Quote
DeanGoodman

Quote
roller99
Did anyone else who was in the pit last night have issues actually finding the wristbands?

I agree with you there. Very odd. Also the first stadium I went to on this tour without free wifi. It's a National Historic Landmark, so won't face the wrecking ball. Sorry!

Well yeah, I know they won't be knocking it down, I just prefer any other stadium in Los Angeles to that place. I don't think it's well suited for concerts. The thing with the wrist bands for pit was crazy. If I hadn't gotten a guest services person to actually lead me to the one person distributing the wristbands, I would have probably just left. And the most frustrating thing is, you ask the people who are working the event, and they either don't know, or give you wrong information. Don't know why Slotix didn't just put the wristbands in the envelopes like they normally do...

Quote
roller99
Please, go on and tell us about the beer prices, the food selection, etc, etc, etc, etc....

I didn't buy or drink any beer so wouldn't know, and brought my own food and water. Made my way to the FanFest on the north side of Bowl, and while they had plenty of food and beer option within the fenced off area, I had my own pleasant meal in the shady area along with hundreds/maybe thousands of others. KLOS was broadcasting live from there, and it was good time had by all. Then once inside, I saw plenty of food options...LOTS of food options in fact. Not sure of prices but what can you expect at a concert. By the way, right inside the north entrance was a tent with several people giving out wristbands for floor access - hard to miss, but don't know if they were also in charge of the Pit wristbands. A shame you were inconvenienced by it all.


EDIT: Just remembered - don't know if you missed it, but they were selling beer, soda, water, and peanuts, etc. at a massive stand at the back of the floor right hand side- at least they were before the show started.
No porta potties, but just a quick stroll up the tunnel, and then to the right were proper bathrooms.

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-08-23 23:39 by Hairball.

Quote
bye bye johnny
From Jose Maria Canpoy:



[twitter.com]

Fantastic - thanks for posting a LARGE version!
Didn't see these at the show, but have already ordered online...up there with my favorites of the tour, and maybe an absolute favorite of the shows I've attended.
Well designed, well rendered, mysterious, the amazing eagle space craft, both dark and light, and very Stonesy with the tongue implanted on Mars!
Related - flying high over the California and Arizona desert earlier, much of it looks like the surface of Mars!

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Quote
Hairball

Fantastic - thanks for posting a LARGE version!

An even larger version of this Poster.

Quote
Irix

Quote
Hairball

Fantastic - thanks for posting a LARGE version!

An even larger version of this Poster.

Maybe I should't have ordered one yet online- could have just printed my own!

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

The Rolling Stones Live Up To'World's Greatest Rock And Roll Band' Moniker At Rose Bowl

Steve Baltin
Aug 23, 2019


Kevin Winter/Getty Images

The Rolling Stones brought their massively successful “No Filter” tour to a sold-out Rose Bowl in Pasadena last night (August 22). Even after more than five decades of touring, a Stones show remains a true event.

With the infamous L.A. traffic a concern, the Rose Bowl wisely suggested people treat the day as a work holiday and make a day of it, setting up a “Fan Fest” in the parking lot. Even in the often jaded world of L.A. concertgoers thousands flooded the parking lot in the day, playing games, eating, listening to local radio station KLOS, which played “All Stones All Day.”

Like I said, when the Stones come to town, it is much more than a show. For people who don’t remember or aren’t sure why, they were reminded immediately as the band took the stage, after a presentation from Robert Downey Jr. and NASA, who named a “Rolling Stones Rock” on Mars, for a fiery and in your face “Street Fighting Man.”

Over the many years I have been fortunate to see the Stones I have seen shows I consider better than others, I have seen different band members outshine others. This night was the Stones, and especially frontman Mick Jagger, at his electrifying best. Regardless of your vote for best lead singer of all time there is no denying that when Jagger is at his best there is no one who ignites a crowd more than the Stones frontman.

Perhaps it was his recent health scare and overcoming that which invigorated the singer. Or whatever it was, Jagger was, as described by one fan, a “Freak of nature” on this night. Prancing, strutting, smiling, engaging the crowd, he once again defied age in every respect, outworking and out-hustling artists 50 years his junior.

That, as exemplified, in the unapologetic confrontational attitude of “Street Fighting Man” is so much a part of the Stones’ legacy. They remain, despite being hailed again and again as “The world’s greatest rock and roll band,” a defiant, blue-collar band.

That blue collar nature shows in their impressive work ethic. As a band they are going to come out and work tirelessly for more than two hours every night to dazzle audiences and as one friend put it, “Help you fall in love with rock and roll again.”


They do it with Jagger’s charisma, the endless cool of the equally ageless Keith Richards, the joy the audience gets from seeing Ron Wood and Charlie Watts onstage every time, a stellar cast of musicians joining them, the aforementioned work ethic and a catalog of timeless songs, several of which rank among the greatest anthems in rock history.

On this night, a powerful “You Can’t Always Get What Want”; the almost eerie “Sympathy For The Devil,” a song that feels as prescient and relevant in 2019 as it did more than 50 years ago; a joyful “Honky Tonk Women,” an acoustic “Dead Flowers,” where the band came to the center of the audience; a sweet “She’s a Rainbow,” voted on by the audience before the show as a song to include; a brilliant “Miss You” and a dangerous, intoxicating “Midnight Rambler” all stood out.

