I ended up somewhere close to the fourth row directly in front of the guitar stacks on stage, pure sound, no house speaker noise. The sound seemed to just ooze off the front of the stage like a slow, creepy fog of disbelief, encompassing me in my own ecstatic haze. Behind the sound were the images, 360 degree sweeping aeriel shots of the Battersea Power Plant in archival black and white or sepia tone hues. The archive footage showed the plant actually in operation as the song bumped a notch, with steam pouring out of the smokestacks (unaltered - they were real shots and the plant was really in operation). I have previously only seen images of the dormant remains of the infamous English landmark.

Seeing the opening song screen imagery of Syd and the band frollicking on a beach and in a field of flowers during "In the Flesh" was hallucinogenetic enough. But "Sheep" took it a step further and put the show into interstellar overdrive. Arnold the Pig made his cameo appearance for the evening. There was no way that one's eyes could not follow that flying pig up into the moon lit sky in Hollywood Hills, flying through a downpour of multi-coloured blowing confetti, spotlighted from left and right, scribbled with politically charged messages. How absolutely mesmorizing. So much so that I became very upset with myself at being transfixed at this sight, and realized the entire crowd was the same way. I took at least 10 or 20 pictures of Arnold, and realized that the song was playing behind me in a "holding pattern" as my back was turned to the stage as Arnold floated majestically around the Bowl.

And I cursed myself - how could I turn my back on this song! You moron! It was another strange sensation - snapping out of the Arnold Daze and focusing back on what was happening on stage, coming back to life again. It was at this moment when many eyes were still focused on Arnold's antics that I made some really good eye contact with Mr. Waters, acknowledged by a big smile from him, and the other two guitarists, also smiling at my enthusiasm (I don't think it was enthusiasm - it was more spasmodic twitching and air guitaring and my eyes rolling back in my head), all three musicians maybe just 15 feet away. It's always nice to see a fan going completely whacko while you're playing, I'm certain. It was almost like I had the whole stage view to myself for a while. Quite interesting.

Then Arnold finished up his evening flight - and the band marched into the dying throes of the song, which happen to be the best part. The way the notes repeat themselves over and over and over again (I'm no expert but..) in a 5/6 rhythm/time with three high pitched power chords falling up and down and over and under each other in an endless exit to this song, all three guitars playing the chords simultaneously and Waters pounding out the bass bits.

Again, I was stepping foward as if drawn to the edge of the stage by some uncontrollable force, edging up just a half step at a time until that oozing off the stage sound re-appeared again. There was just this special acoustical spot that I found, and had moved away from it during Arnold's flight - but I found it again. Now, instead of flowing off the stage, those repeating chords coming from three guitars was searing hot and piercing, aimed perfectly into my body and my brain. The little voice inside my head pleaded for them to keep going and going and going, just please don't ever stop this perfect moment, let the sheep keep grazing.

That was the last song before intermission. When it ended and the house lights came up I went back to Charles, who asked if I wanted to come out and take a break or get something to drink, whatever. I wasn't going anywhere. I did not want to leave my seat or the area at all. I don't think I could if I wanted to. Moving forward before, now I was frozen in time. As a matter of fact I didn't care about anything at the time. I was still listening to Sheep. It was still playing, over and over again in my head.

My brain and body were in that delicate, intimate, almost unreachable place wherein everything is in complete balance and harmony. The act of going into intermission was like Waters and his show hung an invisible "Do Not Disturb" sign on me that blocked all other sensory perception or input until the show started back up again so I could continue to enjoy the experience of "Sheep."

After about 10 minutes I unfortunately began to emerge from a green field with running sheep and thought of two things. The first was that Waters really should come back out and play that song again for me immediately. The second thought I had was that it was quite possibly the best song I've ever heard live in my life.

When you hear a song that does that to you at a show - you know - the show is just plain OVER. And that was, ashamedly, before Waters even heated things up by playing the entire Dark Side of the Moon album to open up the second set. I mean that's kind of tweeked, don't you think? I was standing there and I could have just walked OUT and went home. No questions asked. If someone would have said it was time to gooooo, time to gooooo, I would have left with them like some Alzheimers inflicted, poor wandering fool, out for a Thursday night drive, getting lost in the night in Hollywood, in danger of never finding my way home. A massive, ensuing search for the missing fan, bulletins on the 11 O'Clock news about a missing person. But the evening's continued entertainment kept this looney on the path.

Just the basic facts is all we need from here on out because it was just over for me after that song. I was just cooked!

I managed to make it up to the front row for a lot of "Dark Side of the Moon." There was still plenty of room to move around. But one security guard took notice that I wasn't there for the first set and booted me a couple of times during DSOTM, but I kept going back up there. Who wouldn't?!

The other highlight was "Another Birck in the Wall Part II" which was the second song of the encore after DSOTM. If there's a song that can incite a crowd into a warshipping freaking out mob, it's that one. It was one of the best received songs of the night, in my opinion, compared to "Sheep" where it seemed like I was isolated in my own little world where I didn't see or hear anyone or anything else except the stage and the sound, embraced by my new Pink Floyd patch and pin laden jacket.

Appropriately timed with Bricky II, this guy in our section, who was acting quite looney all night, finally lost his mind and climbed up on top of the wall separating the Pool from the Garden seats, pulled his pants and knickers down and went running about until he fell on his arse with his pants around his ankles. He was subsequently removed from the area by psychiatric assistance personnel.

"BAAAAAAAAAA, BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA."

Epilogue: I was working the following day on three hours of sheep, I mean sleep. That's fine. I was tired and hungry after work so I went to the grocery store to pick up some simple things. I live in an area of town called University Heights, which is adjacent to Hillcrest, which is San Diego's gay community. Of course the show was so good that, as in high school, I just had to wear my concert t-shirt to work. Therefore, I was wearing it when I was shopping for a bit.

The design on the shirt is a squiggly throw off of the colored lines that make up the prizm design from the DSOTM cover art by legendary artist Storm Thorgenson. And when I walked into that store, it was like all the guys in it were looking at me. Innocently enough, I was like, "What is the deal here, why is everyone looking at me, like, you know. What, am I bleeding or something?" All smiling at me and stuff. One guy was looking directly at my chest for the longest time. Then I looked down to see if something was growing out of my body - and then a sinking feeling set in when I did look down at my new Water's 'T.

And realized that the design has every color on it that matches the Rainbow Gay Pride Flag. Out of 17,500 people in Los Angeles (no show in San Diego!), it was me, the unknowing idiot, shopping in a gay neighborhood 120 miles away from the venue on a FRIDAY NIGHT wearing a Roger Waters shirt that was being mistaken for my momentary lapse in judgement and mis-perceived sexual orientation. Good god.

You know what I did? There was only one thing for this Pink Floyd fan to do, and that was to ditch the cart immediately and Run Like Hell.

In The Flesh
Mother
Set The Controls For the Heart Of The Sun
Shine On You Crazy Diamond
Have A Cigar
Wish You Were Here
Southampton Dock
The Fletcher Memorial Home
Perfect Sense parts 1 and 2
Leaving Beirut
Sheep

SECOND HALF: Dark Side of the Moon (yes the entire album)

ENCORE:
The Happiest Days Of Our Lives
Another Brick In The Wall (Pt 2)
Vera
Bring the Boys back Home
Comfortably Numb