It is a truth universally acknowledged, that - your music taste has surely been influenced by a role model in your life. Whether it be your mum, dad, older sibling or cool babysitter. There is no way you came by the Thompson Twins on your own. At least this is true in my life - I didn't wake up one day and realise 'I simply must listen to Pink Floyd', the need to blast Comfortably Numb in the car with my younger sister didn't come from our healthy curiosity in music, nor an accidental discovery on the radio. No, an appreciation for music of that calibre, for a band that was so far ahead of its time, that can only come from someone who was there when it all began - in this instance, my dad.

Following a family outing in mid-2017 to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London to see 'Pink Floyd: The Mortal Remains', it just so happened that Roger Waters was headed to Australia - and so the Roux's were to continue this fan-fuelled journey, and see the inimitable 'Roger Waters: Us and Them' live in early 2018. And Roge' did not disappoint.

At first, I won't deny that I was disappointed. Of course I went for the music, but with very high expectation as to the stage design. Upon entry, all I could spy was a large cyclorama behind the band - 'standard', I thought. The show was split into two 'acts' if you will - and act one was a staggering display of strapping visuals relevant to contemporary issues and events (refugee crisis, war, the works). Of course the music was mind-blowing, in terms of quality, it is still timeless and incredibly prodigious in it's performance. The graphics displayed throughout the act allowed for there to be a constant relationship between the visual and audio, engaging the audience fully and never allowing for a moment of distraction.

However what I really want to get to is of course, act two. After a brief intermission, we're back in our seats expecting a continuation of the first hour's cinematic exhibition. However what follows is quite the contrary. The sound of sirens split through the arena as flashing red lights are emitted from what had seemed like structural frames from above. Slowly, the supposed 'warning lights' start to descend down into an audience, their excitement now very much piqued. What followed was a spectacular show. From these structural bars, now about 20 meters above audience heads, a factory emerges. The bar expands and grows into the industrial menace Pink Floyd spent years singing and writing about, a factory of mindless pigs upon which visuals concerning the infamous Mr Trump are projected. Don't believe me? See for yourself:

The sheer scale of this - well, additional stage really - is enough to push the show into another realm. What's more, is Waters' fearless attitude towards freedom of speech if you will. As the song 'Charade' starts to play, the visuals of Trump continue and grow into a ridicule of the man. Trump as pig, Trump as baby, Trump as a statue of David with rather miniscule...genitals. Furthermore, images of Trump and Putin start to play, the boys shaking hands, playing with guns, playing with their friend Mr Kim Jong Un.

To further support this violent message against Trump, the following song projects very simply quotes from Trump's various speeches and promises, and seeing them almost 'out of context' like that highlights and emphasises the sheer stupidity and well, audacity of this man. Pink Floyd has never been shy when it comes to commentary, whether it be political, economic, environmental or social- 'Another brick in the Wall' being a prime example, banned in many countries including South Africa where my parents grew up (perhaps an incentive for the love my dad has for the band) - and Waters' has made it evident that he is still a firm believer in commentary through this show, as there is no limit. If there was, he continues to push it as the final cinematic roll of the song projects the words 'TRUMP IS A PIG' over all screens. About as subtle as a chainsaw, I'd say.

I thought this was the peak - surely the show has lived up to all the reputations associated with it? But then that wouldn't be very Floyd-ian, would it. No, the final easter egg was in the arena all along - an inflatable, silver ball had been casually drifting around the arena all night, cool at the start but easily forgotten once the rest took off. However the composition came together in the final 'scenes' of the show as almost out of nowhere, projectors hidden in the audience shoot out beams of light that form a prism, evident thanks to the smoke-machines. From the top of the all too familiar Dark Side of the Moon light prism, comes rays of spectral lights and in what can only be described as a majestic moment - the album cover you saw in your dad's record box when you were 10, has become a tangible visual display floating in space above thousands of people who I guarantee, were close to tears of joy.

You can't help but feel poetic after such an experience, words like 'transcendental' float around in your head and finally, you can make sense of lyrics that had always been beautiful, but not fully comprehensible.

'We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year.'

Breaking down the Wall : Roger Waters Live