Yet, as superb as all of those songs were on this night, the highlight might have been a furious “Paint It Black,” a song that felt as dark, exciting and punk as it did when first released an astonishing 53 years ago.

It is sometimes easy to forget how often ahead of their time the Stones were as songwriters. As I already mentioned, a song like “Sympathy For The Devil” feels stunningly relevant and when you think it was released 51 years ago, and lyrically it feels so timely, and what a captivating and alluring arrangement it still possesses, it seems unfathomable the song was recorded five decades ago.

The same could be said for “Gimme Shelter,” As always an incredible live song on this night, and I would argue one of the top 10 songs in all of rock, the song remains the prototype for danger and darkness in music. On this night all of that sultriness and allure felt as vibrant and intoxicating as it did when it shocked the world half a century ago.

The band wrapped sometime around 11 with the not surprising finale of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” Never my personal favorite due to over saturation, it was a very pleasant surprise on this night, delivered by the band with the style and passion of a band that was still trying to prove itself.

But befitting the event, pageantry and spectacle that is the Rolling Stones in 2019, the night ended with a fireworks display as the final notes of “Satisfaction” rang out and the Stones took their well-earned curtain calls for being on this night, as they are so often labeled, “The world’s greatest rock and roll band.”

[www.forbes.com]

I'm pretty sure these "reviews" are all written by The West Coast Under Assistant Promo Man.
It's promotion, nothing else.

Via Rock Cellar Magazine:

I Finally Saw The Rolling Stones Live (at the Rose Bowl) and My Life Will Never Be The Same

By Adrian Garro on August 23, 2019

Rose Bowl

Through my more than two decades of going to concerts, I had never seen the Rolling Stones live. I’d caught gigs from the likes of Elton John, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty and other legends over the years, but the Stones? That ticket had eluded me until Thursday night at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

The obvious takeaway as a first-time Stones seer is wide-eyed wonder and amazement. The surreality of seeing some of these songs come to life in a live setting, songs that have embedded themselves in the cultural consciousness for decades, is hard to put into words.

But even more than the power of the live show itself is the fact that these men — Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts — are old. That’s not anything new, nor is it a groundbreaking thing to note in a review, but seriously. Jagger just turned 76 years young last month, and he’s coming off heart valve surgery that forced the postponement of U.S. dates on the band’s No Filter tour.

Did having *heart valve surgery* slow down Mick on the night? No. He was sashaying around the stage and leading the charge the way I have always seen him do it on TV and videos over the years, bounding about, jumping, and generally exhibiting the energy and excitement of a man several decades younger than him. It’s truly a wild spectacle to behold.

The songs on the evening, which of course included “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Paint It, Black,” “Sympathy for the Devil,” “Start Me Up,” “Gimme Shelter,” “Street Fighting Man” and so many others, was a venerable history lesson of some of the most timeless rock and roll ever put to tape.

The Rolling Stones are such a massive entity, they now have their own rock on Mars — as none other than Robert Downey Jr. announced on Thursday.

As for Keith Richards, I think he and Wood possessed the loudest guitar sound I have ever experienced in a live concert setting. Of course, it has to be that loud, given the number of iconic riffs and leads that come from their guitars.

And his fashion — “Keef” is an icon of the highest degree.

But yeah — the Stones’ current tour is everything a fan could possibly want, and more. Gazing around the Rose Bowl seats and concourse, it was evident there were the typical Stones superfans who’ve caught each gig in town for years, but also tons of younger folks, families, and those who had not seen the band live yet, including myself.

The Rolling Stones do not need to tour as frequently as they do. As an elite-level legacy act that can still pack the biggest outdoor venues in the world, they could just enjoy life in their 70s and coast off the memories of old and take it easy. Instead, they get on the road and perform hit after hit (and even dust off some fan favorites, too). Honestly, it’s remarkable and more than a bit inspirational to see them still chasing the muse, all these years later.

I now understand why Stones tickets are always an incredibly tough “get,” as they sell out the venues nearly instantaneously. You’re not just getting a concert, you’re getting a legendary evening of entertainment, carried out by a band (and some excellent backing musicians, among them recent Rock Cellar interviewee Darryl Jones, Chuck Leavell, Karl Denson, Sasha Allen, Tim Ries, Matt Clifford and recent Rock Cellar interviewee Benard Fowler) that’s only known how to turn out an unforgettable live experience for years.

Hats off to you, gentlemen. And you too, RDJ, just for being you.

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Quote
Stoneage
I'm pretty sure these "reviews" are all written by The West Coast Under Assistant Promo Man.
It's promotion, nothing else.

Right??
Fake news.. all these glowing reviews from fans and professional music critics alike couldn't actually be.. right.
Could they

The Rolling Stones at the Rose Bowl: Rock stars rolling out of bed into history


Luis Sinco

By Mikael Wood
Aug. 23, 2019

Somebody must have whispered into Mick Jagger’s ear. Or maybe he Googled it himself backstage as Keith Richards took the mike and sang a few songs. Either way, the Rolling Stones frontman — who greeted his audience Thursday night at the Rose Bowl by announcing, “I think we’ve been here before” — later felt obliged to clarify.

“It’s been 25 years since we played the Rose Bowl!” Jagger exclaimed near the end of the concert, referring to the superstar rock band’s last visit to Pasadena. “And it’s been 55 years since we first played L.A.!” That was Richards’ cue to start up “Start Me Up” — proof, if anyone needed it, that half a century may have dulled the group’s memory but had done nothing to soften its drive.

