This Is Not a Drill – Live from Prague by Roger Waters

During the concert, Waters explores Pink Floyd's vast repertoire with sumptuous reinterpretations, including songs from The Wall, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Dark Side of the Moon (all albums released during Waters' leadership of Pink Floyd), and a surprisingly large section dedicated to The Final Cut. He also features his own personal repertoire, including songs from Radio K.A.O.S., Amused to Death, and This the Life We Really Want?

In addition to iconic tracks from Pink Floyd and Waters' discography, the beautiful unreleased track "The Bar" makes its debut.

As is often the case with this artist's albums and concerts, this album also contains a clear political message denouncing capitalist society, war, and social injustice, with a strong criticism of Israeli policy and the conflict in Gaza, which has historically attracted the attention of both the press and Waters. The concert, on May 23, 2023, precedes by several months the start of the most recent phase of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which erupted following the tragic events of October 7, 2023.

These are four vinyl records, with a total running time of approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes, 24 songs, and hundreds of emotions.

The Disc 1 Side A, after the brief introduction, features beautiful renditions of "Comfortably Numb" in a semi-acoustic version, very soft with few artificial sounds and a performance that creates a beautiful atmosphere, thanks also to the beautiful female backing vocals. "The Happiest Days of Our Lives," performed faithfully to the original, are also beautiful. Also beautiful are the versions of "Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2 and Pt. 3" (so far all songs from "The Wall") and "The Powers That Be" (from Roger Waters' album Radio K.A.O.S.).

The Disc: 1 Side B begins with "The Bravery of Being Out of Range," a beautiful song from "Amused to Death," followed by a beautiful blues track, "The Bar Part 1," a previously unreleased song whose genesis (during lockdown) is truly beautiful. Then comes the magnificent "Have a Cigar," also in a version very faithful to the original and played with the same points of emphasis and even the same themes in the solos. A superb performance.

Disc 2 Side C immediately offers us two tracks from Wish You Were Here, the eponymous track, with acoustic guitars performing the opening part exactly as the original, with very little license, and with great respect. Waters' vocal performance is exceptional, with a lot of passion and a great sense of sadness and disillusionment. It gives me chills when the audience sings along—in my case, chills and emotion. This interpretation is also a masterpiece. The theme played on piano in the middle section is beautiful. This is followed by a rendition of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," with bass taking center stage, as is obvious. As with other tracks, not only is the interpretation faithful to the original, but there are very few subtle variations. The sound is deep, a journey listening to vinyl—I can only imagine the live experience. Magnificent.

The Disc 2 Side D  begins with "Sheep" from Animals, the metaphor of the sheep representing the "insane and blind herd" and the harsh criticism of capitalism, which culminates in the sheep revolting against the dogs. Great energy and magical sounds also in this live version, even when the voices are robotic (poetic license) with a light keyboard undercurrent. The sound seems vintage, beautiful rock. Next up is "In the Flesh" from The Wall with its majestic intro given the right emphasis, but here the guitar is something else and its dissonances are not always pleasant. Then the singing begins with a great vocal interpretation for this extremely theatrical piece. Beautiful, even the backing vocals. The machine gun fire at the end is disturbing. Then there is "Run Like Hell" from The Wall, simply fantastic, from the initial spoken word, the super-psychedelic guitar riff (very well executed), the clean and precise rhythm, deep, cleaner than the original. The vocals hold up beautifully, and the backing vocals and backing vocals are superb. The atmosphere is as haunting as you'd expect from this piece, pressing and disturbing.

The Disc 3 Side E begins with "Déjà Vu" from Waters' "Is This the Life We Really Want?" and is then followed by the title track from the same album. The initial acoustic guitar and vocal section is beautiful, as is the introduction of the keyboards and the light rhythm section for the first track, a beautiful ballad with a psychedelic folk sound, with almost gospel-like moments when the backing vocals come in. Waters' voice is beautiful, not only in the quality of his singing but also in his interpretation; I adore this very unlikable man and a great musician. The sax part is splendid in the emotional first track. The second track is very atmospheric, with a dark mood and very effective spoken-word vocals, a lovely suspended and interlocutory mood, with sudden synth incursions. Waters' influence is evident, with references to Pink Floyd's work, but if they're there for other bands, they're obviously there for him too, in his songs. A long song, intense and passionate in its vocals and choruses. Then comes "Money," and we land on "Dark Side of the Moon," with its iconic and extraordinary opening that doesn't disappoint at all; even the vocals, with the scream "Money!", are spot-on. Great respect for this song, but under Waters' direction, it couldn't have been otherwise; he wrote this masterpiece. I get chills, excitement, and amazement every time I listen to it, even in this live version.
 

