Photo Gallery: Roger Waters at United Center • Chicago

Brassneck | July 28, 2022

Roger Waters
United Center
Chicago, IL
July 26, 2022

Recap and photos by Curt Baran

“…if you’re one of those ‘I love Pink Floyd, but I can’t stand Roger’s politics,’ you might do well to fuck off right to the bar!” This was the message that greeted concert goers on an arena-length video screen at the onset of the “This Is Not A Drill” tour at Chicago’s United Center. Anyone who’s followed the post-Pink Floyd output of Waters is well aware the man does not bite his tongue. After all, this is the guy who wrote an entire record about DISMANTLING a wall.

Presented in the round, the evening was both a look forward and back. It featured Floyd classics like “Comfortably Numb,” “Wish You Were Here,” “Money,” and “Run Like Hell.” But the evening was also augmented by powerful images of war, human rights violations, and world leaders making decisions that were blatantly the antithesis of what those talking heads expressed to the public at large, exposing infuriating hypocrisy and unapologetic lies designed to protect the status quo. It was the perfect intersection of entertainment and politics that never allowed attendees to get back to the parking lot without considering that maybe a concert can have more gravitas than simply an evening of expensive escapism.