Rolling Stones set bar high for events that follow at Thunder Ridge Nature Arena

By Jimmie Tramel
July 23, 2024


Nathan Papes

RIDGEDALE, Missouri — Here’s a question in the aftermath of the Rolling Stones’ Sunday night concert in the Ozarks: What will be the second-best event ever to take place at Thunder Ridge Nature Arena?

Johnny Morris envisioned and crafted a picturesque new see-it-to-believe-it amphitheater south of Branson, Missouri. The Bass Pro Shops founder then reeled in the biggest “fish” in the rock music world by arranging for the Rolling Stones — a stadium act if there ever was one — to wrap up their Hackney Diamonds Tour at Thunder Ridge, which has a capacity of 18,000.

Seeing the Rolling Stones anywhere is a bucket list item for music fans.

Seeing the Rolling Stones in this setting is likely once in a lifetime, which may explain why attendees were so eager to snare mementos. By mid-show, shirt and jacket sales were so brisk that shoppers at merch booths were told only small and XXL (and larger) sizes were available.

Attendees arrived hours in advance, perhaps with one eye toward avoiding traffic snarls and one eye toward squeezing all the on-site enjoyment they could from a historic day.

Samantha Fish, soon to be at Cain’s Ballroom, opened for the Rolling Stones, who appropriately began with “Start Me Up” and tore through a 20-song set that included classic material and songs from a new album that gave the Hackney Diamonds Tour its name.

An outdoor concert in July could have been a sweatbox in this neck of the woods, but the weather was so pleasantly mild that it didn’t merit a check of the temperature. Jagger, who bounced and bounded all over the stage despite his years, began the show wearing a jacket and ditched it before the third song.

It was not lost on Jagger that the remote location of the gig was accessible from many markets.

“Anyone from Tulsa?,” he said a few songs into the show. “Anyone from Little Rock? Anyone from Fayetteville? Anyone from Kansas City? Anyone from St. Louis? Are there any veterans in the house?”

Veterans got VIP treatment at the show. Everyone else was treated to a slice of history.

[tulsaworld.com]

I LOVED this show, eighth of this tour. Not many of them compared to this night as the band was on fire. Pit B was relatively tame meaning there was not much jostling for position. Highlight for me had to be Rambler, it never gets old.

As far as parking, I got to the lot around 130 or so. I stayed until the end to see the 'final' bow and even saw some of the fireworks which weren't visible from the pit. After a good 30 minutes trek from the pit to the car, I settled in for an extended stay. However, I saw an opening and said I'm gonna take it. My GPS indicated it was 42 minutes back to Harrison AR where I had a room at the Hampton Inn. Sure enough after some vehicle merging issues and hundreds of pedestrians crossing to reach the outer lots, I was on route 86 then 65 quicker than it took to walk to the car. Note: I just got home to New Jersey from a Monday morning Delta flight which diverted to Cincinnati overnight before continuing on to LaGuardia in NYC. The flying was way worse than exiting the parking lot !

Here's hoping there is more to come in the near future. And kudos to BV for keeping us together and in the loop.

Chris

https://youtu.be/AEij1cyL00g?si=az7nYkJPS_FwfHeS]Ridgedale full concert[/url]

video: [www.youtube.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2024-07-23 21:49 by fuwa.

Rolling Stones rock the Ridge

by Jason Wert
Jul 23, 2024


Jason Wert

One of the most iconic bands in the history of rock ended their 2024 Hackney Diamonds tour with a rousing set at Thunder Ridge Nature Arena on Sunday, July 21.

The Rolling Stones played for over two hours to a raucous crowd, mixing their classic hits in with songs from their latest album. The set featured three songs with guitarist Keith Richards singing lead vocals, “You Got The Silver,” “Little T&A,” and “Before They Make Me Run.” During every show on the tour, fans were able to vote on the Rolling Stones’ website for a “fan song” and the winner for the Ridgedale show was “Let It Bleed.”

Lead vocalist Mick Jagger engaged the crowd all night, making references to it being their first time in this part of the Ozarks and even a trip into Branson on Saturday night where he attended Dolly Parton’s Stampede, Legends in Concert, and saw a local take on himself.

“I ended up at Area 71,” Jagger said. “And I saw ‘Mick Jagger.’ He was really good. It’s not the same person that’s up here tonight, but he’s very similar.”

The “Mick Jagger” referred to by the real Jagger is Johnny Moroko, a local performer who has been impersonating Jagger for years and does his performance as part of the Classic Rock Icons show at the Americana Theatre on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. Moroko told Branson Tri-Lakes News he was shocked when he heard Jagger refer to him.

“I pretty much tuned out after he said ‘Mick Jagger,” Moroko said. “I had to watch the videos taken by friends later to hear all that he said!”

Moroko said he is grateful that Jagger and his crew came to his performance.

“When people say things are surreal, and I still feel today that it’s surreal, it’s so unbelievable,” he said. “It’s even more fantastic and surprising and overwhelming he would mention he came out to see us and mention us during the show. To mention me on Sunday, I’m still on Cloud 9. I’ve been on Cloud 9 since he said it.”