Disc 3 Side F, continues with all the songs from The Dark Side of the Moon, and when I read the setlist, I thought if I'd been there, I'd probably faint and scream like a teenager (which I didn't even do as a teenager, though). "Us and Them" is faithful to the original in its atmosphere, and considering the masterpiece nature of this song, I've already said it all, with the inclusion of cannon shots at some key moments, a clear reference to the international situation. "Any Colour You Like" and "Brain Damage" follow, then "Eclipse." Everything is fantastic, with wonderful backing vocals.

Disc 4 Side G, begins with "Two Suns in the Sunset," which also leaves room for the much-maligned "The Final Cut." The song takes up the entire side of the album and is introduced by a speech that defines it as a sad song but appropriate for the moment we're living in, the most dangerous in history, with nuclear proliferation (a very summation of Waters's statement). I didn't remember this song, but it was great to hear it again. It had never been performed live before this concert, and the similarities with other songs from The Wall, the album from which unreleased recordings were taken and which gave rise to The Final Cut, are more evident than ever. This song is enhanced by this sound and the beautiful backing vocals.

The Disc 4 Side H, after Waters' greeting to the delirious crowd, offers us "The Bar Part 2," the second part of the previously unreleased track, piano and vocals initially for an almost soulful blues with a subtle keyboard base. "Outside the Wall," once again from Waters' beautiful creation, "The Wall," closes the album. A thrilling, wonderful close to the concert 

The band is extraordinary; I can't imagine what it's like to work under Waters's direction, with his edgy personality. The top rhythm section, composed of Gus Seyffert on bass and guitar, who also worked with Waters on The Dark Side of the Moon Redux, and Joey Waronker on drums (Beck, R.E.M., Roger Waters, Liam Gallagher & John Squire, and Oasis), is precise, clean, with great technique and taste. Robert Walter's organ is splendid, and Seamus Blake's sax, which I wasn't familiar with, is remarkable and very engaged on the album. Jonathan Wilson and Dave Kilminster play top-notch guitar. A special mention goes to Jon Carin, who primarily handles keyboards and did a fantastic job in this live performance. Shanay Johnson and Amanda Belair are on backing vocals, and they're exceptional considering the huge backing vocal component of this album. Much of the thrill comes from their voices.

Waters? As usual, he's unpleasant, confrontational, challenging, rigid, abrasive, arrogant, presumptuous—all right.

And as usual, a brilliant, great musician, an extraordinary voice and showman on this album as well. A man of thought and action, he used his thinking and brilliance to wage social battles, which may or may not be liked, but which certainly make him one of the most important figures in music over two centuries. And this album celebrates his greatness.

A monumental work worthy of Pink Floyd, for whom Waters was the main songwriter and composer during their heyday, and whose bassist he was with his legendary Fender Precision Bass, and whose influence was so profound that above all, to him (and, in all honesty, also to Wright's genius) we owe what has often been simply called the "Pink Floyd Sound," which has influenced and still influences music as a whole today. An unmissable masterpiece.

Tracklist
LP 1 -A
1 Introduction
2 Comfortably Numb
3 The Happiest Days of Our Lives
4 Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2
5 Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 3
6 The Powers That Be
LP 1-B
1 The Bravery of Being Out of Range
2 The Bar Part 1
3 Have a Cigar
LP  2-C
1 Wish You Were Here
2 Shine On You Crazy Diamond
LP 2-D
1 Sheep
2 In the Flesh
3 Run Like Hell
LP 3-E
1 Déjà Vu
2 Is This the Life We Really Want?
3 Money
LP  3-F
1 Us and Them
2 Any Colour You Like
3 Brain Damage
4 Eclipse
LP 4-G
1 Two Suns in the Sunset
LP 4-H
1 The Bar Part 2
2 Outside the Wall.

Line-Up

- Roger Waters - bass, guitar, piano, vocals
- Jonathan Wilson - guitar, vocals
- Dave Kilminster - guitar, vocals
- Jon Carin - keyboards, guitar, vocals
- Gus Seyffert - bass, guitar
- Joey Waronker - drums
- Robert Walter - organ
- Shanay Johnson - backing vocals
- Amanda Belair - backing vocals
- Seamus Blake - saxophone