You think Jagger, once jogged, truly recalled that 1994 gig? It seems improbable — so many stadiums in so many cities for so many years. The thing about the Stones, though, is that they can somehow make a show feel tossed-off and like a capital-E event at the same time; the sensation is of watching a bunch of guys roll out of bed into history.

This one certainly carried a whiff of occasion. Part of the band’s No Filter tour, the concert was preceded by an appearance by the actor Robert Downey Jr., who revealed that the folks at NASA’s nearby Jet Propulsion Laboratory had, uh, named a rock on Mars after the Stones.

“While landing on the red planet’s surface,” Downey told the crowd, the InSight spacecraft “displaced a rock that rolled a fair distance in view of its onboard cameras.” (“I want to bring it back and put it on our mantelpiece,” Jagger quipped.)

More important, Thursday’s sold-out show — rescheduled from an earlier evening in May — came not long after the band’s 76-year-old singer underwent heart surgery; as a result of Jagger’s health scare, each No Filter date has had some heavy anticipatory energy swirling around it: Can he still deliver? And, if so, how many more times?

Of course he did at the Rose Bowl; they all did, because delivering is what the Rolling Stones do. Dressed in a gentlemanly array of bedazzled jackets, Jagger, Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts — the last never more Sam the Eagle-ish behind his kit — opened with a crisp “Street Fighting Man” and proceeded to burn through the classics that tens of thousands of people had each paid hundreds of dollars to hear: “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” with its perpetual-motion machine of a riff; “Tumbling Dice” and “Honky Tonk Women,” both as funky as they were louche; “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” with a deeply churchy coda that reminded you that Jagger was in the building when Aretha Franklin recorded “Amazing Grace.”

At one point the four men walked down a long runway to a smaller secondary stage on the stadium’s floor, where they did shuffling renditions of “Sweet Virginia” and “Dead Flowers.” Then they returned to the main stage so that Jagger could introduce his bandmates, who were joined by touring bassist Darryl Jones, longtime keyboardist Chuck Leavell and several horn players and backup singers. Watts, he said, was “Greenland’s new economic adviser,” a line he’d clearly been relishing.

As assured as the presentation was here, the concert was also scrappy in that way the Stones alone among their peers can muster. “Gimme Shelter” was suitably nightmarish, sound bleeding all over the place; “Midnight Rambler” was looong and grinding. In “Brown Sugar,” whose images of racial and sexual bondage made the song feel like a sin to enjoy, Richards played the main guitar lick as though it were getting in the way of the real noise he wanted to make — just way more gloriously disheveled than you can even imagine Elton John or Paul McCartney getting.

Before the show’s fan-selected number — every night the Stones open up one slot in the set list to online voting — Jagger rattled off some of the titles that had been in contention (including “Can You Hear the Music” and “The Little Old Lady From Pasadena”) before announcing with obvious disappointment that the winner was “She’s a Rainbow.”

“So I guess that’s what we’re gonna do,” he muttered, and indeed the corny late-’60s psych-pop goof was a real embarrassment.

But what a gas to see Jagger and the rest of the Stones in fine enough health to regret it.

[www.latimes.com]

Quote
MisterDDDD

Quote
Stoneage
I'm pretty sure these "reviews" are all written by The West Coast Under Assistant Promo Man.
It's promotion, nothing else.

Right??
Fake news.. all these glowing reviews from fans and professional music critics alike couldn't actually be.. right.
Could they

A show thread wouldn't be complete without Stoneage's skepticism, but seems he enjoys having conversations with himself as no one ever replies to him. lol

(just kidding Stoneage...sort of )

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-08-24 00:09 by Hairball.

Quote
roller99
Keith's set - You've Got The Silver and Before They Make Me Run

thanks

Did they do the NFL merch with Rams? Chargers? Both? Neither?

Good, not great.

They had coffee inside making it the first time in years I actually spent money on anything inside.

I got a few different sets of tickets in the various onsales.

I decided to just keep my last row Sec 4 tickets as in the days before the show a few different friends told me they wanted to go but the prices were so crazy. So it was the first time in forever I could actually hang with friends once I am inside.

The pacing of 4 slow songs in a row was kind of weird.

Live With Me was played during the soundcheck.

Quote
Lucab12
Did they do the NFL merch with Rams? Chargers? Both? Neither?

Neither. Kinda bummed.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-08-24 01:55 by kv2915.

Link or photo of the official set list? Thank you,

Same damn set list over and over again. So many tunes to play yet they continue with



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-08-24 03:33 by black n blue.

They sound so much better this tour than in Fall 2017 (Europe)!!!

Quote
Stoneage
I'm pretty sure these "reviews" are all written by The West Coast Under Assistant Promo Man.
It's promotion, nothing else.

