Capacity: 18,000
Concert starts: 8pm

Address of venue: 601 F Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20004. MAP

Website: www.verizoncenter.com

COMMENTS

Roger's tour of The Wall arrives in Washington DC, and the Verizon Center. Our thanks to Bob Jones for the ticket scan to the right, and our thanks to Mark Gunzinger for the concert advertisement, again to the right (click thumbnail for larger version).

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 sixteen of the tour, and the sole show in Washington DC. From here, the show goes to the Nassau Coliseum, site of the original Wall shows, for a pair of concerts.

Well, despite the coded and not-so-coded clues and messages that flooded the internet concerning the "certainty" that this was the show David Gilmour was guesting at (with much excitement over the 10-10-10 date which apparently was hugely significant), he didn't take any part in the event. As with previous cities on the tour, there were a number of so-called "sightings" by reliable (and not so reliable) people, friends of friends, and so on, of David in restaurants, various music stores, and so on. Hopefully these rumours will calm down now so as not to falsely raise expectations, and when David does finally appear, it will come as a true surprise!

The concert was reviewed by the Washington Post, who said that "Forget the Blu-Ray, the DVD, the planetarium laser-light show -- the arena is the superior format for 'The Wall.' On record, it's an imperfect, sometimes boring work. The extra bombast helps, though -- an inflatible flying pig or two does wonders to pad the hit-less terrain between 'Hey You' and 'Comfortably Numb.' For Waters, as it was with Pink Floyd, more is always more."

The "Children's Choir" - the local area's School Of Rock - have allowed a unique perspective on what it was like to take part in the show, as you can see in the following video:

If you went to this show, 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 and VIDEO by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Alan Rickert

I don't have too much to add to the previous reviews, but to say that the show is really as magnificent as they are saying! I was luck enough to have seats in Row D of section 121, which were absolutely perfect. We were just off the floor at stage level and not more than 20-30 feet (7-10 meters) from the center of the stage. We were lined up with the fifth row of floor seating, which I was very surprised at given the seating chart, which made it look father back. I would gladly sit here over the more expensive floor seats any day!

Several highlights were "One of My Turns" and "Nobody Home" which were performed literally directly in front of us and the pig which hovered almost directly over us for a while. I knew that "Nobody Home" was sung from one of the cut outs of the wall, but never put it together that it was where the bricks were cut in half just to our left.

As others have said before, there is really not a bad seat in the house for this tour. The stage is immense and at times we were a little too close, if anything, to take it all in. I wouldn't mind seeing the show again from a little farther back next time. So don't worry about where your seats are - just go and enjoy the show!

CONCERT REVIEW by BD CONTRIBUTOR, David Falkenstein

Much to my disappointment this was not the Gilmour show. I had thought maybe in Washington, DC on 10-10-10 but it was not to be. I am thinking maybe he'll do a UK date.

In any event, this was the show of the year. All other concerts will pale in comparison to the grand spectacle that Roger Waters has assembled for the 30-year anniversary of The Wall.

The show started about 15-minutes later than scheduled which merely added to the anticipation of the crowd. Everyone was rewarded with a flawless show.

The intermission lasted 30+ minutes. The second half of the show was by far the best. From "In The Flesh" to "Outside The Wall" was my favorite portion of the concert. This entire sequence truly was a "rock opera".

The musicians were excellent. Roger Waters was energetic and played the crowd throughout the evening. Dave Kilminster is not David Gilmour but during Comfortably Numb he seemed to add his own signature and flair to the solos which was intense to say the least.

To the Pink Floyd purest this show may not have fit the bill but it was as close as you will ever get to 1980.

CONCERT PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, George Carrigan

CONCERT REVIEW by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Bill Dorn

I attended the concert in Washington, DC at the Verizon Center (350 miles from my home). The show began at 8:15PM.

The opening pyrotechnics were amazing, as were the graphics on the wall and the inflated people. The show was incredibly close to the original and the album. The musicians that Roger has assembled are great.

Even though Gilmour was not there, Dave Kilminster did a fantastic job as the lead guitarist. His solo on Comfortably Numb was great.

The names on the wall during intermission was very moving. It was without a doubt the most amazing concert I have seen, and will ever see, in my lifetime. Just to emphasize what a fantastic show it was; my wife likes PF, but is not a fanatic as I am. After the concert, her first comment was: "It was incredible". This show was one of the highlights of life.

CONCERT REVIEW by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Simon Wimpenny

I mentioned to Dave Kilminster before the show that the Comfy Numb solo in Buffalo a couple of nights earlier was the best I'd ever heard him play, he agreed! He said he made a real mess of it in New York as he had been back stage and met Jim Carrey, Scarlet Johansson, Liam Neeson and it had totally thrown him off and I guess he was a bit star struck!! So the next show he put 110% into it and it obviously came across!

Mark and Beth were about 8th row centre and I was a couple of rows back from them on the aisle on the 10th row. This show was hugely different from any of the other though, not in a musical sense or show sense but in an atmosphere sense! There was no “buzz” before the show, there was no excitement coming from the crowd and this was confirmed when even after Roger had walked onstage for the first time at the beginning of In The Flesh the whole crowd remained seated!! WTF!! It's a rock show, it's not opera!!!

Sitting down during the whole show for me just kills all the excitement, it's just not the same and from what I've heard in the past from band members they sense this as well. I just don't get it, not just the sitting down thing I just don't understand why this happens! It's the same show, just different city and different people, surely people cant be that much more relaxed say a couple of hundred miles away from New York? Ok well maybe New York's a bad comparison but you know what i mean, I just don't get why this happens. Anyway, I stood up when I thought I could and didn't get anyone asking me to sit down so the first half wasn't too bad after all. The sound was incredible, I heard the surround sound a lot more than i have at any other show, maybe I was just in the “sweet spot” but whatever it was it was great and I heard things at this show that I hadn't heard the same way before!

There were a couple of seats next to me free the whole first half so I went up and brought kami and her friend Jessie down to sit on the floor, Jessie was Kami’s friend who had driven in the day before and whom id met before at Nissan pavilion show in 2006.

The crowd were a lot more enthusiastic for the second half and stood for a lot of the show, I think the three of us sat down for maybe 3 or 4 tracks but stood for the rest of the show. It's so much better being with friends at the shows and standing next to people who appreciate the music and enjoy the show and actually get into it rather than just the “casual fan” who is there for some live music...

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!