Capacity: 35,000
Concert starts: 8pm

Address of venue: Batavierenweg 25, 6841 HN Arnhem, Netherlands. MAP

Website: www.gelredome.nl

COMMENTS

Roger's tour of The Wall stays in The Netherlands for a third night, as ticket sales were extremely healthy for the two shows already announced for this venue. Following this show, the production moves down to Hungary.

General sale tickets went on sale from September 17th at 10am through Ticketmaster.nl. The public sale also saw a limited number of VIP packages made available for each show on the tour.

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 thirteen of the tour, and not unlucky for those present at the Gelredome in Arnhem for another great show! If you went to this concert, 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 and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Ivo Linssen

Probably the last time to witness this epic stage performance by a former Pink Floyd member, so it was evident that I had to visit the concert in The Netherlands. It was also the first time I visited the Gelredome and I was pleasantly surprised by the friendly atmosphere. As we arrived early, we grabbed a bite and had a nice hour in the sun, together with loads of visitors of the concert.

Once inside, we found our seats easily and had a good look at the stage. The Wall was already built halfway, and in the middle a black coat was visible. Some folky tunes were played through the sound system. About eight o’clock a low voice announced that it was not allowed to use flash when taking photographs. I expected it to ramble on and on (like the “Is There Anybody Out There – recording), but it stopped immediately after that.

The show started off with the Spartacus-part and I was impressed by the surround system in the stadium. After a short trumpet tune the band kicked in with In the Flesh. This was played slightly slower than I recall on the album, which gave it a better and more sinister feeling.

The show was top-notch from the first moment: stage performance, sound effects, light effects and the tight-playing band. The sound seemed to suffer a bit from the vast arena, sometimes the delays were a bit disturbing. In some songs the sound was a bit muffled, but all in all sound was OK.

Stage performance was excellent: all the different parts fitted together perfectly, just like the bricks in the Wall. Roger Waters made a very relaxed impression, much more pleasant to watch than for example the Live8 performance. He chatted to the audience throughout the concert. He made a remark that normally he would say a few words in the local language, but he found out that Dutch was too difficult to speak, even when written phonetically. That gave him a good laugh from the audience and a cheer when he said that we were all well educated enough to understand what he was saying in English.

I was impressed greatly by the projections on the Wall during the show. Very crisp visuals, with 3D-effects and a nice collection of original material and new animations. The visuals put a lot of emotion into the show; when the projections of the lost soldiers were shown, we were moved to tears.

As said, the tempo of the songs seemed to differ from the album recording. The Thin Ice also seemed a bit slower, but for example Comfortably Numb was played a bit too fast, in my opinion.

The band was playing very tight. Some new arrangements were written, and I think they were a great plus for the show. Singing was superb and I was blown away by Roger’s performance during Bring the Boys Back Home. Together with the words of Eisenhower on the Wall (“Every gun that is made…”) it gave me goose bumps, in a positive way. At times sounded a bit out of tune to me, which surprised me, knowing who was playing. Both Dave Kilminster and Snowy White are very apt guitarists, but they are not the tone-masters like Roger Waters former bandmate.

One point of serious critism is the shooting with the machinegun at the end of In the Flesh. Two days before this concert a shooting took place in a shopping mall in The Netherlands with 7 people killed and a lot injured. A young man fired randomly at people in the mall. Looking at Roger Waters doing the same (though part of the show) made me feel sick. It would have been considerate if the production team would have told Roger to possibly change the show because of this parallel. My sister said she saw several people leave during this part. I was told by a friend that even on the day the shooting took place, Roger performed this act too. It would have been appropriate to change the show for the remaining concert in The Netherlands.

It surprised me that the audience was rather quiet after the Wall came down. I would have expected loud cheering, but even the people in the center were just waiting for Roger to re-appear. But then, after performing Outside the Wall, a large applause rose from the audience. Roger thanked the people several times and all the band members got loud cheers when their names were called out.

My girlfriend, my sister and I had a very great evening. Roger Waters managed to pull his 30 year old magnus opus to 2011 and its themes are as relevant as it was in the 80’s: isolation, hunger, suppression, capitalism and war. He lifted the show to the technical standards of this time (and beyond). A must-see for everyone!

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!