It is with the second of the twin St. Louis VOIOs reviewed in this survey that we arrive at a bit of a live performance puzzle as only *one* of them is labeled correctly. According to Vernon Fitch's 'The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia,' the two shows in the Gateway To The West were performed on November 15 and 16 with the 17th being an "off" or "travel day" as the show moved on to Houston, Texas. Thus, the date shown on this recording is obviously incorrect, and while I'd lean towards stating here that this is the show from 11/15 on the chance that the previous VOIO is labeled correctly, there is really no way to be sure, as a check of Povey and Russell's 'In The Flesh' demonstrates that the set lists on both nights were identical.

Regardless of the correct date, the so-called November 17 show is an exercise in frustration nearly as teeth-gnashing as the second half of the 11/16 recording as the first, say, ten minutes of this tape's running time is well in the running to be the premiere VOIO of the 'Momentary Lapse Of Reason' tour. You see, 'St. Louis' starts off close to the stage, friends ... REAL close. So close that David Gilmour is cut off below the knees by the edge of the stage. So close that we can clearly see the event security dude glowering silently behind the retaining wall directly in front of the stage. We are ten rows back, maximum, from the action and being forced to look up and to the sides thanks to the size of the production. Man, I would *kill* for an entire recording from this tour shot from the same perspective as these opening minutes.

Of course, being a Pink Floyd VOIO, this has to be too good to last, and it is -- all we are allowed to see from this vantage point is the first verse of "Yet Another Movie," all of "Round And Around," "A New Machine (Part 1)," "Terminal Frost," and finally a piece of "A New Machine (Part 2)" (that's right, a piece of a fucking one-minute track). From here, the remainder of this recording, starting midway through "One Of These Days," is a pretty average (if not below) viewing experience shot from, of course, the Upper Deck Of Doom.

Once we get used to our new vantage point (high up in the stands and about 2-3 sections back from stage left), this VOIO becomes a dreadfully dull viewing experience as the camera being utilized apparently has no zoom lens to work with. This lack of being able to zero in on the players was certainly not an issue during the first ten minutes of the recording, but it becomes one *hell* of a problem for the last hour and a half as we get to watch this show from an unchanging perspective for a loooong time.

For being so damned boring to look at most of the time, 'St. Louis' certainly could have been a lot worse - at least the colors look "alive" and accurate, the films on Mr. Screen are at least visible without triggering a seizure (though they show up far better when they are ringed with VariLites), and the view of the stage allows us to take in the entire effect of the production ... but when everyone you want to watch is thumb-sized and/or indistinguishable from each other, all you can really do is watch all the pretty shafts of light jouncing about all over the place while the music plays.

Speaking of music, by the way - 'St. Louis' is fairly unremarkable as far as performance is concerned, but someone really should have either have lowered the recording volume on the camera or tried to find anywhere to sit but directly in front of the suspended speaker array as the vocals, guitars, and synths are frequently distorted and shrill to the point of discomfort (see "Welcome To The Machine" and"Comfortably Numb" for the most aggravating examples). Of course, invasively tinny sound is not a problem during the first 10 minutes of this VOIO, but why keep torturing myself with memories of that? It's time to move on ...

'Terminal Frost'	'One of These Days'
'Time'	'Run Like Hell'