All the Concerts Fit to Print

The Stones were on Cyn's bucket list, so we had to go. Yes, it was expensive. Don't ask. I'd passed up seeing them, a few times, due to expense, and the feeling that I was okay with never seeing them. Their only midwest date on their farewell tour was in Chicago, which is only a couple-hour drive.

The last time we went to the United Center, we left at 5:00. There was some construction, in the way this time, and we wanted to be sure we didn't miss anything, so we left at 4:30. Actually, that was my decision, since Cyn had the afternoon off, and Steve had the day off, so they would have preferred to have left earlier. The trip down took for freaking ever. Several construction delays, including a truck broken down, and then the obligatory Chicago traffic was a little worse than usual. It made for somewhat of a tense ride. But it turned out we were in our seats around 7:45, so the timing worked out well anyway. The guys next to us, who had come from Cleveland, were there by the time the doors opened. Unfortunately, the band didn't start until 8:45, for some reason, so that was a long wait - especially for the guys next to us. The audients were well in their seats by 8:30, but they were reasonably well-behaved.

The band came out under giant lips, and opened with "Get Off of My Cloud". That's a rather unconventional opener, for them. But it was fun, and that was the theme of the show! "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll" and "Paint It Black" followed. These songs had a stripped down sound, that put me in the mind of their early and mid-sixties sound. This was true even for "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll", despite it being from 1972, and despite the band being a seven piece, not including the backing singers, and the two occasional saxophones and the two occasional guests.

The band was Mick, Keith, Ronnie and Charlie, plus Darryl Jones on bass and longtime sideman Chuck Leavell on Keyboards. Bobby Keys and Tim Ries on sax, an Lisa Fischer and Bernard Fowler sang backing vocals.

The fourth song was "Gimme Shelter." Fischer sang that one, of course. She could really wail, but I would have preferred a little less wailing on this one. Keys's sax solo was similarly over the top. It was kind of a mess, actually.

A couple more of their early hits were followed by "Emotional Rescue." Disco. Not a favorite, but it was danceable, so ended up being fun anyway. Same for "Miss You," later on. I went to the restroom during that one. Anyway, after "Emotional Rescue," they brought out Taj Mahal, as their special guest. That was pretty cool. He can rock it, old school. They did an old Dave Dudley song, "Six Days on the Road". Taj and Mick traded lead vocals, and Taj played lead (steel) guitar.

That was followed up with a brand new song, "Doom and Gloom." It rocks. Next was their next single, from December, "One More Shot." After "Honky Tonk Women," (was that the song Leavell had a solo?) Mick introduced the band, finishing up with Keith, who sang "You Got the Silver." He and Ronnie played acoustic slide guitars. It's a beautiful song, and it was in my head the whole way home. After that, was "Before They Make Me Run," another of Keith's songs (Steve was unhappy they didn't play "Happy.") And then...

Mick came back with... Mick! Mick Taylor joined the band for "Midnight Rambler." It was a great jam. And fun to see the Micks interacting. Taylor's kinda low-key. They rounded out the main set with "Start Me Up," "Tumbling Dice," "Brown Sugar," and "Sympathy for the Devil." While "Brown Sugar" isn't one of my most favorite Stones songs, it may have been my favorite of the night. They rocked that one.

After a short break, the Roosevelt University Conservatory Chorus opened up "You Can't Always Get What You Want." One of my favorites, and it sounded good. Then "Jumpin' Jack Flash," which rocked, of course, and the finale, "Satisfaction," where Taylor returned to the stage. Not my favorite of the night. This one was a little bit of a mess, too.

So... The Rolling Stones. These guys are old. And it shows. But that's by comparison to their earlier days. Mick was still prancing around the stage, much like ever, though he didn't run like he used to, and his feet shuffled a little bit more than they used to. But he still had more energy than most sixty-nine-year-olds that I've seen. Even if he does look like someone's (homely) granny. Keith was looking rather run down, to be honest. Ron Wood seemed to be holding up pretty well. Charlie looked as great as ever. He can still hit 'em. In fact, one of his cymbals was bent! They replaced it during the encore. Mick Tayor sat down cross-legged in front of the drum riser, during "Satisfaction." Cyn said he was a big slow to get back up, but he's a big guy. I guess that's why this is (supposedly) their final tour. I just saw a video from ten years ago, and difference is striking. I'd be surprised if they could do it again, even three years from now.

But it was The Rolling Stones! I've seen a lot of shows, and this was the first time I ever felt like I was in the presence of a legend. I was happy to just be there; to see them in person. Cyn, on the other hand, was practically giddy!

