Capacity: 20,150
Concert starts: 8pm

Address of venue: 1400 Edwards Mill Road, Raleigh, NC 27607. MAP

Website: www.rbccenter.com

COMMENTS

Roger's tour of The Wall arrives in Raleigh, to play this venue which more normally hosts basketball and ice hockey matches, but will now have to deal with a bunch of people building a huge wall the entire width of the arena! The show stays in North Carolina for tomorrow night's concert in Charlotte.

The RogerWaters.com presales have taken place, with advance tickets available to those who had registered their interest in particular cities. General sale tickets went on sale on November 14th at 10am through this link to Ticketmaster.com. 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 poster seen to the right - click the thumbnail to see it in more detail. Our thanks, too, to Paul Powell Jr for the ticket pictures to the right.

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-eight of the tour, and the end of the 2012 leg is getting ever closer. From the local media, the Times News was there and reviewed the show. "Where the original album railed against war, matriarchy and the British class system, this year’s model of “The Wall” broadens its targets to governments, ideologies and corporations. As for Waters, the Pink Floyd bassist who endured a bitter split with the rest of Pink Floyd in the 1980s, he served as host on a tour of the rock star’s psychic burden. When he donned shades and a black leather trenchcoat to express his protagonist’s descent into self-aggrandizing fascism, he resembled nothing so much as a cable-news bully pundit from one of the political channels. Then he took up a submachine gun to pantomime opening fire on the audience; listening to the cheers after that was chilling.

"This touring version of “The Wall” involves an incredible high-tech production, with a 40-foot wall going up during the first act to double as an enormous video screen. The show served as a memorial to the disappeared from a century of conflicts, with the wall displaying portraits of people killed in wars, terrorist attacks and assassinations from World War I up to the present day. There were also quotes from Kafka, Orwell and Dwight Eisenhower, with other effects including surround-sound, spotlights, oversized blow-up figures, a children’s choir and confetti in the shape of icons that rule us all – dollar bills, corporate logos and religious symbols.

"Of course, there was an inherent contradiction in the quote from Eisenhower (“Every gun that is made…signifies a theft from those who hunger and are not fed”) getting trotted out at an event where the good seats cost more than $200. But give Waters credit, you saw that on the stage.

"The 12-piece band displayed consummate skill, especially the three guitarists (led by Dave Kilminster) who duplicated Floyd guitarist David Gilmour’s original parts with uncanny accuracy. Waters did a fine job with his own parts, too, hitting his marks three decades on in a variety of guises.

"The post-intermission second act did drag a bit, in part because the band played a good chunk of it from behind the wall. But ultimately, those songs just weren’t to be denied, from the majestic tones of “Comfortably Numb” to the spectral drive of “Run Like Hell.”

The Raleigh Telegram were there, and they've posted a great review, which has a large number of superb pictures covering the whole concert - and even show behind the wall as the show breakdown takes place as the audience departs the venue. It's really worth taking a look...

They cover what they assert is an "amazing show" in detail. "There was only one place to be in Raleigh on Monday night and that was at the Roger Waters “The Wall” concert in Raleigh at the building formerly known as the RBC Center. At a sold out show in front of thousands of fans, Pink Floyd’s Waters pulled off what is probably the best concert ever to hit the Raleigh arena.

"Without hopefully engaging in hyperbole, this concert was probably the most amazing show I have ever seen in terms of just being completely awesome (both in the sense that it simply strikes awe in the mind of the audience and also in the sense that it was so amazingly cool). Perhaps the only show that comes close was the U2 tour a couple years back that took up most of the field in the middle of Carter Finley Stadium and was also a well produced and orchestrated show in terms of combining music, video, and special effects for an amazing night.

"During “Run Like Hell,” Waters reached a musical climax with the mock Stalinesque soldiers and flags on stage while the giant pig floated around the top of the arena while Waters shot off a submachine gun. Of course, at the end, the wall exploded and fell to the stage in pieces. Roger Waters had torn down his own wall in spectacular fashion, giving everyone in the arena a night they will long remember.

