By Matt De Marco, Staff Writer

Rock operas have become a lost art in the musical era of Gagas and Weezys. Ask anyone under the age of 25 what a rock opera is, and their response will most likely be “That thing that the dude from ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ did with the puppets.” A better example would be Pink Floyd’s The Wall, one of the top five best selling albums of all time in the U.S., and Roger Waters reminded us all of just why that is when he performed the entire album at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on November 3rd.

Waters, one of Pink Floyd’s founding members, has been touring since September, recreating the original The Wall tour of 1980. This tour is chock-filled with technological advancements; it’s clear that this is not a simple reenacting of the original tour. Throughout the show, a massive wall is being constructed, becoming the central focal point for the concert—slideshows and animations were projected onto it, band members took their places at holes in the wall to perform solos, at the end of the opening number, “In The Flesh?,” an airplane flew into it, foreshadowing its eventual destruction.

Pyrotechnics were used throughout the show, as were massive marionette puppets, representative of several of the opera’s supporting characters. The technological aspect of this show was astounding.

Musically, the show was just as phenomenal. Waters brought an impressive touring band with him, including lead guitarist Dave Kilminster, who was just spectacular. The solo he delivered during “Comfortably Numb” was absolutely mind-blowing.

Waters, himself, proved that rock ‘n roll has no age limit. At 67 years old, the rock icon played a flawless show, hitting notes that he was hitting 30 years ago. His energy was visibly present; he was truly excited to be performing this album for a live crowd again.

The crowd was on their feet for the entire two hour show, singing along, raising their lighters into the air, and getting stoned…whether they meant to or not. The Izod Center was, essentially, one giant hot-box, which could only be expected when you’re going to see Pink Floyd in any fashion.

One of the more memorable moments of the night was when Waters performed “Mother.” Waters is a renowned bass player, but for this song, he traded it in for an acoustic guitar. Before he began, he told the crowd that they had dug up some footage of him playing this song on the original tour 30 years ago, and that he was going to be performing this song as a duet with himself…from 30 years ago. This was an emotional moment for everyone in the crowd, as many of them were there to see this original performance.

At the end of the night, everyone went home happy. The only slight disappointment was at the fact that there was no encore. Other than that, Waters played an incredible show, and anyone with the opportunity should go see it.