Capacity: 15,300
Concert starts: 8pm

Address of venue: 175 Kellogg Blvd W, St Paul, MN 55102. MAP

Website: www.xcelenergycenter.com

COMMENTS

Roger's tour of The Wall gets into its stride, well over a month into its 2010 run. Roger last played in this venue in 2007, returning here with his 1979 epic. Our thanks to Tariq for the ticket scan to the right.

Kids from the Neighborhood House on St. Paul's West Side - aged 7 to 16 - will be joining Roger Waters onstage at Xcel Energy Center to join Roger Waters in dancing and singing to ABITW Pt 2. On each stop of Waters' "The Wall" tour, he recruits youngsters from an inner-city nonprofit program to join him for the signature song. The program gets a donation from Waters.

Waters sent a video of what the kids will be performing. It shows a rehearsal with him leading a group of youngsters through the program. "Watch Waters; he's going to show you everything you need to know," Neighborhoood House's Guertin urged as he played the video for his troupe at a practice session last week. When that request was met with blank stares, he amended the directive: "Watch the guy with gray hair." Once the kids had the dance steps down, youth leader Shanna Woods set out to teach them the lyrics. "You're going to love these words," she promised. "The first line is: 'We don't need no education.'" Her prediction proved to be right. By the time they reached the line "Teacher! Leave those kids alone!" everyone was singing enthusiastically.

The RogerWaters.com presales began starting Wednesday, May 5th. Starting May 3rd, American Express Cardmembers could get advance tickets, with seating available to Gold Card, Platinum Card and Centurion members. US fans could also get early access to tickets via iTunes beginning Thursday, May 6th, by purchasing the 1982 film The Wall from iTunes by April 26th. For both the American Express and iTunes presales, please note that the presale offers were available in select markets and ticket quantities were limited.

General sale tickets went on sale on Monday, May 10, via Ticketmaster.com and LiveNation.com. The public sale also saw a limited number of VIP packages made available for each show on the tour. Use of our links to Ticketmaster gives much needed assistance with site hosting costs without any additional cost to yourself - and we appreciate it!

WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD!

Do not read on if you don't want surprises to be spoilt, regarding what the band played, and what happened as the night unfolded!

Night twenty-six of the tour, and despite all the rumours that stated with huge degrees of confidence and certainty that David Gilmour would be performing, no sign of the man! As time goes on, these rumours are surely only going to build as each show approaches...fuelled, no doubt, in part by ticket touts/scalpers, keen to get a premium price for their "spare" tickets!

The Star Tribune were there, and said that "while not always easy to follow, the rock opera delivered for Pink Floyd fans in a big way. It was a provocative, over-the-top, self-indulgently spectacular epic that left 15,456 arena-goers excitedly numb.

"In the first act (highlight: "Mother" done as a duet with himself on film from a 1980 production of "The Wall" that played in only four cities), Waters performed in front of and behind the wall. In the second act (highlight: a dramatic and exorcising "Comfortably Numb"), his six musicians and five backup singers were mostly behind the fully constructed wall while he was in front, with the wall being used as a ginormous screen for animation, graffiti and video footage.

"Waters, 67, surprisingly stepped out of character and talked to the sold-out audience a couple of times, making it seem a bit like a concert. Even though this was a captivating production of one of the best-selling albums of all time, the evening wasn't as exciting musically and as trippy visually as Waters' 2006 Xcel performance, which featured the classic album "Dark Side of the Moon" in its entirety. But "The Wall" was a special rock-opera experience in an arena, especially at the end when the 424 bricks magically crumbled from within and Waters came out with his trumpet and band to stand amid the rubble and perform "Outside the Wall," singing "bleeding hearts and artists make their stand."

The Star Tribune have posted a photo gallery from the concert which is worth a look.

The Twin Cities Pioneer Press were also there, and said "with the finest 21st-century technology has to offer and sans David Gilmour, Pink Floyd leader emeritus Roger Waters brings the theatrics to an '80s rite of rock passage.

"More akin to a theater piece than a traditional rock concert, the evening offered "The Wall" in its entirety, backed by eye-popping animation, customized film clips, a local children's choir and one giant flying pig. It delivered dazzling goodies at nearly every turn, keeping the sold-out crowd of 15,456 in a nearly trance-like state as Waters sang of pain, alienation, loneliness and, well, more alienation. (The billowing clouds of reefer that floated through the X probably helped.)

"Waters' Pink Floyd bandmate David Gilmour has pledged to sit in on one of the tour's shows, and despite some Twitter-fed rumors fueled by sleazy scalpers, Gilmour did not show up at the X. (It took two guys to replace him — one on guitar and one on vocals.) Still, Pink Floyd was rarely about personalities in the first place, and Waters' band ably reproduced the necessary wall of sound.

"Was the endlessly fascinating, utterly ridiculous spectacle ultimately just an expensive exercise in nostalgia (not to mention a late-career mea culpa from Waters)? Absolutely. Was it still worth it? Without a doubt."

If you went to this show, please let us know what you thought of the event, and if anything interesting or different happened if you've been to previous shows and can compare.

CONCERT REVIEW by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Nick Piazza

It was a once in a lifetime experience for sure. I'll never forget it and I'm so grateful to Roger for bringing the production to so many fans around the world (and he should be very grateful to us for spending so much of our money...... maybe he'll think he needs a new LearJet). What makes it bittersweet, though, is the absence of The Pink Floyd Sound. Gilmour, for me, accounts for at least half of the way PF music is supposed to be performed and heard. Roger's band has some stars in it for sure, and they do well, but I'm sure it goes without saying that David's guitar, voice, and musical direction cannot be replaced, replicated, or compensated for. Luckily, this album and concept are so Waters-centered that Roger can get away with it (unlike Dark Side of the Moon, which he and his band just can't pull off - at least compared to the real thing).