I and many others agree with you on some level Stoneage, but it's hard to be harsh on brave men still delivering this show to the World at their ages.
If we are honest we see that Mick is moving at a snails pace comparred to a few years ago, and Keith barely moves at all.
But the sound delivered to the audience and the power of that sound being delivered is what influences the reviews.
I don't know what is going on with Keith right now but he is breathing new life into old warhorses like i cant believe. I think we are all under his spell and Ronnie is just playing beyond any expectations I've ever had of him. He is playing like every show is his last, he and Keith are wowing audiences and reviewers with their craft. Charlie has upped his tempo a couple of notches and these songs are becoming exciting and dangerions again, I find myself remembering their original lyrical intention and attitude, they are meaningfully, powerfully and intentionaly relevent again, and man can you feel them hit you hard.
Yes Mick has every reviewer in the palm of his hand, and so he should, he's earned the privilege, and if he can keep on singing these songs this well I see another tour coming in 2020.
I agree with you on your point though Stoneage, regardless of how well or terrible they play it's always the same positive review, it's been this way with the Stones for a long time, they are part of the elite and all the perks that go along with inner working of that establishment, they have the media on their side, for a long time it was the opposite, what comes round goes around and visa versa, that's the game, and this is their time.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2019-08-24 11:14 by keithsman.

Quote
Stoneage
I'm pretty sure these "reviews" are all written by The West Coast Under Assistant Promo Man.
It's promotion, nothing else.

Who's that, The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man's cousin?

So often LA lets you down. People say it is because there is so much to do and interests are so diversified, it's a town gone wild with ADHD. On Thursday The Rolling Stones brought 57 years worth of experience, musical talent and passion to the Rose Bowl, apparently so did the 70,000 or so fans in attendance. They nearly drowned Mick and the band out singing along during Honky Tonk Woman. In 57 years there have been many legendary concerts and crowds for The Rolling Stones, I am not saying this was a legendary crowd but they were pretty damn good!!!
On this day it was safe to say; the reports of Keith Richard's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Keith was in it from the opening chords of Street Fighting Man to the final moment of his masterpiece, Satisfaction it was legend.
Ronnie Wood has found a passion for playing that he had forgotten about, dating back to the 81 tour, Thank You Ronnie!!. There aren't enough accolades and adjectives to describe Charlie Watts play but the habitually stoic drummer broke into a huge grin in response to the love from the crowd during band introductions and that said it all.
Three of the singularly greatest performing musicians in the history of Rock & Roll stand in the shadow of the Greatest Showman (Shaman?) in the history of.........the world.
What can you say about Mick Jagger? It's already been said and it's all true.
He's a dancer, he's a tease, he's a provocateur. Add that all up and I guess he's a stripper, at least he understands the psychology of the performance.
Mick has always performed like a little boy who is doing something naughty and he likes it....
I don't want to spoil Mick's secret but he has taught it to us for almost 6 decades, it's this; you have to live life with the exuberance of a little boy and the passion of a man........
Mick Jagger is everything he appears to be and everything you think he is, because that's what he wants you to think.....
On Thursday, August 22, 2019; The Rolling Stones clearly enjoyed the crowd as much as the crowd enjoyed them, as evidenced in their extend performance of Satisfaction,the shows finale.
What made The Stones great in the beginning was their sense of rebellion and a sense of urgency. Over the course of 57 years it has ebb and flowed a bit but tonight you heard it, you could feel it.
Isn't it ironic that what drove them at 20 is driving them in their 70s, rebelling against the establishment.

From The Lefsetz Letter:

The Stones At The Rose Bowl

They were rough.

Until "Sympathy For The Devil."

Sometimes I wish I lived in New York, like last night. Sure, traffic is bad in Manhattan, but you can always take the subway. I read in the "Wall Street Journal" that they expect you to be on time in NYC, whereas in L.A. meetings are always flexible, because of the traffic. WAZE told me to take the 405 way north into the Valley, and to then cut to Pasadena via the 118 and the 210. Which is many more miles than taking the 101 to the 134, but that's stop and go, and I'd rather go, especially since my car has a standard transmission.

So I ignored the parking instructions, I depended upon the app. And that was a bad choice, because I ended up on the wrong side of the venue. Luckily, there was little traffic to my final destination. And at this point, I was speeding, the only thing my car is good for, and that's when I saw the cops. You know how it is, you get that sinking feeling and wait for the flashing lights. But they didn't turn on. Then I went the wrong way down a one way street, which sounds dumb, but if you'd been there... But ultimately I made it to my space. And wondered how in the hell I was gonna find my way back to my car after the show. Lisa said it was between the two palm trees, but they were not the only palm trees.

And then I got in line to get in.

Now it wasn't until '72 that you couldn't get tickets to the Stones. There were seats available in '69. But after "Brown Sugar," and the breakup of the Beatles, it left the Stones iconic, it wasn't until '78 that they started playing stadiums. A ticket in '75? Nearly impossible. But a friend got me one in the back bowl of the Forum. And they were rough that night too...

Until they hit "Tumbling Dice."

So I'm in the queue, waiting to he scanned for security. And that's where I got to look at the people.

Now in SoCal, you rarely see overweight people. Especially not at a show like this, these attendees don't only go out once a year, they're entrenched in entertainment life.

That's one thing that astounded me...HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE THERE! Now if you were selling shoes, something people need... And everybody with their own personality and social scene...

And what I encountered were old and young people. Not the nearly dead, using walkers, like at the Simon & Garfunkel reunion tour back in '03, but adults. And their children. There was a dearth of thirtysomethings. Early fortysomethings. You see it was a show for people who'd been there and done that and wanted to show their kids their roots, unlike previous Stones shows. For a long time there, it was execrable. All these people in their leather jackets...they were afraid of the Stones back in the sixties and seventies, they were latecomers in the nineties... They've moved on. And what is left is those in their concert t-shirts, who were going to see the Stones one more time.