Our seats were not bad. Not great, but not bad. We were on the right side, the first section off the floor, where the curve starts towards the back. We were in the back row of the section. Not only was there no one behind us, but were were over the entrance tunnel for the section, so there was no one in front of us. We weren't close enough to make out facial expressions, but we were close enough to feel like we were there.

The stage had a big inflatable upper lip over it, with a screen behind it. They showed only graphics for the first few songs. Then the lip rose up, and they showed video. Later they removed the lip, and showed video on the whole big screen. They alternated live video of the band, with a few music video footage. They played an old song by request from some sort of online poll. For that one, they showed vintage footage of the old blues, country and motown predecessors. They had a catwalk going in a loop out from the stage. It was shaped like the tongue, to complete the lips logo. Mick went out on it quite a bit, but not much during the first half. Keith walked around it a couple of times, later in the show. I don't think he had the energy to do it any more than that. And Ronnie went onto it just a little ways, once. Steve remarked that they brought the lights down in between songs. I thought the pause between songs was longer than usual. I wonder if they just needed more of a rest than usual.

Steve said the top level - the "cheap" seats - made the most noise. That muse have been where all the young people were sitting. Steve said Keith threw an empty water bottle across the stage, and hit Leavell in the head. That's a pretty good shot.

Setlist:
Get Off of My Cloud
It's Only Rock 'n' Roll
Paint It Black
Gimme Shelter
Wild Horses
Rocks Off
Emotional Rescue
Six Days on the Road - with Taj Mahal
Doom and Gloom
One More Shot
Honky Tonk Women
You Got the Silver
Before They Make Me Run
Midnight Rambler
Miss You
Start Me Up
Tumbling Dice
Brown Sugar
Sympathy for the Devil

You Can't Always Get What You Want
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Satisfaction

I wasn't sure I wanted to go to the show. I mean, I wanted to see it, but it was expensive. I decided it would be worth it. It was. I had a certain historical interest in seeing it, because I'd never seen any footage of the original tour, and I wanted to know how it was done. Plus, it was The Wall. It's an awesome album. One that I listen to only rarely, but awesome nonetheless. Anyway, I kinda had to go. I didn't get the $250 seats, but this still may have been my most expensive show ever, at $125. We ended up in the club level. The seats weren't that awesome, but we had better amenities outside. Not that we took advantage of the bars, the cushy lounge chairs or the fancy restaurant.

Steve got the tickets a few months ago. Several days beforehand, he hurt his back, and wasn't sure if he could go. He was in a lot of pain. He didn't decide to go until about 4:00. He got hold of me at about 4:30 and was surprised to hear I wasn't leaving work until 5:00. He sounded a little panicked, so I left at 4:45. I rushed home, grabbed the tickets, rushed down to meet him, waited a bit, then hurried down to Chicago. I realized when I hit the first toll, that I had forgotten my iPass. And drove through the second toll without paying. Got to our seats with about 20 minutes to spare.

The stage was dressed sparsely, with only the trademark round video screen at the back. The partly-built wall stretched out from the sides of the stage.

The show closely paralleled the movie. They reenacted the fascist scenes, with the crossed hammers and banners. But much of the video was updated or just plain new. They used the original animation from "The Trial" projected onto the wall. They used the original video of the sexual flowers for "Empty Spaces", but they added some sinuous computer generated roots snaking across the wall below the round screen. They did the movie version of "Empty Spaces" and did "What Shall We Do Now?"

Early in the show, during "The Thin Ice", they showed photos of victims of war on the round screen, and also tiled across the bricks on the side wall. There was footage of a child in black and red, behind the sinister tones of Another Brick in the Wall part 1.

A searchlight spotlight and the sound of a helicopter marked the beginning of "The Happiest Days of Our Lives". At this time, there was graffiti projected onto the wall. An enormous marionette of the teacher descended. It slowly moved back and forth and up and down at the side of the stage. When the chorus was about to start, a line of children ran onstage. They were stepping and clapping and chanting. We don't need no education! They were apparently from a local school. Toward the end of the song, they ran to the side of the stage, pointing in unison at the teacher puppet until it shrank back out of sight. During this song, the line, "all in all, we are all just bricks in the wall," marked the beginning of the construction of the wall across the front of the stage.

From here, to the intermission, workers continually brought 5'x2.5' bricks out and added them to the wall. As each brick was set into place, whatever video was being projected, would "turn on" on that brick. Apparently, the projectors were aligned within a couple of inches, and a technician would key in that spot of the video at the right moment. Amazing. During Brick 2, when the graffitid wall was displayed, I saw the shadow of a child walk briskly across the stage. And a subway train went by.

"Mother" included an inflatable version of the cartoon Mother from the movie, and a large security camera on the screen, that was watching everything. It was all in black and blood red. "Goodbye Blue Sky" was all animated bombers against a blood sky. The bomb bay doors opened to release payloads of crosses, hammers and sickles, stars of David, crescents and stars, dollar signs, oil company logos, etc.

