Roger Waters - Us+Them @ Circo Massimo

Spring 2018 had come and I had yet to decide on my summer concerts in Italy. The only thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to see Little Steven And The Disciples Of Soul who I had missed last year. I was sure they were going to play Italy in the summer because they had made a promise when they cancelled one of their winter shows. Meanwhile, I was thinking about Roger Waters and his Us+Them show. I had seen him several times but only playing his Wall show. But would it be worth a trip just for this? And secretly, I was hoping for a gig in Athens, in fact I was almost certain of a gig in Athens, since he has a house in Greece and he had played 4 gigs here on The Wall Live tour. The popularity of the first three however was overestimated by the promoters who invited him back for a fourth one two years later for an open air concert in which the stadium ended up being only half full. And this was perhaps what made them decide not to risk an appearance on his latest tour

Well, luck was on my side and Little Steven announced a Rome gig 4 days after Roger's Circo Massimo show. The decision was made for me and I bought tickets for both gigs and I was off on a 5-day trip to Rome. I had been to Circo Massimo once before, to see The Rolling Stones four years ago and to save myself from worrying about public transport I had booked a room that was at a guest house that was within walking distance of Circo Massimo and in the heart of Trastevere. I booked a room at the same place once again, and I was good to go.

Ads about the concert greeted me as far back as the airport as I got off the plane.

So after I went to my room and got a bit of a rest, I made my way to Circo Massimo. I managed to find a "place" or a "space" if you prefer, higher up, but close to the stage so I would be able to see and waited for the show to start. There were already projections on the big stage screen before the concert began.

Once the show started, it was evident that it was going to follow The Wall Live format, meaning that the projections on the screen would be used to accompany and enhance the songs played. Only this time, there would be songs from all the Roger Waters era Pink Floyd catalogue and not just from The Wall. As far as Roger's solo work was concerned though, only songs from his latest album "Is This The Life We Really Want" were played.

There was even a break in the middle of the concert but it was only a break from the music because projections were still being shown on the screen. Exactly the same thing that had happened on The Wall Live tour. This time the projections had a "resist" theme and for the duration of the break it was explained to us what exactly we should resist.

Roger and his band came back after the break with songs from Animals while the Battersea Power Plant from the cover of the aforementioned album featured heavily on the screen.

And then of course, there were the usual flying pigs.

All in all, it was not only just another brick in the wall, but it was also nice to hear songs from my other favourite Pink Floyd albums: "The Dark Side Of The Moon", "Wish You Were Here" and "Animals". The only drawback was that the fans near me could not decide if they wanted to watch the concert standing up or sitting down. I would be very happy to sit down, especially after my morning trip, but when I and others did so, there were others in front of us who stood back up. And then others behind us would ask us to sit back down again. Oh well...

In the end, there was also an encore of two songs where a laser and fireworks show predominated.

And so, I left Circo Massimo to go back to my room. The following day the World Cup Final was taking place and two days after that it would be time for Little Steven And The Disciples Of Soul.

SETLIST:
Intro: Speak to Me
Set 1:
01. Breathe
02. One Of These Days
03. Time
04. Breathe (Reprise)
05. The Great Gig In The Sky
06. Welcome To The Machine
07. Déjà Vu
08. The Last Refugee
09. Picture That
10. Wish You Were Here
11. The Happiest Days Of Our Lives
12. Another Brick In The Wall Part 2
13. Another Brick In The Wall Part 3
Set 2:
14. Dogs
15. Pigs (Three Different Ones)
16. Money
17. Us And Them
18. Smell The Roses
19. Brain Damage
20. Eclipse
Encore:
21. Mother
22. Comfortably Numb