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Roger Waters launched his 2012 North American tour of Pink Floyd’s "The Wall" in Houston on Tuesday.

“The Wall Live” tour had previously toured the continent in the fall of 2010; this year’s edition will play almost 40 shows across the continent by the time in wraps up July 14 in Philadelphia.

Chris Gray of the Houston Press reports the performance of the iconic 1979 Pink Floyd masterpiece was “expertly played by [Roger’s] 11-piece ensemble (including former Saturday Night Live bandleader G.E. Smith),” while “the songs amounted to almost two hours of music.”

Gray writes that “some of the moral, social and political undercurrents of this version of The Wall -- everything from a photo collage of soldiers and civilians killed in various armed conflicts to the ad slogans and anticapitalist graffiti scrawled on the inflatable pigs floating overhead during the second act -- were even heavier than the music. And we're talking about a show that includes such towering, sinister symphonic-rock creations as "Empty Spaces" and "Bring the Boys Back Home."

He adds, “several moments Tuesday -- the sweeping, tender "Comfortably Numb" most of all, but also "Hey You," "Mother" and "One of My Turns" -- radiated such an acute loneliness that the music's alienation and despair was almost palpable.”

Waters' first reinvented his iconic stage production of "The Wall" in 2010, utilizing modern day technological advances and special effects which have been embraced by audiences around the globe."The Wall" remains one of the most influential albums in the history of recorded music with a profound effect on pop culture, resonating with multiple generations of music fans.

The 1980 original production of the "The Wall" had been performed live-in-its-entirety just 29 times during Pink Floyd's 1980 tour in support of the album, and once in Berlin, in celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

"The Wall Live" tour continues this week with shows in Austin (Thu) and Tulsa, OK (Sat).