Desert Trip wrapped up its inaugural run of twin weekends Sunday night with a psychedelic set from Roger Waters.
Waters devoted his sets both weekends to Pink Floyd’s greatest songs.
The sound
Pink Floyd’s music is larger than life so it made sense that Waters wanted to have the audience feel it in quadrophonic sound. Sirens,dogs and dialogue and echoed through the Empire Polo Club in Indio.
The band
While Waters is the lone Pink Floyd member on the show, his wonderful backing band made it almost seem like David Gilmour was there. Almost. Plus, the ladies of Lucius were his backing singers and did a tremendous job, as did the saxophone player.
The visuals
While everyone playing at Desert Trip used the massive 240-foot wide screen, Waters arguably had the most wild imagery, from stars for “Shine on You Crazy Diamond Parts I-V” to animated skeleton rats for “Welcome to the Machine.” For the “Animals” portion of the set, the screen turned into the album cover, while smokestacks rose from above the screens.
The politics
Early in the day, everyone was talking about one thing: the pig. Last week, Waters brought out an inflatable pig that bashed Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump.
This week, he brought out the same anti-Trump pig but stage-hands ran it back and forth in front of the general admission area for the duration of a complete song. It was a treat for those in the cheap seats to get an up-close look at something, finally.
The music
Because of the monster production, Waters played the same set for weekend two as he did weekend one of Desert Trip. The night ended with “Vera,” Bring the Boys Back Home” and “Comfortably Numb.”
Staff writer Samantha Valtierra Bush contributed to this report.
What The Who did at Desert Trip to mark the final U.S. show of the 50th anniversary tour
The Who opened the final night of the Desert Trip mega-concert at the Empire Polo Club in Indio Sunday night with Pete Townshend’s guitar windmills and Roger Daltrey’s microphone-swinging antics.
As the sun set and the wind picked up, Daltrey echoed what the Rolling. Stones’ singer Mick Jagger said on Friday night at the venue — it’s like singing into a hair dryer, but for Daltrey, at least,one that had people blowing marijuana smoke into it.
Despite the challenges, it didn’t show in The Who’s energetic set.
As the band took the stage, Townshend greeted the crowd as he did last weekend, “So at this point I say all you young people have come to watch the old men dance, meaning us.” (Last weekend when he made a similar comment it was unclear if he meant the band or the audience.)
But then his quip turned serious. “But tonight we are also going to cry,” he said, noting it was the band’s final American show on its 50th anniversary tour, which has been going on for two years.
Generally, Townshend was much less chatty than last week as the band got down to business. The Who stuck to the same crowd-pleasing, career-spanning set list as its first turn to Desert Trip, opening with “I Can’t Explain,” followed by “The Seeker.”
Other early highlights included “The Kids Are Alright,” “Who Are You?” and “Bargain.”
For a band that famously sang “I hope I die before I get old,” in the crowd favorite “My Generation,” the history the band brought to the stage was well worth eschewing youthful angst.
During the mini-set featuring songs from “Quadrophenia,” including “5.15” and “The Rock,” Daltrey nailed a vocal run on the end of “Love Reign O’er Me.”
After “Eminence Front,” the band moved into a grouping of songs from “Tommy,” with “Pinball Wizard” the one that had fans singing along the loudest.
The Who wrapped its set with “Baba O’Riley” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” with the crowd jumping and screaming along.
Townshend, always colorful, referenced mid-set the love between the artists playing mega-concert, which featured the Stones and Bob Dylan on Friday, Neil Young and Paul McCartney on Saturday and Roger Waters closing out the night on Sunday.
“The guys who came up with this idea I don’t know if it’s a good idea or a crazy idea,” Townshend said before sharing appreciation for the fans and the other artists on the bill.
He said he has been a fan of Pink Floyd and Roger Waters since he took Eric Clapton to see them when Syd Barrett was still in the band. And he hinted at what was to come Sunday night.
“You’ll need to get your brain in gear for that,” he said about Waters’ set.
A moment later he added that Waters really has “a flying pig. It’s not just the skunk you’re smoking”
