From the reports I had, Ronnie was fantastic and Keith kinda sloppy. Anyone concur/disagree?

Came right back from a quiet good show, but nothing spectacular at all.
Indeed Ronnie was in a good shape and did a great job, but something's wrong with Keith. He missed more licks than usual and I had the impression that he can't play better anymore, in fact of his athritis.
His performance aon Wanna hold you was really lousy!
But again I've to thank Mick for singing this night, very professional performance, incredible voice!

Keep on rollin'
Gangster

Is Mick still running all over the place on stage ?

Don't know where he gets the energy !!

Sad to hear all the reports about Keith being lousy. If that's true...the band has really lost it's engine and then the right thing to do when the tour ends i August is to stop and call it day :-(

ive paid £114 for my stones concert in august.

add £67 for flights.

and over £100 money to spend on the day .

aswell as taxi money to airport and back.

it amounts to a lot of money.

no doubt many more thousands have paid a hell of a lot more.

so isnt it not asking too much for the band to be up to scratch on the night.

wee bobby lennox Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ive paid £114 for my stones concert in august.
>
> add £67 for flights.
>
> and over £100 money to spend on the day .
>
> aswell as taxi money to airport and back.
>
> it amounts to a lot of money.
>
> no doubt many more thousands have paid a hell of
> a lot more.
>
> so isnt it not asking too much for the band to be
> up to scratch on the night.


Absolutely!!!
And I hope they will be when I see them in August, otherwise I would wish that I had decided that the concert last year were my final one. It's was the greatest of the shows I've seen.

wee bobby lennox Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ive paid £114 for my stones concert in august.
>
> add £67 for flights.
>
> and over £100 money to spend on the day .
>
> aswell as taxi money to airport and back.
>
> it amounts to a lot of money.
>
> no doubt many more thousands have paid a hell of
> a lot more.
>
> so isnt it not asking too much for the band to be
> up to scratch on the night.


I know where you are coming from we usually have to take 2 flights to get anywhere or drive 400 mile round trip to cut out one flight.
Overnight accom is also needed.
All the time the cash register is ching ching chinging away.

What people spend is up to them after all it is my choice what class I travel and how many Stars the Hotel has is nothing to do with the concert or the Stones and my expectations do not rise or fall according to the amount I pay for the trimmings.


With a live show you get what you get on the night and that is it.

You cannot expect anyone to be AOK and 100% all of the time.

But when magic happens it is worth 100 times what you spend,

& You will remember it for the rest of your life.

Another fantastic setlist. Can't wait until Lisbon, 12 days to go. The before and after party for that show will be very cool I think...!

_____________________________________________________

What's your favourite flavour?...........Cherry Red!!

Mr Jimmy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Another fantastic setlist. Can't wait until
> Lisbon, 12 days to go. The before and after party
> for that show will be very cool I think...!


12 days to Lisbon.
I am really waiting for it.
But IMO i would prefer to watch them playing the Werchter setlist

This is sad news.....c'mon Keef! GET WELL SOON!

JR

You who have seen the shows,can it be that Keith had a bad start and still suffering from that? He was great just six mounts ago. And from what I read here this cant just be beacuse hes fingers. According to some IORR members Keith looks overall not in focus. Has anyone got some serios explanation. I dont belive this is drug or alkohol related problems,he been through that before. Who says it not just the flue or another temporery illness. Please keep the spirit up!!! I think that after Paris all the critisim will blow away.

Ronnie and Keith tonight

Thanks for all info and pics tonight

It´s Only Rock´n Roll

back home from my local nagilehm lounge

so far ,i can see an super inrecidible setlist

the heat is yours ,stones




ps: i am drunken

-----------------------------------------------------
Oh, give me the beat, boys, and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock and roll and drift away

-----------------------------------------------------
Oh, give me the beat, boys, and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock and roll and drift away



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2007-06-14 02:32 by TeleK.

Just came back from the show. First, the ticket exchange because of the moved stage was a disaster. I waited about one hour in a queue and were then told by the local crew they waited all day for the tickets but just didn't receive any. So i ended up with a red wristband that granted permission to the back rows of the infield. A lot of people were extremely pissed, they payed 190 Euro for a seat and got a standing spot at the end of the infield. Missed the support act because of this.
The band were great this night with one exception, Keith. I'm a guitar player for more than 20 years now, i know what im talking about. I have the strong impression that its not only caused by his fingers but by some mental problems too. It's so sad to see him like this cause i love the man, but sometimes he looked like he just doesn't know whats going on.
Mick was great, working the crowd like only he can. Ronnie played very good and helped Keith a lot. Charlie great as always, he just missed the intro to Tumblin' Dice but that was no problem.
The sound engineer at first had some trouble getting the sound right, but after five songs the sound quality was at the high level we are used to at Stones shows.
Overall a very very good show. It was the smallest crowed at a stones show i have been to but it was also the loudest!
Oh yes, and regarding the seated infield: Standing on the seats was definitly an option

With all respect for your experience, firebird

This pic was posted by Tele K above... Aint saying this proves anything
but Keef still can pose... But... He seems to be knowing, thou, what he's doin'.
"The band were great this night with one exception, Keith.
I'm a guitar player for more than 20 years now,
i know what im talking about. I have the strong impression that
its not only caused by his fingers but by some mental problems too.
It's so sad to see him like this cause i love the man, but sometimes
he looked like he just doesn't know whats going on."

