Back from my second and final show of this tour, I am sending some pictures again. I wrote a rather lengthy review of the Berlin show, so I won't repeat myself, since it was a very similar wonderful evening. The biggest difference was the venue of course, the Berlin Waldbühne was a special one, while in Vienna we got a standard stadium show with the big stage.
While in Berlin the standing pit was for some 2 500 people or so, the GA in Vienna was for maybe 30 000. There was the diamond circle and golden circle on Ronnies side. Ridiculously expensive if you ask me, the golden circle which reached into the middle of the sadium was really the worst value for the money. To pay 200 E and end up standing in the middle of the stadium, I don't know... The diamond circle for 400 E was also large (regular FOS size), so those who didn't show up early, had to watch it also from quite a distance. From what I saw at some pictures, both those sectors were quite packed.
Anyway, I had a GA ticket for 98 E, with which, showing up early, one could end up right in front of the stage on the Keith's side. I came to the stadium at 4 p.m. There were two entrances for the GA. There were quite a lot of people at one gate, so I went to the other one, which was maybe 20 meters more distant from the U-bahn. There were like 50 people sitting on the pavement in front of the gates. It looked strange, so I asked the organiser, whether it really was a GA entrance, since there were many (I mean many) more people at the other one. He just said those entrances were identical, but the other one was closer to the U-bahn :-) So I sat down, I was fifth in front of one of those gates. I could not believe it, it looked like I would be in the first row.
They opened the gates rather late - at 6.15 p.m. and well...I didn't end up in the first row, since there was this "early entry" thing, that you could buy for...300 E? Do I remember it correctly? Jeeeezzzz! So there were some people at the stadium already, when it was officially opened, but eventhough I was a bit more far away than in Berlin, I had a great spot and was really happy with it. They actually did a sort of FOS sector at Keit's side too, they built a wave breaker just in the line with the golden circle - right in the middle of the stadium - and they had a certain amount of wristbands that they were giving to people, as they entered. First come, first served. Once they run out of wristbands, they closed the gate to the sector. Not that it would make a huge difference, there was no reason to walk away from the sector, but it is surely nice not to have the whole stadium pushing from the back.
The show itself was similar to the Berlin one, the setlist was identical, except that Angie was played instead of Waiting On a Friend. Even the request song (Get Off Of My Cloud) was the same. The band played really great again, there were just more smiles on the stage in Berlin. I guess the Waldbühne venue made that show special even for The Stones. The crowd in Vienna was generally younger (probably thanks to the cheaper GA tickets) and really into it, creating a great atmosphere.
Maybe this was the last time I had the chance to see The Stones, but one could suspect that 40 years ago and ever since, so maybe I will see them the next year, maybe in 2 or 3 or 5 years. Right now I am really happy I enjoyed those 2 shows, which were all I hoped they would be and more.






















