Now the last part of the Bigger
Bang tour kicks of at Gillette Stadium. Especially Keith has been busy with his
Pirate filming with Johnny Depp since the break after the European tour.
Paint It Black - Live With Me - Monkey Man - Sway - Sweet Virginia - Streets
Of Love -
Ain't Too Proud To Beg - Midnight Rambler - Tumblin' Dice - Intros - You Got The
Silver
Little T&A - Under My Thumb - Rough Justice - Jumping Jack Flash - Honky
Tonk Woman - Sympathy For The Devil - Start Me Up - Satisfaction - Brown Sugar (encore)
Blue Lena attended her 68th Stones show last night in Boston at Gillette
Stadium. It was the Stones 96th show of the Bigger Bang Tour. All the media
attention was focused on the stadium not being totally sold out the day before
the show & the ticket prices being reduced. The fan attention was focused
on Mick not attending rehearsals, and not even singing at soundcheck before
the show.
Well, they can all shut up now and so can the setlist whiners. This stadium
show rocked! The stadium was basically sold out by showtime, Mick's voice was
in fine form and despite a few rough edges here and there (which I kinda
like), the Stones were in fine form for their 5th trip to Boston in less than
15 months. Welcome back to the States boys!
When have the Stones ever opened with Paint It Black? Never, I'd venture to
guess! The first 8 songs just took my breath away: PIB, Live with Me, Monkey
Man, Sway, Sweet Virginia, Streets of Love, Ain't Too Proud to Beg, Midnight
Rambler...WOW, WOW, WOW.
After the standard Tumbling Dice & band intros came the moment I'd been
waiting for. I kind of wished I hadn't gotten the setlist before the show, but
even though it wasn't a surprise....it still was a surprise. I had commented
not too long ago to someone that even though I love Keith's set as it stands,
I wish he'd do little T&A since he hadn't played it since '82 and that I'd
love to hear You Got The Silver again. He DID them BOTH. I died and went to
heaven. Keith stood in front of the mic without a guitar (when has THAT ever
happened?) and sang with such passion and emotion, while Ronnie played the
acoustic slide...it was to die for. Then he rocked it up with Little T&A,
and who cares if he messed up the words a bit, it was a solid A for effort and
the attempt at a whole new set. Thank YOU Keith!
Then it was onto the B stage without Miss You (thanks for that), and a dusted
off Under My Thumb! Onto Rough Justice, and JJ Flash on the B stage-cool. I
didn't actually go out to the B stage this time, which is rare. Then we
got the usual Honky Tonk Women, Sympathy (the fire works were HOT in our
faces), Start Me Up and the encores of Satisfaction with a grungy new Keef
riff start and the ending with Brown Sugar. Keith wore 2 scarves for the final
now, one was from me...it was silk with blue, white & black skulls. I
didn't see a single unhappy fan after that show ended.
FOXBORO -- It's a scary thought, but even this
far into the game, the road appears to do The Rolling Stones good.
Last night at Gillette Stadium, in front of a sellout crowd of roughly
43,000, the legendary band was faster and nastier than at Fenway Park last year,
the first show in the Bigger Bang tour.
Playing their fifth show in the Boston area in a little more than a year, the
Stones went deep into the songbook in the early going. Starting off with
"Paint It, Black" seemed an incongruous choice to kick off the party
that a Stones concert usually is, but it became clear after a slashing
"Live With Me," a jovial "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," and
"Sway," a ballad structure with a nasty grind underneath it, that
early on at least, this wasn't going to be Greatest Hits night.
In nearly every band, there's a member you can look to to see how the gig is
really going. In the case of The Rolling Stones, it's
Keith Richards.
You know frontman Mick Jagger is going to give you the aerobic preen, with
the energy of a man a third his age, and get the crowd going (not that they
typically need a lot). You know Ron Wood is going to play biting guitar and look
like he's having the time of his life. You know drummer Charlie Watts will be
impassive and impeccable. But Keef? He's the barometer. When he's smiling, the
whole band smiles with him. And last night's set list seemed to make him happy.
Even rent-payers such as "Satisfaction" got a lengthy treatment,
but the highlight of the night was the blues-rock tour de force of "Midnight
Rambler," which went through its usual three tempos but got an extended
harmonica solo from Jagger and a murderous solo from Richards in the breakdown,
wringing the crowd nearly dry. Only a stalwart like the subsequent "Tumblin'
Dice" could keep up.
Hey, remember that album the Stones put out last year? Yeah, only sort of,
right? Same with the Stones: "Streets of Love" (reportedly played live
for the first time in North America) and "Rough Justice" were the sole
representatives from A Bigger Bang. Live as on record, too many guitars on the
former (Jagger joining Wood and Richards) spoiled what could've been a spare,
haunting ballad (though lyrics such as "You're awful bright, you're awful
smart/ I must admit/ You broke my heart" didn't help). "Rough Justice"
fared better, as Jagger stuck to vocals.
Freed from the need to play something from the new album, Richards' vocal
spotlight consisted of a sweet "You Got the Silver" and the roaring
"Little T & A," from 1981's Tattoo You (with added horns that
weren't necessary).
As usual on this tour, late in the show the Stones gathered around a small
area in the center of the stage and were slid out into the middle of the crowd
mid-song (this time during "Under My Thumb"). On the small stage, they
slammed through "Rough Justice," "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and
"Honky Tonk Women."
Sure, these are The Rolling Stones -- they play in stadiums on a five-story
stage; they've got the giant inflatable tongue-and-lips business, and shooting
flames during "Sympathy for the Devil" -- so huge they warmed the
crowd from hundreds of feet away. They're sponsored by mortgage companies and
electronics chains. They'll never be as menacing as they seemed in the early
'70s. But last night they did the best they could.
Kanye West opened the show, and the multi-platinum rapper showed the energy
and chops to fill the Stones' huge stage. He thanked the crowd and the Stones
for allowing him to "break down some boundaries," and said later in
the show that even he never dreamed of being at such a show.
Backed by a DJ, a strong string section and two singers, West stuck mainly to
the hits, starting in a relatively mellow mode with "Diamonds from Sierra
Leone" and "The New Workout Plan" before tearing into "Get 'Em
High." He lost momentum by letting his singers do Gnarls Barkley's
"Crazy," but came back with "Gold Digger" and closed with an
energetic "Touch the Sky."
West is the latest in the Stones' string of opening acts hand-picked
seemingly to challenge the audience a bit. And it worked -- to an extent. No one
seemed to be there for West, but he was well received. Arlene Mulley and Albert
Toupin, of Douglas, Mass., weren't familiar with West, but they were impressed
by his energy. "The stringed instruments were excellent," Mulley added.
Unfortunately, not many felt compelled to catch West: the stadium was less than
half-full when he was done.
Gillette Stadium, Boston, MA
