No Filter: The Rolling Stones love you live in Philly and the rain

July 24th, 2019 | By A.D. Amorosi


Josh Pelta-Heller for WXPN

Celebrating a relationship with Philadelphia audiences that dates back 54 years (“54 f*cking years,” according to Mick Jagger) and a noted assemblage of torn down arenas, The Rolling Stones sold out the Lincoln Financial Center on Tuesday night to adoring longtime fans (at least the t-shirts were old) and people with lots of money to burn (2 front pit tickets were easily $3000).

With Jagger back to fighting fitness after his recent heart surgery (which cancelled an earlier “No Filter” Philly tour date in the first place), Keith Richards back to brown hair (he let it go white for a while), Ron Wood looking fitter than ever (sobriety suits him) and Charlie Watts grinning (!!!!), the evening was prime latter-day strong Stones – ragged, slower, noisier and mightily rocking. Along with finding, then burrowing deep into each song’s rhythmic pocket (thank you, Charlie and bassist Daryl Jones), the Rolling Stones – in small, nuanced ways – managed to make even the most timeworn of its tracks freshly funky.

This included everything from Jagger’s low guttural yowling away from the mic and a gospel hootenenay code to “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” a more pensive than usual “Street Fighting Man” with Richards’ second line sounding like “Monkey Man,” and a cornball acoustic take on “Angie” from the intimate catwalk stage that was so marvelous messy, the foursome seemed to be laughing at it. (Not so messy though was that small stage’s version of the Stones’ country-billy “Dead Flowers,” complete with Jagger lowering his octave to a deep, bassy hoot and Richards’ first real harmony vocal of the night. That harmony alone was worth $3,000 – not that I was paying).

From that aforementioned slower take on “Street Fighting Man,” the set’s opener, there was no pretending that this group were a bunch of kids, despite Jagger’s renewed energy. They certainly weren’t pretending. Instead, they seemed to take their time, more than ever, finding and exploiting the good groove on chestnuts such as the blues stomping extended jam on “Midnight Rambler” and the slipped discoid “Miss You,” elongated by Jones’ rubber banded bass flexings. Musically, however, it was the stinging, back-and-forth solos courtesy Wood and Richard that was the night’s high point. If one ever imagined a band of such stealth and age phoning in a performance, look no further than these gentlemen guitars and their razoring leads.

Another fantastic part of the evening was humor. While every band member couldn’t stop from grinning, it was Jagger who played court jester throughout the evening, whether flouncing down the catwalk during a particularly horny “Tumbling Dice” or introducing the fan favorite pick of the night (this time, a blunt blowsy “Bitch”) as something chose from a very expensive set of graphics.

Along with spreading powder on the stage due to its lingering dampness and wearing a series of funny hats, Jagger called Wood the “cheesesteak Chagall,” stated that Watts was “from Preservation Hall to Independence Hall,” and made mention of former Eagles QB Nick Foles having said hello from the Stones last tour stop at Jacksonville’s Jaguar Stadium.

When Jagger wasn’t busy joking and the band wasn’t continually smiling, the Rolling Stones’ four principle members communicated to each other with fleeting, knowing glance and a decades-old intuition that comes through the pores of every note and every word like sweet, funky sweat.

Amazing.
[thekey.xpn.org]

Photo by Josh Pelta-Heller. More here > [thekey.xpn.org]

Quote
bv
I don't understand those who complain about set lists without going to the show. It is like complaining about a beer - how it looks like - without tasking it.

I guess it is the dream of another band. The Rolling Stones have been masters of repeating the same set list for every show, all the tours they have done, in the past the very same songs every night, like in the 70's and 80's. These days they change some songs, because they know many fans travel to more than one show.

They taste good! In fact they are great!

The answer is very simple.

1) Different tours USED TO BE different from each other set list wise. The Rolling Stones HAVE NOT always performed the same set list.

If you went to see them in 1989,it was different from 1981.

If you went to see them in 1994,it was different from 1989 AND different from 1981.

If You went to see them in 1997,it was different from 1994,and 1989,and 1981.

If you went to see them in 1999,it was different from 1997,1994,1989,and 1981.

If you went to see them in 2002,they were digging into the old album tracks.

Then,at some point in 2003,they started to give up on the strategy but,even in 2005 there were some new songs and they usually avoided repeating the non-warhorses from previous trips to a given city.

2) Now,the set list is down to just warhorses,and the very few non-warhorses are usually repeats from prior shows in the same city. With no new songs and now not any different old songs in many,trending towards most cases.

3) It's not about Philadelphia (as an example) having a different set list than Jacksonville for the 1 % of the audience who follows the band around the world.

