Originally posted to Echoes by Dennis Howie
With the recent discussion about the merits of P&CoH, I thought it would be appropriate to transcribe the following and post it. It's a review of the 3/19/85 concert at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. I remember at the time I first read it, I was struck at how well the reviewer caught just what I felt about the concert. I must have been impressed...I've saved the clipping for 13 years (God...it doesn't seem that long ago). I came across it tonight while digging through a box of old college stuff. I hope you enjoy it.
Dennis Howie
Roger Waters' first solo tour, "Pros and Cons Plus Some Old Pink Floyd Stuff," is one of the finest rock 'n' roll shows ever conceived.
In a surprisingly intimate yet powerful performance at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena March 19, the author of such masterpieces as Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall proved his imagination and musical skills are honed as sharply as ever.
Accompanied by a superb band and some technical wizardry, Waters presented something rare in the rock 'n' roll realm -- not mere escapism but a truly satisfying emotional event. He fused the power of The Who, the urgency of The Clash, the sincerity of U2 and the subtlety of Beethoven.
It was a delicious treat to witness the prowess of renowned guitarist/bassist Andy Fairweather Low and drummer Andy Newmark. Also performing superlatively were saxophonist Mel Collins, guitarist Jay Stapley, keyboardist Michael Kamen and vocalists Doreen Chanter and Katie Kissoon.
This was no group of mere hired hands; Kamen produced Pink Floyd's The Final Cut, as well as Waters' 1984 solo album The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking, which featured Newmark, Chanter, and Kissoon. The chemistry this band displayed for 2 1/2 hours was dazzling. It captured the original feel of Waters' songs and expanded them wonderfully in many cases. In fact, the amount of exuberant jamming was surprising considering the degree of coordination with special effects that was necessary.
These special effects were not quite on the massive scale of Pink Floyd's enactment of The Wall, which Waters also masterminded. Yet the band's professionalism and ingenuity easily eclipsed the efforts of such ambitious tours as David Bowie's "Serious Moonlight" and Styx's "Kilroy Was Here." And they were extraordinary with three 90-foot film screens, a 20 foot puppet and quadrophonic sound.
The films were both live action and animation, but were always an enhancement to the music raher than a distraction. The live-action films were done by such noted directors as Nicholas Roeg. Gerald Scarfe, who worked on the album jacket, stage enactment and film of The Wall, again provided exotic and disturbing animated images for Pros and Cons. Both visual forms were incredibly effective in expounding and extrapolating Waters' lyric themes.
The sound fidelity was as pristine as possible in such a cavern as Joe Louis Arena. Most of the concert was in very stunning stereo; the quadrophonic mode was employed tastefully, with discretion, for maximum inpact. It was absolutely wild to hear sounds traveling from one corner of the arena to the next.
The multimedia extravaganza was undeniably dominated by Waters himself, however. Attired in plain gray slacks and a white shirt, he quickly shed his gray trench coat and maintained a most affable, unpretentious presence the whole evening. He had a twinkle in his eyes and genuinely seemed to love being before an audience. This was a mild surprise considering his last tour -- for The Wall, in 1980 -- encompassed a whopping three cities. [Actually four - Beaker]
Although not another Mick Jagger, Waters was hardly one to simply play statue by his microphone stand. He was an extremely expressive bassist -- rarely has anyone played an instrument so passionately. He also was prone to hamming it up, parodying typical heavy-metal musicians, (He evidently had seen This Is Spinal Tap.) Saxophonist Collins took a cue from this and gave a devil-horns salute occasionally, with hilarious effect. Even some of Scarfe's animations took a comical turn for Pros and Cons. This humor greatly aided in keeping such an overwhelming show on a human level.
Therefore, it was not surprising in the end that the most intimate aspect of the show was the point from which all music begins: a voice. Waters' pipes are not among the best "in purely aesthetic terms," as he has stated, but the inflections he brings to a lyric is amazing. His singing is an earnest, touching form of expression. Combined with the other elements of the show, it produced a warm, moving and exciting experience.
