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OTTAWA -- About the only thing as big as last night's Senators game was Roger Waters and his brilliant live concert version of Dark Side of the Moon at Scotiabank Place.
More than 13,000 fans packed the arena to travel back to 1973 for Pink Floyd's enduring classic.
Good call too, because this Waters' showing, which began more than a year ago at the "Rock in Rio" festival, is a state-of-the-art theatrical event that pushes the boundaries of what a rock concert can be.
But not before a set of Floyd favourites, all set to the most jaw-dropping visuals I've ever seen in a rock show. But this should come as no surprise coming from Waters and Pink Floyd, who in their heyday, on seminal albums from Wish You Were Here to The Wall, were unrivalled showmen, blending psychedelic, larger-than-life visuals with meandering songs of alienation.
So, not surprisingly, the live revival of Dark Side of the Moon gave fans lots to look at all night, with a tightly choreographed, eye-popping stream of dazzling video, beginning with an imposing pre-show projection of an old 1950s-era console stereo, a bottle of Johnnie Walker, a glass and an ashtray, while Bob Dylan played on the PA system.
You might not have put the two together until an ABBA song played momentarily over the PA system before a hand turned the radio station to My Funny Valentine, a little Rachmaninov and finally Waters' thundering opener In The Flesh, complete with animation of marching scissors, and Mother with singer Katie Kissoon and her gorgeous soprano wail.
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The striking visuals were a perfect compliment to Waters' cinematic musical lamentations. In fact, while the 63-year-old Waters appeared to be in good vocal form, the show is probably miles better than the original tour of 35 years ago, simply because Waters seems to have taken full advantage of the new digital video and audio technology.
Perhaps that is why there was very little evidence of smokables to enhance the concert. In fact, an audience as largely middle-aged as this probably didn't even need their bifocals to fully experience the striking Peter Max animation and montage of closeups of the Milky Way during Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun and Shine On You Crazy Diamond, which Waters dedicated to Pink Floyd's original madcap member Syd Barrett.
The evening wasn't short on inflatables either, as a giant NASA astronaut hovered over the audience throughout Perfect Sense, Parts 1 and 2, and later, a hog covered in graffiti went airborne on Sheep.
Alas, the only lapse in the first half, a potpourri of old favourites, was the new political ballad, Leaving Beirut which proved that Waters is capable of writing as forgettable a song as anyone.
After an intermission, the concert became more of a screening, with the audience mesmerized to the big-screen projections while the band played the album, complete with all the sound effects it is famous for, beginning with Speak To Me and Breathe, and continuing with note-perfect live versions of Time, The Great Gig In the Sky, Money, Us and Them, Any Colour You Like, Brain Damage and Eclipse.
Waters' fusion of atmospheric music and brillant video now speaks clearly why Dark Side of the Moon continues to be as thrilling in 2007 as it was in 1973.