Yes, this could be the last time, I don't know...

Oh no!

People had lines in their faces, they were experienced, but they had to make the pilgrimage one more time, for something that is almost gone and whose return might never be.

Now the opener was Kaleo, which actually played rock, what a concept! But the truth is they're from Iceland, which is not supported by all hip-hop all the time. And standing on the stage watching them, listening to their manager tell their story, who caught them on YouTube and flew over to sign them, I got excited. You remember excitement, don't you? This was rock and roll. And now rock is dead.

So I got to meet Keith's guitar tech. You should have seen the row of axes, whew! And the monitor mixer gave me a complete rundown. Remember when we were fascinated with the equipment? When going to the studio was a thrilling event? I'm still interested. Turns out they've got a 100 monitors. 100! Almost nobody uses in-ears. And then when Kaleo finished, the stage was cleared. You see Kaleo did not set up in front of the Stones' equipment, that was all brought out after the opening act. And it's a rush.

Now I had an all access pass. Yup, on the poster, where they listed them all and what privileges they conveyed, I was at the top of the list, with my picture on the laminate. This goes into my trophy case along with the reserved sign from the Roxy with my name on it.

Now even though I could roam everywhere, I also had them give me a pit pass. Up close and personal. Which kinda makes it like a club show, even though it's not. And even though you think you've seen it all in production, the giant screens, the way they were used, it was something new, you could really see everybody. Even if you were in the way back.

So the opening number...

Is "Street Fighting Man." I had the set list, but I don't like to look, but eventually I did. And you know the sound on the record, with its power, how it's an assault? That was not the sound last night. You see unlike every other band on the planet, the show is the Stones, playing live. The only things that were on hard drive were the choir in "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and the rhythm in "Sympathy For The Devil." And for those who lived through the sixties, who played in garage bands, you know...it never sounds like the record. There are open spaces and mistakes when music is played live, by humans.

So Mick is dancing, just like in that rehearsal video in the dance studio.

And everybody is doing their part.

And I'm thinking they have balls, to go out and be a rock and roll band in a stadium in 2019, when shows are heavily produced and in your face.

Now the next number was "You Got Me Rocking." Which curiously didn't come totally together. It wasn't that anybody was out of key, it's just that it did not have the drive of the recording, with the heavy emphasis. They were running through it and it didn't wholly gel.

But when the number was over, they showed Charlie Watts's image on the big screen, and he was SMILING!

Now if you're close you can't stop looking at Charlie. Ronnie Wood looks like his face was chiseled Brancusi. Keith's hair is a shadow of its former self. As for Mick, he's super-skinny, but he too has that craggy face. You stand there and wonder...HOW DID HE BECOME A SEX SYMBOL?

But it's Charlie, who appears over the hill, nearly dead, who fascinates.

Unlike the metal acts, the famous drummers, he's got a small kit, no bells and whistles. And he sits there, holding the left stick like a pro, not gripped in his palm, and his body doesn't move much, and then you realize...this 78 year old guy is the engine of the entire band, AND HE DIGS IT!

So then you start looking around the stage, and you notice the band is having FUN!

Now that's not how it is today. You work out with a trainer, you try to replicate the records, and you know this tour is about enhancing your brand. Yup, the big money is in the endorsements and privates and you're just slogging it out on stage, since recordings are no longer that lucrative and it's hard to gain market share anyway.

But it didn't start out that way. Before rock, the jazzers, it was a whole life style, they dug it! And the English bands from the sixties, read the old interviews, it was a lark, they didn't expect it to last. But the most famous, the most legendary rock band extant, still has that same garage/club feeling and attitude, if they're not having fun, why do it? IT WAS A REVELATION!

But "She's A Rainbow" was not. It was voted for by the audience. Most people didn't know it. But unlike on "Satanic Majesties," it was not a syrup of sound, it fell flat. I just didn't believe they had the balls to present this. Especially at these prices, in a stadium.

But Mick, he was warming up. He threw off his jacket, he started talking to the audience, and it wasn't long...before he had them in the palm of his hand. It was fascinating to see a master at work. A whole stadium full of people, and this guy won them over. Showing the power, and the job, of the frontman.

And then he led us into a singalong of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" that was reminiscent of the record, but just barely. This used to be a showstopper, but not last night. But just before, "Tumbling Dice" rocked, it delivered.

And then the core four walked down the runway and ultimately played "Sweet Virginia" and "Dead Flowers" acoustically. And Ronnie's playing leads with no effects, on an acoustic, and that's not a full sound, but he too is smiling and then you realize...THEY'RE HAVING A GOOD TIME!

And this is also when you realize that Keith is back in form, and digging it too.

As for Charlie... You see that tiny kit and you marvel.

But then came "Sympathy For The Devil."

Now back in '75, during the petal stage tour at the Forum, it was "Tumbling Dice." When everything finally came together and they were the STONES!

It's kinda like the Dead. They'd play for four hours. One would be unlistenable, two would be okay, but one was TRANSCENDENT! That's live music, not made by automatons.

And now Jagger's fully into it. Wearing his cape. You can hear every word. It's almost dangerous.

That's another thing that cracks you up, all these years later, that once upon a time the Stones were outlaws, as was their music. But today they're in on the joke, they're not trying to scare or impress you, they're with you on this night to remind all those in attendance of the way it used to be. To marinate in our memories. To set our minds free and remember...what this music meant to us.

