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STUTTGART May 29th. 1999.
It was a very warm day, but always better than the heavy rain we got during
several shows last year!
It took us 7 hours to get to Stuttgart (almost 700 kilometers) and we arrived
about 1.00 p.m.
We met several "old friends" from Holland as well as from Germany (nice
speaking to you again Alfred and Brigitte) and even Australia (hey Jaime, see
you next week).
The gates did not open before 4 p.m. and we had to run again for the best
spot. It was a long distance (too long and unnecessary actually) to run and in
this warm weather it must have been dangerous to run at full speed!! It reminded
me of a guy who dropped dead last year while running for a good spot at the
Mannheim show!
I always thought that the Germans were good organizers, but now I know better...
L
At the end of the show the police kept us at the parking lot for almost two
hours, because the crowd (80.000 people) had to be gone before the cars were
allowed to leave... Can you imagine?
We wanted to drive back to Holland again (7 hours!) L
But nevertheless it was a great opening show as far as the Stones concerned.
The band played excellent, especially Keith and Charlie! Keith was the best
tonight. And Charlie "the basher" was great tonight too.
BTW The opening band, Ocean Colour Scene, wasn’t too bad either. After the
first 3 songs I even started to like them...J They played about 40 minutes.
The Stones started their show at 9.40 p.m. and closed at 11 p.m. No Bridges
To Babylon opening, but a No Security opener! After the video shorts of the
Stones walking through the basement of the stadium (!!) a firm "Jumpin’
Jack Flash" made the crowd wild. This song was immediately followed by
"You Got Me Rocking" and this was a great version. Much more "stacato"!
Than the Voodoo Lounge tour version.
Before playing "Bitch", Mick said: "Willkommen in
Stuttgart". Then Lisa did her traditional part in "Gimme Shelter";
nice but not the best verison I’ve heard. This was followed, like the "No
Security" set list, by "Honky Tonk Women (no Robert, not Honky Tonk
WomAn). Keith opened the song "hands free", but I think he was
concentrating on the audience too muchJ
First new song in the set was "Angie". The crowd liked it and so
did we. It’s a nice "romantic song" as Mick called it.
"Angie" was followed by a very nice, but much too slow, version of
"Shattered". "Saint Of Me" ("Wolt Ihr Mitsingen?")
was very nice. Before the song ended, the crowd was singing "Yeah, yeah,
oh, yeah, you never make a saint of me" and the band started playing along
with the audience again.
Mick announced it as "twisted version of Some Girls" and although
he started the wrong verse at one moment, tonight was the best version I heard
so far!
"Out Of Control" was a steady as it was in the States. I thought it
was played with slightly different instrumental part.
"Paint It Black" was good too. The audience sang along firmly!
At the band introductions Charlie was favourite, like always in Europe. Keith
then took the microphone and said "It’s good to be back sisters...and
brothers". And he played the best version of "You Got The Silver"
so far! This song was followed by "Before They Make Me Run". There was
no Leah Wood on the backing vocals, like I saw during the NS Tour.
Time for the bridge to be moved to the center stage. (Keith stumbled while
crossing the bridge). The center stage was not included within the front ring,
so there was no stress in this part of the audience J The center stage set was
great tonight: "Route 66", "Get Off Of My Cloud" (even
better than the first time – and the last time I saw it in Philadelphia) and
an outstanding version of "Midnight Rambler". I thought it was longer
than they did it during the NS tour: the middlepart was much longer.
The the band went back to the main stage for the grande finale: "Tumbling
Dice", "It’s Only Rock’n’Roll", "Start Me Up",
"Brown Sugar" which is far too long L and the encore "Sympathy
For The Devil".
It was a great show, certainly worth while the 7 hour trip to Stuttgart.
Dirk Snapper
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