ST. PAUL, Minn. – Roger Waters, bassist of the legendary British rock group Pink Floyd, saw people leave his concert early, perhaps in part of the deeply anti-Trump messages throughout the show.
The Pioneer Press reports that during a performance of “Another Brick in the Wall,” Waters had a number of black children come on stage wearing orange jumpsuits, before they tore the jumpsuits off to reveal t-shirts saying “RESIST.” The concert continued with images playing on giant screens.
These included Trump pictured as a baby being held by Russian President Vladimir Putin, and images of Trump with the word “CHARADE” labeled across him. At one point a screen showed nothing but the phrase “TRUMP IS A PIG” reports the Pioneer Press.
Tickets for the concert went for up to $250 or more per seat, making the walkout of any member of the audience a rather expensive expression of distaste.
Waters has a history of left-wing political activism. Some of his own has bordered on the edge of distastefulness in the same sense as Trump’s opposition has accused the president of.
The Pink Floyd bassist supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement and has been a critic of Israel, and the United Kingdom’s foreign policy towards Israel. The Anti-Defamation League’s National Director Abraham Foxman and Rabbi Abraham Cooper, an associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, have both previously accused Waters of being an anti-semite. He has also lost several sponsors for North American tours based on his anti-semitic rhetoric. Leading up to the United States presidential election, American Express pulled out of a sponsorship of Waters’ tour in October 2016, and in November Citibank followed suit.
He has been sharply critical of other musicians who have performed in Israel, including Bon Jovi and Radiohead. His public spat with Radiohead frontman Thomas Yorke has lasted months.
“It’s deeply disrespectful to assume that we’re either being misinformed or that we’re so retarded we can’t make these decisions ourselves,” Yorke said, reports the Jerusalem Post. “I thought it was patronizing in the extreme… it’s really upsetting that artists I respect think we are not capable of making a moral decision ourselves after all these years.”
There is now a movement to boycott Waters, including a play on the song “Another Brick in the Wall.” The movement’s website is wedontneednorogerwaters.com.
