A rock-and-roll concert for veterans and by veterans
|
Version 0 of 1. Roger Waters put on an antiwar concert for wounded warriors at a building named for a war. Friday’s show at DAR Constitution Hall (the “AR” is for “American Revolution”) found Waters, the former bassist and conscience of Pink Floyd, leading a band put together by MusiCorps, a nonprofit organization with a mission to use rock-and-roll to heal the emotional wounds suffered by soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The Music Heals benefit show pulled no punches about the physical damage done. Guys missing legs or arms were right up front and all over the stage all night. Between songs, huge video screens showed MusiCorps members giving testimonials about how makeshift bombs and bullets took their limbs, and how they went off to war prepared to come home either dead or alive but hadn’t ever considered “coming back in pieces.” “Suicide is sort of a problem here,” a resident of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center said while staring into a camera. But those in the videos also expressed that the chance to play with Waters and their MusiCorps brothers has given them a reason to let life go on, with several making melancholy cracks about how much time they have to practice. The benefit of those rehearsals was obvious whenever the talking stopped and the music commenced. These guys rocked. The set list was obviously culled by Waters, full as it was with pacifist songs from Pink Floyd and others. The 2 1/2 -hour show opened with “When the Tigers Broke Free,” a tune Waters, 72, wrote for his old band about his father, who died in a ditch at the Battle of Anzio during World War II. MusiCorps vocalist and Marine veteran Tim Donley, who later told the audience that he lost both legs and most of an arm when he was 19, delivered that song and a courageous cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” Tom Morello, an aggressively antiwar rocker, took center stage for “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” written by Bruce Springsteen. Morello, best known for shredding rap rock with Rage Against the Machine, wowed the crowd, and even his band mates, with a guitar solo that showed he can play a melody if he wants to — even when plucking the strings with his teeth. He also stomped on all sorts of effects pedals, turned knobs violently and unleashed an arsenal of rock-star moves. It was chillingly great. The night wasn’t all railing against war. Springsteen ex-pat Jake Clemons offered a long sax solo during the extended jam of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.” Waters kicked off “Money” with the bass riff everybody who grew up in the ’70s knows, whether they want to or not. Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins came out to croon Pink Floyd’s wimp-rock classic “Wish You Were Here.” Corgan also took the lead on “Dark Side of the Moon,” the title track of Pink Floyd’s Billboard LP chart mainstay, over the MusiCorps band’s huge arrangement. Waters briefly altered the feel-good mood in the packed hall by being cross with a local string ensemble that came onstage to help with “Crystal Clear Brooks,” one of his new songs. He stopped the band in the middle of the first verse to inform the talented guest players that they were in the wrong “time signature,” and then after the restart, badgered them loudly to “pick it up!” Witnessing the outbursts, an audience member toward the back of the hall said loudly, “I wonder why he’s not in Pink Floyd anymore.” Waters quickly realized this wasn’t the place for snippiness and brought everyone back on his side by asking the audience in a humble tone, “You think it might be me?” All was forgiven when Waters and company capped the night with vintage classic rock, “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)” and “Comfortably Numb,” with Corgan and the crowd handling vocals. At the show’s end, the enthralled audience gave one last loud and deserved standing ovation as band members walked or wheeled off stage. McKenna is a freelance writer. |