Did I mention the themes of anti war, anti imperialism, anti corporate/government? Waters has become more outspoken, and some might say heavy handed about this stuff in recent years, but you may not have noticed if you didn't listen closely enough to care about the message in The Wall or Dark Side of the Moon. It's pretty blatant in Animals, though. Alienation is the most obvious message in The Wall.

As they built the wall, they left three openings in it, so you could see the band as the wall grew. During one song, I could see the keyboardist's hands lit by spotlights during a solo. Near the end of the first half, the wall was almost complete. After "Another Brick in the Wall Part 3", they did an instrumental called "Last Few Bricks". It was a new tune (as far as I know) that was sort of an amalgam of The Wall's sound. As you can imagine, they placed the last few bricks in the empty spaces through which we could still see the band. There was one last brick still missing. A spotlight shone out, and Waters sang "Goodbye Cruel World". The moment he finished, the last brick was put into place, sealing off the band from the audience.

The second half of the show started with "Hey You", performed from behind the wall. It sounded live, and the spotlights were moving as if the band were performing it, so they must have been. But fifteen thousand people were starring at a blank wall, while Roger Waters and crew were playing "Hey You"... out there beyond the wall...

Surreal.

A spot soon opened up in the wall so we could see the guitarist for one song. The Waters came out to sing from in front of the wall. The rest of the band stayed behind. For "Bring the Boys Back Home", they showed video of children surprised in their classrooms when their fathers returned from Iraq. I'll bet there were quite a few tears in the arena.

Waters was down front for "Comfortably Numb". The guitarist did the solo from the top of the wall, as did the second vocalist for his parts.

Then came the fascist part again. Not my favorite, generally, but "Run Like Hell" rocked. Funny I saw this on Monday, with the Nazi-esque group, and then saw Cabaret on Tuesday.

Then came "The Trial". Waters sang all the parts, but I think the music was all the original recording. Then the bricks came crashing down. Tear down the wall!

The band came out to the front to play "Outside the Wall", with an assortment of folk instruments. Accordion, banjo, etc. Waters had a trumpet. In the movie, this moment was rather bleak. Here, at the end of the amazing show, it was rather more jubilant.

The band was Robbie Wyckoff (vocals) longtime Floyd and Waters sideman Snowy White (guitar), GE Smith of SNL fame (guitar and bass), Dave Kilminster (guitar) Jon Carin (guitar and keyboards), Graham Broad (drums), Harry Waters (Hammond organ) and Jon Joyce, Mark Lennon, Kipp Lennon and Pat Lennon (backing vocals).

Here's video footage of about four songs near the beginning, including Brick 2.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ressurection9#p/u/7/9TlpWGKfeas
It's 14 minutes long, but if you don't want to watch it all, skim. And make sure to check it out starting about 9:20, for the bricks and the kids and the puppet. And 12:43 is where that ghost walks across from left to right. And then check out that user's channel for about half the rest of the show, if you're interested.

This was among the best concerts I've ever seen.

We arrived at 7:00 for a 7:30 show. It was a very quiet arena. Not many people, even though it was sold out. There was a round stage in the middle of the arena, and we were in the upper level, at one end of the south side. The east and west ends were covered by a curtain. I guess they were not sold, due to being obstructed view.

The Blind Boys of Alabama opened at 7:45. There were three Old Blind Boys. They were seated on chairs on the north, west and south sides of the stage. When they started singing, one of the Boys stood up for the show, and the two others stood up sometimes. There were four musicians/backing singers. Two guitar, bass and drums. They did a somewhat short set of gospel music (five songs). The fourth song was their signature version of "Amazing Grace" sung to the tune of "House of the Rising Sun." The last song was a rousing gospel number, that made it difficult to sit still. One of the Boys was sitting, but couldn't sit still. He was shaking his microphone, and bouncing his knees. After a time, he got up and was starting to jump up and down a little, but almost immediately, the guitarist behind him came over and put a hand on his shoulder to make him sit back down. This happened twice more, but the third time he was shuffling his feet and dancing. Some people thought this was supposed to be a joke, but I don't think so. I think he really wasn't supposed to be on his feet, maybe for fear that he would fall off the stage. I thought his exuberance was definitely not feigned. Either way, it was a very strange little scene.

The stage was round and in the middle of the room. The sound board was on one end of the floor, maybe the light board on the other, and the stage direction boards were on the side between the stage and the wall. The stage was at about eye level, and there were two stairways that led up to near the middle of the stage from under it.

