Last Brick In L.A. (Sigma 61)
Sports Arena, Los Angeles, CA – February 13th, 1980
Disc 1 (56:19): In The Flesh?, The Thin Ice, Another Brick In The Wall – Part 1, The Happiest Days Of Our Lives, Another Brick In The Wall – Part 2, Mother, Goodbye Blue Sky, Empty Spaces, What Shall We Do Now?, Young Lust, One Of My Turns, Don’t Leave Me Now, Another Brick In The Wall – Part 3, The Last Few Bricks, Goodbye Cruel World
Disc 2 (54:06): Hey You, Is There Anybody Out There?, Nobody Home, Vera, Bring The Boys Back Home, Comfortably Numb, The Show Must Go On, MC: Atmos, In The Flesh, Run Like Hell, Waiting For The Worms, Stop, The Trial, Outside The Wall
The final Pink Floyd Wall show in Los Angeles was on Wednesday, February 13th before moving onto New York. The tape source for this show, utilized by Sigma for Last Brick in L.A., is a very clear and up-front recording. It has circulated on fan produced titles such as Live at the Sports Arena, Run Like Fuck, L.A. Sports Arena, The Wall – Live in LA 13.2.80, and Last Day at L.A. Sports Arena.
Sigma, however, is the first commercial pressing and release of this show. Most of the opening and mid-show atmos is missing, and there is a cut in “The Last Few Bricks” at 2:47. There are several glaring mistakes by the band throughout the performance. But it does contains some unique moments for a Wall show.
At the beginning of the tape, the final words of Cynthia Fox’s opening introduction are audible before the openign riffs of “In The Flesh” kick in. The audience receive the band warmly throughout the night, cheering at any opportunity to do so. The loudest cheer early on is for “Another Brick In The Wall Part 2,” which sounds a bit tentative in this show.
There is another loud reaction when Waters sings “mother should I trust the government?” in “Mother.” Before “Young Lust” Waters asks, “Are you having a good time? So are we, so far. Are you ready to get down and boogie? Are you ready for Gilmour?”
In “One Of My Turns” Waters mixes up several of the lines, singing: “you have grown colder / and I have grown older.” But he affects a shaky, abrasive tone right before the fast, violent section. Gilmour comes in a few measures late for the the guitar solo.
Waters’ microphone cuts out in the middle of “Another Brick In The Wall Part 3.” Most interesting is “The Last Few Bricks.” Normally it lasted three and a half minutes, the length of time it took the road crew to finish building the wall. But on this night there was somewhat of a delay and the piece had to be extended to five minutes. The band compensate by playing a melody with more than a passing resemblance to “Any Colour You Like” from Dark Side Of The Moon.
The second half fares much better than the first. There are no big audible miscues, and there is a lot of passion coming out in the performance with “Comfortably Numb” providing catharsis in the venue. Before “In The Flesh?” Cynthia Fox comes out again, and again most of her speech is cut out. What is left are her final words, speaking about the initiative in California to legalize marijuana (to very loud cheers from the audience).
Before “Run Like Hell” Waters asks, “You like my pig? He’s not a very good pig, but he’s a BIG pig! We’re gonna play a tune for you now that I’d like to dedicate to all the paranoids in the audience, of which I’m sure there are many – let’s hear it for all the paranoids! It’s called ‘Run Like Fuck!’ Home piggy, home!” It’s an energetic performance which received a good reaction from the audience. “It’s nice to see there are still disco lovers in LA. Woah, get down!” Waters quips afterwards.
During “Waiting For The Worms” Waters recites the words to his pre-recorded bullhorn speech about meeting in Brixton town hall, etc. The show ends with “Outside The Wall” and, before they depart, Waters says: “can we have a hand for all the people who built this stuff because we’re leaving LA this evening and they did a fantastic job.”
Last Brick In L.A.is handsomely produced by Sigma with gorgeous inserts. The use very common tour pictures from the New York shows the following week. Shows from this leg of the Wall tour are scarce, so this one fills a good niche and is worth having.
