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| TheSavageYoungXyzzy |
Here we goooo.... (posted in seperate area because of length)
Looking back at my Ronnie-fatuated show on 9/3, I realized that while they were still fantastic, they were just getting started. And sometimes that showed. For one thing, Keith wasn't really playing a whole lot - just joking around with Darryl and Charlie, very much making Ronnie do the busywork. Which was fine, as this time around Ronnie was more than capable.
This time, it was a whole different ballgame. Keith has realized that Ronnie is getting a lot of attention for playing fan-friggin'-tastically, and the Prince of Darkness is not about to be upstaged by a bottom-pinching impish guy who's only been in the band twenty-eight years. So this time 'round, Keith and Ronnie resurrected the long-missed Weave, and that made all the difference.
So, without further ado -
PRE-SHOW: MIDNIGHT RAMBLER
C'est moi! I was prowlin' around. Even though I was lucky enough to have a friend of the family get my father and I box seats (right near the B-stage, Ronnie-side!), I snuck downstairs to have fun rather than be with the filthy rich snobs. I bought myself a new T-shirt, two posters and a tongue light-y thingy (Kohl must be dancing over these... making tons of money), talked with a few guys (no-one message board fans... I had a Rocks Off watermarked picture of Ronnie on my back, but no-one saw me.), and just generally having a good time. I scoped out the guards at the floor entrances, trying to decide how I'd sneak down to the B-Stage. Made it back upstairs just in time, and we launched into...
THE SHOW: YOU GOT ME ROCKING!
The music at the beginning somehow seemed longer... I could feel the familiar tension and quickening of breath... My father very much let me perch at the end of the box and dance away... and then... outta nowhere:
YOU GOT ME ROCKING - I heard the strands and muttered "Oh, no..." just quietly enough not to be noticed by anyone else in the box. What were they thinking? Keith dashes out and hits it - and suddenly Ronnie's right there, playing, intermingling. It sounds like a glorious mess, Keith playing the mid-ranged rhythm with Ronnie blissfully overlaying it. And then Mick came out, dancing and prancing. Chuck was there but his sound was wayyy down, covered by Darryl and Charlie and having a nail put in his coffin by Keith. Which is good - "You Got Me Rocking" needs a *real* barrelhouse piano to be in any way effective in that department. But I suddenly have a newfound respect for this song. Mick tried to get the crowd in on the "Hey, Hey"s, but they weren't quite interested - more ecstatic than perplexed, really.
START ME UP - The sing-along starts here. Mick blasts us with a blissful reverie and everyone sings along. A good old-fashioned Warhorse. Keith and Ronnie deliciously good - but nothing really memorable outta them. It was an energizer.
IF YOU CAN'T ROCK ME - Welcome to Ronnieland. The Wah-wah comes on and the crowd goes wild - it's a real pleaser. Mick's dancin', scanning the crowd - and for the second time of uncountable times that night, I heard the weave with pleasure. They were making a conscious effort to get back to the weave. The fact that it was a conscious effort and noticable was a little bit disappointing... but then the night went on into...
DON'T STOP - Wow. A bit punchier and more energetic than the last rendition at the Fleet which had people sitting down in droves, the RonnieCam was used here to full effect. Ronnie tore this song apart, made it his bitch, taking the RonnieCam for a ride not one, not two, not three, but *four times* (the last two were seconds apart and part of the same solo, though). It was literally "Hello. My name is Ronnie Wood, I am sober, and no matter what the creaky old guy playing guitar with me thinks, an integral part of this band. Observe. *guitar*". My only complaint was when Ronnie really got into it on his second solo, he was drowned out. I don't see why they need three guitars on stage - at the very least the sound board operator should be cranking Ronnie during those solos where there's a lot of muddy stuff going on or else his high-register notes are lost. Mick closed it off towards the end by surprising everyone, yelling out "Yeah yeah yeah Don't stop!" in a rich falsetto that made Ronnie fairly jump out of his jeans.
MONKEY MAN - Pretty damn good, but in all honesty, I would have preferred "Rocks Off". That would have sent me into cardiac arrest, though, so maybe this was for the better. Very bluesy, very druggy, Mick didn't really let loose on the voice, though. The screen played indistinct pictures of the boys with strange discolorations, nice effect. Mick's dancing was the big pleaser for the crowd here.
