[Otclassof1973] THE STROLLING BONES

[neufsaid at juno.com]

Mindy, 

Here are some more musical highlights from the Stones concert.  They did a tribute to Ray Charles and covered his song, Night Time is the Right Time, with a still photo of Ray projected on the giant video screen.  Mick did it as a duet with his female backup singer, that included a bump and grind routine with her the crowd just ate up.  

He was in great voice and they did Rain Fall Down off their new album and aside from Start Me Up, Live With Me, Sympathy for the Devil, Satisfaction and Jumping Jack Flash they also did Miss You, Tumbling Dice, Sweet Virginia & Paint It Black.  Obviously I'm forgetting some things - but I was on my feet the whole time, of course.

I got one of the blinky lights, this time.  It's in their trademark lips and tongue design, with baseball seams running across the tongue.  They must play enough different arena venues that they have these ready for when they play baseball stadiums.  I got the same baseball design on a cloisonne pin.  It'll look great on my baseball hat, next season.

Meanwhile, I'm still listening to Stones albums in the car and on my iPod.  I think it's an addiction, but I'm not ready to go cold turkey yet.  

I guess THAT happens AFTER Thanksgiving.

Marvin

#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
If you start me up I’ll never stop.
I’ve been running hot,
You got me ticking gonna blow my top.
- Start Me Up, Jagger/Richards


 
Sounds like the SF version was a lot like what we experienced here in San Diego with a few exceptions:  
 
First of all, while he was mostly incoherent, Keef did say "how'er you all doing. Actually, I don't really give a ______."    I thought it was strange that everyone but Mick was introduced.  Sure, we all know who he is, but that's true of Keith, Ronnie and Charlie, too.  
 
When Mick announced they were going to do something very old it was "Get Off of My Cloud".  They also did "As Tears Go By" and made a big production of Keith getting a stool to sit on while he played that song.   The biggest difference was that they did an amazing, twelve minute version of Midnight Rambler that everyone I know who was there was talking about the next day.  Did they do "Gimme Shelter" in SF Marvin?  That's the song we were hoping for that we didn't get.
 
It was an amazing show, and we only sat down once, when Keef did his two songs.  Other than that how could we not be on our feet when Mick was racing around the stage like he had the energy of a teenager?  It's a show you really should see if you get the chance!
 
Happy Thanksgiving to you all!  My parents and in-laws have already made the long voyage from New Jersey, and several more family members are expected soon for our annual feast.  I hope you and your loved ones are celebrating together this year, and that you all have much to be thankful for.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: neufsaid at juno.com 
To: otclassof1973 at eris.njit.edu 
Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2005 4:57 PM
Subject: [Otclassof1973] THE STROLLING BONES


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