All that being said, the concert was beyond fun and enjoyable! Roger was clearly "enjoying himself and having a good time," and we all felt like he really wanted to put on a great show for us. His singing was so well improved from recent times in his live career - the voice coaching he's had and the strengthening he's put in is paying off BIGTIME! He sounds like he's 40 again. Truly.

This will be the last negative thing I mention (promise!) - but Run Like Hell was lacking for me. The mix wasn't great, the song had to be played a few steps down to accommodate the singers (can't expect Roger to scream that thing out of his range night after night... we'd have to pretend it's alright), it seemed rushed, and the "power" of the sound was missing. I think it boils down to the absence of the rest of the band again. At least Jon Carin was there for the keyboard solo!

The personal highlight was The Trial. I was amazed at how Roger just walked around in front of The Wall, providing the entire sung and spoken soundtrack to the film as it played all around him. The spotlight was kept off of him to keep the focus on the film, but I was keeping an eye on him as he paced around, sat down here and there, and effortlessly went through the different voices (Judge, Mother, Wife, etc). It was such a fun concert experience all in itself.

Of course, the special effects created a new standard. The fact that they had the HD projectors programmed and configured to EACH SPECIFIC BRICK was AMAZING. I know this stuff is old news to most of you who are familiar with this tour, but I was glued to watching the workers put a new brick in place (still darkened, though, while all the bricks around it were being projected onto) and then how the video guys would flip their switch and the image would expand to include the new brick in the display.

All in all, I wouldn't trade the experience for any other concert. So much fun.

CONCERT REVIEW by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Kerrie-Ann Goldfarb

I went, and no, David Gilmour was not there, as we expected. The show was beyond incredible. Roger is entertaining, funny and a true character throughout the whole show, getting the crowd involved as much as he can. The show itself is a real visual treat, beyond anything I have ever seen. There is so much to absorb and take in, and a few new perspectives on the album as well. My husband, who likes the music but is not a "super fan" like I am, was rendered speechless afterwards. Truly an amazing event, and one of the most incredible things I've experienced in my life. Wish we could go again!!

CONCERT REVIEW and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Eric Jokinen

What a show! The band was spot on, minus a small glitch during ABITW 3, at first thought Roger was doing it acoustic, then the band sounds clicked in.

Me and my friends were on the floor, row 29, center stage. You would swear the bricks during RLH were coming right at you. Loved the minor addition of machine gun sounds following "I'd have all of ya shot".

Can't wait to see them again in Denver!

TEAR DOWN THIS F'N WALL!

CONCERT REVIEW, VIDEO and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Simon Wimpenny

We were sat 13th row dead centre tonight and the quad sound was really noticeable in this venue and from this position, it's strange how you can sit in more or less the exact same seat night after night but the quad can sound so different!! There were a few glitches tonight but nothing major, most of the show went without any hitch at all.

Tonight's plane crash was definitely the best so far on the tour with what looked like a double shot of flames as it crashed and a few of the bricks getting stuck on the plane as it went through the wall:

The kids that come on during "Another Brick" just get funnier and funnier in their action onstage. Tonight's kids were all Asian, they were great! About 4 of them broke out from the others during the track and did their own dance routine, they have really stepped the dancing part up now and at each show the kids look like they are having the time of their life dancing around onstage and enjoying themselves. Roger comments after the track each night now that this part of the show is his favourite one!

For the first time I actually sat and read a lot of the fallen hero pictures and comments that appear on the wall during intermission, I have 4 friends all of whom have a fallen hero on the wall and tonight I wanted to catch the picture of my friend Greg's relative whom he had sent in on Roger's website. Took me a while to spot it but it eventually came up.

Again Roger is getting more and more into the fascist character onstage, not only with his machine gun but also what he’s saying and his actions. After "gunning down" most of the crowd tonight with his machine gun he pointed out to the crowd and said "Did I get anyone?”

Run like Hell just gets better and better, it's really a huge highlight of the show and certainly gets everyone off their seats even if they have been seated for most of the show! One thing I've meant to mention is to watch the pig as they return to the back of the stage as Run Like Hell finishes, Sometimes they have problems getting it over the wall and this looks to be due to the air flow that around the top of the venue and that must change every night depending on the venue. Some nights just when it looks like the pig has gone back over the wall it comes flying back out due to hitting some flowing air, they then try turn it around and reverse it in but this doesn't always work and takes a while to work out the best way to get it back! Nothing special but just something I noticed and picked up on.

After the wall fell we made our way to the front of the stage to watch Outside the Wall being played close up. Tonight was funny though as when the band came out Roger tried to be clever on the trumpet and play a little different, it didn't work though and Snowy and Dave K just looked at each other in horror as Roger was trying real hard, they just burst out laughing as a few bum notes came though, Roger couldn't help but laugh as well when he lowered the trumpet from his mouth.

Make sure you check out Simon's blog at SimonWimpenny.blogspot.com where you'll find full details of all his travels, along with more pictures and videos.

YOUR HELP NEEDED! We want to cover Roger's concerts the best we can, to share the experience with everyone, especially those who won't be able to attend the shows. We'd love to see ANY pictures, tickets scans, reviews, newspaper reports, and anything else you come across for this show - we look forward to hearing from you!