NO EXPECTATIONS - Gets my vote for worst song of the evening. Why? Well, I love the song - but Ronnie's slide was buried under Keith's electric and Mick's accoustic, which he felt the need for some reason to take out. As a result, a subdued slide, a mediocre vocal (Mick was concentrating on the guitar too much), and an overall lackluster performance. Sorry, guys - but when you consider all that, one quasi-clunker really isn't that bad.
STRAY CAT BLUES - Pretty good - but I'd heard it already. Nothing new except the bass solo, and they seemed to plow through it halfhazardly, eager to get to...
SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL - Welcome back to the floating feet of Master Keithfucius. After seeing Ronnie rip his way through "If You Can't Rock Me" and "Don't Stop", Keith isn't just gonna be a complacent thread in the weave... KAPOW! Keith *tears* into this song, almost like saying "Hello. I'm Keith Richards. I'm fucking plastered. And contrary to what this young kid thinks, I wrote this fucking song and I'm gonna fucking destroy it now, get outta my way!" His solos were so damn good Ronnie just pointed in awe at the end - it was like 1968 all over again, only a bit messier. Unlike Ronnie's high-range wails, Keith just ripped into a few nice mid-range chords and rode them until he ripped 'em. Fantastic.
BITCH - Another instance where there was too much going on down on the stage for any clear musical idea to be heard - Ronnie and Keith's weave sounded a little fudged in there, but the horns slurred over it nicely. A drunken romp, I'd say. Not great, but fun.
TUMBLING DICE - Mick surprises everyone by letting loose a nasty little section of falsetto - he's having fun. It's a rollicking gospel number, and Mick sounded great. He loves that song, you can tell.
Then we had intros and so forth, everyone running out taking bows, different from last time. Anyone else notice how Blondie seems to be Keithifying himself?
THRU AND THRU - The Keith set. This was a great number, and while there were still plenty of people up for the stands, it was nowhere near the mass exodus of "Slipping Away" last time. For the only time that night, Blondie was very audible - he was alright. Nothing special. Ronnie hung out with Charlie in the back... until Keith yelled "Now I got those fuckin' blues!" Ronnie bolted out, pointed at Keith and put his hands over his mouth - Got me to yell for him. Great number. People liked it.
BEFORE THEY MAKE ME RUN - Buzzsaw! Another killer Keith solo and a wonderful, if somewhat sloppy, weave-machine. Makes you want Keith to write some more rockers - he knows he'll never get away with "Can't Be Seen" as his fast number... better start thinkin', Keith! How about "Wanna Hold You"?
And then... Mick makes a triumpant return.
GIMME SHELTER - I heard this one coming a mile away. Not as raw as the '69 and '72 versions at all - they don't have the timing of the drum stuff right in terms of who drops out to make the guitar more 'raw', but it was still a bluesy, nasty anti-war number. People were up in arms listening. It was a great rendition, until Lisa came out. Then it became a fucking fantastic rendition. She *screamed* her way through it, people were on their feet, screaming with her. Fucking incredible. (Ronnie, of course, makes every playful pass at her ass he can get before and after this one.) The weave was nasty and on-target, Keith's solo mind-blowing, and Mick and Lisa's duet so damn powerful I was near in tears, as was everyone else in the box with me. When the song was done, the husband of the husband-and-wife couple who took my father and I turned to me with tears in his eyes and said "Gimme Shelter is the best... song... ever." And for that moment, he was absolutely right.
ALL DOWN THE LINE - Fucking hell. I thought it couldn't get any better. I was ready to die right then and there. If Keith dominated the mid-show, Ronnie was eager to prove himself again. You can see how much he loves this song - groving around, playing the fucking hell out of it. Again, his second and better solo was covered by the horns - turn that friggin' incredible bastard up! But their playing on this one made it one of the best numbers of the night. They were so into it, so loving it, that it was impossible to sit down.
MIDNIGHT RAMBLER - It's a good thing they let Mick do that slow, bluesy intro to this song. If they didn't and just launched into the riff I would have fallen out of the box stone dead. Mick danced and pranced while Keith, Ronnie and Darryl formed a little trio-of-power and sent themselves back to '75, with a snarl to boot. What a weave... what a majestic weave. And, unlike the Roseland show, any time a clangy note from Leavell was heard it was like the guitarists suddenly kicked it up a notch to bury it. If they make a live album from this tour... keep them the way they are. Keep Chuck down, turn up Ronnie's solos. When they do that for this upcoming live album, I'm sure this is the version of Rambler we'll be hearing. Everyone yelled it at the same time with Mick... "Well, ya heard about the Boston... *unh!*" and then erupted into screams. And then the last final rumble before the end... screaming guitar work, especially by Keith. Mick didn't scream out "AND IT HURTS!", but honestly, I didn't care. What a great rendition.
