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Home arrow 2012 WALL TOUR arrow July 6th - YANKEE STADIUM, BRONX, NY, USA
July 6th - YANKEE STADIUM, BRONX, NY, USA Print E-mail
Yankee Stadium
Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium 2012 ticket
Roger Waters - The Wall at Yankee Stadium

Capacity: TBA
Concert starts: 8:45pm

Address of venue: One East 161st Street, Bronx, NY 10451. MAP

Website: newyork.yankees.mlb.com

 

COMMENTS

Roger's tour of The Wall performs the third of three concerts in New York, this time arriving at the legendary Yankee Stadium in the Bronx area. However, this isn't the original stadium, built in 1923, but a replacement constructed across the street, that opened in April 2009. Nevertheless, it should prove a very popular event.

As yet, despite Roger having conducted successful lighting tests at Yankee Stadium, the show is still to be confirmed as being at this venue on this date. It was on the list of dates though that we received via a contact at one of the tour partners, so we presume it will be confirmed soon.

UPDATE: a new video, posted on Roger's Facebook page on November 30th, has Roger talking about the various ballparks and other outdoor venues being used on the tour, including this venue. We need no better confirmation than Roger himself talking about playing here!

FURTHER UPDATE: On the Howard Stern radio show on January 18th, Roger confirmed that the show was indeed taking place at the Yankee Stadium.

The RogerWaters.com presales began on January 23rd, with advance tickets available to those who had registered their interest in particular cities. Other presales, through Ticketmaster.com also went on sale on January 23rd, and general sale of tickets started one week later (January 30th). Exact dates and outlets can be found via Roger's website. The public sale will also see a limited number of VIP packages made available for each show on the tour. Our thanks to Elliot Tayman for the concert advert shown to the right.

SET LIST - highlight the following with your mouse to read...
FIRST HALF: In the Flesh, The Thin Ice, Another Brick in the Wall Part 1, The Happiest Days of our Lives, Another Brick in the Wall Part 2, Mother, Goodbye Blue Sky, Empty Spaces, What Shall We Do Now, Young Lust, One of My Turns, Don't Leave Me Now, Another Brick in the Wall Part 3, The Last Few Bricks, Goodbye Cruel World
SECOND HALF:
Hey You, Is There Anybody Out There?, Nobody Home, Vera, Bring the Boys Back Home, Comfortably Numb, The Show Must Go On, In The Flesh, Run Like Hell, Waiting for the Worms, Stop, The Trial, Outside the Wall.

 

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 sixty-six of the 2012 tour, and the first of two nights at the legendary Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York. Our good friend Simon Wimpenny was there, took the picture below, and quickly reported back that it was an "Amazing show tonight, great crowd but a lot of sitting down then standing up then sitting down!! The guys were on fire and the crowd showed their appreciation for a good 5 minutes at the end..."

Roger Waters The Wall Live - Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York 2012

From the local press, the New York Times were there, and noted that "Roger Waters Points ‘The Wall’ Toward Abuse of Power. The message Mr. Waters hammered home — with images including animated regiments of goose-stepping hammers on the march — was distrust of power and authority in many forms: parents, schools, celebrities, corporations, countries, ideologies. Throughout intermission (as elegiac music played), and at points during the concert, the names and faces of people killed by wars, terrorism and government actions were shown on the wall. Quotations from George Orwell, Franz Kafka and Dwight D. Eisenhower also appeared on it. At one point, animated bombers dropped corporate logos and religious symbols; “Run Like Hell” included a Wikileaks video from an American helicopter firing on Iraqi journalists. Early in the concert, Mr. Waters decried “all the victims of state terror all over the world,” and preached that giving governments, police and soldiers too much power was “a very steep and slippery slope to tyranny.”

"To him, bigger and slicker did not mean better. Except, of course, at his stadium show. The video wall, which his promoters have billed as “the largest projection surface ever toured in live entertainment,” isn’t the only huge special effect in “The Wall.” It’s an impeccable, stadium-sized show, magnifying even further what began, decades ago, as very private torments for what Mr. Waters, smiling broadly, called his “poor, miserable,” messed-up (he used a stronger term), “little Roger.” There are marionettes as tall as the wall, bursts of pyrotechnics, surround-sound effects that simulated fighter planes buzzing the stadium, a group of 15 children dancing through “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)” and–a Pink Floyd essential, even if it was from the cover of a different album — a pig-shaped balloon, now a black boar with tusks, painted with mock slogans. When animation warped and crumbled the wall, with flying bricks and metamorphosing colors, it was dazzling."