"All in all, it’s just another brick in the wall. But seriously, “Roger Waters: The Wall” wasn’t just another concert — it was a tour de force by Roger Waters and his accompanying group of amazing musicians who, simply put, rocked. Many people coming out of the stadium commented that it was indeed the best concert they had ever seen and for Pink Floyd fans, that’s saying a lot.

"After the show, the crew started tearing down the stage and the fan next to me went over to get his picture next to what was left of the wall after it had tumbled down. Like myself, he was not anxious for the night to be over and took some photos before finally departing. And like me, he probably was floating on cloud nine for days after the show. ::

"RECOMMENDATION: If you get a chance, run like hell and GO, and don’t look back. It’s one of the most amazing performances you will ever get a chance to enjoy in a live show."

If you went to this show in Raleigh, 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 by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Paul Powell Jr

Hyperreal would be an apt description of Roger Waters July 9th, 2012 show of The Wall at Raleigh's PNC Arena. Compared to the previous outdoor Yankee Stadium shows, the indoor PNC Arena (formally RBC Arena) show was much smaller in scale yet perfectly balanced in its presentation and execution. This would be one of the last performances of The Wall in North America, and the capacity crowd soaked up every vibe and rode the emotional roller-coaster for the two plus hour show. We had really great seats, just right of center behind the soundboard, a few rows up above ground floor with an optimum view.

Without repeating the chronological details of this evening's proceedings, The Wall was full of dynamics and drama ("In The Flesh"), some nostalgia and humor ("Mother") and isolation and yearning ("Hey You"). More importantly, Roger's modern interpretation of his magnum opus was not lost on tonight's audience. The power and resonance of The Wall's central message was transparent and chilling - that too much police, military and governmental authority is 'a very steep and slippery slope towards tyranny'.

While The Wall is a big Rock and Roll show complete with pyrotechnics, a crashing plane, inflatables and thundering sonic booms, it also contained great subtlety and emotional depth. Throughout, film projections were augmented with quotes from great thinkers such as Dwight D. Eisenhower, and faces superimposed on The Wall itself were of those killed in the last centuries' various wars, conflicts, and state-sponsored terrorism. Notably, North Carolina is the proud home of two large military bases: Fort Bragg and Camp Lejuene, so patriotism runs very deep among our population, poignantly illustrated by the audiences' sharp emotional response to "Bring The Boy's Back Home."

However, this evening's performance reached its musical and visual peak during "Comfortably Numb" as vocalist Robby Wyckoff and guitarist Dave Kilminster replicated David Gilmour's contribution with great precision and grace. Roger Waters treated The Wall Live as a classical piece with very few exceptions ("The Ballad of Jean Charles De Menezes"), so the pacing and performance of The Wall was nearly note-perfect to the album. It will be really interesting to see how well The Wall Live translates on BluRay, if that project actually becomes a reality. All in all, The Wall Live in 2012 was a singularly profound once in a lifetime experience. Trust Us.

CONCERT REVIEW by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Simon Wimpenny

Tonight's venue was an indoor arena but it wasn't in the city centre of Raleigh, it was a good 10 miles out and in the middle of nowhere. We drove along country roads before seeing the arena just in the middle of fields and trees, there was nothing else around it apart from one restaurant across the street. We parked the car in the restaurant and left it there for the show too. As it happens there wasn't even a fee for parking in the arena parking lots but parking off site made sense and worked well for getting out away from the traffic after the show, after seeing this many shows (117 shows for me is tonight's count) you get used to all the little things, reverse parking in a space so you can get straight out, parking near the exit and not the entrance, heading straight out of the venue after Outside The Wall etc just little things that you don't realise until they happen and hold you up, nothing big but things that help.

Once inside the arena, we were all surprised just how small the wall and the whole set up looked! after us all seeing the two New York stadium shows tonight's set up seemed like it was a performance in a place as small as most of our living rooms! the wall itself just looked so short, the stage itself even looked smaller.

