All in all, it was THE best brick in the wall!

When I first purchased Is There Anybody Out There?, I was skeptical that anything could possibly live up to the grandiose vision of The Wall, even another Pink Floyd performance. But within just a few songs, I knew that what I had was not only an excellent performance of The Wall, but something that completely puts the studio album to shame. Since I first bought it in November 2001, I'm not sure if I've even listened to the studio album more than three times. There simply isn't any need, with this masterpiece around.

Even though the audio quality probably isn't quite what The Wall is, or perhaps even the best that a live concert recording could be, the quality of the performance itself is absolutely stunning, and even makes up for the loud analogue hiss on "Nobody Home". One of the biggest problems with the studio album was the fact that Pink Floyd was not working together as a band. Everything succumbed to Roger Waters' dark vision. In fact, the band's keyboardist Richard Wright had been cut out of the proceedings early on, and even forced to relinquish his position as a full member of the band. ITAOT was to be his farewell performance until AMLoR.

On ITAOT, although the personal problems were undiminished, it's clear that the band is functioning much more like a *band* than on the studio album, and this makes each rendition spring to life. In spite of all that was happening to him, Mr. Wright works well with a second keyboardist and with the entire band to create moments of stunning beauty. One of the most beautiful, however, was left up to Mr. Wright alone--the new ending of "Goodbye Blue Sky". As I purchased this album only a few months after 9-11, the song took on a much more personal meaning, and in that ending, Mr. Wright somehow offered through his music both the opportunity to mourn, and a small bit of hope for the future. Even now this part can still bring me to tears.

Richard Wright isn't the only one who shines on this album. Nick Mason, after a long time of playing rather simple rhythms on the Floyd's studio albums (WYWH, Animals, The Wall), gets to cut loose in the middle section of "Run Like Hell", and shows he's definitely still got it. In fact, that entire section seems more like the chaotic part of "A Saucerful of Secrets" than anything. In many ways, ITAOT seems to look back to Pink Floyd's brighter past, including wonderful improvisational elements that had mostly been forced out of the studio by Roger Waters' imposition of structure on the band.

The limited edition on particular has extremely beautiful artwork and photographs, and is a nicely put-together book that I think is well worth the money of the serious Floyd fan.

This is THE definitive version of The Wall!

Deluxe version of The Wall Live by Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd's Is There Anybody Out There?: The Wall Live was released in April of 2000.

The album was released to commemorate the 20th anniversary of The Wall.

The album was slated for release in late 1999 but producer James Guthrie(who co-produced the original album) had to bake the tapes to get the sticky glue off after sitting in storage for years.

Also, the band had problems with their US record companies. The band had just inked a new deal with Capitol/EMI worldwide and were set to release but Columbia/Sony in the US and Canada were initially against the album but reluctantly agreed to release the album as the band's final album with Sony in the US and Canada after the band switched labels which were licensed the music(the band have the final say on what gets released and not released).

This live album was recorded at London's Earls Court Arena during the band's performances of The Wall in August, 1980 and June of 1981, the shows were a bona fide spectacle. More than anything, Is There Anybody Out There? captures the volume, the bombast, and the grandeur of these famed performances with remarkable accuracy.

These performances are astonishingly faithful to the band's studio versions although the band does get to stretch out on Another Brick in the Wall(pt. 2), Mother, Young Lust, Hey You and Comfortably Numb with extra guitar solos from David Gilmour showing why he is one of rock's greatest guitarists.

Although they were kicked out in 1979 and 1982 respectively by Roger Waters due to his uncontrolable ego, co-founders keyboardist Rick Wright and drummer Nick Mason played better than on the studio version of The Wall, especially Rick whose Hammond Organ work buries that of its studio counterpart. Roger Waters didn't play much bass on this live album as he perfectly recreated the role of Pink and left Andy Bown to play bass in his place. One of the many highlights aside the aforementioned track I mentioned is Run Like Hell with Roger Waters' classic intro.

This live Wall album also includes two unreleased tracks. What Shall We Do Now was left off the original release due to space constraints and The Last Few Bricks was a reprise of Happiest Days, Young Lust and Empty Spaces as an instrumental for wall builders to catch up to the band.

Storm Thorgerson's artwork of the four Floyd member face masks is striking. The cover has the four members' faces in descending order(Roger, David, Nick and Rick) as opposed to the regular jewel-case package of Roger and Dave on top row and Nick and Rick on bottom row.

In addition to the CDs and slipcase cover, the package comes with a hard cover 64-page book which has recollections from the four Floyd members plus road crew and stage designers with some cool pictures. Also, there are extra photos and sketches not found on the standard edition of this album.

This live album did well for a from the vault release hitting #19 on the album charts and #1 on the Internet Album Sales chart and went Platinum in a month of its release.

This live album has zero overdubs and is one of the best live albums I ever heard next to Pink Floyd's Pulse, Led Zeppelin's How the West Was Won, Rush's Rush in Rio, Queen's Live Killers, The Who's Live at Leeds and Supertramp's Paris among many others.

Highly recommended!

Listen

I just had to write a little more. The Wall said everything Kurt Cobain did only more fluidly and easier to breathe. The type of stuff you could listen to around your parents, who had no idea the stirrings it brought about in your soul, just like "Unplugged" in comparison to "Bleach". My Mom's like that's so pretty. I tell her the same guy was singing on the tape you just told me to shut off cause it was giving you a headache. Sometimes headaches help - any punker knows loud will quiet.

Anyone who has anything to discuss with me about Pink Floyd, Nirvana, The Doors, The Beatles... Please bring it on... I need a few unbrainless few...