Entertainment Page 8
The Lightning Strike • November-December 2010
CONCERT REVIEW
Roger Waters: 67 years old and still rocking Former Pink Floyd front man celebrates The Wall’s 30th anniversary with a world tour In My Opinion Eugenia Nikitina
Guest writer
Former bassist and lyricist of the 1960’s band, Pink Floyd, Roger Waters decided to bless the North American continent by performing one of the band’s most honorable albums, The Wall. His tour throughout the country celebrates the album’s 30th anniversary, and has brought tears of joy to all critics and childhood fans. Ladies and gentlemen of the juror, I would like to present you with a case that proves pure musical brilliance still subsists within this generation of seemingly dying musical talent. Within the pool of Ke$has and Lady Gagas reemerges an old musical legend that has survived over the last three decades. I present you with the one and only Roger Waters. The Show It is 7:58 pm, Nov. 13, at the Bank Atlantic Center in Fort Lauderdale and I am surrounded by thousands of eager fans. I search the crowd to see who is present. I see thousands of people around the age of 50 in over-worn tie dye shirts: old fans keen to relive their childhood dream. Surprisingly, it is rather difficult to find any one my age. As I turn to face the stage, a flash of lights explode. Fireworks explode from all sides of the stage and World War II battle music is blasted throughout the massive stadium. Troops appear on a riser with quasi-Nazi flags in hand as
a vintage World War II fighter plane glides across the stadium on a string, diving into the right side of the stage before it bursts into flames. Waters appears on stage in a Hitleresque costume, and so, the show begins. A conceptual album designed to be listened to from the first song to last, Rogers plays the first song “Thin Ice.” Despite his 67 years of age, he still sounds as young and alive as ever. His back up band played as lively and well as the original members did, making no mistakes and receiving applause from the audience. Behind Waters I can clearly see parts of a gray wall being put together. The band used to build a large wall between themselves and the audience when performing shows in the 70’s and 80’s but had to stop because their act became too costly. Now it became evident as the show went on that a large wall stretching from the right end of the stage to left was going to be built. The wall was used as a canvas for creatively innovative art and animation synchronized to the music of the show. Everything from paint, to the vines of ominous flowers subdued the massive wall as it became obvious that this was not just a concert, but a musical play filled with art created by the minds of genuine brilliance.
NICKY MINSKI
JUST ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL: Roger Waters graced the stage at Bank Atlantic Center to perform Pink Floyd’s The Wall while simultaneously building an illuminated wall behind him for the massive crowd. Pink Floyd originated in 1965.
During the renowned song, “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2,” children ran on stage as a conformed puppet the size of a Macy’s Day Parade float appeared from the ceiling. The children began to point and shout the lyrics at the monster, “We don’t need
no education, we don’t need no thought control.” After several repetitions of the lyrics, the children broke into an interpretive dance on stage, further intoxicating the audience in a sense of awe as their gasps and cheers only grew louder. As the show continued, the production only got more complex and arrousing. “My favorite part of the show was when he played the song “Goodbye Blue Sky” because of the prevalent symbolism of the dropping bombs that were displayed on the wall that was being built as the concert progressed,” senior Susana Restrepo said. War and its undeniable destruction is a predominant theme in the album, along with existential ideas such as isolation, alienation and insanity. All ideas
were conveyed through the acting and production of the show; in one moment, Roger picks up a fake machine-gun and begins to shoot at the audience while the lights accompanied by the sound of the gun create the illusion that some are being shot. Several songs, such as “Nobody’s Home,” allude to the insanity of former band member Syd Barrett, who had to leave the band because of his schizophrenia, which he developed in the late 60’s. To communicate this part of the band’s history, Waters is bangs on the gray wall for escape. The climax of both the movie and the album, “The Trial,” is the second-to-last song and has Waters singing and recreating voices of various characters of Pinks the Protagonist Trail in the movie which happens to decide his sanity. This, and the last song
“These are dark times, there’s no denying,” announces Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour in intense close-up, admitting the evil Lord Voldemort’s rise to power after his cronies murdered the wise Albus Dumbledore. Voldemort has gathered his minions, called Death Eaters, to hunt down and kill Harry Potter, the only individual with any hope of defeating him. Harry’s face is plastered on posters labeled “Undesirable #1” after Voldemort seizes the Ministry of Magic, the propaganda reminiscent of other evil empires. With treachery pervading every aspect of their lives, Harry, Ron and Hermione flee to the wilderness to destroy Horcruxes, the source of Voldemort’s immortality. In their moment of lowest despair, Ron abandons the mission and leaves Harry and Hermione without direction. The stretch of time felt unnecessary, but Ron’s return bolts the plot
forward once again. One Horcrux is destroyed and three more are left. The trio makes an informative visit to Luna Lovegood’s troubled father, Xenophilius, and a captivating animation reveals what the Deathly Hallows are. But the friends are betrayed when Xenophilius trades them in the hopes of retrieving his captured daughter. They are imprisoned in Malfoy Manor (and reunited with Luna and an ex-professor) by the bloodthirsty Bellatrix Lestrange, who tortures the Muggle-born Hermione by carving the word “Mudblood” into her flesh. But the innocents are rescued by the faithful house elf Dobby, managing to disappear but at the cost of Dobby’s life. Dobby’s death and Voldemort’s acquisition of the powerful Elder wand finish the movie with a cliffhanger-esque guarantee for more magical madness this July.
What I believe sets this film apart from the others is how faithful the screenplay is to J.K. Rowling’s novel. Whatever the reason – extra time or extra care – the authenticity of Deathly Hallows makes the plot more understandable to those who haven’t read the series. The absence of the series’ gifted supporting actors in this film was felt, as focus falls on Harry, Ron and Hermione, but David Yates has redeemed himself as a director after HalfBlood Prince’s lapse into mediocre teenage drama. When that film finished on premiere night, a stranger behind me sighed, “that sucked.” But Deathly Hallows began and ended with anticipatory applause, and the stream of exiting moviegoers excitedly told those wrapped patiently around the theater, “It was unbelievable!”
to follow, “Outside the Wall” are supposed to be the only songs seen from an observer’s perspective in the movie, the show and the album. As the song ends, a loud noise is heard and the colossal wall in front of the audience topples over as all the members of the band climb over the fallen bricks to finish the show off with the last song, “Outside of the Wall.” “Roger Waters modernized The Wall while conveying tragic and disheartening past historical events that have shaped our world thus far in a creative and inspiring way,” Restrepo said. “I’m so glad I had the opportunity to go because this was Roger Waters’s last tour. It’s put my life into perspective and now I’ll make sure that I don’t end up as just another brick in the wall.”
MOVIE REVIEW
In My Opinion Carla Hasson
Copy editor
When the previews finished and the lights dimmed, the theater erupted in applause. Hands and wands were raised in the air in collective anticipation, then lowered in hushed reverence. It’s not often that one sees this kind of response to a movie that hasn’t even begun. The midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 marks the beginning of the end for one of history’s most beloved and lucrative movie franchises. Harry Potter’s redemptive epic filled with magic and fraught with villains returns with its darkest installment yet. It begins boldly.
NOWHERE IS SAFE: Part one of J.K. Rowling’s seventh installment in the Harry Potter series is now out in theaters.