Posts Tagged ‘rolling stones’
Rolling Stones Concert Review, Arlington, TX, June 6, 2015
Make no bones about, I f’n love The Rolling Stones. I’m not shy about my Stones fanboyness ever. They are as big of a part of my early rock and roll makeup as KISS. I saw them 10 years ago for the first time in Charlottesville, VA where a bomb threat interrupted the show.
The Stones are on their 15 date North American Zip Code Tour and booked a show in Arlington, TX and there was really no way I’d miss it. I was able to score a floor ticket near the back of Cowboys Stadium. Not the best viewing but not bad and a bit cheaper than most floor tickets.
Pablo and I drove up from Austin, grabbed some dinner in Arlington then made our way to our reserved lot. We grabbed some merch and made out way to the floor. He had a seat closer to the front. Grace Potter was the opener and we spent most of her set in the downstairs lounge. My foot has been bothering me lately so getting some sitting time was essential. After her set we just stood in the back of the floor area and people watched for a bit until about ten minutes before the Stones’, then we went to our respective seats.
The stadium roof was open, the lights went down and the Stones hit the stage with Jumpin’ Jack Flash and followed it up with It’s Only Rock and Roll. The crowd was electric and I was loving it. Mick sounded great. No surprise, he was all over the stage the whole night. I had seen previous setlists from the tour and they had been mixing it up a bit. The list remained pretty consistent until just after Moonlight Mile where they played a snippet of All My Exes Live In Texas then rolled into Rocks Off from Exile on Main Street marking the first time they’ve played it on this tour. Honky Tonk Women was next which included band intros. Mick left the stage after and Keith took over for Before They Make Run and Happy. He’s got this childish grin that just cracks me up. His voice sounded pretty good, as good as expected. For as old as he looks, he still retains some teenage boyishness about him. Ronnie and Charlie were both great. Charlie’s unorthodox drumming style is difficult to watch, but he gets it done.
The whole band sounded great, just like I expected them to. Look, The Stones aren’t the tightest band in the world, but they never were. But they’re great. They did a heavy rocking version of Miss You that was just great. The whole show was a blast. Surprisingly, I don’t think it was sold out though. It was close. I hope it’s not the last time I get to see them. I would love to have seen Monkey Man and a handful of others, but I’m not complaining. The Stones truly appear to enjoy playing live even after 50+ years of doing it. I can’t speak highly enough about Mick’s voice. There were some high notes that he hit that just blew me away. I honestly didn’t want the show to end. It was a blast. The 4 hour ride home was rough, but we made it.
Long live The Stones.
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- Pablo and Monkey Boy in front of Jerry World.
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- Enjoying the VIP lounge for a bit…even though we weren’t VIPs
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- Old friends.
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- Please allow me to introduce myself…
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- The smoky goodbye after the fireworks.
RIP Robert, my dear sweet brother
On January 20th one of my older brothers died in his sleep. He was 47. It was unexpected and quite a shock to the family.
Robert was 6 years older than me and really is the person responsible for my love of heavy music. In the mid 70s I can remember him bringing home KISS’ Dressed to Kill and that is what started it off for me. From there it was Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Alice Cooper, RUSH, Uriah Heep, Wishbone Ash and a slew of other bands in those years. It wasn’t all hard stuff though. He got me into the Rolling Stones, early Neil Young and Elton John as well. The Stones are my 2nd favorite band of all time behind Iron Maiden.
As we got older and he had moved out, I was able to get him into bands like King Diamond, Metal Church and some others.
Music was always our bond and even in these last few weeks, there are certain songs that I’ll hear that just remind me of him. I’m glad that I have that lifelong connection to him and his spirit.
I’ll always miss and love you, Robert. Even more than I have in recent years of not being able to see you.
I can’t thank you enough for helping me be who and what I am today.
I’m just waiting on a friend…
It’s no secret that my older brother, Robert, was a big influence on my musical development, especially between 1975 
and about 1981/82. One of the bands that he introduced me to is The Rolling Stones. To date they are still my 2nd favorite band of all time behind Iron Maiden. He loved the Stones and subsequently so did I. He played them a lot and they became ingrained into my musical repertoire. After Wyman left I was done with them, but I love just about every album they did with him save one or 2 in the 80s.
I can remember coming home from school and listening to Tattoo You on vinyl. Typically mom and dad were at work and who knows where my brothers were. I seemed to have time to spin records before they all came home. Very influential and time well spent. Homework? Pfffft!
This album was always special to me though. It’s one of those albums that brings me back to a certain time in my life, actually to 2 different times in my life. I guess I have a lot of those types of albums and I am glad for it. Without music I don’t know how I would have ended up.
Tattoo You wasn’t a perfect album for the Stones although it had one of their biggest gits on it…Start Me Up. Sure it’s a fun tune but not one of their finest moments in my opinion. I really loved their slower tunes and this one has some great ones on it, pretty much all of side 2. Worried About You, Tops, Heaven, No Use In Crying and Waiting On A Friend. Such a smooth album side.
