"The Rolling Stones" Thread

[Nitro Express]

Well I overpaid for some lousy seats in Seattle to see Mick, Kieth and Charlie one last time before they died. Time waits for no one.

I can see wanting to see the band before they finally tap out from touring, therefore you bite the bullet and overpay the piper, particularly if one has never seen them live...because the Stones...they're just one of those bands...and with Charlie having passed an Mick having suffered heart problems, clearly it is no longer the case that the chances to see the band are endless in terms of years and years left to check them out.

I can recall thinking at the time that the $50 I paid for my scalped Stones ticket in 1989 was akin to highway robbery...good luck paying less than 6x that amount now, and that's just for nosebleed stadium seats.

What’s funny is in 1981 I did the same thing. I had a summer job at a country club. Two of the lifeguards who were older were talking about getting tickets to see The Stones in Phoenix. Me and another guy decided we might as well go because The Stones we’re getting old and we might not have another chance. So we bought our tickets and headed to Phoenix in one of the life guard’s van.

[Terry]

That was the rationale behind me wanting to catch them in 1989, in that back then it seemed like this could be the last tour...particularly considering that the band hadn't been getting along well the three years prior to Steel Wheels and hadn't even toured for about 7 years at that point: like, the Steel Wheels tour could possibly be the last time the band could stand each other enough to tour.

We went to the stadium not even having any tickets, being unable to purchase them through ticketmaster or ticketron or whatever the fuck it was back then because the show was instantly sold out. So we just made a day of going up there, having a few beers and partying in the parking lot. Throughout the day, scalpers were asking for $100 a ticket or whatever it was. As the start time got closer and closer, the scalper prices dropped. We bought our tickets in cash from a scalper just as the opening act (Living Color, I think) was almost over.

Turned out to be more or less worth it at the time, I thought. I mean, the band played upwards of three hours. The stage show in terms of the production was massive. Great fireworks display at the end of it all. The band sounded good, as well they should because they had more supporting musicians onstage than they did band members. And I remember the band did very little from Steel Wheels, a track each from Dirty Work and Undercover, and all that stuff was played very early on in the concert. They did a lot of stuff I hadn't expected, like Ruby Tuesday and Paint It Black...I remember being stunned when they did 2,000 Light Years From Home, just in terms of the deep cut nature of it.