I went to see him on that same tour. It was pretty amazing. Fortunately, he kept his mouth shut and just played the songs.

The entire second half were Floyd songs opening with Set the Controls... long time ago ... iirc ... great show though

Amazing he would chastise paying fans for clapping along. Lol - astonishingly pretentious even for him. That might even surpass Art Blakey. I love Waters but good god is he a pretentious prick. The fact that he thinks he could write that horrible horrible horrible opera that's easily the worst record mentioned on that other thread shows what a ****ed up narcissistic prick he is. I've seen GG Allin in concert but I actually think what Waters did at your concert is far more offensive. He's in such a power position. You're thinking like this guy wrote The Wall and then he uses all that clout to make you feel bad for clapping along. I know I take these guys too seriously but that would really hurt my feelings. He's lucky y'all were chill and didn't bum rush him and give him the ass kicking he deserved.

Clapping along to songs is seriously the ****ing worst though, especially when it's a pack of crackers with no sense of rhythm or cadence and half of the audience is clapping on the upbeat and the other half is clapping on the downbeat. Halting a song because of it is majorly dickish though, should have just kept on and said it before the next song.

What's up with Art Blakey?

Dude he's a professional musician in front of a live crowd. I get it could throw him off or **** up the song but it's his ****ing JOB to make it work. It's live. He's not in a studio. He's expected to be able to modify things or improvise a touch to deal with the audience. No matter how seriously he takes himself people go to concerts to have a good time. I don't clap or sing along even when asked. I'm like **** you I'm not your monkey you're mine. I paid the ticket price and went out instead of watching HBO. Bitch, you're working for me. If you can't handle people clapping along don't tour bitch.

Blakey was always throwing fits if there was the slightest noise. People buying drinks or whatever. I would like it quiet during a Blakey concert and I would probably prefer people didn't clap along during Fat Old Sun. But goddamn I don't want to feel like I'm in middle school. At a Swans concert I was at Gira tried to play some of his acoustic folk songs and nobody would shut up and he spazzed out. That's a fully retarded audience though. But it was in a bar. He should have just crushed the place with unmerciful pre Children of God stuff. Hell Waters would have been cooler if he just directed his band to do some old school free form improv psychedelia.

It's douchey for sure. Almost as douchey as thinking people want to hear an audience amateurishly clapping while one of their favourite artists plays. Save that **** for your summer camp singalongs.

I actually agree with that.

You mean Ca Ira? Oh god yes, that was gar-bage and a huge disappointment. Talk about ****ing pretentious to the max!
Or he could have gone "You! Yes you! Stand still laddie!" or something else from The Wall, to make a point. Or, preferably, just shut the **** up and remembered that without millions of people like the guy who was clapping/whistling, he'd still be cutting crappy demos hoping to be a star some day.

It's not the wisest business decision, but I'm concerned about the implications of musical populism that you guys are talking about here.

I think most of us are saying that as an artist, if you become even moderately successful, you do owe something back to your fans, and you need to remember that without them you'd be nothing. I mean, you can make the greatest music in the world but how much use is that to you if nobody ever hears it? So when your fans go to see you, cut them a little slack. Even if you don't like what they're doing, as long as it's reasonable and expected, keep your snark to yourself, Roger. Or anyone else who does this.

It's useful to a musician as a point of personal growth. Not everything goes back to capitalistic goals, Waters would be the first to tell you that.

Yeah but the point being made here, kind of the point of the thread, is if you get rich and famous - and you only get that way if people buy your stuff, let's be honest - don't moan about it and start being a prick. Any musician can jam or record for hours or days and get great stuff he or she never uses, just likes for itself, and that's fine. But when it gets to commercial success, remember how you got there and who put you there. That's the point.