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Stones tour: Watts drops out


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cross posting from band you are seeing live thread

 drove up for it.  got a cheap floor GA ticket and worked my way up to 10th row.  It was 50 but the rain wasn't really a problem.  it slowed to a spit right before the show started.  Keith's guitar was out of tune for PIB and Mick fucked up coming in at the right time at the end of Rambler but the rest of the show was great. Keith is just noodling at this point, but he was never a guitar whiz, just wrote great licks. Mick is unbelievable to watch at 78.  Ronnie still can bring it pretty good.    Sound was great in the cotton bowl.  way fucking better than the shit Jerry World.  so glad they didn't play that place again.

was weird without Charlie but this might be the last round up for these guys so I'm gonna see them every chance I get.  Its a pleasure to get to see them.  was kind of full circle for me since the first time I saw them was Cotton Bowl in 1989(and 94).  took a Stones virgin(but huge rock fan) to see them at NRG.  He was blown away.

19th nervous breakdown was good as was heartbreaker.

hoping for good weather in Austin on the 20th.

Edited by dcar00
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12 hours ago, dcar00 said:

cross posting from band you are seeing live thread

 drove up for it.  got a cheap floor GA ticket and worked my way up to 10th row.  It was 50 but the rain wasn't really a problem.  it slowed to a spit right before the show started.  Keith's guitar was out of tune for PIB and Mick fucked up coming in at the right time at the end of Rambler but the rest of the show was great. Keith is just noodling at this point, but he was never a guitar whiz, just wrote great licks. Mick is unbelievable to watch at 78.  Ronnie still can bring it pretty good.    Sound was great in the cotton bowl.  way fucking better than the shit Jerry World.  so glad they didn't play that place again.

was weird without Charlie but this might be the last round up for these guys so I'm gonna see them every chance I get.  Its a pleasure to get to see them.  was kind of full circle for me since the first time I saw them was Cotton Bowl in 1989(and 94).  took a Stones virgin(but huge rock fan) to see them at NRG.  He was blown away.

19th nervous breakdown was good as was heartbreaker.

hoping for good weather in Austin on the 20th.

The traffic to get in was miserable.  There are probably 30 entrances to the parking lots surrounding Fair Park, but because they had to check who had paid, they maybe had a quarter of those open.  So that was one huge bottleneck, and then the security was backed up pretty bad, then the ticket scanners were backed up as well.  I've been to countless games and shows at the Cotton Bowl, so I knew we should expect some back up.  We left well in advance of showtime.  We missed Juanes completely and didn't make it to our seats until the second or third tune. We were getting our tickets checked when they started up.  It was as if they'd never had a large event at the Cotton Bowl before.  Piss poor.  

We made it to our seats (just right of stage center in Section 14).  While it was a good show, it was noticeably not quite as good as the last four shows I've seen.  Then again, the first time I saw them Keef was the age I am now.  My take away was this - the standard big production Stones was there and impressive.  Four screens from the stage to seemingly the top of the stadium.  Pretty good sound considering the weather and the venue.  Mick was as good as I've ever seen him.  That guy is a force of nature.  Dancing, and moving about the stage in 2021 just as he had in 1989.  I think he's truly made a deal with the Devil, or at least has his sympathy.  Keef was just kind of fooling around on guitar.  It seemed like he was barely playing, relying a lot on the rhythm section.  Man has that guy aged.  He looked kind of like a Keebler elf.  But you could hear him just fine.  Ronnie, however, looked like death.  Which is understandable considering he lost half a lung to cancer last year.  Also, I was disappointed in the sound for him.  It seemed like the board had a real hard time dialing him in - if they weren't overtly cutting him off.  He'd be super loud at some points, and clearly not even on at others.  Plus he was having some problems grabbing the notes here and there.  Everyone else on stage - Chuck Leveall, especially, were killing it.  Steve Jordan did a great job of filling in for Charlie.  Top notch backing musicians, of course.  That young woman who sang Gimme Shelter with Mick was absolutely amazing - to the point that it accentuated the age differences.  She reminded me of the young Tina Turner scene in the "Gimme Shelter" movie about the '69 tour.  On the other hand, Mrs. F,  who had only seen the Stones once before ('06, Zilker) and is not a particularly big Stones fan, really enjoyed it, despite the rain.  Once again, on the whole, it was a good show, but not a truly great show.  