I was hoping the crowd would stand at tonight's show and my hopes came true for In The Flesh but as soon as it finished and the excitement of pyros, planes and smoke had died down, so had the crowd! Well no, that's not true, the crowd were excellent tonight, very appreciative and pretty loud but they just couldn't make their minds up wither to sit or to stand. As much as I do like standing at the shows I'm also courteous and thoughtful of others behind me, I’m not the smallest guy in the world and it always seems to be that the person directly behind me is the shortest in the arena and can barely see around me let alone above me!

One thing that was noticeable at tonight's show was how loud it was, there was no distortion at all and the sound was fantastic in the arena it was just very VERY loud, something I was constantly reminded of when I laid my head down on the pillow when we got back to the hotel, my ears were ringing like the fire alarm was going off in the hotel!

I’m not really sure what i can say about the shows now, as I said above, tonight's show was number 117 for me and I’ve used all the superlatives I can in my show reviews but to repeat a few it was loud, the band were on fire and the performance was flawless. I didn't take a single picture of the show tonight and just sat back and enjoyed it. One thing of note at the end though was that Dave again took a good 45 seconds to come out for Outside The Wall, I asked him later if he was now trying to be fashionably late or if there was anything wrong. He was actually knocked over on the stage as the wall came down!! During the 2nd half there’s a large netting rig that is pulled out over the top of the band behind the wall. This is to protect the band and the equipment from falling bricks should the wall fall backwards and not forwards from the stage. Over the last couple of years the netting has been stretched as its been hit by bricks and a few of the bricks came through the netting tonight and knocked Dave on his ass!!

After the show we headed straight out of the door and we were back at the hotel no more than 20 minutes after the show had finished!

- 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 by BD CONTRIBUTORS, Munier & Cynthia Qayyum

Just wanted to report back from last night's show. We went with 13 other friends. Here is what we did:

5:30PM
Parking lots opened. We found a great spot with an open grassy area next to our cars and we were able to put up a 10x10 foot canopy and setup our lawn chairs. I brought my portable grille and we cooked up some steaks, hotdogs and hanburgers and had some delicious micro brew beers which we had brought with us.

7PM
Doors opened to the venue and we all made our way in and some went to the gift shop for t-shirts and bought some beers and drinks and headed for our seats.

8:20PM
Show started a little late; at Las Vegas it was on the dot at 8PM, maybe better slightly late as a lot of people were still not settled and would have caused too much disruption to the experience. The sound was incredible, unfortunately our seats were slightly obscured by the large speakers that were suspended from the ceilings and the ticket did not mention any obstructions so that was a bit upsetting. However after intermission we were able to sit with some friends with a much better view as they had 2 empty seats next to them as the occupants apparently just got up and left as they were all of a sudden "unwell"... strange but I have seen stranger things... worked out for us though.

11:10PM
Show ended and the packed capacity crowd was so loud in cheers it was absolutely defening (it is an ice hockey arena where the Carolina Hurricanes play) so the acoustics are amazing!

Couple of things I noticed different form the Las Vagas show:
1). Some songs were longer at this concert (the happiest days of our lives, Mother, waiting for the worms, Run like hell)
2). Some updated animations and projections (waiting for the worms animations/projections were noticably updated from what I can tell from the Vegas show)

Overall an EXCELLENT show but I think because of the limitations of the arena some of the props like the Spitfire flying over the crowd did not make its appearence as it did at the Las Vegas show, kids from the local schools performing has always been great and Roger picked the kids for this show from a few schools in the area which everyone in the crowd cheered and acknowledged :) Such a wonderful thing Roger does for these kids to bring them on stage and give them an opportunity to shine :0 :)

After the show I felt I may never see this show again but yet I am lucky that I was one of the few who got to see it twice. These shows will remain with me for the rest of my life. I do sincerely hope Roger is able to find time to work on the songs and material he has to put together another album and tour with it :) best of luck to him!

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!