The New York Daily News were also there, and their review stated that "the production that sprawled over Yankee Stadium Friday brought the album’s vision to grim new heights (not to mention depths and breadths). The new stadium staging of “The Wall,” which gets a second Yankee Stadium performance Saturday night, has twice the girth, width and height of the earlier one ex-Pink Floyd-czar Roger Waters dragged around in 2010. But the sheer sweep of the new production proved that not only does size count. At its best, it transforms."

If you went to this show in New York, 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 COMMENTS and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Jon Rosenbaum

I was one of the lucky people to be able to attend last evening, and it was simply wonderful. What a setting for such a great show!

Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium 2012 Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium 2012 Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium 2012
Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium 2012 Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium 2012 Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium 2012

CONCERT REVIEW by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Marc Gottwerth

Last night's performance of the The Wall at Yankee Stadium was awesome. The best performance I've seen of the piece thus far (compared to 2010 shows at Madison Square Garden and the New Jersey's Meadowlands). While the indoor shows are more intimate, the sheer size of the outdoor show is completely mind blowing. There is so much more space to project the visuals it adds to the "immersion" experience, and the extra space is put to good use. Video of the band at times is displayed on the outer edges of the wall, allowing the audience to see more intimate details. For example, while Roger is performing "Nobody Home" the room scene is projected, in large format, on the wall. There is also new video that is added to the show since the last time I saw it. And individual projections, such as the subway cars, when viewed over the immense length of the wall, really give a "Wow" factor. Truly a unique experience. Definitely giving the impression you are seeing "visual art" in progress.

The sound was superb. I thought for an outdoor show it would be washed out, but no, crisp, not distorted, and no reverb echoes that muddied what you heard. The band was pumped and the audience as well, which should be expected at a NY show (my favorite place to see any band perform). I think Roger appreciated it, as the band didn't appear to be is a hurry to leave the stage. Perhaps they felt a bit of the "Wow" factor as well. Roger did perform a new song for the show. An acoustic bit, about the student who was killed in London when he ran from authorities who were screening for terrorists. The student was just truly scared of the situation, but was deemed suspicious. The result tragic. Roger announced in the preface to the song that he met with his parents during the South American piece of the tour. The song was performed during the first half the show and I think worked well integrating into the overall storyline and experience of the performance. Seemed like it belonged there. Was this the first public performance of the piece?

If you've seen the indoor show, or haven't seen the show yet. Definitely go! The performance of the piece has grown and matured into the best form I've ever seen of it.

CONCERT PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Ed Green

Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium, July 6th 2012 Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium, July 6th 2012 Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium, July 6th 2012
Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium, July 6th 2012 Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium, July 6th 2012 Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium, July 6th 2012

 

CONCERT PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Phil Catalano

Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium 2012 Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium 2012
Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium 2012 Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium 2012

 

CONCERT REVIEW by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Joey Orange

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend this show and I must say that it was by far the best Roger Waters concert I have seen.... in fact, by far the best concert I have seen. Period. I have seen 5 of his indoor Wall shows prior to this one and I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY.

I have been closer in other shows, but sitting 26 rows back dead center on this one was absolutely perfect. Close enough to where I could clearly see Roger on stage but far enough back to where I could enjoy the AMAZING visual masterpiece projected in front of me. The entire show was loud and crisp and the high definition animations on The Wall were absolutely stunning. I was surrounded by hard core Pink Floyd fans who were singing every word to EVERY song along with me.

Yankee Stadium and New York in general was such a wonderful place to see this concert. There was just something about being there on the field watching this show that will never be duplicated. My favorite song this time was The Trial... I could imagine some people there were probably hearing this song for the first time and being amazed by how theatrical this album truly is. An amazing show and a time I will never forget.... sadly I feel this may be the last show I will see, but it is embedded in my memory forever. Thanks Roger for the best concert experience of my lifetime.

CONCERT REVIEW and VIDEO by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Simon Wimpenny

Kami and I were 14th row dead centre on the aisle (maybe I should just tell you our seats when they AREN’T these two!!) I went for a wander around the stadium and bumped into a couple of people who had been reading my blog, 35,000 people in a venue and people whom I've never met recognise me and say hi, it still blows my mind! I headed right up as high as II could go in the venue and took some cool panorama pictures that I posted a couple of days ago after the show. It was a lot easier walking down all the stairs from the fourth level to the floor than it was going up! But still when will these venues realise that 2 entrances onto the field when there's 10,000 people heading down there is just not enough!! I have to say that the police presence inside the venue was like none I've seen before, usually they have the venue security on each section but here it was cops!!