So I did a little math.  I've seen the Stones 5 times.  Only tour I missed when I was of age to see shows was when they played JerruhWorld and everyone said that venue sucks (as an aside, I've yet to talk to someone who said they really enjoyed the sound there) back in 2015.   I've seen them play 63 distinct songs, 45 of those were only played once.  Of those five shows, '89 was the only one where it was all five "official" Stones.  The '89, '94, '97 and '06 shows were all truly amazing shows.  While 2021 wasn't that, it was still something to see the machine chugging along.  I suppose it was more spectacle than spectacular, but damn, what a spectacle.

 

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2 hours ago, Chad Fuck said:

The traffic to get in was miserable.  There are probably 30 entrances to the parking lots surrounding Fair Park, but because they had to check who had paid, they maybe had a quarter of those open.  So that was one huge bottleneck, and then the security was backed up pretty bad, then the ticket scanners were backed up as well.  I've been to countless games and shows at the Cotton Bowl, so I knew we should expect some back up.  We left well in advance of showtime.  We missed Juanes completely and didn't make it to our seats until the second or third tune. We were getting our tickets checked when they started up.  It was as if they'd never had a large event at the Cotton Bowl before.  Piss poor.  

We made it to our seats (just right of stage center in Section 14).  While it was a good show, it was noticeably not quite as good as the last four shows I've seen.  Then again, the first time I saw them Keef was the age I am now.  My take away was this - the standard big production Stones was there and impressive.  Four screens from the stage to seemingly the top of the stadium.  Pretty good sound considering the weather and the venue.  Mick was as good as I've ever seen him.  That guy is a force of nature.  Dancing, and moving about the stage in 2021 just as he had in 1989.  I think he's truly made a deal with the Devil, or at least has his sympathy.  Keef was just kind of fooling around on guitar.  It seemed like he was barely playing, relying a lot on the rhythm section.  Man has that guy aged.  He looked kind of like a Keebler elf.  But you could hear him just fine.  Ronnie, however, looked like death.  Which is understandable considering he lost half a lung to cancer last year.  Also, I was disappointed in the sound for him.  It seemed like the board had a real hard time dialing him in - if they weren't overtly cutting him off.  He'd be super loud at some points, and clearly not even on at others.  Plus he was having some problems grabbing the notes here and there.  Everyone else on stage - Chuck Leveall, especially, were killing it.  Steve Jordan did a great job of filling in for Charlie.  Top notch backing musicians, of course.  That young woman who sang Gimme Shelter with Mick was absolutely amazing - to the point that it accentuated the age differences.  She reminded me of the young Tina Turner scene in the "Gimme Shelter" movie about the '69 tour.  On the other hand, Mrs. F,  who had only seen the Stones once before ('06, Zilker) and is not a particularly big Stones fan, really enjoyed it, despite the rain.  Once again, on the whole, it was a good show, but not a truly great show.  

So I did a little math.  I've seen the Stones 5 times.  Only tour I missed when I was of age to see shows was when they played JerruhWorld and everyone said that venue sucks (as an aside, I've yet to talk to someone who said they really enjoyed the sound there) back in 2015.   I've seen them play 63 distinct songs, 45 of those were only played once.  Of those five shows, '89 was the only one where it was all five "official" Stones.  The '89, '94, '97 and '06 shows were all truly amazing shows.  While 2021 wasn't that, it was still something to see the machine chugging along.  I suppose it was more spectacle than spectacular, but damn, what a spectacle.

 

yeah.  I just decided to head straight to the cotton bowl at 4:30 after stopping at my hotel quickly south of town, so I missed the parking traffic F up mostly.  I went into 2 parking lot gates and got denied and they finally sent me to gate 2 which was the pay lot and that was about 5:30 or so. I didn't see any place online where you could purchase parking but maybe I missed it.

my assumption these days is every big event is going to be a clusterfuck of some sort somewhere along the route either getting  to and into the venue or leaving the venue.  "getting to" being the most important though.

yeah if Keith was just more on top of his game it would be nice but it is what it is, his hands look like they have been through a meat grinder.  cold weather might have had something to do with the tuning on PIB.  I mainly focus on Mick and Ronnie(Ronnie still has it, in my opinion).

