By Matt Dolloff (@mattdolloff)
In a bombshell announcement, the Newport Folk Festival out of nowhere announced Roger Waters as a surprise headliner Thursday morning. Waters will perform on Friday, July 24, in his first concert in eight years that isn’t some form of The Wall and his first full concert of any kind since 2013.
A festival rep told Rolling Stone that Waters is planning a “very special set list especially curated” for the famed Rhode Island summer festival, which was founded in 1959 and is best known for Bob Dylan’s electric guitar controversy in 1965.
To me, “very special set list” = not much Pink Floyd.
This is pure baseless speculation – a hallmark of internet journalism – but if Waters is curating a set list that’s specifically catered to Newport, then there shouldn’t be much expected in the way of Pink Floyd’s psychedelic freakouts or operatic prog-rock odysseys. The best hope is that he includes some of the band’s more acoustic offerings or turns their cosmic classics into stripped-down folk musings.
Folk: In what will surely be one for the ages, please welcome to the 2015 line-up @ROGERWATERS pic.twitter.com/C0Tw3XB7VK
— Newport Folk Fest (@Newportfolkfest) May 21, 2015
“Mother” would be an obvious choice in this respect, as would be “Wish You Were Here”, “Welcome to the Machine” and “Hey You”. If you want to go a bit deeper, you could also include “Pigs on the Wing”, “Dogs”, and “Fearless”. But if he wants to mock the music industry as one of his themes, he needs to fit “Have a Cigar” in there, doesn’t he? What about “Comfortably Numb” or “Money”?
Waters has been in the news lately not for his music, but his political statements and verbal attacks on Silicon Valley and digital technology. He’s been on the offensive against artists who perform in Israel, which he has been calling for artists and fans alike to boycott for at least two years.
His set list at the Newport Folk Festival will undoubtedly include at least vague references to his political agendas, whether he plays Pink Floyd songs, his solo material or covers. With the 50th anniversary of Bob Dylan’s electric guitar moment coming the day after his performance, one would expect at least one or two Dylan songs during the show. And with the moderately popular Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit listed at the top of the Sunday lineup, you can expect another major lineup addition from the festival in the near future.
Tickets for Friday are still available through Ticketmaster, but with the addition of Waters they are sure to go quickly.
What do you think Roger Waters has planned for the Newport Folk Festival? Give us your ideas in the comments.