HONKY TONK WOMEN - I still had hope for "Knocking" as an encore, but I knew deep down it wasn't going to happen. This version of it was alright - same ol' cartoon, Keith on harmonies, rushing around again - Ronnie chasing after Lisa, kissing everybody... it was like some sort of festival. Great weave again, effortless. Mick kinda got lost in the vocals and towards the end the weave did break down, but until then it was damn good.
STREET FIGHTING MAN - Cool graphics of all the street signs and so forth behind the boys, and a crazy kind of weave with Ronnie's electic sitar too damn low in the mix to do anything with. Not the best version they've ever done. Still kicking ass, though.
TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE - Just kidding.
SATISFACTION - Screams, dancing, the usual. The big crowd pleaser. Dancing about, Otis Redding-esque ending. Nothing really special about this version - that is to say, it's up to the same fantastic standards that it's been up to this entire tour. That weave... oooohhhh it's back....
And then, the B-Stage. Of course, my father stops me.
"Y'can't go."
"Why not?"
"There're guards down there, turning people away."
"I can sneak by 'em. I'll have soda, something like that."
"No."
"Oh, c'mon! I need to get a guitar pick from Ronnie!"
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"Damn."
And so I was forced to stay. Muttering under my breath about how much the Eagles sucked, I watched as the boys pulled out...
IT'S ONLY ROCK'N'ROLL (BUT I LIKE IT) - Yeah, the usual. Ronnie loves the B-Stage, the most out of everyone. He was slappin' fives, throwing picks left and right, being a menace to society in general. The thing was, unlike previous tours, he did it in such a way that it *didn't interfere with how they were playing*. Because they're getting that weave back, Ronnie knew exactly when he could take the chance of throwing a few picks or slapping a few hands without screwing up the song. There was some sort of scarf thrown that Mick and Ronnie were discussing as they came out - Ronnie probably wanted Mick to wear it as a hat, or to use it himself. But they just draped it in front of Charlie, who smiled merrily. Charlie was so on target the whole night that I didn't even need to mention him. What's to mention? He's the greatest technical player of them all. The song itself was alright, but the real favorite from the B-Stage was...
LIKE A ROLLING STONE - Everyone knows this one. Some people now think the Stones wrote it. As a result, the sing-along was fantastic and everything, from Chuck's unobtrusive keyboards to the boys's guitars to Mick's harp were fantastic. The singing along, though, really got the crowd up - huge screams after this one. I had a great time singing along - I'm glad they're doing it out on the B-Stage, actually. It's a good number that everyone knows.
BROWN SUGAR - Say hello, weave! Both Keith and Ronnie kick the crap outta this one, and Mick has fun with it, too. The sing-along started a little earlier than Mick expected - too many returning customers! Ronnie's still pulling all sorts of antics - this is the song where it's most noticable. Early on he realizes it's affecting the song and cuts back. As a result, a killer version - and everyone screamed when Bobby came on and Ronnie gave him a peck on the cheek!
At the end, Mick throws his water all over the crowd, and the bottle for good measure. Charlie pitches his sticks, Ronnie and Keith do the same with their picks, and they're done. Everyone bows on the B-Stage, the crowd goes wild, and Keith and Ronnie go off with arms around each other. Positively heartwarming.
And then...
JUMPING JACK FLASH - straight from the balls, Keith rips into this one, Ronnie providing a crazy kind of backup sound that isn't really working - he needs those same tight strings the recording used rather than his cool electric sitar which sounded too mellow on the high guitar part. But Keith plows through it, as does Mick, and the rose petals cover *everything*. People are just screaming for the hell of it now. And then... the final bows, the boys bow alone to thunderous applause... Ronnie hugs everybody in the meantime, Keith finally gets him in a headlock and drags him up to take his bow... priceless. Mick and Charlie rush out to take more bows, while Ronnie and Keith have already left arm-in-arm. Both Mick and Charlie look embarassed, but they wave and bow anyway - everyone loves Charlie and he knows it, looking very modest. And that's it... they're gone. And they left behind them an absolutely amazing show.
