Expect Some New Material And Hits From Waters’ Latest

The man who built The Wall will bring his concept rock to The Gorge tonight.

Roger Waters, one of the founders of Pink Floyd, acrimoniously left the group in the mid-1980s for a solo career.

But his solo work has never reached the critical acclaim or record sales of Floyd’s “The Wall,” and most certainly not “Dark Side of the Moon,” one of the most influential and best-selling albums of all time.

Waters’ last new CD was 1992’s “Amused to Death,” but he says he’s working on a new album to be released sometime next year, with a little help from his fans. (That’s no small feat for a musician who’s notoriously prickly toward his audience.)

He’s been occasionally posting questions on www.roger-waters.com/questions.html for fans to answer: “Do I have personal responsibility?”, “Do I matter?”, “The Internet … a spiritual/religious experience?”

He says he’ll use those answers to craft some of the new album’s concepts.

Although the new CD is a long way off, Waters will likely play at least one new song tonight. It’s called “Each Small Candle,” and he played it just once on last year’s tour.

Reports from earlier shows on Waters’ “In the Flesh” tour say he hits many of Pink Floyd’s highlights; songs from “The Wall” and “Dark Side of the Moon” and favorites like “Welcome to the Machine” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.” Waters also plays much of his “Amused to Death” album.

Waters, whose work with Pink Floyd owed as much to theatrics as musicality, is also writing a French opera.

“It’s an acquired taste,” he told Las Vegas Weekly. “I don’t have a very broad taste in opera, I have to say. I like the ones with great tunes in them.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: Roger Waters

When, where: 8:30 p.m. tonight at The Gorge.

Tickets: $27.95 and $50, available through Ticketmaster (509-735-0500 or www.ticketmaster.com).