I see the trigger word often on this boards is (if not "I have seen more
concerts than you") I have played guitar for XXX years... Well,
then... I have been a guitar player for 26 years.
But I dont know so much about mental problems.

Are you sure you are not influenced by all that was written after
Werchter and Nijmegen abut Keith?

Aloha,
I just returned to Kaiserslauten after the show...what a great time! I had row 3 in B3 and I was very close to the "B-stage".

I enjoyed the show very much, even the mistakes...the guitars seemed to drop out during SFTD, did anyone else notice that?
Bitch, Monkey Man, Sweet Virginia, Midnight Rambler, Respectable, PIB, were all great!

I've read about some Keef criticisms on this board but I didn't realy notice him playing poorly at the show, he seemed in great form to me, but that's just me.

This was my first Stones show in Europe as I've seen them over 30 years but in the USA only. I found the audience to be more energetic and into it as a whole than the USA crowds. Quite enjoyable. I didn't witness any JackAsses (myself excluded) acting up like I have witnessed at USA shows.
Great crowd in Frankfurt and a great setlist & performance!
I've heard the sound mix sound better previously but it was still good enough tonite.
I was able to take some pics and shoot some videos, I will post when I can.

Next stop Paris!!
See you there!




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-06-14 02:27 by NumberOneStonesFan.

Baboon Bro, i just wrote what my impression was. This thread is about reports, not about what would be wishful. I really don't wanna do any Keith bashing, as i wrote i love the man and he influenced my guitar playing a lot and i will always be thankful for this. I just mentioned my guitar experience to make clear that I am able know when a player just searches for some correct notes in opposition to being confident in his playing. Or when he sings the second half of the before they make me run chorus while the rest of the band is at the first half.
Regarding the mental problems, english is not my native language so it may sound a bit harsher than i meant it, sorry for that. But Keith' problems with playing can not only come from the bad condition of his fingers since in some songs he is still able to play great (and thats propably when those pictures are from).

Might be. After all this bashing people start paying attention to details and sometimes it is evern hysterical - Keith's misses the note - which is 100% normal thing - but the reaction is "oh no a mistake".

well, I wasn't at the show so I can't tell how he was tonight, I'm just talking about recent trend among some...fans. bashing Keith kind of fashion.

Just back in the room. Great'ish show because of the set list. Ronnie is great, Keith is Keith every now and then. Keith had his moments, also the f'ups. Will not say he is lost. Give him time (hmmmm). He was still much better than opening night
The German seating was a disaster. Had 1st row and we were not allowed closer to the rail than roughly a meter. Don't know if this was Stones or local management.
Sad it was, all time low when it comes to stadiums.

More or less a great night and I got on the first tram when I got there (Belgium learn etc).
And for Baboon Bro and the other food lovers... Yes I got a fresh kebab in my room together with that after-show Gin Tonic. Life is great

TE
Oslo



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-06-14 02:36 by TE.

sorry to hear that seating chart change caused so many problems for you.

Hope, it won't happen in Dusseldorf and Hamburg.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-06-14 02:41 by PiotrRSpl.

> Keith kinda sloppy

NO WAY!

Bjornulf

OK, my review, just got back from the show!
Like I already wrote in the other Frankfurt thread they have been giving away hundreds and hundreds of free tickets during the last two days (literally all of my friends were there and most of them got in for free...))so in the end the stadium was still not completely packed but quite full, nothing embarrassing.

When Starsailor came on, there were not many people, yet, so they and their set got a bit lost but they did okay under those circumstances.

Before I get to the main show, I must comment on the seating thing as this was my first stadium show where I was on the field but not standing.
For me, it killed the atmosphere during the first 3-4 songs, completely, I was really thinking about going home for a moment because it all felt so wrong.
A few seconds into the first song I was being asked whether I wanted to buy a Caipirinha. I could not see anything since the bloke had this huge backpack with stupid Caipirinha flags on it and I wanted to see a rock show, there´s the greatest frontman on earth singing a few meters away from me (I was in 4th row, seat 1) and all I can see is a Caipirinha flag waving right into my face, WTF???