And then came "Midnight Rambler."

"I'll stick my knife right down your throat baby, AND IT HURTS!"

Ironically, Mick didn't sing that coda. But when he did sing:

"Well you heard about the Boston...
Honey, it's not one of those"

It was like he was telling a story. To those who actually remembered the Boston Strangler. But Mick was telling us the Midnight Rambler was worse. And he was not only telling us the story, he knew this guy.

And this is when he got the whole audience on the edge of its seats, this is when people realized they were seeing the Rolling Stones, this is what they paid for, this is what they were gonna miss when it was gone.

And then Keith sings "You Got The Silver."

I'd like to tell you his voice was in great shape, but it was not. BUT BOY COULD HE PLAY THOSE CHORDS!

Yup, Keith was doing his thing. Illustrating why he's a Glimmer Twin, an indispensable member of the band. I still miss Mick Taylor, but watching Keith employ those bar chords, in his tunings, with five strings...IT WAS REVELATORY!

Charlie was good last night, BUT SO WAS KEITH!

It was effortless, it was fun, with his guitar slung low, he was being who he used to be, but decades later, wearing the miles but his smile told you he too was in on the joke, he survived and he's still doing it, makes you feel all gooey inside, and optimistic!

And from then on, it was all about the energy. Some songs were better than others, but you were on the train, the only one that exists, that takes you to nirvana.

And half of the audience was women. And with Mick only feet away, I got it. It was about sex, it was about dancing, the women were moving like they were possessed. You danced to the Stones, not the Beatles. Women are oftentimes perceived as prim and proper, but Mick Jagger and the band injected the music right into their souls and it forced them to gyrate, to move, as if they had no choice.

And the woman sitting behind me... Couldn't have been thirty, but she knew all the words, even to "She's A Rainbow" and "You Got The Silver." Talk about the smile on HER face!

Yup, everybody got what they came for, even if the Stones delivered it in their own special way. They knew we'd come over to their side, that they'd win us over. If they just did their act and were themselves. On paper you think it's about the money, but in the flesh you wonder what they're gonna do at home, play checkers and watch television? No, this is where they belong, on stage, playing music, the only place they're truly happy, you get the feeling they'd do it if only twenty people were there.

Albeit without those screens!

So you're in the audience, and you're jetted back to what once was. You expect Mick to be going through the motions, for Keith to be bored, for there to be a backup drummer, BUT THAT'S NOT HOW IT WAS AT ALL! It was like they knew they were good enough, and if we put away our preconceptions and got with the program, we'd be thrilled.

Yup, you see the Stones with preconceptions.

But at this point they've got nothing to prove.

So they're just being themselves.

The World's Greatest Rock And Roll Band!

P.S. Eating a bacon-wrapped hot dog in the parking lot after the show, I asked the two teenagers what they thought. THEY LOVED IT, THEY TESTIFIED! But it turns out they were not teenagers, one was reminiscing about taking a course in rock music back in college. And then I asked them if they knew the songs, they said half. And I asked them how much they paid for their seats, they said $147. That seemed reasonable. But they were perched in the back, far up the bowl. So what did they do? THEY JUMPED THE FENCE DOWN TO THE FIELD! As that new wave sage once sang...same as it ever was!

[lefsetz.com]

In the reviews fro Santa Clara there was discussion of Mick having voice issues near the end of the show. For attendees at The Rose Bowl did anyone notice any similar issues? We’re going to Glendale & just wanted to know. Thanks

I thought he sounded just fine in Pasadena. I heard the sound check and he was definitely laying back there but not during the show. Soundcheck was Bitch, YGMR, Rainbow.

2/3rds of green day there too by the looks [www.instagram.com]

Some estimates from the last show in Pasadena, CA:

- Average release year of songs: 1972
- Most frequent release year of songs: 1969 (5/11)
- Songs from the 60's: 11/19
- Songs from the 70's: 6/19
- Songs from the 80's: 1/19
- Songs from the 90's: 1/19
- Songs from the 00's: 0/11
- Songs from the 10's: 0/11

Statistics are not estimates

Quote
Nikkei
Statistics are not estimates

Right, statistics then. Sorry.

Posted in another thread - thanks Glam Descendant.


Concert Review: Rolling Stones Gather No Sentiment or Flab at Fierce Rose Bowl Show

Chris Willman
August 24, 2019 11:50AM PDT

Rose Bowl

Where better to bring "Dead Flowers" than the Rose Bowl?

Here’s a quick and easy test to determine whether you’ve gotten too cynical: you’re blasé enough to bypass a Rolling Stones tour in 2019 for any reason other than a financial one. Yes, you’ve seen them too many times; you’ve never seen them, so now is a bad time to start; the set lists are too predictable; the whole enterprise is undignified for bands and fans of a certain septuagenarian age; they’ve sucked ever since [fill in the blank: Brian Jones/Mick Taylor/Bill Wyman/Nicky Hopkins/Ian McLagan] checked out of the [band/planet]. Well, no, actually: You’re the sucker. So go sit in the corner and ponder the sad fate of the miracle seeker who doesn’t make a side trip to Lourdes because it’s five minutes off the highway.

