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Posted by Fleabit Peanut Monkey on March 09, 1999 at 22:16:21:
In Reply to: DC #2 posted by nankerphelge on March 09, 1999 at 05:18:26:
First, let me join the chorus of praise for your choice of venue. What a great afternoon. Sounds like I missed a great gathering at the Bottom Line. Went to the Smithsonian and did the West Building, and didn't get out in time to make it. The junkies tell me it was great.
Great post about the show. Couldn't agree more. The band was kicking some serious ass,
both nights, and they changed the show enough to make going both nights well worth it. The
highlights for each night were different for me, too....Sunday: Paint It Black was
INCREDIBLE, frighteningly powerful. Woody's guitar work in this is particularly
impressive. You Got The Silver was as REAL as you can get -- if that wasn't up close &
personal, I don't know what is.
And all of the songs they played from Some Girls rocked HARD, thanks in large part to Mick
thrashing his guitar. "This is a true story about Some Girls." I'd sure like to
hear some soundboard recordings of these shows where you can pick out the individual
guitar parts, because in an arena they just turn into a glorious din. Not that that's a
BAD thing!
Monday: Moonlight Mile was beautiful, although I agree with King Bee that it was
somewhat flawed. I think a different mix of the instruments could have made it a lot
better, and someone should have been playing acoustic. It didn't stop me from being
thrilled to death to hear it, and I thought Mick's vocals were superb. This is exactly the
kind of thing we hoped they would do, taking some chances. One of the coolest moments of
the show.
..and the whole B-stage set was just so fucking great it was ridiculous. The improvement
in sound had a lot to do with it, from my POV. Route 66 was loose & juiced, it rocked
AND rolled... Just My Imagination was equally great. It built up to a real stampede.
And what can I say about Midnight Rambler? I was nearly blacking out because I kept
forgetting to breathe. The interaction, not only between Keith & Charlie, but between
all of them, was incredible.
For ME, the last (warhorse) section was really anticlimactic coming after Midnight Rambler. That's a pretty minor gripe, though.
As for your comments about the sound on the b-stage, my experience was exactly opposite. The sound was a LOT BETTER Monday, from my vantage point in the upper tier. Sunday night, in the VH-1 seats (sec 104), the b-stage sound was muddy and half the volume of the main stage, but Monday it was GREAT. So it did depend a lot on where you sat.
Some random thoughts in no particular order: scanning the floor before Sunday's show, we noted an alarming number of heavily-shellaced "politician's garish wives" and feared it would be an unresponsive audience. When the lights went out our fears proved unfounded. DC audiences rock.
Oddly enough, our Monday seats in sec 400 turned out to be great...the vantage point was cool for both stages, and the sound was good.
The review the Washington post did of Sunday's show said they played the rarely-performed song "Memory Mile". I was very glad that they played "Moonlight Motel" on Monday.
The same review (I'm sure William Randolph Hearst will post it when he gets back) called the intro film "hilarious" becaused it made the Stones look like grisled gunfighters in a Sergio Leone western. I thought it was BRILLIANT, for the same reason. I can't wait to have a copy of this. The onstage video work is better than ever, and the wide-screen format is very nice. I didn't look away from the stage very often, but I liked them keeping the first few songs in black & white to tie it in with the into. The visuals for Out of Control were schizo-riffic.
Sunday-- during the intros I got the sense that Woody started giving a mock acceptance speech, hamming it up and drawing out his applause, which REALLY annoyed Mick. They showed him on the screen looking very pissed. He was just goofing, but damn it, Woody deserved some applause for the work he did this week. He was good but typically mixed down on Sunday, but by Monday he'd been turned up and you could hear his slide in "All Down The Line" and that great machine-gun riff in "Some Girls". He was pulling his weight.
Monday- after Keith's intro & unintelligible remarks, he backed away from the mike and bent over, shaking his head...he looked around behind him. He looked really dazed, although maybe something was going on onstage that I couldn't see. Anyone else notice this? Despite this unsteadiness (something which never slows Keith down anyway), the Riff's sets were great both nights.
For ME, the greatest single moment may have been the flourish Charlie plays at the end of "Saint Of Me". Anyone else notice this? It was everything that's great about him boiled down to its essence. Can't describe it but it blew me away both nights.
Well, actually the greatest single moment came right after Mick said "Weeeeeel, ya heard about de Boston..."
WHOOOOOOMMMMMPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!
God DAMN!!!!!