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The Sixth German Show is the simply
named title of the February 18th Wall show in Dortmund.
It has circulated among Pink Floyd
collectors under names like Dortmund 18.2.81, The Wall Live Dortmund
18Feb1981, The Definitive Wall Series, Dortmund Trial, and Between a
Wall and a Hard Place.
In common with all Pink Floyd
releases on Godfather, this is the silver disc debut of the tape.
The sound quality is very good
boarding on excellent.
There are places where both channels are saturated during some of
the louder sections, and this recording seems
to favor the left channel giving us a decent idea of where the taper
was sitting.
A little tinny in places, but
nonetheless, quite an enjoyable listen.
The performance itself is very slick, tight and extremely slow for
some reason.
The tape runs at the correct speed,
but it just sounds as if every song drags as the band take their
time in delivering
the piece.
Roger Waters even comments on this
in “One Of My Turns” saying “and this has grown slower.”
It offers the band the ability to truly milk the words and overall
narrative for its music and emotional force, something that can
sometimes be obscured in the grand spectacle the Wall shows were.
The tape begins with the Wili Tomsik mc before the surrogate band
crashes on stage with “In The Flesh?”
The emotional force of the show builds in the first quarter of the
show with one of the best versions of “Mother” on record.
Waters’ vocals are perfect for
expressing vulnerability in contrast with Gilmour’s soothing mother
voice.
Gilmour also plays a unique and
pretty sounding guitar solo in the middle of the piece.
“Goodbye Blue Sky” is linked with the opening of “What Shall We Do
Now?” by a gorgeous organ bridge by
Richard Wright reminiscent of the old “Mortality Sequence” in the
early Dark Side performances.
“What Shall We Do Now?” provides
another startling contrast in mood with the latter especially
bringing the show
up to its level of lunacy.
Waters introduces “Young Lust”
simply as “something to shake your arses to.”
The second half of the show contains some unique variations and
surprises beginning with a change in the movie dialogue during
”Nobody Home.”
As with all of the Wall shows the venue erupts with “Comfortably
Numb.”
Tomsik duplicates his introduction
in German (but this time with a loud burp in the middle) before “In
The Flesh.”
Before “Run Like Hell” Waters says,
“Thank you, thank you.
Do you like our pig? He doesn’t
seem to like you very much.
Go on, piss off pig. We’re not very
keen on animals…the only good animal is a dead animal! In a minute,
we’re going to play a number for all the asteroids in the audience.
It’s called ‘Run Like Hell,’ and we
can all CLAP, OUR HANDS! And it’s gonna be fun!”
“Run Like Hell” is extended as usual in these shows, but Wright
plays interesting and unique keyboard solos over the
disco beat in the middle of the song.
The presence of these variations at
this late stage in the tour probably shows how much the band (except
Waters) really wanted to stretch the songs live.
The rest of the fascist section and
“The Trial” proceed as expected. Overall the sixth Dortmund show is
tight with several interesting variations in the tunes.
Godfather include a small poster
along with the discs and several photos producing another sterling
Pink Floyd silver release essential for the collection.
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