 

I saw my friend Brad on the floor and had a chat with him, he was front row left and hadn’t seen the stadium show before, as hadn't a lot of my friends that were there and I was excited for them to see it outdoors, Ralph especially as I know how much of a fan he is, he’s so passionate about Roger's music and he’s flown up from Florida just for these two shows on his own, I was happy to hear after the second shows that they were both the best shows he’s ever seen!

It was great to just hang out on the floor with so many friends and just chat about the shows, drink and take in the pre show atmosphere. We all took our seats half way through the pre show tracks. There were a LOT of guests at tonight's show, there were at least 6 guest rows, two rows in front of us and three behind us. The direct row behind us was full of “somebody's” models, actresses and obviously friends of Roger's!

The show was fantastic but the crowd were a touch quiet plus one minute they stood up and the next they were sat down, then stood up and then sat down, this went on most of the night!

There was a slight echo in the stadium tonight but the band sounded excellent and the visuals and performance was as we’ve all come to expect now. I do love seeing the outdoor shows even though there isn’t that energy that comes across from the stage as much and it doesn't seem as intimate as the arena shows but the visuals on either side of the wall make up for this. The fake wall fall during the effing flowers and especially at the end of the show when the main section of the “real” wall comes down and the effect of the wall falling at the ends of the wall are something that I wish could be incorporated into the arena shows but the set up is just too small for this to happen.

I love looking at Dave’s shadow at the back of the arena but seeing the shadow in the stadiums is far better, you can see the whole of the guys shadow on the crowd and i took the video below which came out great!

Kami and I went down to the rail just as “The Trial” started and watched the last 15 minutes from there. You could tell it had been a great show from the guys faces when they came out for Outside The Wall, Dave was a good 60 seconds late coming out after the rest of the band, he later told us as it had been so warm and humid onstage he wanted to dry off before coming out.

As the show ended we met up with some friends and hung around to let the majority of the crowd leave the stadium. We all headed back to the Yankee Tavern. It was great to hear views from people who haven't seen the stadium show before. Everyone was in awe of the size of the wall and the differences between the arena and stadium show. We left the bar around 1am and headed back to NY in a car service, the traffic was atrocious getting back into Manhattan and Kami and i didn't get back to the hotel till gone 2am.

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

CONCERT REVIEW and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Mike Bienenfeld

I don't have anything much to add to what others have said about these shows. I would suggest that it's ironic that a show whose main theme was inspired by the fact that stadium shows generally create a disconnect between the audience and the performers should have worked so well at Yankee Stadium. But it really did work, and I think Roger Waters did an excellent job, both through the staging and through his own energy, of connecting with the audience and making for a great evening out...

Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium, July 2012 Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium, July 2012 Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium, July 2012
Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium, July 2012 Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium, July 2012 Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium, July 2012

CONCERT REVIEW and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Ed Lopez-Reyes

Among those who've seen The Wall Live multiple times, a review of one of the many shows on this epic tour is likely to generate pretty diverse responses. Over time, some aspects of the show have changed: while the tour was tailored for arenas in 2010, by 2012 the production had morphed into an incredibly different animal – one bound to set a whole new standard for rock concerts (or any type of concert for that matter) and which has resulted in two different types of shows running concurrently: there are those who are still partial to the intimacy of the arena production, which continued running in parallel with the stadium shows this year, while a fairly universal view suggests the stadium version of the show will be exceptionally difficult to top or match for years to come and is the one that takes the prize. Add to that mix the fact that where you're sitting can affect the way you receive the audiovisual impact of the show's effects and you create a situation where no one particular perception of the show can adequately describe the 'general' view of the audience or match everyone else's impression.

This review of the two New York City shows (both stadium shows) reflects two different perspectives: from each the floor and the highest stand seats (next to the surround sound speakers): New York's Yankee Stadium, with its state-of-the-art design (the new Yankee Stadium just opened in 2009) delivers the perfect setting to test the boundaries of Waters' perfectionism. By all measures, Yankee Stadium delivered and Waters should be satisfied with the end result. The audience certainly was.