We were not allowed to move towards the floor separating the blocks from each other due to security reasons but when people gathered around my Caipirinha friend, blocking all the floor, security didn´t matter, of course.

Plus, there were many ugly scenes when the idiotic security guys ran around every few seconds to make people show them their tickets to make sure they were in the right block and nowhere else. A father who came from far in the back just to let his son see the Stones from up close for a moment was rudely being pushed away while still the Caiprinha and beer selling folks walked happily around annoying everyone. After all, they do what they´re being told, but for me, it was a terrible start since I´d been looking forward to seeing my favourite band in my hometown for a long time.

Anyway, on to the actual show:
As I had almost feared, the sound was not good at all, since they kept the roof closed so the sound came banging back from everywhere, it was hard to make out the instruments except for the drums, of course.
But that has to do with the organisation of the arena itself, I won´t blame the stones for that!

Nothing positive so far?
Here we go: The show itself was loud, rocking and raunchy, the first song after I boycotted the concert during YGMR and RJ was Bitch, not perfect version at all, but just the way it should be, dirty.
Mick was just his usual self, a perfect showman AND a fantastic vocalist, nothing but amazing. Ronnie also seemed to be very focused playing loads of licks which unfortunately I couldn´t hear too well due to the sound but it was already good watching him being "on", no words needed for Charlie, just spot on (I´ll get to Captain Teague later on...)!
Monkey Man, love the song, loved the version they played, the awful sound gave all of the songs a bit of a punky character which I much prefer to many of the over-polished live recordings so there was even something good in the otherwise bad acoustics.

Sweet Virginia didn´t get the crowd response I´d expected after reading the Nijmwegen reviews, Mick had to ask the audience to sing it again, but I´d never heard it live before, so I didn´t care.

Then Midnight Rambler, I was hoping for CYHMK, but hey, it could have been a ten-minute Miss You, right? Very long version, slightly chaotic as Keith just kept "soloing" along with Mick trying to direct the band but as always a great crowd-pleaser.

The James Brown tribute suffered a lot from the bad sound, but I really enjoyed it a lot, anyway. It´s good to hear them play something funky, I prefer that kind of cover version to the Vegas-style Love Trains and Night Times.
Tumbling Dice was good, too, played with a lot of energy, as was the whole show, didn´t sound like a tired warhorse, this time.

Introductions were funny as Charlie was playing a bit when he was introduced which made them all laugh on stage and he was laughing the most, good fun.

Great ovation for Keith, he made some comments about Charlie´s drum solo and, as far as I can remember, didn´t give us his Max Miller routine but welcomed us with a "Good evening, Ladies & Gentlemen", class!

Still, Keith´s set unfortunately demonstrated the only low-point of the night, musically:
He simply wasn´t playing. Of course, he played some licks here and there and the intros but other than that, it was either a mess or no playing at all.
Note that I can tell this only from watching, the sound was not good enough to clearly separate the guitars from each other.
Remember Wanna Hold You from New Orleans ´97? Nothing like it, just plain boring. I can´t tell whether he messed up the lyrics since I could hardly hear him singing at all.
BTMMR was a bit better, but again, I want to hear and see the man banging out these great riffs, I don´t need to hear poor Blondie Chaplin shyly strumming along on his electric guitar, let the guy sing background, that´s what he´s there for.

On top, Keith didn´t look good at all, there was hardly a sparkle in his eyes, no tiger grin, most of the time he just looked tired to me, but maybe it´s just me.

The B-Stage set was taking the show up to another level, with great renditions of Satisfaction and HTW, I would have loved to hear IAON but Respectable was perfectly fine with me, as well.

Then Sympathy, I don´t know what happened.
Keith played his solo on Ronnie´s side when all of a sudden Charlie got up from his drumstool and left his drums. Of course he came back two seconds later, but don´t have any idea what was wrong, probably some technical issue.
Keith was visibly angry and walked back to his side, not playing at all, apparently to have his guitar turned up louder and then continued to play solo notes whilst Mick was already singing the next verse before blistering into yet ANOTHER solo, which finally was a very good one, though, like he had waken up.

Perfect intro to PIB, probably the best version I´ve seen of this song, lots of energy, Mick and Charlie pushing the band, brilliant.
Same with Brown Sugar, Keith finally seemed to be a bit more on, a long, loud hard-rocking version.

JJF the perfect encore once again, long and powerful, Keith thrwoing his pick into the crowd and then just strumming along with his fingers, again I would have prefered him to lead the band instead of just playing along with them, but okay.
Funny again, when Mick tried to get the song to an end and Keith just kept playing, it was not clear whether he was so excited to play the song or whether he was just pissed off and didn´t give a f..., but anyway.

Final bow, Keith staying on stage a little longer than the others to light a cigarette....

