Roger Waters Debuts “This Is Not a Drill Tour” with Stunning Visuals, Scathing Commentary: Review, Photos, and Setlist
That’s the tone that powered the night. Yes, Waters and his band played some of Pink Floyd’s greatest hits alongside some of Waters’ most breathtaking originals, and, yes, they played them all beautifully. And, yes, the visuals, which we’ll discuss in a moment, were stunning.
Throughout the course of his “This Is Not a Drill Tour” opener, Waters addressed everything from abortion rights to transphobia to America’s rampant and storied war crimes. If awareness sparks emotion, Waters is pissed.
It’s those projections that take the “This Is Not A Drill” show from good to great, allowing viewers to step deeper than ever into the psyche of the primary songwriting force from Pink Floyd’s golden age. The opener, Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb,” was reimagined as a dark funeral dirge backed by a city wasteland that’s long been lost and forgotten. During “Another Brick in the Wall,” the second song, violent demands for conformity flashed in enormous red and white letters.
In the third song, the full force of Waters’ political vitriol roared to the surface. While the scathing lyrics of “The Powers That Be” rang through the arena, the projections showed clips of police brutality while listing off many of the most internationally reported minority deaths in recent few years, including Pittsburgh’s Antwon Rose, Jr., the 17-year-old fatally shot by police in 2018.
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In the fifth song of the night, the crowd enjoyed a brief reprieve from the emotional and provocative visual landscapes. As Waters stepped behind the keyboard, he explained the concept for his next song, a new track called “The Bar”: A dream world where people can truly come together and connect as their best, most caring selves.
After a 20-minute intermission, the second half was very similar to the first, but with a few exceptions: The lighting was more complex, the famous pig floated around for a couple of songs, and Waters briefly donned a long leather jacket and red armband for two songs off The Wall. The show concluded on a much softer note. After the crescendos of The Dark Side of The Moon’s “Eclipse” and the depressing Doomsday Clock-inspired “Two Suns in the Sunset,” Waters’ face filled the enormous screens as he once again stepped behind the keyboard.
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After shaking off a brief whirlwind of emotions sparked by an enlivened crowd and years away from the stage, Waters explained the backstory for “Sad Old Lady,” an original track heavily inspired by an old Bob Dylan tune. As the song eventually wound down, the entire band lined up, still playing their instruments, and marched off stage.
of the night. Despite all the moral outrage and social frustration that propel “This Is Not a Drill” forward, we watched as the cameras followed the band down the stage steps, through the crowd, and into the privacy of backstage, where the band circled around Waters. With one triumphant wave goodbye from the man himself, the camera cut off and the house lights went up.
The “This Is Not a Drill Tour” is a critical show in a critical time. The world may be chaotic. Our leadership may be corrupt. And our society may be selfish. But as much as “This Is Not a Drill” is a call to arms against hate, it’s also an important reminder: At the end of the day, all we have is each other. And for three hours inside PPG Paints Ar
ena, that was enough.
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