POP MUSIC

Roger Waters

A lot of the visuals during Roger Waters's concert Saturday at Nissan Pavilion would have been perfect accompaniments to an acid trip. Instead, light beer seemed to be the intoxicant of choice among the mostly middle-aged (and beyond) Pink Floyd fans who came to see Waters, 63, run through his former band's hits. Among them, "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)," "Comfortably Numb" and the dorm room favorite "Dark Side of the Moon."

The concert brought back the grandiose arena atmospherics of days gone by, and Waters, as usual, did an expert job of pairing evocative images with his music. Grim war scenes and trippy space shots made up the core of the backdrop, but it was particularly touching to see films and photos of Syd Barrett, the recently deceased leader behind Pink Floyd's first incarnation, during "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" and "Shine On, You Crazy Diamond."

The set included nothing from Waters's solo albums, though it did feature the horrible new song "Leaving Beirut." In that rotten blues-based number inspired by Waters's hitchhiking through Lebanon in 1961 as well as the recent turmoil there, the artless, didactic lyrics attacked war and President Bush in particular.

It was hard to tell if the crowd was booing the song's lame lyrics or its tunelessness. Still, the wild cheers during "Sheep" for a slogan-laden inflatable pig ("Impeach Bush Now" was scrawled on its fanny) and for the line "Mother, should I trust the government?" in "Mother" seemed to indicate many in the audience had their own political sentiments. Or maybe it was just the light beer talking.

-- Christopher Porter

A Tribe Called Quest

What fans of A Tribe Called Quest want more than anything is a new album from the Native Tongue hip-hop gods. For now, a reunion tour will have to satisfy their jones. Tons of ever-loyal Quest followers, who've been cruelly deprived since the group disbanded in 1998, crowded into Love nightclub on Friday night to see Tribe, along with the Procussions, Consequence and Rhymefest, as part of the 2K Sports Bounce Tour.

As the instrumental intro to 1993's "Midnight Marauders" played, Q-Tip, Phife and Ali Shaheed Muhammad walked onstage and shared a group hug.

When the huddle broke, they dug right into kinetic renditions of "Buggin' Out" and "Oh My God," quickly showing that they had no intention of coasting on nostalgia.

Group members also kept between-songs chatter to a minimum and achieved an incredible level of sound quality. Q-Tip and Phife delivered lyrics without having to yell over the boom, and Shaheed made sure that none of his delicate jazz samples were muddied, even if it meant chopping and cutting them, as in the iconic horn loop that envelops "Jazz (We've Got)."

Jarobi, the Tribe's fourth member, joined in for the second half of the show, which included "Find a Way," "Bonita Applebum," "Electric Relaxation" and "Check the Rhime," which was to be the last song of the night. After Tribe left the stage, the crowd called for them to return, but it was a futile effort. But hopefully the group's devotees will receive the encore they're hungry for in the near future, preferably packaged in a shrink-wrapped jewel box.