It's Only Rock'n Roll
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It's Only Rock'n Roll |
The sound was perfect ( no malfunctions like at the beginning of the Polish show). The guys were in excellent shape playing very well. Mick was singing excellent that evening. All songs sounded great and Memory Motel (web choice) was just superb.
Keith's "Thief In The Night" was an interesting change after couple of shows with "You don't have to mean it" and was performed good. It's only rock'n'roll at the center stage was a nice surprise as well as "You can't always get what you want" played as a first encore. Mick welcomed almost whole Europe and part of the Africa. The show was broadcasted to many countries I guess.
I wish I were there�
Guys, you are the best, but yesterday you were just the greatest in the whole galactic.
Start time: 20:30 End time : 23:02
The set list:
Starting of as usual with a good version of Satisfaction. Gimme Shelter was not as great as some times before but good. Lisa is good. Anybody Seen My Baby was great, missed that one in Amsterdam (2 3 4 and 5). Ronnie is great. Paint It Black was great, long and fast. I like Out Of Control and how Mick always acts like that on that number. Memory Motel showed Keith in a good singing form, warm and tender. I like that guy and he apperantly had so much fun singing. It was nice to hear Jagger mention Iceland. I voted for Star Star but you can�t alwyas get what you want until near the end. Miss You superb long and well performed with a jazzy bit near the end. Charlie is great as always. How could Der Spiegel say that he didn�t keep the beat in 95?
Thief In The Night was excellent and Leah Wood sang like an angel. In both his songs Keith sang well an enjoyed himself. It was nice to hear It�s Only Rock �N� Roll on the center stage and You Got Me Rocking were nice and enjoyable. Like A Rolling Stone has now become a kind of trademark at least on the center stage. On the telly it looked like playing in a small club.
The rest is tour de la force. Sympathy needs no words besides the lyrics. Tumbling Dice getting better all the time.Watching Keith plug his guitar into Honky Tonk Women is something special. Mick was great in Start Me Up and Jumping Jack. The highlight was the first encore You Can�t Always Get What You Want. At last and it shows how good The Rolling Stones play. And being treated to two encores is really something to give you a kick. Brown Sugar was the icing on the cake. And some cake it was.
For full 2 hours and 31 minute we enjoyed the greatest rock and roll band in the world in best of forms enjoying themselves and others. I look forward to Mannheim september 12. This was one of my best birthdays.
Oh yeah, this show was so great!!! I really enjoyed being there only 3 days after my last concert in Hamburg, which was a very good one, too, but this Bremen-show was outstanding...
The Rolling Stones did not play in Bremen for 31 years, so it was about time for another show there. I appreciated that because Bremen is not too far away from Hannover (about one hour by train [ICE]) - another more or less �easy to reach� concert for me. My friends did not join me this time (they had to work or go to school), but the next day they asked me regretfully how this show was and I was only able to tell them that it was one of the best shows I�ve seen. By the way, this was my ninth B2B-show after 4xBuenos Aires, N�rnberg, Hannover, Berlin and Hamburg.
It was quite easy to reach the Weserstadion located near the river Weser and I was there at 13.00. I picked gate 5 to enter being a good choice to get to Ronnie�s side again. About one hour later Julia arrived and we spent all the time before the show with chatting. It was her first Stones-show (she was not able to see the Hannover-show) and she liked it a lot. This time the hours of waiting passed by much quicker due to Julia and at 16.30 the gates were opened - we heard the usual soundcheck of Big Country and the Stonescrew before. I�m not sure but for one moment I thought that I heard Keith�s voice during the soundcheck, but I may be wrong.
