By Joe Cascio:
Roger Waters and his band charged into Buffalo and the First Niagara Center Thursday night to perform “The Wall” one more time for their fans here. The wildly successful world tour made its second stop here to another sold out crowd in downtown. Fans of Pink Floyd and Waters’ solo career were treated to a rare second appearance of the tour and once again were not disappointed.
One of the highlights on all these stops has been the inclusion of a small group of kids who dance and perform during “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2”, for the second time kids from the African American Cultural Center on Masten Ave. The kids showed up for the sound check at 5pm got 30 minutes worth of instruction and then were on stage in front of 16,000, dancing away shortly thereafter. Roger thanked them multiple times as did the crowd with a roaring cheer and rounds of applause. This is also the second time kids from the center helped with this part of the show. Director Anges Bains told me all the kids were very excited to participate.
The show itself remains one of the greatest theatrical experiences I’ve experienced over my 36 years of seeing live shows. The hits rolled off one by one as the memories came flooding back all over again. I’m not going to dissect the inner workings of the music and the performance here other than to say that I think everyone who attended the show enjoyed it immensely as you could tell by the loudest round of applause and cheering I have ever heard, anywhere, at the end of the show – it was truly amazing.
Were you there?