DON'T STOP: THE CONCLUSIONS DRAWN
Overall, the show was much more *consistently energetic*, I'd say, than the opener, which fired off bursts of concentrated firepower like "Rocks Off" and "Can't You Hear Me Knocking". I thought that even though I missed those two songs, only "Rocks Off" could have made it in (in place of "Monkey Man"). I've heard "Knocking" enough anyway, so I was happy with one awesome drawn-out number.
For the most part, it was a dream come true. Keith was playing really damn well again, Ronnie was still on top of his game although not at the forefront as much: Keith has started to rebuild the weave! Chuck, when he was audible, was fine, and when he was not, it was good for the song. Even though a few sections of Ronnie could have benefited from a lot more volume, overall the mix was great. The guys were having a great time and playing great while doing it, and that was the most important part. I stumbled into school today bleary-eyed and happy.
Get ready to welcome your fucking Rolling Stones very soon. Remember to remember Ronnie - he's still one of the great modern marvels, and yes, damnit, a guitar god! Keith, however, has stopped resting on his laurels and is eager to prove that he's still the man who played that sneering guitar on "Sympathy For The Devil". Mick, on the other hand, is happy to let you know that not only did he sing "Sympathy For The Devil", but that he still can and better than live versions ten years ago. As for Charlie... what can be said about Charlie other than that he's fantastic. Prepare yourselves... welcome back the Greatest Rock'n'Roll Band In The World...
The Rolling Stones! The Rolling Stones!
-tSYX --- But it's allllllllll riiiiiiiight now.... |
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| VoodooChileInWOnderl |
Great review, but I encourage you all to post them in the same thread. Or ADD a link from there to this one.
Why?
Ok, we're in the process to update Gazza's setlist páge, it will include many features. One of them is the link from each show in that page to the thread with "Setlists, reviews and pix" of the associated show. In fact I use to rename those thread that way to make it easier the search. |
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| TheSavageYoungXyzzy |
quote:
VoodooChileInWOnderl wrote:
Great review, but I encourage you all to post them in the same thread. Or ADD a link from there to this one.
Why?
Ok, we're in the process to update Gazza's setlist páge, it will include many features. One of them is the link from each show in that page to the thread with "Setlists, reviews and pix" of the associated show. In fact I use to rename those thread that way to make it easier the search.
Yeah, I did. I just didn't want the review thread to be suddenly saturated by *GIANT POST OF DEATH*.
The setlist page is gonna be sweet! Thanks, Unholy Trinitarians!
-tSYX --- Don't stop! |
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| parmeda |
TSYX...
Great review! I marvel at your memory along with your sense of detail. You are such a young man...and what you've witnessed, savored and absorbed, will without a doubt be at the forefront of one of the most memorable times of your life.
How disappointing it must have been for you not to have the chance to creep up to the B-stage...I admire you for respecting your father's wishes and I hope you realize he made you stay back, only because he cares. (You'll be a father one day...look back, and laugh.) But you still have had the opportunity to see the best of the best, not once, but twice now. That alone, should leave you content...
I'm glad you had a spectacular time! Next week, my husband and I are bringing our two teenaged sons with us to see what their mother has been going absolutely "ga-ga" over, all of my life, LOL. It will be such a treat for me to watch them and see their reaction to all of this...
Thanks Xyzzy! |
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| beer |
Once again Xizzy, your journalism skills impress me. That just might be your calling in life(I'm not shittin ya)
I am bummed to see that "No Expectations" was n't very good. That song has haunted me(in the best way!!!) ever since the first time I heard it. In my opinion, it is the most authentic blues number the Stones ever did. Thank you Brian Jones.
I too was blown away when I saw em play "All Down The Line" and ESPECIALLY "Midnight Rambler".
This tour just keeps gettin better. I just hope and pray that i can maybe get to San Jose!!!! |
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| nankerphelge |
I agree beer -- No Expectations is a real gem -- and they played it so well in Atlanta in '97 -- too bad it wasn't up to snuff this time. |
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| T&A |
A lot of times, our perception of how well a song is played is affected by our location and the PA mix. It may well be that NE was not up to snuff at the Fleet, but, based on Savage's report, it sounds like it might have been played very well but was compromised by either poor acoustics and/or a poor PA mix. I know a lot of times I hear (or don't, as the case may be) something I don't like only to hear it dramatically differently on a recording of the show. |
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| MP |
bloody hell!!!!!!!!!!!! Great review! Felt like I was there all over again! |
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| MP |
...but have to disagree on No Expectations....from where I sat...was sounding good |
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