All in all, a very rock´n´roll show, loud and raw, lowpoints being most of Keith´s performance and the Caipirinha mafia, high points being the rest of the band, the great performances of most of the songs (especially Mick, again), the nice setlist
and the conclusion, that after all the worries during the last few days, they still came to Frankfurt and put on a good, sometimes excellent show which I´d give a solid 8 out of 10, if I had to rate it.

Long read, sorry in case it bored you, night all!

bv Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > Keith kinda sloppy
>
> NO WAY!


Is that tongue in cheek or are you serious? Not sure which one you're trying to say?

YPatrick Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Long read, sorry in case it bored you, night all!

Thank you. you got it all in there.
Would love to hear a guess what happend when Keith stopped playing.
He looked just as angry as only he can be.

Thanks again for the review.

TE
Oslo

Hi everyone. Been back for an hour now and thought I'd add my comments regarding the Frankfurt show.

Patrick is correct with regards to the sound and would probably have to agree that the roof being covered did more bad than good. It sounded very "muddy." From my experience it usually seems as if every instrument occupies a certain individual place in the mix, which creates very clear and distinct layers of sound. Tonight it was almost if everything was panned dead center. It was especially noticeable on songs such as "Bitch," where the entire horn section is to be heard on top of the guitars.

The setlist was OK. After reading the reports of songs such as Some Girls, Can't You Hear Me Knocking, Shattered and Heartbreaker I was hoping to get some of those gems. The only real "highlights" for me were Monkey Man, Sweet Virginia and Respectable on the B-stage. I'm not complaining, just observing and commented. I was in a really dead area as well - I was literally in the second to last row of the entire stadium where the causal fans tend to be sitting (while I was laughing, clapping and singing along to the likes of Sweet Virginia, for example, I was the receiver of all kinds of crazy looks. By the time the warhorse section of the show came I was pooped. Having been at work all day I didn't really have the energy to be "on" during the entire show.

Mick was great, as usual. Surprisingly on the ball tonight was Ronnie. I don't dislike Ronnie but, in all honesty, he doesn't add much to the overall quality of the music (this is my opinion). Charlie was great as well.

I'm not going to rag on Keith and I don't think anyone has reported his presence negatively but he did look tired. You could tell he was having fun and was doing his best to keep up but he didn't look like he was feeling well and his playing mirrored this.

All in all I'd give the show an average rating. I've seen better Stones shows but even the worst is a lot better than most other bands - and this was not the worst by all means. I kind of see the Stones as an addiction anyways. Once you're hooked, you're hooked, no matter the quality of the current high. You keep going back because you know that, while some nights may be less than stellar, other nights will just rock your head into a new dimension.

I still can't wait for Brno and Warsaw. I'm going to have to start buying tickets and making reservations because it's got to happen.

Good night everybody and peace,

E. Duane

I have seen them in Nijmegen and was at the fence of the b-stage .. overall Keith looked very sub-dued and distanced, not only regarding his playing .. i didnt matter he lost the posing a bit but he looked sick and came across as someone on serious medication .. hope i am mistaken though

Keith did not stopp playing. The power went out of his guitar totally during Sympathy. He was not happy at all. Walking very prompt far over to Darryl side to fix the problem. The whole song was hanging in the air for half a minute. Then his guitar problem was fixed, and he walked up front stage, too late for the main riffs. But half a minute later he was on fire and all the way throughout the show. For sure there was a technical problem, nothing less. But you know, these things do hapen - it is live!

Bjornulf

Just back from the show. I must say that I had a very bad seat. Way up almost under the roof on the left side. The sound sucked there but I have heard the the sound wasn't that good in other areas as well.

Lots and lots of empty seats and lots of free space on the floor. Sales must have been VERY bad. I was really surprised.

The atmosphere was maybe the worst of all the Stones shows I have been to since 1990. (This was my eleventh Stones show). Blame it on the seated floor. It was dead boring. And there was absolutely nothing going on on the tribunes. People looked at me when I clapped my hands or stood up.

Setlist was nice but the sound sucked so bad sometimes that I had problems to recognize what songs they're playing.

Keith fu*ked up certain riffs and I found his playing a bit sloppy, but again the sound was so bad sometimes that it was hard to hear him anyway. Ronnie was great, Charlie was Charlie, Mick rules but I think I have noticed a lack of energy in his performance compared to other shows. He's not running a marathon anymore during a show it seems ;-)

Very strange moment during Sympathy for the devil when the band almost stopped the song in the middle for a couple of seconds. Dunno what happened. Mick looked a bit pissed afterwards.

Worst Stones concert I've been to. A friend of mine who was with me and who isn't a Stones fan was bored to death. He still can't understand what's so great with the Stones, LOL. Bad seats, bad sound and by far worst atmosphere I have ever experienced at a Stones concert EVER...it just wasn't my day.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-06-14 04:39 by Kartoffelsalat.