[Otclassof1973] THE STROLLING BONES

[neufsaid at juno.com]

KQED, one of four PBS stations available on the Bay Area's cable dial -
and our main PBS enabler - ran the Asbury Park 70s Disco Concert again,
last night; so apparently TDay week means pledge break time.  Wanna bet
Xmas coincides with another pledge break?  I totally support what they
do, but they're really over fishing that lake.

Anyone out there in Spartanland still planing on catching the current
Stones tour?  If so, avert your eyes, cause further down there be
spoilers.  Talk among yourselves and check this email out after you've
gotten your Satisfaction on.  Meanwhile...  

It's not easy trying to make email eye contact with Patti and Mindy,
cause Patti's sandy in Jamaica and Mindy's jamming in San D.  For the
rest of you, I'll attempt my usual slather of blather - this time for
your reading pleasure, I'll be typing without a net.

The local wags (and by local I mean everyone in the world) have been
referring to this tour as the Strolling Bones.  Y'know, for 60 year olds
they sure are well preserved - except for Keef, who plays like the devil
and looks the part.  Whatever is keeping him animated it's incredibly
powerful mojo.  Somewhere, in a musty old garret on the bad side of
London, there's a reverse Dorian Gray portrait of Keef that gets
healthier and younger looking with each passing year.

A couple of weeks before the concert SWMBOs sister asked me to go with
her.  It's enough to make a person believe there IS a god!

The first of two San Francisco concerts took place beneath a gibbous moon
- that means the moon was waxing toward full; but more technically it
means pregnant.  The weather was incredible, who'd've guessed we'd have a
week of T-shirt weather IN NOVEMBER!?  Coincidence or more of Keef's mojo
working its magic?

After Metallica finished their pregame show, the main even began with a
very literal bang.  Fireworks shot up into the night sky from the front
sides of the stage where two tower-like structures, framed a 60 foot
giant video screen above center stage.  The towers looked like twin
parking structures and they hid tiers of luxury boxes - big time prizes
for the lucky listeners of several separate radio station contests.  

After the initial fireworks, the giant video screen played a "big bang"
computer graphic montage of the Earth exploding (the new album is called
A Bigger Bang), and sending CG cars and other bits of recognizable debris
floating off into the void.  The flotsam began to coalesce into white dot
clusters that resolved into the images of Mick, then Keef, then Ron, then
Charlie, seconds before the lights came up - loud and bright - for the
perfect opening song, Start Me Up (of course) which included more
pyrotechnics, such as flames shooting up from hidden smudge pots along
the front edge of the stage.

After the first few numbers, Mick introduced the whole troupe, while Keef
lit an apres first set cigarette and did a kind of disinterested but
impatient strut at the back of the stage.  Mick ticked off the names of
the backup singers, brass section, keyboardist and bass player before
introducing his three bandmates.  Ron was introduced as Ronnie
"Rembrandt" Woods and Charlie as Charlie "Wang Dang Doodle" Watts.

Mick waved toward his glitter twin and simply said, "And Keef Richards!" 
I perceived a bit of a disconnect between Mick & Keef; not musically,
they were as tight as ever on that score (sic); but Keef's introduction
was without any playful fanfare and there were other signs. 

Keef took the mike and DIDN'T INTRODUCE MICK!?  Not that Mick needs an
introduction, but that's where it usually goes and it's usually done by
Keef.  Anyway, he went right into the portion of the program where he
gets to do his mandatory 2 song per concert solo set.  Leaning into the
mike stand, like it was his tall, lanky lover, he nestled his hands
around "her" neck and mumbled, "It's  good to be in San Francisco,"  (it
sounded more like, "Izgud2beun Sa' Fra'cisco") then amended it to, "It's
good to be anywhere" ("Izgud2beunywur") - insert cough and laugh at own
joke.   With a few more tics and twitches he launched into Slip Away,
which he wrote during yet another particularly low point after he'd lost
a couple of buddies to drug ODs.  I believe he was also in rehab at the
time.  A really up beat song. 

I wanted him to do Before They Make Me Run, but you can't have
everything.

His second number was from the new album, or as he called it, "Bada Big,
Bada Bang," sounding like Tony Soprano.  (Ya know what I mean Paulie? 
Stugatz, fugeddaboutit!  --- Scuzzie, I must be channeling HBO.  Again!)

