The top ticket price to see the rolling stones was around
$600. Well, actually, that's not taking into account the special VIP
ticket prices (which gave you early entry and merchandise). Those cost
$1200. There was no way I was going to pay those prices to see a bunch of
old guys play guitar. But the stones released a thing called "Lucky
Dip" tickets, which were a snip at $100.
But the downside was that you didn't know where you were going to sit in
the arena until show day. Well, I didn't mind. I would be happy to
be in anywhere in the room.
I had visions that I would be sitting behind a lighting
pole, or up in the gods (although with the average age of the audience, I
figured oxygen would be required even in the expensive seats).
So about 10 minutes before the doors open I pick up my
tickets and the official says "oh, you got really lucky - you're in the
pit". The pit! Seriously!! The pit is where the above
mentioned $600 tickets were. And also the $1200 tickets were! This
can't be true, but let's just go with it.
My concert buddy (Rob) and I were kind of speechless.
And I mean seriously speechless. We hadn't seen each other in
months, but we didn't catch up. Our conversation basically involved
Cheshire cat grins, with a mumbled "we're in the pit! we're in the
pit" mantra…
To get into the pit you need to jump through a number of
hoops - go through this door, line up in that line, get this wristband, etc,
etc. At each checkpoint we thought that they would say "sorry guys,
there has been a mistake, you're up in the gods". But that never
happened!
We make our way into the pit (I should say that those who
paid lots of money were already in there) but it seemed that all those people
decided that they wanted to be right at the front of the pit. Expert
concert goers like us knew how lucky we were and decided that the back of the
pit would be just as good. I mean, they've got a catwalk there and they
wouldn't have built it if they weren't going to use it! So basically, Rob
and I had a front row position (we were on the rail) at the Rolling Stones
Concert.
We had Mick Jagger shaking his booty right near us, we saw
Keef and Ronnie walk past us. It was
amazing!
And the band? It is
said that the band has more energy than bands half (a quarter?) their
age. This was proved to ample effect on Wednesday night. Mick
Jagger behaves in a way that no 71 year old should. And by should, I mean
should be able to. He still has the moves (like Jagger - as the song
goes) and he still had the voice. He works the stage like a showman with
50 years experience under his (very tight) belt…
His partner in crime, Keef (I’m sure he's more chemical than
man at this point in his life) amazingly still has the ability to pull off all
those signature riffs. He does lead vocals on two songs (to call it
singing would be generous) and he pulls out his usual line of "it's good
to be here, it's good to be anywhere" but you get the feeling that while
it's his usual shtick, it is also true! You can sense that he enjoys
being on stage and gets a kick out of playing the old songs.
Speaking of the songs…well, no matter what they play they
are going to have a hit packed set and they are also going to leave out some
you want to hear. But they hit all the marks you want them to play.
They started with Jumping Jack Flash and end with
Satisfaction. Highlights for me were Gimme Shelter (With back up singer Lisa
Fisher showing the young diva starlets what it really is to be able to
sing. She raised the roof of Rod Laver Arena and I can't believe she
isn't a star in her own right). Sympathy for the Devil was pretty special
but if I had to pick one song as the highlight it would be the little known (to
me at least) Out of Control (Google tells me it is from the Bridges to Babylon
album in 1997… me neither) that showed off Mick Jagger's harmonica skills and
lifted the band to another level. To say they came home with a wet sail
would be an understatement. Just listing the songs is enough to make
lesser bands weep. Miss You, Gimme Shelter, Sympathy for the Devil, Start
Me Up, Brown Sugar, You Can’t Always get what you want, Satisfaction…
Who knows if this will be really the last time
the Stones play live in Australia. All signs point to this being true
(they can’t go on forever), but you can tell that they are loving being on
stage and they are in such good form, so you wouldn't rule out anything...
