Roger Waters Promises the ‘Us + Them Tour’ Will Be Spectacular

Aryeh Harris-Shapiro

Roger Waters hasn’t hit the wall yet. After an acclaimed closing set at the first weekend of Desert Trip festival, the singer and bassist of Pink Floyd announced the 40-date North American “Us + Them Tour,” his first since the record-breaking “The Wall Live.”

Waters began his career as Floyd’s bassist and backing vocalist, but after Syd Barrett’s departure in 1968 he and guitarist David Gilmour co-helmed “The Wall” and “Animals.” “Dark Side of the Moon,” perhaps the band’s magnum opus, features the song “Us and Them,” his upcoming tour’s namesake. In interviews, Waters has emphasized the message of unity the song preaches as the tour’s major inspiration. His social conscience is an element of his work, from his support of the Women’s Boat to Gaza to the anti-Trump slogans he paints on the floating pig that’s long been a staple of his live shows.

The “Us + Them Tour” serves as a follow-up to his three-year world tour “The Wall Live,” still the highest grossing world tour by a solo artist to this day. That tour featured the construction and destruction of an enormous wall onstage, and while Waters has insisted on keeping the contents of the “Us + Them Tour” secret, he has provided a few details. He promises that the concert will be about 75 percent old solo and Pink Floyd material, with the remaining 25 percent taken from his upcoming album. That album, still publicly unnamed, will be his first solo effort since 1992’s “Amused to Death” and will be produced by Niles Godrich, famous Radiohead collaborator and one of the sonic minds behind “The Wall Live.”

Waters had previously commented that he believed “The Wall Live” would be his last tour. Yet here he is again with new music and a new stage show. Waters has promised that it will be spectacular, a claim that his track record gives fans little reason to doubt.

Roger Waters’ “Us + Them” tour kicks off May 26 and comes to L.A.’s Staples Center June 20, 21 and 27 and Brooklyn’s Barclays Center Sept. 11-12 and Sept. 22 + 24.