Week of The Rolling Stones

      The Rolling Stones are aside from The Beatles the most famous group of musicians that have ever lived. I never had the chance to see them and I never thought I would. When they announced their 50th anniversary tour I had to get in on it. That was until I saw the ticket prices, cheapest tickets were 125 and those sold out before the Ticketmaster on sale date. That left 240, 450, 640, and the tongue pit for an outrageous 1200 dollars. Then all I could think was damn I may have missed my last chance to see the legendary Rolling Stones. Then they announced that they would be releasing a small amount of 85 dollar anti scalping tickets. I was on it. I had class when they were on sale, didn't matter I got on my computer during class and secured my self the pair of tickets. It was finally happening. I was going to see The Rolling Stone on June 3rd at the Chicago United Center.

 

     Finally it was the night of the show and all that was left for discussion was how would they compare to their former selves. My mom was going with me to the show and she was a die hard fan who had seen them live several times before. We were wondering at their age if they could still do the songs justice, or perform like they used too. The other question I had was who was going  to be the special guest that came on stage with The Rolling Stones tonight. The two previous nights in Chicago it had been Taj Mahal the first night and Sheryl Crow the second night. I keep wondering who could it be? Billy Joel, Bonnie Raitt, Elton John, or etc (insert awesome musician here). The set list also interested me. I knew they would play the biggest hits every night, but I wanted to know if they would throw in some deep cuts for the old school fans, some covers. Which lesser hits would be played they have so many they can't play them all every night. 

     We got to the arena around 7:30 and the show started at 8. Apparently there was no opener. The stage resembled a giant pair of lips with a tongue that served as the standing room only pit. The 85 dollar anti-scalping tickets were kind of like a lottery. The tickets were in pairs and could be anywhere in the arena. We figured out we ended up with with what could have been 400 dollar tickets. The band didn't actually come on until 9pm. Maybe they should have had an opener. They started off with a video of celebrities and famous people talking about the importance of The Rolling Stones and their music. Before the band came blasting out to "Get Off of My Cloud". They brought everything in their arsenal to the show: Back up soul singers, saxophones, a children's choir, former band members, a special guest (I'll get to that in a second), outfit changes, giant video screens, and Mick Jagger's classic swagger. The man can still dance and sing as it turns out. The rest of the band didn't disappoint either. They played extremely loud for a band their age. 

     Following "Get Off of My Cloud", they went into "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)" accompanied with videos of classic blues musicians playing on the monitors. Followed by "Paint It Black" and "Gimme Shelter". "Gimme Shelter" was the best song of the entire night. Mick Jagger accompanied by a soul singer blasted out a absolutely mind blowing duet that sent shivers down my spine. There was a web polling among fans to pick the next song witch ended up being "Sway". Followed by "Live With Me", "As Tears Go By", and "Emotional Rescue". "As Tears Go By" ended up being the special guest appearance song. Taylor Swift came out to sing on the duet. "Doom and Gloom", and "One More Shot" were next as the two new songs written for GRRR. These were not quite up to snuff as Mick read off a teleprompter for "Doom and Gloom".  "Honky Tonk Women", "You Got the Silver", "Before They Make Me Run" came next. Band introductions came after "Honky Tonk Women", and Keith Richards took over lead vocals on "You Got the Silver" and "Before They Make Me Run". Next was "Midnight Rambler", "Miss You", and "Start Me Up". Former Rolling Stone Mick Taylor joined them for "Midnight Rambler". The last six songs were all hits: "Tumbling Dice", "Brown Sugar", "Sympathy for the Devil", "You Can't Always Get What You Want", "Jumpin' Jack Flash", and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction".  "You Can't Always Get What You want saw the Roosevelt University Conservatory Chorus join the band, and Mick Taylor came back out to join the band for "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". 

      The main band is the same as always with Mick Jagger on vocals, Keith Richards on Guitar and back up vocals, Ronnie Wood on Lead guitar, and Charlie Watts on drums. Mick Jagger must have changed his outfit at least five times thought the night. His dance moves are as good as ever. "Midnight Rambler" was one of the best songs of the night lasting upwards of ten minutes long. There were moments where the instruments were so loud that it drowned out Mick a little, but he did a very good job of compensating for it. Taylor Swift's guest spot on the show bothered me for a lot of reasons. First of which, they could have gotten so many better people, and secondly she was not very good. Ronnie Wood took over lead guitar for most of the night. Which makes me wonder if it was because Keith was looking so much less energetic then he used to be. The only other criticism was that he should learn the new songs and back away from the mic when singing falsetto. Otherwise it was an amazing concert. They still play very well and played all of the songs I wanted to hear. The videos used to accompany the songs were totally rock and roll. Even for old guys they can still rock. They played for more then two hours, and played hit after hit all night. If this was their last hurrah, I'm glad I got the chance to see them. It was well worth it.

The Rolling Stones Live- Sympathy For the Devil