Whether you were in the stands or the floor, the show's surround sound system delivered. A trademark tour item for Floyd and its solo members for many years, one of the biggest challenges the Gilmour-led Floyd wrestled with on tour in 1994 (for example) was establishing a desirable balance among all its surround sound speakers: if you were anywhere near these during those 1994 shows, you'd hear the bulk of the concert's sound projecting from the stage at one volume level while the background vocals (and special effects) projected by a surround sound speaker over your head (if you were unlucky enough) at another volume level altogether. This created a strange dissonance that The Wall Live tour has managed to overcome and balance with more modern technology. In fact, it seems anywhere you sat at Yankee Stadium you could really absorb what Waters had envisioned for this show and tour without problem: no matter where you were, you could close your eyes and feel like a helicopter was really landing in the venue during Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2).

This doesn't mean there weren't imperfections: others who've attended multiple shows felt Yankee Stadium's acoustics generated too much echo. Each venue has its disadvantages – but it's quite difficult to gauge the degree to which these imperfections are detected by each person. This may be especially true for fans that've attended the show just once and are swept away by the special effects, lights, fireworks, and – on this particular evening – an incredible performance.

Despite this specific criticism, the quality of sound and projection delivered at Yankee Stadium was extraordinary: it's quite possible the two nights at Yankee Stadium can be counted among the best during this tour and that those who've only see the show once – even twice – were unlikely to find any palpable issues, including some of the echo problems cited by more seasoned Wall concert-goers.

Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium, New York 2012 Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium, New York 2012 Roger Waters - Yankee Stadium, New York 2012

Three band members stood out in New York City: Dave Kilminster, G.E. Smith, and Snowy White really elevated the show far beyond expectations: these are three guitar players whose skills have combined and blend into a unique wall of sound that has really come to characterize Waters' production. This powerful composition of guitar sound is a treat that only comes with great band chemistry. Whatever it is, Waters has put together three incredible musicians whose combined effort gives this touring version of The Wall its own texture.

What goes largely ignored here is what each guitar player brings to the table: Snowy White is a veteran partner of Waters' whose blend of the 'technical' and the 'instinctive' serves as a foundation for the band's two other guitarists; Dave Kilminster delivers a very technical and structured sound that is well-suited to the large amount of guitar solos he delivers throughout the show… G.E. Smith – an adopted son of New York City – delivers a bluesier and more traditionally American sound to the band that gives Waters' solo version of The Wall a character of its own, in some respects quite distinct from the original Pink Floyd production.

One of the most outstanding moments during these performances in New York City came, without doubt, when each of the three guitar players took time to deliver their individual guitar solos during Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2): if there's a point in the show in which you get to sample what each guitar player brings to the table, this would be it. All this said, the biggest challenge is clearly on Dave Kilminster: if any fan is asked what the most important solo during The Wall is, chances are they will respond with Comfortably Numb. Kilminster's work is moving – and despite following the general melody and construction of Gilmour's original solo for the song, somehow Kilminster has reinvigorated the solo and added tonal muscle to it. This doesn't diminish any of Gilmour's work – but provides a basis to appreciate Kilminster's talents while paying tribute to one of the greatest rock compositions (and guitarists) of all-time.

Given the iconic status of the song, Kilminster has essentially been put in the hot-seat (or hot platform) above the wall. In New York City it was clearly evident that the guitarist has developed a unique presence and following among Pink Floyd and Waters fans: the crowd's response to Kilminster when he finished playing Comfortably Numb made it evident that he has mastered the piece by infusing his own powerful voice through his guitar playing.

Overall, New York fans gave Waters and the band a warm reception – the crowd was keenly involved in those noticeable peak moments during the show: In the Flesh, Another Brick in the Wall (all parts), Young Lust, Comfortably Numb, and Run Like Hell. One especially emotive moment during the New York shows that really resonated with the crowd and clearly gave people a reason to stand with goose bumps was the stretch between Vera and Comfortably Numb. It may be the anticipation for Comfortably Numb – but to some degree the audience in New York City must feel a visceral connection to the footage of soldiers returning home to their families and the message projected on the wall in that time. It is, after all, ground zero for much of the foreign policy that has tormented and divided both Americans and the world since 2001.

All pictures are courtesy of Marie Lopez (www.facebook.com/marielopezphotography). Marie is in the process of uploading a load of pictures to this Facebook page from a number of Roger's concerts, from the London O2 shows last year, right through to the Quebec City tour conclusion in 2012. Well worth a visit!

CONCERT REVIEWS and PICTURES by other BD CONTRIBUTORS

Hopefully coming soon - we welcome all contributions!

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!

Last Updated ( Saturday, 28 July 2012 )
 
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