I just wanted to share a few thoughts with some fellow fans. I am younger than some of you, older than some as well, I'd imagine. My first show was October 1997 during the Bridges To Babylon tour. The closest I'd come prior to that was 1994 when my dad, as an early birthday gift, bought me the pay-per-view of th Voodoo Lounge show from Miami, FL. I thought both amazing. I have seen every tour ever since - including No Security, Licks, and a Bigger Bang. I honestly thought they were done after the last tour. While Keith seemed to be carrying the weight for Ronnie on the B2B, NS, and Licks tours, they both seemed adrift on the ABB show in 2006 I saw. Same goes for the "Shine A Light" film. It seemed that Mick and Charlie were doing all of the work. It seemed like they were done.

Flash forward to December, 2012 - the PPV show from the Barclay Center outside of NY. I didn't have high hopes. But then, just as I'd wished for years now, I heard that great drum crack from Charlie, and they FINALLY opened up a show with "Get Off My Cloud". Even better - the guitars were back! Focused, chugging rhythm, fills in the right places, mistakes in the right places, even. And from that show (the 50 and counting tour), to the 14 on Fire shows (the excellent Sweet Summer Sun document), to my own experience seeing them here in Nashville exactly one month and one day ago as part of the Zip Code tour - I can honestly say that my favorite rock and roll band, in my opinion, are the best they have been in 30 years or so. I thought they were fantastic on B2B and the Licks tours, but there is a passion and energy propelling the last 2 and a half years that makes them sound like a BAND again and not just a revue. It's really inspiring - I never thought I would find myself typing this, but I am glad that I got to. Now, off to listen to a little more of that "Sticky Fingers Live" before I go to bed.

Quite spot on.

2012 opener of GOMC truthfully sounded very thin..nothing like it did on the B stage....it was nostalgic and exciting with video buildup, but a little flat....The difference from 2012-13 to the present tour is significant. KR is much better and RW really has been great . I would say Charlie has slowed down a bit and Mick's voice has not been great on some of the songs, but overall, a different band from 3 years ago...

The PPV was at The Prudential Center in NJ December 2012.

any updates about the coming months....???
jeroen

Thank you and cheers roughjustice, and I stand corrected, More Hot Rocks - though the minor location specifics aren't really germane to my original post. What I was really getting at (I was kind of in a buzzed fog when I made my original post), was that they sound HONEST again. They're really interacting, and no longer does it feel like - with all due respect to the man as I honestly do - "Chuck Leavell & His Fabulous Rolling Stones!". No, they're interacting, making it happen a a band. The stage is big and beautiful, sure, but it's scaled down - the non-stop theatrics of previous tours aren't present. It's a f**king overused cliche but I'll say it anyway - it seems to be about the music this time, maaaaaann. And I honestly think, for the first time in decades, they're really trying to to their best. Keith - bless him - he will never be the KR from Ya-Ya's or Brussels again, but he's so much more together than the last couple of tours. He's actually playing rhythm again, and his solos have been pretty damn strong too. Ronnie? What the hell, mate? I don't know who put a hot pepper up your arse but it worked! Ever since the start of this ongoing tour he's sounded the best he has since the Tattoo You tour. And yes, Charlie has slowed down a tad, but I defy you to show me a drummer at his or any age that is more solid and reliable. And as for Mick? Well, just keep being the greatest frontman for a rock band ever- you seem to excel at it.

The Stones have been on this victory lap since 1989. God knows we love them so much we are still standing and cheering but to tell the truth I'm not sure where they can go from here. It was a great tour, for all the reasons you state theimposter, but I'm afraid that may be just what they want to go out on a high note.

@theimposter: Well said, I couldn't agree more.

Those were excactly my thoughts after seeing them in Hyde Park at 2013 and in 2014 in Paris and Duesseldorf.

Cheers naturalust and papo. I fear it as well, the idea that these guys are trying so hard because they know the end is coming soon. To use a very cliched phrase, all good things must come to an end, right? On the bright side, at least, should this be the beginning of the end, we get the Stones as f**king warriors as opposed to tired old dogs that needed to be put to sleep (which is what they started to seem like on the Bigger Bang tour). I doubt we've truly heard the last of them on stage, but just in case - Mick, Keith, Charlie, Ronnie - salute you all. The same goes for Lisa, Bernard, Tim, Chuck, and everyone else involved (the great Bobby K. included).

Keith's head injury had a drastic impact on the way that tour played out..not saying it was great before, but he certainly was not ready to return and tour and the results that followed at times were hard to watch...As selfish as I am about wanting them to go on and on, I think we all can agree we don't want to see them embarrass themselves. This past tour showed they can still perform at a high level and the missed intros or lyrics were minor compared to the overall greatness of the shows.

<<the idea that these guys are trying so hard because they know the end is coming soon.>>

It has seemed that way for a very long time, largely because, forever it seems, they've been the oldest at this particular game, seeing how long a rock band as hard driving as the Stones can go on, and they've been raising the bar decade by decade.

In the mid-90s or so, I asked a friend how long he thought they could go on playing and he answered, "I don't know. Ten years?"

Perhaps the Stones have exceeded even their own expectations and are presently just taking things a year at a time.

The last tour will never be announced as such ahead of time. As with A Bigger Bang being their final studio album, it just turned out that way.

Somewhere down the line, perhaps in his mid-eighties, a reporter will ask Mick if the Stones will be touring at any point in the future and Mick will answer, "It would be nice for the Stones to do a few shows, but there are no plans at the moment."

And that, dear die-hard, is how the "last time" will come about. It will not be an announcement in the news, but instead something you'll just have to figure out for yourself. It ends not with a bang, but with an ellipsis....

Agreed wholeheartedly with those last two posts.

Nice post, theimposter! Great reading for Monday morning to start the week with! :-)

Thanks, Happy24! I don't post on here with the frequency that I used to, unless I feel really passionate about something and want to say it.