10 Most Overblown Stage Productions In Music Today

3. Roger Waters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_UQpMcwFjI A lot of credit obviously goes to Waters' original band, Pink Floyd, for writing the music and staging the concerts that inspire his solo gigs these days. When touring, he brings along a whopping 11 other musicians to help him fill out the expansive sound of the Floyd back catalogue, including ukuleles, trumpets, mandolins, and accordions. Quite the ensemble, and one that was constructed with the 1979 album 'The Wall' in mind. As Waters took the band out in 2010 (a jaunt that saw him tour for over 3 years), the aim was to finally do the record justice on a global scale, with a stage show, light display, and overall sound to really bring the double album justice. What followed was a rollercoaster show detailing every minute aspect and theme from both the album and its accompanying film; loneliness, paranoia, industrial revolution, commercialisation, celebrity, and of course, isolation, aided by the physical yet oh-so-metaphorical brick wall that gets built onstage during the first half of the show. It's an incredibly bold move that separates performer from audience, and amazingly still sells tickets 35 years later. Almost every moment in the production is permeated by video projections onto the wall (including clips of bombings, war, political leaders, and revolutionary moments in history to accompany the musical message), huge firework displays, animated puppets, and confetti, whilst the trademark inflatable pig flies untethered through the arena, directed by remote control. Waters even starts shooting a gun at one point too. The show climaxes with a cataclysmic dismantling of the wall, setting off more bells and whistles as the finale comes, in a way that makes the show more comparable to a Broadway production than a rock concert. One critic described 'The Wall Live' as an "anti-war, pro-music, theatrical, cinematic, brilliant, inspiring truly immersive, multi-media experience", while another said, "some of it was poignant, some of it was bombastic, some of it was viscerally thrilling... all of it was entertaining", and one can hardly argue with that. Grossing $458.6 million across 219 shows, Waters proved that, at 67 years old, you're never too old to put on an amazing show, or to show the kids how it's done.