I love the Rolling Stones. Even more, I love seeing the Rolling
Stones in concert.
Here’s an overlong, some might say obsessive account of thirty years of
Stones watching. Re-reading it, it’s a lot less about the actual concerts and
more about moments in time and celebrations of life and friendship; memories of
friends I still cherish and some I lost along the way. In the end, I came to realize that I look at these concerts as touchstones in my life. Music is the soundtrack of our lives, as they say. And my
soundtrack was definitely curated by Martin Scorsese.
September 16, 1989, Jeff, Kevin and I ventured
to Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh to see the Rolling Stones for the first
time, on the Steel Wheels Tour. Living Colour opened for them! I bought a
t-shirt. The Stones were younger then than I am now, which is weird. Anyway, it
was a great show and the guys came back to Chapel Hill to spend the night
before going home. We’d camped out for tickets in the old Kroger parking lot in
Hickory. My brother joined us. He actually won tickets, so I think he and his friend Tim were at the show as well. I remember standing on top of my station wagon
singing “Sympathy for the Devil.” I remember a fight broke out and I led the
crowd in singing, “Give Peace a Chance.” It was an epic night, and the concert
was even better.
November 26, 1989, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Jeff,
Kevin and I ventured south to Clemson, South Carolina, to Death Valley Stadium
to see the Stones again. Great show again. I remember leading our section in a
cheer, “Gimme a K! Gimme an E! Gimme another E! Gimme an F! Whaddaya got?
KEEF!!!!” We drove back to Icard that night, and I had to drive to Chapel Hill
in the morning for class. Totally worth it.
September 11, 1994, I’d just barely been in Chicago for a
year when the Stones announced their Voodoo Lounge Tour was coming to Soldier
Field. My best friend Carol and I went, and it was a fantastic show. I
bought a t-shirt. And a poster. Afterwards, we walked all the way back to Old
Town singing, dancing, holding hands, and then I drove her home. It’s still
probably one of the best nights of my life. We were like brother and sister. In
fact, everywhere we went, people thought we were brother and sister. I remember one time carrying her on my back all the way from Eugenie to Zanie's on Wells, just because she thought it'd be funny. I miss her so much. She
passed away way too young, in 2003.
September 23, 1997, and the Stones opened their Bridges to
Babylon Tour at Soldier Field. As Mick said, “Da Bulls. Da Bears. Da Stones!” Greg, Susan, Frank and I went. I bought a t-shirt. I bought
three t-shirts for friends. It was so
much fun.. Well, Greg and Susan and I enjoyed it. Frank went missing after
about the first song. He said he had a great time afterwards, though. Frank,
again, was like a brother to me, and probably the best friend I ever had. Took me in twice when I had nowhere to live, once in Chicago and once in L.A. He
too was taken from us too soon in 2012. I’m just about the age now Frank was
when he passed away, which is also weird to realize. The next night I tried sushi for the first
time, and the day after squirmed all the way through a National Geographic
article on parasites. Great times.
February 19, 1999, Jim and I drove up to Milwaukee to
catch the Stones on their No Security Tour at the Bradley Center. The Goo Goo
Dolls opened up for them. We had a great drive up, parked on the street, ate at
a small Mexican place close to the stadium, and managed not to get arrested in
the police department parking lot. I lost touch with Jim sometime back in 2004. Not quite
sure why. I hope he’s well.
March 26, 1999, a Friday night, and the No Security Tour
came to Chicago. I took the night off from seeing the show I was directing, “The
Philadelphia Story” with the Elk Grove Center for Performing Arts, to see the
Stones at the United Center. I wound up going solo, which was cool. I parked on
the street, and the Goo Goo Dolls opened for them again. My seat was a folding
chair at the back of the very top row all the way across from the stage. Now, I
don’t know if it was the music, or the flu I was unbeknownst to me coming down
with, or something magical (and kinda skunky) in the air, but I remember that
was a great light show. I started shivering on the way home, and by the time I
got home I was freezing. I woke up in the middle of the night with the full-on
flu. Good times. I was pretty sick for about a week afterwards, but as always,
totally worth it.
