There's a rumor that Roger Waters might bring his tour of "The Wall" to Fenway Park. This is good news and bad news. First the good news: "The Wall" Tour is AMAZING. More than a concert, it's performance art at its finest. I highly recommend it. The bad news: The concert is at Fenway Park.
(Jumps up on soapbox) Rock concerts should not be staged at Fenway Park. Period.
I have seen several concerts at Fenway Park and trust me, the word "seen" is a stretch. Oh sure, it's cool to say "I saw (fill in artist that would make people who've never seen a show there say 'Wow, you're lucky'" here.) But if you attend concerts to listen to music and watch musicians play, Fenway Park is not your place.
Let's start with the sound. Fenway Park was built in 1912 for baseball, and certainly not with 21st century rock concert acoustics in mind. Do you know how many concerts were happening in 1912? The only one I can think of involved a noble band refusing to stop playing aboard a sinking ship. And frankly, that band probably sounded much better than any concert at Fenway because they were playing for an audience that could actually see and hear them.
And what about seeing the concert? At Fenway, you can't see anything unless you're in the first 20 rows on the field. Most of the other seats are a) not facing the stage b) several hundred feet away from the stage c) behind poles. Those poles are annoying at baseball games, but only during certain plays. But at concerts, if you're behind a pole, that's your view for the entire night, a bummer if you came to check out how well Donnie and the other kids have aged.
And if you go to a concert with an "intermission," (of which The Wall is one, BTW,) good luck venturing out of your seat to hit the bathrooms and/or get a beer, t-shirt, or hot dog. It's like a rain delay on steroids. EVERYONE crams into the tunnels of Fenway at once. But unlike a game, you have the extra thousand or so people from the field seats joining you. Howdy, neighbor! Nice to meet you!
I'm not trying to stop anyone from going to Fenway concerts. Obviously, they're selling just fine, so I guess I'm in the minority. But count me in as someone who thinks, much like Fenway's old urinal troughs, the idea is much nicer than the actual experience.
