHHH part with the lights blinding us again.

Encore:

Hey You
J: Nice to see that Jon Carin can do a reasonable Roger rant, but why was
he limited to only one song? Have him sing all the Roger stuff! It's just
not right to me to hear the lines in Run Like Hell passed around from
person to person like a hot potato.
A: I thought that he screamed too much. If they wanted to do a lot of
Wall stuff they should have put in Young Lust, which is actually co-written
by Dave. Interesting choice.

Run Like Hell
J: Yes, we got "Send you back to Madison in a cardboard box!"
A: Guy should not be allowed to sing, I'm mean yelling. We ran like hell back
to the car to get out of the rain. Didn't wait to see if Dave mentioned
anything about coming back next year. I started worrying on the way back
that perhaps they'd do an second encore of Rain In The Country, but then I
figured not.

Overall comments:
J: Too many people on stage. Toss the percussion monkey, and let Jon Carin
sing all the Roger stuff. Perhaps the backup singers should sing something
else besides OOOHHH and AAAHHH.
A: Always a good show. If I sound negative it's just because I'm bitter that
I didn't see them in '71, or at least see Echoes in '87. The rain was kind
of a neat effect. The sound was perfect throughout. I feel sorry for the
guy on alt.music.pink-floyd who was far (did he mention far) away from the
stage because the stadium was HUGE! Sadly no more shows for me on this leg.
I guess I'll just wait and see if they come back next year! Tapes anyone?

Jim "IvoryTower" Losby
JimCo Worldwide
jles@merle.acns.nwu.edu
ivorytower@aol.com
- --
Adam Stanley
astanley@winternet.com