Thursday, June 4, 2015

Ok, OK! I Take It Back About the Rolling Stones



Minnesota rock fan, and former high school classmate Skip
Ristvedt, paved the way for PK and me to attend the concert.
I didn't have high expectations for my first Rolling Stones concert Wednesday in Minneapolis. (I know! I swore I wouldn't go in an earlier post, which you can revisit below, if you like.) I had to eat my words, but they didn't taste so bad.

We had cheap (by Stones standards) stadium tickets, $115 each., thanks to my friend, Skip and his friend, Chad.  Rain was predicted, and en route to the concert, the skies delivered a serious deluge. It was pouring sheets. So weather was a factor. But mostly, I have a short list of beloved Stones songs and don't care all that much for the rest, and I'm even kinda sick of the ones I do like, and damn, after all these years of playing the same songs, aren't the Stones getting sick of them, too?

Apparently not. The Stones rocked all those old numbers, absolutely killed it. I loved every minute. And, in an amazing sign of cooperation and beneficence from the weather gods, the rain that had been falling for hours stopped at 8 p.m. when the concert opened with Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, and by 9 p.m. when the Stones surged on stage with their rock n' roll dominance, patches of blue even appeared. Party time!

Jumpin Jack Flash - A video link grabbed from YouTube that gives a good idea of the concert's razzle dazzle and energy level.  I was unable to download my own short video because I forgot my password! Grrrr.


PK and me happy to be at TCF stadium in Minneapolis.

Since the Stones have stuck together and have been playing for 50-some years, and the main guys, including Mick Jagger, are in their sixties and seventies, age always comes up. Aren't these senior citizens in danger of croaking on stage? Don't they already look half dead?

I think the Stones, especially Jagger, make age a non issue. They prove that people in their sixties and seventies can blast away like much younger rockers. They prove to older folks like me, that is people who work at remaining physical and involved in what they love, that life in their seventies, and maybe their eighties, doesn't have to be the downward spiral we know is eventually inevitable. We can still have a great time and do whatever it is that creates joy and vitality. I can't sing or perform, but I can still dance, and dammit, I will until I drop.

Mick Jagger dyes his hair, works with a personal trainer and amps up his training in the months before touring, and whatever he does, works. From my far away stadium seat, the guy looked and moved like he's 20-something. There was no hint of fatigue despite his endless strutting and pouting and whipping his various garments around and changing his shirt multiple times and running up and down his ramp and singing the old songs like it was the first damn time he ever belted them out.

I swear. I never thought I could get caught up in one of the most ancient songs, Can't Get No Satisfaction, but they closed the concert with it and like most of the 50,000 people in the stadium, I was gyrating and contributing to the general roar.

If you've never gone, try to catch a Stones concert. It'll make you feel young again! Just like it does for the Stones.

Here is my earlier post about the money-grubbing Rolling Stones in which I railed against outrageous and fluctuating ticket prices and refused to attend the Minneapolis concert even though I've always wanted to see them and we were going to be in Minneapolis anyway.