In the middle of the stage was a square area which was a lift. It was used to convey people or equipment up to or down from the stage. During the second song (the first one with the entire band), the drum riser was on it, and it was inside a little house shaped tent thing. After the song, the roadies - I mean stage crew (in bright orange jumpsuits) came out to remove the tent from the drum kit. They laid the pieces on the floor beside it and left. Then they rolled the drum riser out toward the edge of the stage. After the song was over, they came back out, piled the pieces on the lift, and lowered them into the floor. Then they removed them and sent the lift back up to stage level. This took until about half way through that song. For me, sitting in the upper level, the below-stage activity was rather distracting.

Looking with binoculars at the stage, I could see a line on the stage, which went in a circle. It looked like the outer rim of the stage was meant to rotate. I didn't see how that could happen, though, because the keyboard stands and guitar pedal rigs were all on this outer rim, and the cables ran across the stage a little ways toward the middle. A big "duh" hit me a little while later, when the crew rolled everyone's rigs towards the middle, leaving that outer area clear. Peter began walking slowly in place. Pretty soon he picked up reverse momentum and was walking forward, but moving backwards around the stage.

One of the highlights was "Mercy Street." Melanie (the backing singer), got into a small wooden boat, which seemed to sail around a sea of swirling blue and green waves - great lighting effect.

Another highlight was "Solsbury Hill." They again spun the stage, and Peter rode a bicycle around it, first against the rotation, and then with it. He weaved in and out among the band members. I'm pretty sure I've never seen anyone ride a bicycle onstage at a concert.

The light rigging was over the stage, of course, and there was a lot of equipment up there - all the sound gear - amps and such - were up there. And there were no monitors onstage, that I could see.

From the rigging hung a round platform. There were railings around it, and Peter went up there for "Barry Williams Show." He had a camera on a tripod, and filmed the band members and the audience, which were projected onto the curtain behind him. The curtain was cylindrical, inside the ring of the platform. There were lights underneath the platform, and raised and lowered throughout the show for various effects.

Inside the cylindrical curtain were various inflatable objects. The first was a white clamshell looking thing that lowered down over Peter's head for "My Head Feels Like This." It reminded me of a while Audrey II. It was then used as a backdrop for various projected video images. Later the clamshell part was lifted off, leaving a sphere, which again was used a video screen.

After a while of that, the grey cover was removed from the sphere, and it was revealed to be a giant, transparent, inflatable "hamster ball," which Peter climbed into and rolled and bounced around the stage. Very cool. He apparently has had a lot of practice in it, because he could steer it very well. He kept it on the stage, and didn't run into anyone or anything. I half expected him to knock over some drums with it.

The advantage to being in the nosebleed seats was that we could see just about everything. I appreciate being able to see all of the musicians at one time. If I were on the floor, some of them would be hidden behind others, at times. Unfortunately, there were things we couldn't see, like the light display on the underside of the platform. We could see the patterns of lights on the stage itself, like the "waves" during "Mercy Street." I'd say that being down on the floor would be the better place to sit, though. Optimal would be on the sides, a few rows up.

The musicians were:
David Rhodes - guitars and backing vocals
Rachel Z - keyboards and and backing vocals
Ged Lynch - Drums
Tony Levin - bass guitars, electric upright bass, electric cello and backing vocals
Melanie Gabriel - backing vocals
Richard Evans - Mandolin, guitars, dobro, whistles and backing vocals

They were all wearing black. The outfits were all a little different. Rachel wore a stocking cap, tight shirt and hip hugger jeans with a wide belt. Tony and David wore what looked like silk robes. It looked like Peter had a skirtlike shirt tail hanging out from under another shirt. I figured they were all told to wear something black, but I see on Tony's website that the "costumes" were chosen for them. Suddenly the choices seemed really weird. Some of the musicians were not happy about the outfits. And all the guys were bald. Well, Peter and Richard were only nearly bald.

The opening song, "Father, Son", was an homage to aging gracefully with a parent. It was just Peter and Tony.

I didn't care for "Barry Williams Show." Too much like a TV theme song (yeah, I know that was the point, but that doesn't mean I have to like it), and too repetitive. That was about my only big complaint, though.

The special effects were impressive (see above).

I guess he played all of his latest record. He stuck to his more recent music, anyway. The only song any older than So was "Solsbury Hill". That song, I've always felt a certain melancholy nostalgia, in among the soaring hope. Live, however, it is transformed into a rousing anthem.

"Mercy Street", was the highlight of the show, for me. It's not normally listed with my favorite Gabriel songs, but here, it was magical.

"In Your Eyes" was more of a freeform jam than the record version.

The closing song, after I wasn't sure whether he'd be back out, was "Here comes the Flood." Solo, piano and voice. Very nice. A beautiful ending to a spectacular and long show.