It's about Philadelphia 2019 having no different songs than past tours in Philadelphia. Which has an impact on more than the 1% of the audience who travel to follow them to multiple shows on the same tour.

4) It was a better strategy when they performed the same set list every night on a tour but,a set list with songs different from previous tours.

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schillid
great photos, bv!
thanks

but i don't know about that photo of Sasha ...

LARGE version

[twitter.com]

Quote
Winning Ugly VXII

Quote
bv
I don't understand those who complain about set lists without going to the show. It is like complaining about a beer - how it looks like - without tasking it.

I guess it is the dream of another band. The Rolling Stones have been masters of repeating the same set list for every show, all the tours they have done, in the past the very same songs every night, like in the 70's and 80's. These days they change some songs, because they know many fans travel to more than one show.

They taste good! In fact they are great!

The answer is very simple.

1) Different tours USED TO BE different from each other set list wise. The Rolling Stones HAVE NOT always performed the same set list.

If you went to see them in 1989,it was different from 1981.

If you went to see them in 1994,it was different from 1989 AND different from 1981.

If You went to see them in 1997,it was different from 1994,and 1989,and 1981.

If you went to see them in 1999,it was different from 1997,1994,1989,and 1981.

If you went to see them in 2002,they were digging into the old album tracks.

Then,at some point in 2003,they started to give up on the strategy but,even in 2005 there were some new songs and they usually avoided repeating the non-warhorses from previous trips to a given city.

2) Now,the set list is down to just warhorses,and the very few non-warhorses are usually repeats from prior shows in the same city. With no new songs and now not any different old songs in many,trending towards most cases.

3) It's not about Philadelphia (as an example) having a different set list than Jacksonville for the 1 % of the audience who follows the band around the world.

It's about Philadelphia 2019 having no different songs than past tours in Philadelphia. Which has an impact on more than the 1% of the audience who travel to follow them to multiple shows on the same tour.

4) It was a better strategy when they performed the same set list every night on a tour but,a set list with songs different from previous tours.

This sums up the "problem" perfectly.

Quote
JTHanis

Quote
Winning Ugly VXII

Quote
bv
I don't understand those who complain about set lists without going to the show. It is like complaining about a beer - how it looks like - without tasking it.

I guess it is the dream of another band. The Rolling Stones have been masters of repeating the same set list for every show, all the tours they have done, in the past the very same songs every night, like in the 70's and 80's. These days they change some songs, because they know many fans travel to more than one show.

They taste good! In fact they are great!

The answer is very simple.

1) Different tours USED TO BE different from each other set list wise. The Rolling Stones HAVE NOT always performed the same set list.

If you went to see them in 1989,it was different from 1981.

If you went to see them in 1994,it was different from 1989 AND different from 1981.

If You went to see them in 1997,it was different from 1994,and 1989,and 1981.

If you went to see them in 1999,it was different from 1997,1994,1989,and 1981.

If you went to see them in 2002,they were digging into the old album tracks.

Then,at some point in 2003,they started to give up on the strategy but,even in 2005 there were some new songs and they usually avoided repeating the non-warhorses from previous trips to a given city.

2) Now,the set list is down to just warhorses,and the very few non-warhorses are usually repeats from prior shows in the same city. With no new songs and now not any different old songs in many,trending towards most cases.

3) It's not about Philadelphia (as an example) having a different set list than Jacksonville for the 1 % of the audience who follows the band around the world.

It's about Philadelphia 2019 having no different songs than past tours in Philadelphia. Which has an impact on more than the 1% of the audience who travel to follow them to multiple shows on the same tour.

4) It was a better strategy when they performed the same set list every night on a tour but,a set list with songs different from previous tours.

This sums up the "problem" perfectly.

-

Quote
Winning Ugly VXII

... Now,the set list is down to just warhorses,and the very few non-warhorses are usually repeats from prior shows in the same city. With no new songs and now not any different old songs in many,trending towards most cases.

... It was a better strategy when they performed the same set list every night on a tour but,a set list with songs different from previous tours.

This is the Philadelphia show live thread. I will follow up your comments here in the place where the set list discussions do belong:

The Rolling Stones set list discussions

Bjornulf



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2019-07-30 23:55 by bv.

Does anyone have a Lucky Dip ticket for Pit 1 from Philadelphia recent tour. If you could take a picture of it or scan it & email it to onecelt70@yahoo.com I would appreciate it. I took my kid & I lost the ticket. I am trying to get a print from Philly framed & would like to add the ticket to the mount. Thanks

Anyone?