September 10, 2005, after so long without seeing the Stones,
they finally came back to Soldier Field for the Bigger Bang Tour. I arranged to
meet my friend Theresa (who I haven’t seen in person in way too long) at
the venue, and decided to walk down from Old Town in the 90+ degree heat. I’d
done that walk before, what could be so bad? I brought along some
refreshments in the form of two bottles of Coke pre-mixed with some Jack Daniel’s,
and set off. I got to the show, met Theresa, and got some beers to cool off and
re-hydrate. Los Lonely Boys and The Blues Brothers (well, Danny and Jim) opened
up for them! I bought a t-shirt and a poster. My new boss at the time, Steve, even pushed past us to get to his seats. After the show, I walked to
the Red Line and stopped off at the Old Town Ale House to end the night. The
next day I had my first musical rehearsal for “Cubicle: An Office Space
Musical,” and so that was the day I first really got to know two more of my
best friends in the world, Meagan and Guy. That, too, was a
blast, and looking back, because of those two, one of the most monumental days of my life. It's like a meet-cute. Monday morning came and I felt pretty good. Of course, about 10:30 AM I
came to realize that I was passing blood. I went to Urgent Care and was
diagnosed with severe dehydration. I figured it was from the concert. What had
happened, the doctor asked, when I’d gone to the bathroom on Sunday? “Huh,” I
replied, “I don’t think I did.” I don’t recommend seeing the look on a doctor’s
face that I saw at that moment. But it was all good. It was the Stones, I
told him.
October 11, 2006, someone in the Stones organization thought
October in Chicago was a great time for an outdoor concert on the lakefront,
and so the Bigger Bang Tour wound its way back to Soldier Field that cold,
rainy and windy day. My friend and co-worker Kristine had just left the
company, so I asked her to go to the show with me as a going away present. Elvis
Costello opened up for them! Unfortunately, the wind really did a number on the
acoustics and it was hard to make out what ol’ Declan was laying down. There
was a lot of booing from the end zone upper deck, which was really unfortunate.
I made out “Allison” and “Watching the Detectives,” and he played that other
Elvis’ “Suspicious Minds.” I did have one beer, but soon switched to hot cocoa
and bought a long sleeve t-shirt and a Stones blanket for warmth. Kristine and
I made our way out of the end zone to a covered area along the side to watch
most of the show. Mick and Keith and the guys gave it everything they had, while
wearing their long coats and scarves and fingerless gloves. After the concert,
it was pretty cold. Kristine was a runner, so she asked if I minded if she just
ran home, and so I just biked. We had fun, though. I haven’t seen Kristine in
years. I hope she’s well. We sat next to each other for two years and we
listened to the same radio station, and always turned it up when Asia’s “Heat
of the Moment” or Night Ranger’s “Sister Christian” came on. Good times. Motorin’!
May 28, 2013, was that the Forty Licks Tour? Kind of a greatest
hits thing. Anyway, the Stones came back to the United Center and I had some
pretty good tickets. We figured this could be the last time, maybe the last time, I don't know, so we paid up for the tickets. Paul and
Steve from work came, and I think Steve’s friend Brian came with us.
Paul brought his program from when he’d seen the Stones at the Aerie Crowne
Theater back in ’64 or ’65. I bought a t-shirt and biked home. Great show.
Which brings us to the present day. Last summer, I won a
bonus from work. Value was $1,000, but you couldn’t take cash and you couldn’t
buy a physical object. The theory beong that experiences are more valuable than
physical objects, which I can dig. It reminds me of the story from when Bill
Gaines used to take the MAD Magazine staff (the Usual Gang of Idiots) on a big
trip every year (I’ve long wanted to read or write a book about this called MAD Trips).
I think Al Jaffee asked Bill once why he
didn’t just give them cash, and Bill said that left to their own devices they’d
just buy washing machines. Anyway, I
couldn’t think of anything, and I’d been cast in “Requiem for a Heavyweight” at
Artistic Home, so I knew I wasn’t going to be able to take any kind of real
trip until late Spring. About that time, the Rolling Stones announced the dates
for their No Filter Tour, with a stop at Soldier Field (later, in fact, two
stops). I called the “experience concierge” and told them just to get me the two best Stones tickets they could for the
amount of the award. In April, during his pre-tour insurance physical, doctors
discovered an issue with Mick Jagger’s heart that needed immediate surgery. The
tour was postponed for Mick’s recovery. Ol’ Mick’s too tough for that, though,
and before long the Chicago dates went from being postponed to going forward as
planned and once again serving as the kick-off stop for a tour. And so…
Tomorrow night, June 21, 2019, Mark and I are headed to Soldier
Field, where I’ll see the Stones for the tenth time (and the fifth time AT
Soldier Field). It’s gonna be epic.
