Roger Waters: This Is Not a Drill: Live from Prague -- The Movie (Columbia/Legacy, Blu-ray, NR, 143 min.). In the introduction to the show – the on-screen words are available in eight different languages -- Roger Waters says that “the powers that be” tried to cancel his European tour. However, the tour went on and these powerful performances, filmed May 24 and 25, 2023 in Prague, Czech Republic, bear witness to the strength of his humanitarian message, particularly heard in the lengthy “Sheep,” which is a call to resist fascism, war and genocide, and the anti-nuclear weapons message of “Two Suns in the Sunset,” which features the ticking of the Doomsday Clock.

Waters, a founding member and the creative genius behind Pink Floyd, billed this tour as his “first ever Farewell Tour.” The show is a stunning indictment of the corporate dystopia in which we all struggle to survive and is dedicated to “our brothers and sisters all over the world who are engaged in the existential battle for the soul of humanity.” Building upon his previous tour, the show utilizes four giant screens that form a cross in the center of the arena. The screens start by showing animation of a destroyed city during the opening “Comfortably Numb,” which opens to thunderstorm sounds, and then broadcasts huge words during the following “The Happiest Days of Our Lives.”

Later the screens show images of Pink Floyd, his current performing band, nuclear destruction, and more messages pleading for humane treatment of everyone. During the two-song mini-set on fascism – “In the Flesh” and “Run Like Hell” – a multitude of crossed hammers are displayed. During “In the Flesh,” Waters walks out toward the crowd and fires a non-lethal “machine gun” at the crowd, while during “Run Like Hell,” he exhorts the crown to clap along to the hammers’ beat. Later, the crowd chants “hammer.”

During the 23-song show, Waters and his crack band perform 20 classic songs – all with his lyrics – from the catalogs of Pink Floyd and his acclaimed solo career. One new song, “The Bar,” is performed in two parts. Most of the staging is done in blacks and reds, although green in used, appropriately, for “Money.”

Waters is joined on stage by his outstanding band, including guitarist-vocalist Jonathan Wilson, guitarist Dave Kilminster, keyboardist-guitarist Jon Carin, guitarist-bassist Gus Seyffert, drummer Joey Waronker, keyboardist Robert Walter, backing vocalists Shanay Johnson and Amanda Belair, and saxophonist Seamus Blake. Kilminster in particular stands out with his guitar solos, including during “Another Brick in the Wall” and “Have a Cigar,” and his vocals on “Money” and “Us & Them,” the two numbers on which Waters switches to bass.

Despite its literal thunder, “Comfortably Numb” – one of my all-time favorite Pink Floyd songs – is also calming and eerie. Waters moves to piano for the first time for “The Bravery of Being Out of Range,” and the screens show several U.S. presidents, including Donald J. Trump, being branded as “war criminals.”

During the first half, there is a fine trio of Pink Floyd songs, including “Have a Cigar,” “Wish You Were Here,” which Waters urges the crowd to sing, and “Shine on You Crazy Diamond,” which has a lengthy instrumental introduction in this version.

There are two acoustic guitars during “Déjà vu,” followed by the darker-themed “Is This the Life We Really Want?” “Eclipse” is another strong song.

The final four minutes of the video show features some backstage looks. The Blu-ray has two music videos, for “Comfortably Numb” (8:55) and “Two Suns in the Sunset” (6:20), as bonuses.

The concert also is available as a 4 LP and 2 CD sets, as well as DVD and digital audio. Grade: A

The Band of Heathens: Live at Rockpalast 2009 (MIG, DVD + CD, Nr, 74 min.). The Austin, Texas group is captured live at the Crossroads Festival in Bonn, Germany on Nov. 8, 2009 in a 14-song show. The band plays Americana, folk rock and country blues.

The three front musicians, Colin Brooks, Gordy Quist and Ed Jurdi, all are excellent singers and instrumentalists, as well as talented songwriters. They founded the band in November 2005. Bassist Seth Withney and drummer John Chipman, who had previously played with The Resentments, completed the quintet in 2007. Since then, the band has enjoyed a solid reputation among Americana and roots rock fans.

The band's first two albums were live CDs, and it was only in May 2008 that the five musicians recorded their first studio album, produced by U.S. folk rock legend Ray Wylie Hubbard. The album reached No. 1 in the Americana charts and the Euro Americana charts. In addition to further awards, including nominations at the Americana Music Honors & Awards and the Americana Music Association, the band won the Austin Music Award as Best New Band.

In 2009, their next album, "One Foot in the Ether,", followed and, in the fall, the band successfully toured Europe, including this Rockpalast appearance at the Harmonie in Bonn.

The show starts strongly with the country rock of “What’s This World” and the jam-style “Shine a Light.” Rockers are “Somebody Tell the Truth” and the love song, “Heart on My Sleeve.” Four songs stretch past the seven-minute mark.

A bonus is a backstage unplugged version of “Jackson’s Station” (4:11). Grade: B