the stones, baby.

sunday night, i went with tristen and ashby (who also went to smith) to the rolling stones. HOW COOL IS THAT?! the stones. they're still alive, they're still kicking (tho' my sneaking suspicion is that mick has a bum hip), and they put on a fabulous show.

we were pretty far away. actually, 90% of people there were pretty far away. the concert was at sbc park, the ballpark home to the sf giants. it's no fenway, but it was pretty nice. how big are the stones? everclear and metallica were the openers, and they had to introduce themselves to the audience. it's like opening for the beatles. except alive (sort of) and the bandmembers don't hate each other (kind of).

thank goodness tristen brought binoculars. and they did have some major screens showing the band up close.

keith richards, rotting tho' he may be, looked pretty bad ass up there...until he decided to "sing." which was really uncool. his voice was awful. and i think people tried to get into it. and sway. or something. but no dice. he was just plain bad. stick to the guitar, keith. your vocal chords (or what's left of them) can't handle the strain. neither can our ears.

mick was something else, though. strutting, and flailing and dancing onstage...just like you've always seen him do on tv. but he was right *there*. any other man dancing like and traipsing and flipping his wrists like that would be called gay and ridiculed by other artists. especially eminem. who would probably try to fight him. but not mick. he's just so....cool. how does he do that?

and the crowd was something else. men and women and children and grandparents. three generations of families. girls in tight jeans and women in waist-high velvet skirts. bikers and skaters and punks and dads and soccer moms. what a collection.

and then they played "painted black". my favorite stones song ever.

OH, YEAH, and during 'brown sugar', they played a video on the huge center screen that showed a king kong-sized naked black woman on a strip tease trip around the world. the woman, shot from the neck down, would glide up to various phallic world symbols (big ben, the eiffel tower, etc.), and begin her slow, undulating pole dance. it was very strange. and possibly offensive.

at least i got to see them before they dropped dead.