For those who were born too late to be there

First of all, I am writing this review assuming you are familiar with Pink Floyd and The Wall. If not, go read the reviews on The Wall first. It is a complex masterpiece which I see as perfect, and it tells a tragic story. I will not tell you about that here, even though the performance tells the same story. I'll only write about the differences between The Wall, the studio version and The Wall Live.

The live performance of The Wall was not only a rock concert but also some sort of play. The audience were continually played with with Large Dolls, Spotlights, Costumes, Animations screened on the huge wall on the stage, and of course the building -and destroying- of that same wall around the band members, during the concert. Also, Waters (the songwriter and lead singer) plays with the audience in a way that fits together with the story the wall tells. For instance, he demands from the audience "Are there any paranoids in the audience tonight? Is there anyone who worries about things?" right before Run Like Hell starts.

Musically, the band has some great moments here that don't appear in the studio version. Every song has a long introduction, even songs that don't have any introduction in the studio version such as young lust. David Gilmour extends his guitar solos in almost all the songs, but on Comfortably Numb, Run Like Hell and Young Lust he is simply amazing. Some of the songs have subtle changes which a Pink Floyd fan who has listened to the studio recording will appreciate.

Another huge bonus is two songs that were dropped from the studio version because of space constraints( Remember it was vinyl in those days): "The last few bricks" which is a long and beautiful musical piece, and "What shall we do now" which fans will remember from the movie ("Shall we buy a new guitar, shall we drive a more powerful car..."). Another bonus is an extended version (lyrically) of "The show must go on". If you check out the words on the booklet of the studio version, you'll see this song has a full verse that the band doesn't sing for some reason. Well, they sing the full thing here.

The only con is that while the album is beautiful, it's not the perfection the studio recording is. That, and the fact that a cd recording can only capture a tiny bit of that glorious live show: I'm still hoping for a DVD release.