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Home arrow Roger Waters 2017 arrow September 7th - PRUDENTIAL CENTER, NEWARK, NJ, USA
September 7th - PRUDENTIAL CENTER, NEWARK, NJ, USA Print E-mail
Prudential Center, Newark, NJ
TICKET SCAN TO GO HERE

Capacity: 18,711

Concert starts: 8pm

Address of venue: 25 Lafayette St, Newark, NJ 07102, USA. MAP

Website: www.prucenter.com

 

COMMENTS

Roger's Us + Them tour:

"We are going to take a new show on the road, the content is very secret," said Roger Waters. "It'll be a mixture of stuff from my long career, stuff from my years with Pink Floyd, some new things. Probably 75% of it will be old material and 25% will be new, but it will be all connected by a general theme. It will be a cool show, I promise you. It'll be spectacular like all my shows have been.”

The announcement notes that "Roger Waters' legendary live performances are renowned as immersive sensory experiences featuring high class, state-of-the-art audio visual production and breathtaking quad sound. This new tour promises to be no exception; following months of meticulous planning and visionary craft, US + Them will inspire crowds with its powerful delivery and take the audience on an unforgettable musical journey."

VIP package sales and Citi presale tickets began on Monday, October 17th. Citi is the official credit card of the Roger Waters – Us + Them 2017 tour. Citi cardmembers had access to presale tickets for US dates only beginning on Monday, October 17th at 10am local time through Citi's Private Pass Program (for details visit citiprivatepass.com). For the regular sale of tickets, which started on FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21st, visit either Ticketmaster.com for the US shows, or Ticketmaster.ca for the Canadian shows. Using our links also helps toward the ongoing running costs of this site, and is appreciated!

SET LIST - highlight the following with your mouse to read...
FIRST HALF: Speak to Me, Breathe, One of These Days, Time, Breathe (Reprise), The Great Gig in the Sky, Welcome to the Machine, When We Were Young, Déjà Vu, The Last Refugee, Picture That, Wish You Were Here, The Happiest Days of Our Lives, Another Brick in the Wall Part 2, Another Brick in the Wall Part 3.
SECOND HALF:
Dogs, Pigs (Three Different Ones), Money, Us and Them, Smell the Roses, Brain Damage, Eclipse, Vera, Bring The Boys Back Home ENCORE: Comfortably Numb.

WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD!

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

Vera and Bring the Boys Back Home returned to the setlist after being dropped for the previous show on the tour. BD’s Ed Lopez-Reyes reviews the show below, the return to the road for the band after a few weeks off.

First, here’s a video from the show from Roger’s official Facebook page…

We'd love to know from those attending how they felt the concert went. How was the show for you, if you were one of the fortunate ones to attend? Let us know what YOU thought!

CONCERT REVIEW and PICTURE by BD's Ed Lopez-Reyes

Roger Waters - Newark, NJ, 2017Last night, Thursday, September 7th, Roger Waters returned to New Jersey to perform at the Prudential Center in Newark: the band returns after a three-week break from the road and for the first time in the Garden State since holding its dress rehearsal for the tour in the Meadowlands arena, not far from the Prudential Center, last May.

Last night's performance featured not only a re-energized and sharp-sounding band but also a focused one: the band stuck to its core performance set list, executing all tracks in fine form. When the tour played the last show on the first leg of this US tour, Waters had added the track Mother. The track did not resurface tonight, quite possibly to meet curfew requirements: last night's performance began later than usual due to traffic problems, according to Waters.

The band's cohesiveness was surprisingly strong when they performed at the Meadowlands four months ago (considering it was a dress rehearsal) but last night’s performance demonstrates how strong the band's chemistry has become in the months they've been on the road.

All songs were performed in their fullest form; it is particularly great to hear additional details and complex arrangements, especially on songs from Waters' latest album, Is This the Life We Really Want? As mentioned in a recent Jon Carin interview for Dave Smith Instruments, there are many parts to the songs that were not included in the minimalist album: "Example, on Roger's new record, there's a song called Deja Vu. We rehearsed this song and developed it for several years in sound check and in hotel rooms. And it sounds pretty close on the record to how we played it for years, except for my Lap Steel parts and solo, which aren't on the record." These bits and pieces are now part of the live arrangements: "So I play it live now and it completes the picture. It's not a fancy or complicated thing to add, but, in my opinion, it just has a certain something." (See the full interview here.)

