Re: Full St.Louis Set List
Posted by:
Rev. Robert W.
()
Date: January 28, 2006 23:35
johang Wrote:
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> Yes, agreed you do not need to be a nut case fan
> over 40 to want some variation on the set lists.
> I have over 20 casual Stones fan friends who been
> to this tour and the comment they all have is
> "great, but I heard this stuff before and thats it
> Im not going to another show to hear Brown Sugar
> and Miss You (among others) again". And, if the
> greatest rock band in the world can not sell out a
> 20,000 arena there would be someting seriously
> wrong, I mean the can sng lullaby's and still sell
> out. It has nothing to do with their greatest hit
> set lists and anyone who thinks different is a
> "nut case" or a have an agenda...
Right on.
Of course they're sounding great, but it really does not take a discrening or experienced fan to spot how heavily they rely on a tiny, select (and admittedly excellent) songs. And how in the second half it all seems like an established routine, rather than a fresh or specific event.
At MSG, I was hanging out with a big group at a bar called Stout before the show. The "Bridges" St. Louis 1997 video was being played on enormous screens and over the superb sound system. It was so much better than I had remembered and a perfect way to fire the crowd up...but I came in halfway through it and I realized that my date who hadn't yet seen this tour was catching basically ten songs that she was then going to go around the corner to hear live. Now, she's a pretty astute Stones observer, not a "casual" fan, but it wasn't lost on her that after the halfway mark, they were going into "Hot Rocks" mode.
A thought:
In a twenty-one song list, how about seven--one third of the show--megahits a night? And rotated?
MSG #1 (for instance)
"Street Fighting Man"
"Satisfaction"
"Ruby Tuesday"
"Honky Tonk Women"
"Sympathy"
"Gimme Shelter"
"IORR"
MSG #2
"Brown Sugar"
"Start Me Up"
"Miss You"
"JJF"
"Can't Always Get What You Want"
"Wild Horses"
"Midnight Rambler"
Then you add two Keith tunes--an "ABB" song and a classic: "Happy" or somesuch. That brings the evening's set to nine. Then, twelve slots in which to make the tour specific and distinctive. Three go to new material (which, given the scope of their career, is actually a lot.) That leaves nine slots:
"Around And Around"
"Let It Bleed"
"She Was Hot"
"Out Of Control"
"Slave"
"Fancy Man Blues"
"Tumbling Dice"
"It's All Over Now"
"@#$%&"
Those would be favorites of mine, but the point is that with just seven monsters a night--and not every night--the Stones can provide the expected payoff without making the show seem stale.