[www.bransontrilakesnews.com]

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angee

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dnewton99

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RSbestbandever
Just got back to the motel at 3am, great concert, no doubt about it but the debacle with leaving the parking lot was a fiasco of major proportions. We had preferred parking in lot 1 and from the time we got to our car, about 12 midnite, we sat there until 2 30am without moving. In fact, no one in lot 1 appeared to move for over 2 hours. Sheesh, what a nightmare indeed.

Yep - exactly same. We put up our PIT queue chairs, food drink and had a post show tailgate. Exhausted still.

dnewton, where did you leave your pit queue chairs etc. during the show?

TY, sparklytop.

This was a bit different.
- Since venue parking lots don't open till late and other parking can be far right before we go into venue we usually put our PIT chairs next to a trash can (venue staff or homeless often grab them - they are $9.00 at various place). So basically abandon them. A few places we are close enough to cars we take them back and a few times we hid them behind something like shrubs and grabbed them when we got out).


- At Thunder Ridge it was chaotic and then we found out when parking and fan zone opened at 2pm that we would immediately go through metal detector/ticket screen so we could not bring our normal PIT line stuff - food, drinks, chairs- so all was left in the car - which sucked as we didn't get time to eat our food or drink enough water or use chairs before a PIT line.
- We had preferred parking which was reasonably close but furthest from highway so we knew we would be trapped for hours (read all the horror show reviews form recent concerts in the previous month)> had brought some post show water/soda but then ended up using all the chairs and sodas etc in the tailgate till after 2am. probably 2:20 or later when cars finally started to move.

- My vids for show are in this playlist [www.youtube.com]

- Was not a great show for video for my camera (pocket Sony DSC-HX99 with a lot of zoom)
- It was great to have a low stage and catwalk and much smaller catwalk - awesome to watch, terrible to film at least for my camera. But that meant the catwalk lights and even some other stage lights blew out some parts of videos. But I do have the view of the other pit which is very cool - shows up in some of the vids.
- Shorter stage/catwalk also meant Stones were lower and heads in PIT etc blocked full view often. First world problem.
- Fakefan and others have way better vids than some of mine but I do get a bit of coolness in my zoom.

Donna (aka dnewton99, dnewton98 on Youtube)

thanks donna

Thanks for this Christiaan, and all your other videos.

It was a surprise and pleasure to meet you at the hotel in Springfield. Hope to catch you on the next tour!

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ProfessorWolf
i just updated my post on page 6 with good up close videos of ycagwyw, you got the silver, little t&a, before they make me run, sftd, htw, jjf, ssoh, satisfaction and another video of the post show fireworks plus a video of the complete show at the top of the post

thank you to matt lee, christiaan, fake fan, dnewton98 (aka donna), shonana, and all the others for making this in my opinion the best filmed show of the tour

you guys and gals are the best and have allowed me and many others a front row seat through this fantastic tour

thank you to the people who went to these shows and shared there photos videos and reviews with the rest of us helping to fill the unfillable gap of experience between being there and not being there

thank you for the tapers dapsyknows, senecastj, dan, sblade and all the others for what you do and what you've shared even with all the fighting in this latest round of the ongoing taper wars this tour wouldn't have been same without your efforts

thank you to midimannz and falo1 for all the hard work you've done putting together multicam videos for us

and of course thank you to bv for your tireless effort and passion for this band and for this site through which the light and joy of the rolling stones is allowed to shine just a little bit brighter to those who seek it and those who need it

and thank you to the stones words fail me and its all been said before

just wow

well off to the next one

the show must and will go on

but first here's another great video of midnight rambler from shonana



my god isn't this band great!

Well said ProfessorWolf. Thanks to everyone's hard work I was able to enjoy the bulk of the shows from afar. Also bv for sorting out my iorr access mid tour. I was fortunate to see the last 2 shows and was stunned by how good they were. A shame they had to stop when in such good form!

Anyway, thanks again all. Until next time...

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gotdablouse

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MadMax
Mess It Up is easily the best tune from HD IMHO

And they finally nailed it live, the "really wanna tell the truth" parts are still too hard for Mick to sing though. He struggles even more on WWW, just can't bring it to life IMHO. You'd think the more recent songs would be easier for him to sing than the old ones but it's not the case, beacuse he's so used to singing them maybe ?

I don't think Mick struggles more with recent songs than the old ones. We are just more used to hearing him sing the old ones live.

Get Off Of My Cloud is nowhere close to the studio version nowadays.

In 1999 he was still going for some of the high notes:





It's great to hear them play it in 2024, but of course it doesn't have the same punch without Charlie:







Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2024-07-24 23:39 by yeababyyea.

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yeababyyea

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gotdablouse

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MadMax
Mess It Up is easily the best tune from HD IMHO

And they finally nailed it live, the "really wanna tell the truth" parts are still too hard for Mick to sing though. He struggles even more on WWW, just can't bring it to life IMHO. You'd think the more recent songs would be easier for him to sing than the old ones but it's not the case, beacuse he's so used to singing them maybe ?

