It's Only Rock'n Roll
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It's Only Rock'n Roll |
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Stones
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Ronnie
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Band 2
Tim Ries |
Xutos & Pontap�s (warmup) : 7:25pm - 8:00pm Primal Scream (warmup) : 8:25pm - 9:20pm The Rolling Stones : 10:10pm - 12:10am
The 2nd warmup "Primal Scream" was not known to the crowd, and by now they were all too impatient. But they were all still patient. Many rocked and danced, many queued for beers and toilets still, in this brand new fotball stadium, rebuilt completely and extended on the old stadium, to be prepared for the "Euro 2004" European Championship in Portugal next summer. A beautiful, horseshoe shaped stadium with a roof, a bit similar to Twickenham Stadium, but a lot more modern, and for the first time in a long while I got my complete ticket back untouched, as they were all scanned. So the test for the Euro 2004 ticketing worked.
They had left one of the guitars on the B-stage, and ten minutes before the show started one of the crew had to pick it up, walking the quickest way on the walkway direct. With 45,000 impatient fans waiting he got the biggest ovation any crew member have got, as he was smiling, carrying the guitar case back to the main stage. Sure we were all ready, and I wondered if they had changed the set list, but no, it was just a guitar they misplaced.
By 10:07 the microphone and the water cups were in place. One minute later they turned off the lights in the stadium, while the background music was still playing from the tape. First time that has happened, but then everybody went wild of course, and the introduction music did not really get the buildup attention it use to get, as the madness was there alread 100%.
Brown Sugar. Bobby was back on saxophone. Start Me Up. Everybody was jumping up and down, like they only do in Buenos Aires. Mick is shouting: "Ola Coimbra! Ola Portugal!" Then You Got Me Rocking, as the monitor screens are rolling in from the stage sides, and even the fans in the far away upper level opposite the stage is now happy - I am sure they were happy even before, as when I looked around, all I could see was hands in the air and smiling faces.
Angie. Singalong. "You Can't Always Get What You Want". Mick does not need to sing it, really, as it is all done by the crowd. Mick is smiling. He is indeed happy with his crowd tonight. He even screams so loud and s strong at one point I can hear his voice is breaking completely, but no worries, as we can hear later on in the show, his voice is absolutely perfect all through.
The rest of the show is just a dream come through. We get "Like A Rolling Stone" on the small stage because they did not play Portugal during the previous tour. I wished for "Out Of Control" when I realized that fact, but there was not any space for it tonight. Still no worries. Who would take away "Paint It Black", or some of the other songs?
Gimme Shelter was the song when Mick really would tell us how great his voice was tonight. You know when he feels 110% safe with his voice, he is always working on topping LIsa's parts with his own vocals, and that was what he did tonight. His vocal parts were just amazing. And Keith, all those great and strong licks! By the way, I forgot, almost, but Slipping Away was the most beautiful version I have heard tonight, everybody just stood still listening, no talking or beer hunting, just pure listening and some cheering of course as the song built up, and to the point where Keith is doing the great solo playing during the second half of the song.
Sympathy For The Devil? Also great! Satisfaction? The entire crowd is just going mad! Keith is over on my side playing the solo bit in the end, and I am enjoying every bit of it.
Time to go home. Or at least move on to the next show. Such a great show. And such a great small medium sized city, where you can walk in half an hour or so from the show, and you are back "home" in the center of the city. The train from Porto to Coimbra took almost 3 hours but I enjoyde every minute, even in this 100 km journey. May be I find a faster train back up to Porto on my return. Two shows left. Then I hear the crew is tagging some of the equipment cases "China" now, so there will be more shows after Z�rich, probably...
A very relaxed Ronnie (really liked the slide guitar on Happy). Charlie, always very strong, and seemed really happy, full of smiles. Actually it seemed to me that the band did really enjoy this show, and I can assure you that everybody in the stadium just went wild from the 1st until the last song, singing along through all the show, to a point in which sometimes it was hard to hear Mick's vocals -and the sound was great.
Highlights? Difficult to tell, since this was the best Rolling Stones' show I ever saw! Maybe an explosive Satisfaction, with a really possesed Mick, running like a real wild cat, with an energy that made me comment : here's a 60 year old youngster. Boys, DON'T STOP! An advice : you're better then ever, so by the end of the tour, get into a studio and record one more master piece. Last european tour you didn't play in Portugal; as you saw last night, this country loves, so boys, do always came back. And Bjornulf this is a medium size city, by portuguese standarts, but Coimbra is 2nd oldest University City in Europe, and this year it was the country's capital of culture, so having the Stones in Coimbra, was by all means the ULTRA MEGA event possible, not only in this city but also in this country!
Thanks to Sergio Marques and Axel Schumacher for news links!
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It's Only Rock'n Roll 2003 -
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