When we got into the stadium I was a bit surprised because this time there were no �pits� in front of the stage, only some wavebreakers in the middle of the catwalk. Well, I�m sure they did that because of the TV-broadcast to make the field look completely full and to film from the inside of the wavebreakers. Additionally, there were two large movable camera-arms in the field again like in Buenos Aires. I made it to second row again with about 7 people to the right in front of the catwalk - a very good place to be! The catwalk was really low this time (only about half as high as the fence). Later I got Julia to my side and she believed me that this place is better than a front row position much more to the left - she did not regret. We sat down until 19.00 and had a nice time talking etc. - then the announcer was on the stage and 19.03 Big Country started their show. They were received better than before and they had fun like we had. They finished at about 19.50 and wished us a lot of fun with the Stones - and we had, for sure.
I was exspecting the show to start at 21.00, but they started earlier and that was good! You could see some more people behind the fence than usual, more security and extra cameraman etc. with mobile cameras. Usually, Prodigy�s �Breathe� is the sign that the show will start soon and it was like that again... 20.30 stadium-lights were turned off and the intro started...
Oh yeah, perfect conditions for a show, it was almost dark and the weather was great (20 degrees). Then Keith came to the front and �Satisfaction� started the show and we went wild, jumping and singing along.. Well, the sound had a little too much bass, but it got better later..
After �Let�s Spend The Night Together� Mick started with the more or less usual words "Willkommen in Bremen... es ist sch�n wieder hier zu sein" (Welcome to Bremen... it�s nice to be back again) and announced �Flip The Switch�, which was done nicely. Then I screamed my heart out for �Gimme Shelter� and I�m sure that Mick heard me. Lisa was great again and it was time for Mick to talk a bit: "I wanna tell you something if you can stand my German: Wir freuen uns, da� die Show heute Nacht in ganz Europa und Afrika im Fernsehen �bertragen wird... (We are really pleased that this show tonight is broadcasted all over Europe and Africa) [he read parts from the teleprompter] and then he welcomed everybody watching the show on television and told them that "everyone in Bremen is looking so good".
�Anybody Seen My Baby� was next and as always enriched with "We came to rock for �Bremen� like this"-part.
"How are you feeling out there ... are you feeling good???" - Yeah! - ".. ARE YOU FEELING GOOD???" - YEAH!!!! - and it was about time for �Paint It Black�, because they played it in Berlin for the last time and Julia and I hoped for it, but at first I thought that they were going to do �IORR� again, because Keith had this beige guitar (he used a different one for �PIB� in Berlin), but when Mick continued with "[...] ..this one is a really old one for you.. Hope you like it.." I knew that �PIB� was going to be next.. Great version and it really rocked, definately one highlight of the show!
Then I shouted for �Saint Of Me�, which is one of my favourite new songs, especially live. Afterwards Mick welcomed people on the TV again, mentioning the countries France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Holland and Belgium. This became a kind of running gag between the next songs after �Out Of Control�. I screamed for �SOM� again and this time Mick reacted by saying something about a "fucking song contest" and later, when he got his guitar, he continued with "Dies ist ein neues St�ck.. Es hei�t �Saint Of Me�.." (This is a new song.. This one is called �SOM�..). A great version followed and there was nice singing afterwards, though I heard it a bit louder, but when the band joined in again with the drums, guitar and keyboard, the whole stadium sang along. Oh Yeah! Julia was amazed (as many others being to a B2B-show for the first time, I guess)...
Another great new song was next with �Out Of Control�, which was great and the flashing lights worked good.. I really love this tune and this time it was about 8 minutes long. After the tune Mick said "...I�m out of breath.. I just got enough of breath to say hello to few more countries like Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, Iceland ...".
Cybervote was next and I voted for �Memory Motel�. When I left home �Star, Star� was leading, but I already knew that �Memory Motel� made it to the top of the list (as you know, a stranger told me!). Well, a really nice version followed. Keith and Mick had a lot of fun in this duet, but I missed Mick on the piano!