I don't think Mick struggles more with recent songs than the old ones. We are just more used to hearing him singing the old ones live.

Get Off Of My Cloud is nowhere close to the studio version nowadays.

In 1999 he was still going for some of the high notes:





It's great to hear them play it in 2024, but of course it's doesn't have the same punch without Charlie:

Yep, I would have to agree, I don't think it does have the same kind of drum punch without Charlie. One of my favourite Stones' songs ever, but the contrast here between Charlie on drums and now Steve on drums is quite striking, at least it is to me !

[ If you don't believe what I'm singing, at three o'clock in the morning, babe, well I'm singing my song for you ]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2024-07-24 21:26 by paulywaul.

My daughter joined me for the Ridgedale show, and made some videos. She is not pro, so keep this in mind when watching them, all filmed from Pit A with a mobile phone (cellphone):

[www.youtube.com]

PS. I think she filmed every song, but she wanted to post just the best ones.

Bjornulf



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2024-07-24 21:34 by bv.

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bv
My daughter joined me for the Ridgedale show, and made some videos. She is not pro, so keep this in mind when watching them, all filmed from Pit A with a mobile phone (cellphone):

[www.youtube.com]

PS. I think she filmed every song, but she wanted to post just the best ones.

Lovely job! You Got the Silver is sooooo good.

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loog droog
I was struck by the fact that five--six if you consider "Honky Tonk Women" as a close enough version of "Country Honk"-- of the songs from this show came from the Let It Bleed album.

After all these years of EOMS hoopla, is it time to reconsider this as the Stones' greatest album?

Let it Bleed has always been my personal favorite Stones album. I would have really enjoyed this concert, but alas, I couldn’t go.

More reports and pictures added to the Ridgedale editorial pages:

The Rolling Stones
New Thunder Ridge Nature Arena at Big Cedar Lodge
Ridgedale MO USA
Sunday July 21, 2024

Bjornulf

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dnewton99
- My vids for show are in this playlist [www.youtube.com]

- Was not a great show for video for my camera (pocket Sony DSC-HX99 with a lot of zoom)
- It was great to have a low stage and catwalk and much smaller catwalk - awesome to watch, terrible to film at least for my camera. But that meant the catwalk lights and even some other stage lights blew out some parts of videos. But I do have the view of the other pit which is very cool - shows up in some of the vids.
- Shorter stage/catwalk also meant Stones were lower and heads in PIT etc blocked full view often. First world problem.
- Fakefan and others have way better vids than some of mine but I do get a bit of coolness in my zoom.

Donna (aka dnewton99, dnewton98 on Youtube)

Donna I really don’t understand how you can make it? Filming the whole show but one!! I think I asked you befor, but it needs some craftwork!!

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petera
Thanks for this Christiaan, and all your other videos.

It was a surprise and pleasure to meet you at the hotel in Springfield. Hope to catch you on the next tour!

Peter was also very pleasant to meet you. Should meet the next tour. Then we should find a way to contact, not on IORR

How can one bask in the moment of 'this is it'?

I think that's been Mick's point all along - you can't.

Look at Mick's and Keith's comments over the years about being on tour - there's (basically) 22 hours a day of whatever because of 2 hours on stage for 3 months (and whatever).

If Ridgedale was THE LAST Rolling Stones show... then that's it. Someone could die tomorrow. Someone could... could... and, duh, they are up there. Keith says "I'm done". Mick says "I'm only going to work on movies now."

Nothing to discuss.

DONE.

No last show, no... anything.

Then you get...

Oh they should've played their last in London.

They should've played their last in NYC.

They should've played their last in Chicago.

That's great. Sentiment. Where they started, what they loved.

It doesn't matter. They play their last show on a Saturday, by Sunday people are doing what they do - it's not air, it's not the sky - it's a moment.

Go out in a blaze of glory - what? To have x amount of people that show remember something?


That's garbage.

They will do more tours... and one day they won't, and that will be it: no final show, no... holy crap, so much to consider yet The Rolling Stones will be
- eh, we're done, go live your lives.

What's one more show? What's one more show times 30?

2024 tour... as far as I'm concerned they could've kept going until November - why not?

That's part of the problem. They used to, ha ha... but that was a while ago. It's now.

Is Mick actually age defiant? No. He's not. He's just doing what he does.

A lot of wrong hype. But the Stones work with it. Is it about money? Possibly. But they enjoy playing.

They're not going to play the records at home and go 'That's nice' - they're going to perform them live as a band.

Until they can't. And that will be that.

So true. As a band there is still gas in the tank. Really depends on health, if that is good this was not be the last show. At some point father time wins, but not yet.

One my photos




Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2024-07-31 15:44 by Christiaan.

Satisfaction earlier live on Facebook, probably the reason why it is a low quality video….. I don’t film this song much, but interesting because of the Final Bow of Keith, Mick and Ronnie on the Rolling Stones: Hackney Diamonds '24 tour


[youtu.be]