Here’s a quick and easy test to determine whether you’ve gotten too cynical: you’re blasé enough to bypass a Rolling Stones tour in 2019 for any reason other than a financial one. Yes, you’ve seen them too many times; you’ve never seen them, so now is a bad time to start; the set lists are too predictable; the whole enterprise is undignified for bands and fans of a certain septuagenarian age; they’ve sucked ever since [fill in the blank: Brian Jones/Mick Taylor/Bill Wyman/Nicky Hopkins/Ian McLagan] checked out of the [band/planet]. Well, no, actually: You’re the sucker. So go sit in the corner and ponder the sad fate of the miracle seeker who doesn’t make a side trip to Lourdes because it’s five minutes off the highway.

It is a secular miracle that the Stones are still together, and their appearance at the Rose Bowl Thursday night was the second such trip to a revivifying well in a stadium that Angelenos have gotten to experience in six weeks, following Paul McCartney’s Dodger Stadium stop last month. If anything, the Stones’ visitation seems a little further into the realm of spooky signs and wonders, and not just because this year Mick Jagger has become the poster boy for boyish stent-bearers everywhere. Even more unlikely than Jagger doing his flashy jumping jacks after heart surgery at 76 is that the heart of the band remains together, willing to share the same stage and rehearse for it, too, sounding like scrappy but accomplished lads of 22 a good 55 years after their first local gig. The Stones will forever be a band that has to at least feign a kind of nonchalance on occasions like this — Keith Richards was not about to make the heart symbol or namaste gesture during the final bow — but you could at least imagine that the group had arrived in Pasadena with tangible sense of purpose, as if to say: No, really, Mick’s surgeon says 140-minute skipping-and-galloping sessions are fine. Also: If we can’t rock you, nobody will.

That they look the worse for wear is part of the shared fun at this point, however many decades after we all got our “Steel Wheelchair Tour” jokes out of the way. The faces have changed, while the bodies, cocky postures and enviable stamina levels have not, in some kind of laughably wonderful cosmic disconnect. Compared with the 2015 tour, Jagger expends maybe 5% less energy literally running across the throw stages and catwalks than he did then, but it is, at the least, a steady jog, or a shimmying, frugging sort of jog. And, as photographic evidence has readily attested, he maintains the physique for which skinny jeans (or their Versace equivalent) were made; any deals with the devil that were made in order to keep that frenzied stick-figure thing going have not yet expired. Ron Wood continues to be the preternatural brunette and biggest rock-god pose-striker of the group, and every band needs one. Charlie Watts is still our darling, sitting at a minimalist kit and moving even more minimally with his casual jazz grip, looking like the mild-mannered banker who no one in the heist movie realizes is the guy actually blowing up the vault. And Richards is, as always, is the bloke who’s chuckling at the more extravagant gestures of Wood and Jagger while working just as hard. The Stones are so comfortable with who they are in 2019 that — get this — Richards has now ditched his bandana, as an eff-you to everyone who thinks you can’t slam it out just as hard with some shine on your forehead. Or maybe he just forgot and left it in the Rose Bowl dressing room.

Two things are certain in the set list of a modern Rolling Stones concert: One is that there’ll be a wild card number, voted on via the web by fans from among four choices that have never risen to being staples of the show. Thursday night, it was 1967’s “She’s a Rainbow,” which, as the only thoroughly keyboard-dominated number of the night, isn’t exactly a key exemplar of the brand. Then again, the song has been picked up by a lot of commercial brands lately (see Variety‘s December 2018 story on how “Rainbow” became a sync monster). So maybe the votes of local music supervisors and ad licensing folks alone were enough to put it over the top in L.A. balloting.

The other certainty is that, aside from maybe a couple of other modest surprises, nearly all of the rest of the show will follow along familiar greatest-hits lines. On this shortish 2019 stadium tour, they’ve been mixing up the front end a bit, while the show’s back end has the inevitability of a superhero movie. “Brown Sugar” is the unerring climax of the set proper, overextended to give the audience a few dozen extra chances to go “whoo!” at Jagger’s prompting. One thing that’s changed is that Jagger has gender-swapped the “just like a young girl should” line, maybe in some sort of quiet deference to ongoing complaints about the song’s dicey sexual and racial politics. The encore will always close out with “Satisfaction,” which sounds as wonderfully nasty and grinding as ever, and its adolescent frustration becomes an even better, more ironic joke as the decades go on. It’s the closest thing they have to a signature song, yes, but it’s also kind of a “Gladiator” way to end the show, asking: Are you not satisfied?

If you’ve attended as many Stones tours as some of us have, it’s easy for you as a fan to let your mind go on autopilot during these more overfamiliar picks, even if the band isn’t phoning it in. It’s not as if they are about to do any Dylan-style radical rearrangements. But sometimes Richards and Wood do switch something up in the guitar playing that jolts you back to attention. On this No Filter show, that moment came during an unexpectedly thrilling rendition of “Sympathy for the Devil,” which, with the only pre-taped rhythm of the set, had long since become one of those numbers where you could check out a little and Instagram those snapshots you’d been saving up since the beginning of the show, all Luciferian entreaties notwithstanding. But not this night. After Jagger sang the opening words of the chorus, Richards punctuated the pauses with some particularly ripping chords, to the point that his playing almost seemed to be turned up twice as loud as the rest of the band. That couldn’t have been the case — the sound was unnaturally good enough at the Rose Bowl that there definitely weren’t accidents happening at the mixing board. But that Richards could at least fool us into thinking his amps had been turned up to 111 with a few well placed strums proved that it doesn’t take much to breathe new life into an old satanic chestnut.