Side one’s highlight for me is Little T&A. When I was 19 I briefly dated a girl that this song seemed to fit so well. Typically when we went out I would play it sometime during the evening. Hang Fire is pretty good too. Pretty cool cover art as well. But all in all, side 2 rules this album.
There are many other Stones album that I like better, but this one does have that special place.
“Ain’t no use…”
Rolling Stones Review – Bomb Scare Show – 10/06/05
As you may know if you’ve either known me for a while or read back through some of my ramblings, I am a huge Stones fan. My #2 band of all time actually, only to be beaten out by Iron Maiden. I finally got an oppurtunity to see them in 2005 at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, VA. I originally bought 5 tickets, 3 nosebleeds and 2 good ones. I planned to use the good seats for myself and whoever I decided to bring along with me and resell the other 3 for a profit. Yep. Capitalist pig I am! But…I ended up selling the 2 good seats to my friend Jeanne as she wanted to take her mom to the show. No profit to be made.
Right about a year or so before I got the tickets, I started to frequent the Taphouse in the Ghent section of Norfolk, VA. I had been there before with friends but never really “hung out” much there. I liked the place and started going there mroe often for shows and such. I lived about 25 minutes away so I didn’t do much of my partying there because of the drive. As I was sitting at the bar one afternoon, I was talking to one of the owners, Al, about how I had some spare tix for the Stones show if he knew anyone that wanted them. He said he’d buy them and take his guitarist along. Done deal. We ended up going to the show together with his brother as his guitarist bailed at the last minute.
I didn’t really know these guys that well but what the hell. I knew a lot of people who knew them and they were good to me as a patron in my early days there. These 2 guys play in a band called Rylo. Rylo is a boogie/honkytonk/jazzy/upbeat type band. Hard to classify really but they do what they do very well. Of course in my car I only brought metal stuff to listen to. Maiden, Dokken, Mercyful Fate, KISS, etc. Ended up that these 2 dudes were metalheads. It was the beginning of a wonderful relationship.
We drove to the show, a 3 hour trip, and had a blast. We met Jeanne and her mom in town for some Italian food then parked and walked to the stadium for the show. We parked in some dude’s yard for $20 and walked about a mile. No biggie, the weather was perfect.
We definitely had nosebleed seats. Trey Anastasio of Phish opened up. B O R I N G. I was amazed at how many people left after Trey played. Whatever. The Stones were the Stones. Sloppy. Energetic. Funny. To be honest, I shed a tear when they hit the stage. Lifelong dream for me to see them.
Halfway through the set, Mick stops and does introductions then says they need to take a break per the “authorities”. We figured someone called and complained or something. Turned out to be a bomb threat. They cleared the floor for the first 40-50 rows and brought in bomb sniffing dogs. No bomb. Of course. The big treat for me was that they played Sweet Virginia. They NEVER play that song.
They came out and finished their set. From what I understand we only lost 2 songs…Infamy and The Worst. No big deal.
We decided to drive back to Norfolk that night. It was slow getting out of there but we had a blast. Mountain Dews, beef jerky and Doritos all around for the ride home. It was a blast, almost as fun as the show.
Soonafter that I moved to Ghent and the Taphouse became my place. I ended up working there as a doorman as needed and loved every moment of it. I made some friendships there that will last forever. I miss that place a lot and when I go to visit Virginia, it’s usually the first place I stop in.
Setlist:
- Start Me Up
- It’s Only Rock’n Roll
- Shattered
- Tumbling Dice
- Rough Justice
- Ruby Tuesday
- Sweet Virginia !!!! with additional sing-along after the song had ended
- All Down the Line !!
- Night Time is the Right Time
— band intros, thru Ronnie.
Time: 9:43pm
“We have to take a 10 minute break, according to the authorities”. Band leaves the Stadium, they bring in bomb sniffing dogs, clear out the stage people entirely, and vacate everyone in the first third of the field and the seats at the ends of Mick’s catwalks.
Time: 10:38pm - Miss You (to second stage)
- Oh No, Not You Again
- Get Off My Cloud
- Honky Tonk Women (from second stage)
- Sympathy For The devil
- Midnight Rambler!
- Paint It Black
- Brown Sugar
- Jumping Jack Flash
- You Can’t Always Get What You Want (encore)
- Satisfaction (encore)
All the dreams we held so close seemed to all go up in smoke
It’s no secret that I am a huge Stones fan. I practically love everything up to and including Steel Wheels (minus that horrid nightmare Dirty Work). I think that Goats Head 
Soup is one of my favorites, if not my #1 from their 70s era. The album is a bit mellow and smooth and very different from the albums before it and after it, Exile On Main Street and It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll, respectively.
Silver Train, Star Star, Hide Your Love, Dancing With Mr. D, Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) and even Angie are all great tracks.
This album has Mick taylor all over it. He was a great guitarist and arguably a better writer than Keef. My opinion of course.
I really wish I had some sort of life story to attach to this album like I do with many others from my collection, but I don’t. I will say that this is a fun album to play bass too and one of the first ones I put in to learn how to play when I started bassing in 2000. Nothing majorly difficult, just cool progressions.
The Metal Files 
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