Rush - 25 May 2011 (O2 Arena)

I was really looking forward for this gig since I've been listening to Rush since I was 15 or 16 and had since only seen them live through the Rush in Rio DVD. Rush has been on tour since 2010 with the Time Machine tour which features their 8^th studio album Moving Pictures. The gig kicked of with an amusing little video with some nice arrangements of The Spirit of Radio in various different musical genres. The band came on with great energy, just as expected, and the fans really went for it! I have to mention that for this gig I was not on the floor area of the arena but on Level 4 which is the highest point of the arena where the view on the crowd is amazing! For the first set of the show Rush went through a variety of songs from a selection of their albums as well as a couple of songs from their new album said to be released by the end of the year! The second set was all about Moving Pictures. With legendary songs like Tom Sawyer and YYZ it was an absolute delight to hear this album live! Following Moving Pictures, Neil Peart(Drums) showcased and re-affirmed that he is one of the best drummers out there with an amazing drum solo! Not only his is technically great, he also has a musicality within him that really makes him stand out from any other drummer on earth. Then came what is probably my favourite Rush song: 2112!!Naturally the whole 20 minutes song wasn't performed but we still got to witness Part I and Part II which is good enough to me! For the encore the band performed the brilliant La Villa Strangiato and Working Man which were just perfect to end the show! In general the show was great! Lots of lights, nice video effects and a few pyros were just what was needed. However I was slightly disappointed with the gig. The sound, up where I was, was not as good as it should had been. When Geddy Lee(Keys, Bass, Vocals) played keys and used the bass from the synth, it was just too loud and was covering the whole band and this unfortunately spoiled a few great songs such as Tom Sawyer. Also the ambience on the top floor was not very warm and I was expecting more sing-along parts but it just didn't happen. To conclude, yes I am slightly disappointed from the Rush gig but nevertheless it was a great show and I will give them another shot when they cross the Atlantic again!

Rush: 18.5/20

Sound: 4/5

Ambience: 4.5/5

Presentation: 5/5

Performance: 5/5

Posted by Nick

 

Roger Waters - 17 May 2011 (O2 Arena)

What an amazing gig! When I first saw Roger Waters, back in 2007, it was for the Dark Side of the Moon tour during the Paris gig, and back then I genuinely thought that: this gig is probably the best gig I have ever witnessed. Since then I've seen a hell lot of other gigs and there were some of them which matched that gig and some which didn't even come close to it. However this time was different. The show was absolutely amazing. Lights, sounds, performance, atmosphere were all perfect. In particular I loved the sound, which was surrounding the venue and you could hear all the voices, small sounds and sound effects coming from the back of your head to the front. Just amazing! As mentioned, when the tour was announced, the show followed the original format that was used for the original The Wall tour in 1980, but with today's technology, which consisted of a wall being built slowly, slowly between the audience and the band, while the band was going through the first part of the show. With some amazing songs such as Mother, where Roger sang along with a recording from the last UK performance of The Wall 29 years ago, and of course Another Brick in the Wall part 2 which, as you can imagine, was sang by the whole audience along with a choir of kids that came on stage for the song, part one was just full of energy and passion. Part two of the show started with an amazing display of video effects, projected on the completed wall, which mesmerized every single person present that night with the help of songs like Hey You and Bring the Boys Back Home. This, of course, led to Comfortably Numb which came on and just putted the whole audience into a trance during the solo which was perfectly executed by Dave Kilminster(Guitar). Eventually the wall came down with the use of the amazing video effects that the team had and really gave to every one of us an amazing trip of lights and sound. During Run Like Hell the wall was projecting words in the iFormat, that Apple uses with almost all of their products, along with great images to represent the world today and how everything has become, which I thought was great (see video below). In general the gig was just amazing and all of those who had the chance to witness one of the gigs (six London gigs in total) will probably remember it for a very long time!

Roger Waters: 20/20

Sound: 5/5

Ambience:5/5

Presentation: 5/5

Performance: 5/5

Posted by Nick