Among the other highlights was “Miss You” — these days, as much as anything, a showcase for bassist Darryl Jones, who was given a lot of time in the solo spotlight, with Jagger egging him on and finally saying, in the most flattering way, “Shut up!” The lack of disco sequels in the Stones’ catalog remains regrettable to this day. Just as satisfying on the other end of the roots scale was the band’s mid-set, two-song hootenanny at the end of the center ramp with “Sweet Virginia” and “Dead Flowers,” driven by Woods’ acoustic slide. There are those of us who would very much like to see an entire set’s worth of that approach, but there were 50,000 others who might have had a problem with “Honky Tonk Women” being supplanted by actual honky-tonk music, so we cheerfully take what bluesy-folksy moments we get.

Jagger busted out his harmonica and his serial-crowd-killer strut for “Midnight Rambler,” which sounds more comforting than scary these days — he even shouted out feel-good exhortations to the crowd. Wood seemed particularly supercharged on this one, like maybe he was recalling the 2015 tour, where former member Mick Taylor’s cameo appearances on “Rambler” on a lot of the dates were considered particularly memorable, and he wanted to make us all forget that.

It’s a given on any given night that “Gimme Shelter” will be a standout: There is something almost too easy about how the sight of a female African American singer marching down the catwalk with Jagger trailing behind her loosens up the pheromone inhibitors, assuming that the backup-turned-lead singer in question does deliver. On previous American tours stretching back a very long way, that duet partner was Lisa Fischer, but now it’s 37-year-old Sasha Allen, whom some will remember as a Season 4 “Voice” semifinalist, although she has plenty of other credits in R&B, pop and the legit stage. Allen was up to the task of the song’s war cries, however easy of a lay we, as a crowd, might be in that moment.

During the spoken asides between songs, Jagger was as much the stone-faced comedian as ever — never more than when asking, “Is anybody here from Glendale?” (Perhaps he is a really big “Mildred Pierce” fan.) Prior to the Stones coming on stage, Robert Downey Jr. had made a brief appearance to proclaim that NASA’s nearby Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena had named a rock that had rolled a few feet on Mars upon being nudged by a landing craft after the Stones. Jagger later thanked “our favorite action man” for the intro and said of the Mars rock, “I want to bring it back and put it on our mantlepiece.” If the idea that the group shares a house together wasn’t amusement enough, Jagger talked about some of the band’s highly fictional doings while they were in town, with the same absurd local color he brings to concerts in other locales.

Noting that fans had had to change plans when the Rose Bowl date was rescheduled because of his heart surgery, Jagger said, “It’s affected us as well, because we’re missing Thursday night’s turtle races at Brennan’s” (a bar in Marina Del Rey). “Anyway, we walked all the way up and down Hollywood Blvd. looking for the Rolling Stones’ star, but we couldn’t find it. Sad, isn’t it? But we looked.” (The Stones do not have a star on the Walk of Fame.) “And then we couldn’t get into Spago’s restaturant because it was too late.” (The West Hollywood restaurant Spago closed in 2001.) “But it all turned out all right anyway, because Wolfgang Puck is cooking his shepherd’s pies backstage, so it all turned out perfectly.”

The fabulism continued, with Jagger at one point announcing that “we’re gonna do a couple of Elizabethan folk tunes for you.” Before they did their wild-card choice with “She’s a Rainbow,” the singer talked about some of the other possibilities. “We’ve put some songs up for you to vote for — songs like ‘Can You Hear the Music,’ ‘There’s No Smoke Without Fire, ‘Little Old Lady From Pasadena.'” That last song is, of course, a Jan & Dean oldie the Stones have never performed; the middle one he mentioned, well, Google that and it’s still anybody’s guess; and the first tune cited is an album cut from 1973’s “Goat’s Head Soup” that supposedly has never, ever been performed live, much less put up for a 21st century fan vote. Oh, that Mick.

Listen to enough of these droll gags he does at every gig and you might start to wonder how much the rest of his persona is comedic. He was traditionally viewed as the anti-McCartney, in some ways — the possibly sinister counterpart to the Beatle’s cuddliness — but, seeing Jagger in action so soon after Paul came through town, someone could even begin to think that, in some ways, they’re the same guy. McCartney does silly little shuffles and dance moves between songs that no one quite understands what they are — but isn’t that kind of Jagger’s whole persona during the Stones’ performances, only with a lot more exuberant funkiness and catlike grace and a vaguely mean look on his face while he’s doing it? Material like “Sympathy for the Devil” and “Street Fighting Man” (which they opened the Rose Bowl show with) blinded audiences for decades to just how much of a goofball Jagger is on stage, even during — maybe especially during — all that footwork. Maybe he’s not “dancing with Mr. D” so much as dancing with Mr. L… as in Jerry Lewis.

One thing he didn’t joke about on stage was that recent health scare. Jagger didn’t directly refer to it at all, actually — not because he’s afraid of the topic, probably, as much as the Stones just see anything remotely approaching sentiment on stage as rank. In the Stones’ world, it’s dead men who cry. There probably wasn’t a single a tear shed at the Rose Bowl. But some of us could get misty on the inside, at least, over the dumb luck we’ve experienced to have a group that probably outlived its natural shelf life 50 years ago starting us up for the last 55.

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......