ROGER WATERS : THIS IS NOT A DRILL

ROGER WATERS : THIS IS NOT A DRILL - LIVE FROM PRAGUE

Disc One (62:30)

Introduction
Comfortably Numb
The Happiest Days Of Our Lives
Another Brick In The Wall Part 2
Another Brick In The Wall Part 3
The Powers That Be
The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range
The Bar Part 1
Have A Cigar
Wish You Were Here
Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 6, 7, 5
Sheep

Disc Two (72:23)

In The Flesh
Run Like Hell
Déjà Vu
Is This The Life We Really Want?
Money
Us And Them
Any Colour You Like
Brain Damage
Eclipse
Two Suns In The Sunset
The Bar Part 2
Outside the Wall

Label : Columbia

Venue : O2 Arena, Prague, Czech Republic

Recording Date : May 25, 2023

Release Date : August 1, 2025

Review (Brutally Honest Rock Album Reviews) : Just for grins, I thought I’d see what a Roger Waters concert is like without the visuals. I mean, if you’re going to listen to the album Roger Waters – This is Not a Drill instead of watching the concert video, the question you have to ask yourself is whether it is still a worthwhile experience when it is just the music. If you’ve never been to a Roger Waters concert, it is always a visually stunning affair, I describe it at length in my review of the Us + Them concert movie. But what if what you hear is all you get – is it still worth your time? Spoiler alert: it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Most of the songs themselves, of course, are pretty phenomenal. Which is only to be expected considering they are drawn from some of the most phenomenal albums in the known universe. I mean, you take a look at the tracklist, and it’s hard not to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of great songs. You’d be hard pressed to find a live album in the past twenty years with a higher quotient of great songs. But as our old friend Paul McCartney has shown us time and again, a lot of amazing songs on your live album does not necessarily a great live album make. You can take a phenomenal track list and play it with high levels of suckitude and end up with an awful live album. Luckily Ol’ Roger doesn’t take it quite that far, but he does make some highly questionable choices. For example, at the beginning of the album, after warning us all that we can “f*** off to the bar” if we don’t like his politics (fair warning, that), Roger gives us the single most egregiously lame version of “Comfortably Numb” in all of recorded history. You have to work pretty hard to take a song that amazing and make it that boring, but Roger pulls it off handily. He sucked everything that made the song spine tingling right out of it, and left a dry husk of a shell of a song that usually makes the hair in my neck stand up every damn time. Now if you saw the tour, or the concert video, you know the visuals that went along with it were stunning – which kept you from noticing how awful this version of the song is. So as far as a purely audio listening experience goes, we are off to a rough start. Luckily, hardly anything else on the album is quite that bad. Other than what is easily the most toothless version of “Run Like Hell” in existence. Not sure how Roger managed that, but this one is missing the oomph that made pretty much every other version of the song I’ve ever heard such a wild ride. But you know, for the most part the music is competent, but not exciting. Roger has always mostly treated music as little more than a vehicle for his oh-so-incisive lyrics (I’ve always thought he was a great lyricist, but not nearly as great as he thinks he is). He not only lacks the musical virtuosity of his old bandmate David Gilmour, he appears to have little appreciation for it, because he hasn’t recruited virtuoso musicians in his backing band. They are solid, but not spectacular. Although it must be said, keyboardist Jon Carin is the only person who has ever played in two Pink Floyd tours, multiple David Gilmour tours, and multiple Roger Waters tours, so there’s something to be said for that. Talk about playing on both sides of the fence. But anyway, melody takes a back seat to message in Roger’s writing, especially when David Gilmour isn’t around to melody things up a bit. With the rare exception of things like “Deja Vu”, which not only has an electrifying melody, but also has some of his most genuinely powerful lyrics of his entire career (well, along with a few stinkers like “The trout in the streams are all hermaphrodites”). That melody, though, when he goes high singing “with my staff and my rod” – gives me chills every time. Unfortunately, a lot of moments like that are marred by some truly awful vocals. I love the melody of the song, but I can’t enjoy this version as much because of his weak tired-old-man vocals. I get it, the guy is in his 80s, he sounds like an old man because he is an old man. But I’m not gonna pretend it doesn’t affect my enjoyment of the album, this site is Brutally Honest Rock Album Reviews, not Let’s Lie So We Don’t Have to Say an Old Man’s Voice Sounds Terrible Rock Album Reviews. He sounds like he’s singing with a mouthful of marbles on “The Powers that Be”, I honestly can’t understand a word he’s saying, and it affects my ability to enjoy the song. For some reason he opted not to trade vocals the way it’s usually done on “Run Like Hell”, and it’s a huge mistake, he’s not up to it. It’s just a better song with a good, aggressive, snarling vocal, rather than a good-heavens-this-guy-sounds-like-he-could-keel-over-any-minute vocal. And it isn’t just Roger Waters with the weak vocals, I’ve always thought Dimestore David Gilmour / Jonathan Wilson has an exceptionally weak voice, far too weak to carry songs like “Money” or “Us and Them”. He’s a serviceable, if not awe-inspiring, guitarist, and you have to feel a little sympathy for anyone trying to fill David Gilmour’s shoes. So I’ll cut him a break on his guitar playing. But his vocals are inexcusably weak as water, and I can’t enjoy the songs where he handles the lead vocals as a result. And, frankly, the Roger Waters concert experience really isn’t the same thing without the breathtaking visuals. Over the years Roger he become the rock world’s greatest purveyor of spectacle, and what you see takes what you hear to a whole other level. There is an emotional weight to the experience that is completely lost when you are relying on the music alone – not that these aren’t passionate, emotional songs, but these aren’t the greatest versions of them, and without the messages that are sent visually much is lost. In fact, frequently you hear sound effects, and without the context the visuals provide they seem random, even distracting, because you have no idea what is going on with them just based on what you are hearing. Seeing the This is Not a Drill tour was at times a profoundly moving experience – simply hearing it is often just disappointing. But on the plus side, if competent music is your thing, there are competent versions of half of Dark Side of the Moon, half of Wish You Were Here, and a decent enough version of “Sheep” if you can get past Roger’s annoying attempts at bleating in the beginning. “The Bravery of Being Out of Range” is even more poignant now than when he first released it on Amused to Death. I really love “Deja Vu”. And it’s kind of fun to hear “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2” go right into “Part 3”. But as a purely auditory, listening experience, it doesn’t wow me. Bottom line – don’t bother with the live album, but the concert video is a must see. Even if you violently disagree with Roger’s politics. I lean pretty far to the left, but I certainly don’t always agree with him, I find the man’s apologetics for the Russian invasion of the Ukraine appalling. But guess what – you shouldn’t only expect to hear things you agree with all the time in life, and if you only ever hear things you already agree with all the time, you’re never doing any critical thinking, are you? Love or hate his politics, the concert film comes as close to the immersive, multi-sensory onslaught of the live show as you can get without being there, and is one of the few concert experiences that tries to get you to think. It is remarkable, and I highly, highly recommend it. The visuals more than make up for the shortcomings of some of the music.