There is one personnel change though it seems to be temporary: keyboardist Bo Koster, of My Morning Jacket, has replaced Drew Erickson, apparently due to an injury afflicting Erickson.

Waters has recently added dates in Australia and New Zealand: the window to see the tour in the US is closing. The Us + Them tour is an incredibly immersive experience and one worth taking in from more than one angle: fans on the floor, near the stage, will experience a very different performance than the one someone sitting in the highest parts of the stands will: both are mind-blowing… but for very different reasons.

CONCERT REVIEW and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Jay Lieberman

It had been over a year since my last Pink Floyd-related concert (David Gilmour Radio City 4/10/16) so imagine my excitement to catch a show on Roger's "Us and Them" tour. I have seen him at area stops on the In the Flesh, Dark Side of the Moon, and Wall tours and he never disappoints. I was especially encouraged for this show based on the strength of the set list plus what I'd seen online of the mostly new band.

Although he had several shows scheduled in the area I opted for the Prudential Center in Newark. Living in North Jersey it is extremely convenient to get to and, more importantly, get home from. The venue is relatively new, well maintained, has good amenities, lines of sight and sound. The only other concert I saw here was the Rolling Stones so the bar was high.

The show started later than usual - which would be explained later - with the usual video of the woman sitting on the beach, and the sound system starting getting an early workout. This quickly transitioned into the asteroid field video and a much shorter than usual "Speak to Me" to intro the show. "Breathe" was met to rapturous applause, followed by "One of These Days" - much to the delight of the old school crowd.

Roger took his first lead vocal on "Time" much to the delight of the crowd, and Brooklyn's own Jess and Holly's lead vocals on "Great Gig in the Sky" earned a much deserved standing ovation. "Welcome to the Machine" followed, the full screen Gerald Scarfe animation and the added drums made this the highlight of the show thus far. Few shows I've ever seen have opened up with such a powerhouse start to the set and Roger had the audience eating out his hand for the rest of the night.

Roger Waters - Newark, September 2017 Roger Waters - Newark, September 2017
Roger Waters - Newark, September 2017 Roger Waters - Newark, September 2017

The suite from the new album was both well performed and well received, and songs were strong enough to hold their own amidst the Pink Floyd classics, which Roger resumed with "Wish You Were Here", followed by the "Another Brick" suite. The "Wall" material had the folks in my section up and dancing, and Roger explained that the kids who performed in it got stuck in traffic en route to the arena and had very little time to rehearse their dance moves, hence the late start. They delivered nonetheless.

The special effects and one-two punch of "Dogs" and "Pigs" were a highlight for me personally, as I feel "Animals" as a whole has been criminally under-represented live since it's original tour, with Waters typically only performing one song per tour and Gilmour and co. ignoring the album altogether. The anti-Trump sentiment on display in "Pigs" was met with little objection and even enthusiasm from this decidedly blue state crowd.

"Smell the Roses" was inserted flawlessly into the "Any Colour" slot of the "Dark Side" side two portion at the end of the set. Roger's vocals on the chorus of "Us and Them" makes one rethink if the song should have been originally recorded that way.

The light show during "Brain Damage/Eclipse" was appropriately mind-blowing. Despite the debut of "Mother" at the previous show, the stripped down, acoustic renditions of "Vera" and "Bring the Boys Back Home" returned to kick off the encores, with another fine vocal performance from the ladies of Lucius.

"Comfortably Numb" was naturally ecstatically received, with Dave Kilminster pretty much nailing that other David's climactic solo note for note, as he'd been doing all night. Roger was very visibly overcome by the reaction from the crowd, which further supported his claims that this tour would be his last - the blow of which was somewhat softened earlier this week when Gilmour announced he would return to record and tour again. If this was in fact among Roger's last appearances in the flesh, then wow, what a note to go out on...

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 ( Friday, 15 September 2017 )
 
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