The stage was set up in the home run area behind center field and
typically there's a catwalk out to about the second base area where a
smaller, more intimate stage is set up so they can get "closer" to the
on-field audience.  Like Patti, I was closer to the smaller stage, this
time and - WOW!  At the 40 Licks Tour (2 years ago), the boys nearly
skipped down the catwalk to their waiting instruments.  But each tour
seems to ramp up the SFX (Special Effects) a notch or two.  This time a
square chunk of the main stage slowly broke away, riding on rails out the
double wide catwalk to join up and fit neatly into the center stage area.
 I mean, they took all their instruments with them and Charlie never even
had to get up from his drums.  When they finally slid into place Mick,
with an obviously practiced step, simply continued singing and pranced in
mid song from the movable stage onto the permanent section it had just
joined up with.

Once there Mick mugged and strutted and you could tell he was posing for
photos whenever he was aware someone was holding up their camera,
actually quite considerate of him - as it meant making eye contact with
each of those fans and I'm sure he made each and every one of their
individual nights in so much as they got to think he'd posed just for
each of them.

In among this set Mick announced they were going to do something from
long ago and launched into Live With Me, off 1969s Let It Bleed album "I
got nasty habits/I take tea at three.  Yes, and the meat I eat for
dinner/Must be hung up for a week."  Ahh, the classics.  I know the older
fans appreciated that one - I did.

When the movable stage first started rolling forward it took a moment for
the movement to register with the audience.  The same thing happened when
they finished the center stage set and started drifting back to the main
stage.  During the return trip a giant pair of powder blue inflatable
lips with a kind of 70s flower power pattern appeared in front of the
giant video screen, with an immense, inflatable tongue that came out
flopping and flapping luridly above center stage, lit with a spot until
the end of the song, when it deflated super quick and the entire stage
went dark.  

That's when they came back out of the darkness and launched into Sympathy
for the Devil, including monster eruptions of flame from the tops of the
towers, big enough that their heat could be felt in the instant before
they dissipated.  Through the whole song the giant video image overhead
projected a live feed of Mick on stage but it was filtered, darkly,
through a blood red crimson lens - creating a metaphorically hellish
image that was a simple video trick but packed a powerful punch.

They peppered their play list (hand written in yellow on two clear lucite
boards behind Charlie's drum kit) with songs off their new album.  The
guy next to me seemed totally unaware of any new album, because with each
new song he'd mutter, "That's another one I don't know."  Me, I sang
myself hoarse, then sang some more.  (Sidebar: My upstairs neighbors told
me they could hear the concert all the way over at our house about 5
miles and two hills away from the stadium.)

They closed with Satisfaction (happy me!), said good night and trotted
off stage.  The stadium remained in darkness and SWMBOs sister grumbled
that they hadn't done Midnight Rambler or Jumping Jack Flash, two seconds
before the boys came back out and started their encore set with Jumping
Jack Flash.  

It's a pleasure and a half watching somebody get what they really want.

After the encore Mick was the last one off the stage, he turned to the
audience, said goodnight and left.  Then, another fireworks display began
that got more and more intricate, ending with two huge, expanding,
golden, glowing balls exploding over the stadium, seeming to fill the
night sky.  

I don't smoke, but if I did I probably would've liked to bum one of those
apres concert cigarettes off Keef, right about then.  As it was, I took
my souvenirs and headed home where I wasn't able to get to sleep until
after 2am - and that was forcing myself to just turn the damn lights off
and do a face plant.

I know it's only rock and roll; but I like it,

Marvin

PS/ If I don't get a chance, later this week, Happy Thanksgiving
everyone.  Here's hoping you're all happy, healthy and in the warm,
collective bossoms of your assorted families and loved ones.  I'll be
soaking in it, up at an estate that SWMBOs family has rented in Glen
Ellen, located in the heart of wine country.  I'll make sure to tilt a
very dirty Vodka martini in all of your general directions - hopefully
from the grownup table, this year.  

PPS/  Rinse, repeat.

#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9#9
And there's a score of harebrained children,
They're all locked in the nursery. 
They got earphone heads, they got dirty necks,
They're so 20th century.
- Live With Me, Jagger/Richards
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