Anyway, Mick continued with the question "..do you want to sing along with us a little bit now? Wollt ihr mitsingen? ... Okay, good, allright... I tell you somebody else to �mitsingen�... Russia, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia... we want you to �mitsingen�.." - we had to laugh a bit because this sounded a bit funny. Btw, �mitsingen� is German for �to sing along�. Well, and of course �Miss You� followed. A lot of running on the stage and Mick succeeded to connect to the crowd on the galleries and the whole stadium sang along. Mick only licked Lisa�s big toe a bit this time, but did not suck like in Berlin and Hamburg.. "Bremen are you ready? Seid ihr fertig?" Oh yes, we were! We got a nice version that lasted for about twelve minutes.
Next, a few more countries were welcomed by Mick including Poland, Slovenia, Croatia and Bulgaria and even some countries in North- and Westafrica like Algeria, Tunesia, Morocco, Cameroon etc.. "You sang really beautiful, by the way ... Ihr seid super.. " he said afterwards and introduced the band. He fooled Lisa a bit again like in Hamburg with a squeaking "Thank You" like mice do (well, and Lisa:-)).
Ronnie was introduced with "an der Gitarre: der verr�ckte Maler Ronnie Wood" and Charlie with "Charlie �boom boom� Watts". Then Keith was on with "Hello Bremen! And the rest of Europe: Welcome to Bremen and welcome to the Rolling Stones.. Everybody is welcome, you know.. Anyway, on with the show... This one is called �Thief In The Night�". Leah Wood joined Lisa on the stage to sing the background vocals and after the song she had to come to the front to Keith again like in Berlin to say hello to us. Keith got a new guitar for �Wanna Hold You� saying that he can�t use the same guitar all the time.
Then it was time for the bridge to the Babylon-b-stage. And as a little surprise they did not play �Little Queenie�, they played �It�s Only Rock�n Roll� instead. Great decision, I like this tune! �You Got Me Rocking� was next and now we were able to see that there were some free places on the gallery in the very back, but who cares?! I saw a helicopter in the air filming from up there then. A "Bobby Dylan" song followed with �Like A Rolling Stone� and again it was received very well.
Well, a great version of �Sympathy� was next as usual and Julia made it to front row now for the rest of the show. It could have been me standing there, but she is the girl, you know;-)... �Tumbling Dice� and �Honky Tonk Women� were next. During �HTW� some raindrops fell from the sky and the monitor speakers and cameras were getting their rain protection again like in Hamburg. The rain was not that heavy at all and stopped during �Start Me Up�, which had the triple start again. Afterwards, Mick asked "Do you want a little bit more" and they started an excellent version of �Jumping Jack Flash�. Keith walked down to the right and then he walked to the left and passed by so close. The firework was nice again.
Well, then it was time for the encore ...aahhhh... I mean encores, because �You Can�t Always Get What You Want� was back in the set and Mick walked down the catwalk a bit at beginning of the song. This was the second time they played this tune in Europe on this tour after Barcelona. �Brown Sugar� closed this great show and the "yeah yeah yeah ooohh"�s went on a bit after the song. The band was in a really great mood, they came down to us etc. and Ronnie even signed something during one song and Mick came down and shook some hands, but unfortunately, not at our place. Well, than it was time to say farewell and the final firework was over at 23.05. Luckily this is not my last show from this tour, though it would have been a good ending show, because it was so nice.
Anyway, let�s see if we made it to the television - the guys were filming us sometimes - that would be the great! I still hope that I�ll be able to get the complete version of the show on video some time, because German TV Sat 1 will only show a shortened version on September 19th and this really gives me the needle! Come on, why do they support the tour as a sponsor and then they only show a crippled version of this great concert!?! This is something I hate and I�ll never understand. To sum it up again: We really enjoyed this show with a perfect set list with it�s two encores, the good web choice �Memory Motel� and, of course, �Paint It Black�. My only hope is that they�ll try �Gunface� or �Already Over Me� live, but you can�t always get what you want... See you in Berlin at the Waldb�hne (maybe) and definately in Mannheim, on my 21st birthday, oh yeah!
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It's Only Rock'n Roll 1998 -
© The Rolling Stones Fan Club Of Europe |