St. Louis, MO 11/16/87
Recorded at the St. Louis Arena
St. Louis, Missouri
November 16, 1987


Reviewed by ash`

Tracks

Round And Around
A New Machine (Part 1)
Terminal Frost
A New Machine (Part 2)
Sorrow
The Dogs Of War
On The Turning Away
Time (near-complete)
On the Run
Wish You Were Here
Welcome To The Machine
Us and Them
Money
Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)
Comfortably Numb
One Slip
Run Like Hell

Cheese Factor N/A
Squirm Factor 5 (See 'The Abyss')
The Peak "Terminal Frost," "The Dogs Of War" (go figure)
The Abyss Those goddamned motherfucking Vari-Lite/Telescan lighting pods - the bane of Pink Floyd bootleggers the world over.
Fashion Crimes I'm currently tapped out of Scott Page quips. Please insert yours here.
Overall Picture / Sound Quality A- / B+


Overall, this is a pretty good recording of an average show that starts off from the vantage point of the lower deck, quite a ways back from stage right. While the magic of zoom-lens technology provides us with a nice view, the first two or three songs on this recording are problematic, largely thanks to a few standard technical VOIO faults in the area of picture shakiness and the occasional eye-buggering zoom/focus snafu. There are also a few points here during which the cameraman seems unsure of what to be looking at -- we spend most of "Terminal Frost" staring at the color-ray emitting "Floyd-Droids" towering behind the band rather than any of the players, while the crashing of Mr. Bed at the end of "On The Run" obviously catches our man totally off guard as we endure a dizzyingly-fast pan from the screen to the simulated impact / explosion next to the stage (and what the hell is up with some people's idea that zooming all the way in on the laser effects somehow makes them more interesting to watch?).

Regardless of the cameraman's obvious unfamiliarity with the set, while we are in this low angle to the stage, 'St. Louis 11/16/87' is often a surprising pleasure to watch. Once our man settles down a bit with the shakes, we are given what may be the best ever audience-shot rendition of "The Dogs Of War" (of all things), along with a nice long view of "On The Turning Away." From that point, however, we skip a couple of songs as we are relocated to the dreaded Upper Deck where all promising VOIOs go to die. At least "Wish You Were Here" starts off this second section of the tape looking pretty nice, as the vantage point of the cameraman allows us a pretty good look at the proceedings ...

... that is, until about halfway into "Welcome To The Machine," when one of those everfucking suspended lighting pods silently glides conveniently into place directly in front of Mr. Screen, completely blocking it from view. At first, I had no real issue with the obstructed visuals, as the films were a bit too dark and flickery anyway. Little did I know, however, that this was actually Round One of the cameraman's lone struggle against Brickmanstein's Monster run amok.

Sadly, the bout didn't go well for him -- starting with "...Machine" and stretching all the way into "Comfortably Numb," those clunky, traveling beer vats on wires continually blocked off sightlines to the screen and completely obscuring soloing key players to an extent as yet unmatched in my years of VOIO watching. Jesus, if I was forced to sit and look at the backs of those things throughout an already tediously-long "Money" and "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)" (not to mention "Us And Them"), I'd be lobbing ripe tomatoes at the fucking things by now.

Score at the end of the second half (just before the average, laser-heavy encores kick off) ...

LIGHTING PODS - 4
CAMERAMAN - 0

Drooling geek notes -

* At times, we can still make out Rachel Fury in a fetching scarlet dress. Homina homina.
* There is a very cheesy "lighting strike" projection flashed directly onto Mr. Screen at several points during the evening's rendition of "Run Like Hell." Discuss.


'Terminal Frost'

'Dogs of War'

'Welcome to the Machine'

'Run Like Hell'
Screen Captures are from BWHI-LRG's 'Mizzoora Blooz'

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