TICKET SCAN HERE

Capacity: 18,000
Concert starts: 8pm

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

Website: www.verizoncenter.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!

WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD!

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

Night one in Washington DC, and from initial comments coming through, a great show.

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 by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Simon Denton, and CONCERT PICTURES by Paul Millar

At the venue, the gathering crowd seemed up for some Friday night music. Whistles and cheering started.....and that was just because the venue doors had been opened to admit us.

After spending too much money on merchandise we made our way to our seats. A bit of advice for anyone who collects posters as souvenirs: there are some good ones for sale but consider taking a cardboard tube to keep it in good condition.

The info on tickets stated "Roger on stage 8pm. Prompt!" but with minutes to go, about 50% of the seats remained empty. My initial thinking was that tickets had sold poorly; several of Roger's tweets have made a point of mentioning when a show was sold out. I was thinking the atmosphere would be difficult if the 18,000 seat arena remained only half full. However at about 8:15pm there must have been an announcement in the bars and restaurants as thousands of people streamed in and suddenly the place was full.

The big screen behind the stage lit up with an image of a woman. This alerted the audience that it was almost show time and generated a huge cheer. The image on the screen was crystal clear. About 10 minutes later came the spine tingling moment when all the house lights go out and shadowy figures move on to the stage. A massive roar from the crowd, everyone in the floor and lower level seating rose to their feet and we were off! Set list remained as detailed with songs from Dark Side of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, some of the material from Is This The Life and Another Brick in the Wall which of course was a massive sing along.

The sound system was incredible as we have come to expect from Roger's show. No issues with the sound that some other reviewers mentioned on the Brain Damage site from shows earlier in the tour.

During Another Brick a group of local ran on stage to perform their dance routine in what has become something of a tradition since The Wall tour. They appeared in uniform but suddenly they ripped the Velcro of the costume off and were all dressed in t-shirts with "Resist" slogans across them. The kids clearly enjoyed doing their routine - some of the boys air guitaring whilst Dave Kilminster blasted out the guitar solo. Roger thanked them and the crowd gave them a huge ovation.

We enjoyed the songs from Is This The Life. After waiting for so many years for a new album from Roger it was great that he had the opportunity to perform something new. However there were inevitably a number of people in the arena who took the opportunity to go to the toilet / bars. I guess this is to be expected but nevertheless I find it strange that people would be interested only in the Pink Floyd material.

In what seemed like minutes, it was interval. The first part of the show had flown past...but nowhere near as fast as the second half would do.

Over the years we have seen Floyd, Gilmour and Waters on many occasions. For the first time since we have had the internet, I had resisted the temptation to read anything about the tour. It was fantastic going along without knowing which songs would be played or what the show would look like or even who was in the band. I won't spoil it for anyone else who wishes to avoid finding out too much before they go to see this tour by describing what happens in part 2 (although the photos here probably give it away). Suffice to say the second half was simply stunning. Stunning! Describing it couldn't do it justice; the most amazing live performance effects we've seen. Battersea Power Station was there in Washington DC complete with smoke coming out the chimneys and a pig floating above it.

I was in my element as part 2 launched straight into my favourite songs: Dogs was immediately followed by Pigs Three Different Ones. The power station had all kinds of images projected on it. To be honest I was so fascinated by the effects that I was distracted from some of the music.

Now it has to be said at this point that Roger's leftward leanings were very visible. Outside of the arena before the show some folk told us that lots of people had walked out of earlier performances because of the anti- Donald Trump imagery during the show. The DC crowd were generally supportive of Roger on this and gave a massive cheer at the sideswipe against Trump although around us there were 1 or 2 loud "boos" and 1 guy walked out and didn't return. My personal view (as someone who is left leaning politically) was that the anti-Trump stuff went on a bit too long and could have alienated a section of the audience. Having said all that, anyone who really knows Roger's material wouldn't have been taken aback at the imagery. And as Roger himself once said "you don't say all the things I say without someone calling you a w*&^k*r". All I am saying is: be aware that there is some political content which not everyone will agree with.

Back to the music and the sensational show....The crowd were in good voice throughout the concert and especially so in the second half.

All too soon it was over. The roar of appreciation from the audience was huge.

On returning for the encore the roar of the crowd got even louder.

Taking the mic, Roger said something to the effect of "wow! Thank you so much. It really means a lot to us."

The roar again got even louder....Roger again said "Oh wow! Thank you."

We have seen this happen before at concerts in the US where the crowd respond louder and louder to every "thank you" and it's a brilliant way of connecting with the band and the rest of the audience. It was clear that Roger and the band had enjoyed performing this city (see Dave Kilminster and Roger's tweets and Ian Ritchie s blog).

How long would this cycle of "thank you" and even louder applause go on tonight?

The roar got even louder....Roger laughed and waved at the crowd and we got even louder.

Roger said something like "Wow, so this is what it's like to play a concert in Washington DC" and of course that set the crowd off again. It got to the point where the band just had to start playing the encore - Comfortably Numb. What other way to finish a brilliant and spectacular concert?

CONCERT REVIEW by BD CONTRIBUTOR, David Falkenstein

Having waited ten months since tickets went on sale you could feel the suspense in the arena growing as the band had not yet taken the stage at 8:18PM. The time leading up to the gig was filled with sounds of the ocean while a lone Native American overlooked a tranquil valley.

In the dim lights of the sound equipment the sold out crowd spotted shadows of musicians entering the stage left and right as the haunting sounds of Speak To Me shattered through the cheers backed by a spectacular video that created the sensation of traveling through an asteroid belt.

The fans, of all ages, gave Roger and the band a warm welcome song after song. The highlight of the evening (IMO) were the two selections from Animals although it's really hard to pick a favorite part of the show as it was a culmination of audio-visual grandeur in typical Waters mastery.

I will say of all the songs on the set list, Us and Them was probably (and appropriately) the tightest and most tuned song of the show. As with any Waters show, listening was only half the experience as projection screens were lowered from the rafters and lasers shot in all directions creating a pyramid prism that appeared as a Dark Side halo over the stage.

At one point in the second set Roger played to the audience with a sympathetic plea to bring love and peace into the world. He was met with cheers that far exceeded the decibels produced by the enormous sound system as he pumped his fist to his heart several times as the cheers grew even louder until he crossed his arms across his chest as if to embrace each fan, bowing humbly to us all.

It is obvious Roger brings a lot of sincerity, hard work, and passion to every show and it is always a treat no matter how many times I've seen him.

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!