The new girl did fantastically great in houston when I saw her.  not quite as good here but still outstanding(more gravelly voice).  the problem is after you've seen Lisa Fischer its gonna be hard to ever top that.  I tell everyone they should see the Stones once if just to see/hear Gimme Shelter. I still contend it's, IMHO, the greatest live rock song ever.

unfortunately they shorted us a song(probably due to weather) on the setlist but I think they extended a couple of jams also.    I do like SFM as the opener.  kick ass rock song.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Alright, so I’ve only been to a show at COTA twice and it’s always been a shit show getting out/parking.  Trying to figure out schedules 


Assuming Ghost Hounds @ 7:30; Stones @ 9-9:30.

When do I need to arrive in the parking lot for reasonable spots on the lawn (silver area)?  6:00 or get there earlier and hang out in the parking lot for a bit with a cooler and some food.  It looks like they have RV campsites for this one.

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I swore I would never see another concert at COTA due to the parking shitshow but a buddy said he would buy be gold level seats if I would go with him so going am I.

Anyone had luck getting out of there using the shuttles or have a good plan to get the fuck out of there without waiting 2 hours in the lots?

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22 hours ago, Kringelbert Fishtybuns said:

Alright, so I’ve only been to a show at COTA twice and it’s always been a shit show getting out/parking.  Trying to figure out schedules 


Assuming Ghost Hounds @ 7:30; Stones @ 9-9:30.

When do I need to arrive in the parking lot for reasonable spots on the lawn (silver area)?  6:00 or get there earlier and hang out in the parking lot for a bit with a cooler and some food.  It looks like they have RV campsites for this one.


In Dallas:

7:30pm-8:15pm Opening Act

********************
8:45pm Rolling Stones

********************

Don’t be a fucking idiot and show up 9/9:30pm.

These guys are fucking old. Why in the fuck do you think that they want to sit around in their dressing room making the audience wait?

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Kringelbert - I pm'd you.

 

I requested a refund on my tix back in July, not realizing I had to ask for a separate refund for parking. I rebought the tix and parking...now I have an extra parking pass in Lot C. I'm trying to get a refund from Ticketmaster, but if you or anybody else wants it, I'll sell it for $100 ($25 below face).

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Yeah, so ... COTA COTA'd this shit up. Again. Hundreds of angry tweets from people STILL stuck in traffic after 3 or more hours. Concert started 70 minutes ago. Some people saying there's no traffic control at all, and not enough parking & some saying they have been in traffic for 2 hours even after arriving on COTA property, and are still stuck. Vidoes of cars just sitting there, for a mile or two from the track, etc. 

 

Just another epic COTA shitshow.

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2 hours ago, wood said:

Yeah, so ... COTA COTA'd this shit up. Again. Hundreds of angry tweets from people STILL stuck in traffic after 3 or more hours. Concert started 70 minutes ago. Some people saying there's no traffic control at all, and not enough parking & some saying they have been in traffic for 2 hours even after arriving on COTA property, and are still stuck. Vidoes of cars just sitting there, for a mile or two from the track, etc. 

 

Just another epic COTA shitshow.

Don't care. Got your money.

Place needs to be razed.

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7 minutes ago, Deej said:

Don't care. Got your money.

Place needs to be razed.

100% correct on all counts. 

The customer is absolutely the lowest priority at COTA, except the 1%. The place is an absolute embarrassment and a joke at this point, yet Abbott keeps throwing taxpayer money at them - $300 Million, so far.

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It took us about an hour and half from the time we got off the tollway to get into the venue. It really helped once the constables showed up to direct traffic.

The concert was great. Fortunately didn't miss any songs.

The lines for food were terrible. No lines for the drinks though.

I guess we got lucky, because getting out was no big deal.

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Here's my experience:


Left the house in West Austin at 5PM, expecting an hour to get to the venue and then maybe 30-45 minutes to park and get to the seats..  Hit a big traffic jam on 71 Eastbound just before I-35.  Apparently there was a wreck.  Waited 30 minutes for that to clear.  Hit 130 just before 6PM.  Decided to take the Elroy exit because it was closer to our parking.  That's when the shitshow started.    Took an hour to get from 130/Elroy to COTA entrance.  Now it's 7PM and I'm pissed because I wanted to hear the opening band.  Took another hour to get from the COTA entrance to our parking spot.  Got misdirected at least once.  No one checked our parking permit so why the fuck did I pay for it.  Now it's 8PM and I'm fucking furious because I was afraid we'd miss the beginning of the Stones set.  Started walking to the venue.  Got directed by a flunkee to walk all the way to the other side to enter.  Was stopped by "traffic control" with about 50 other people at a crosswalk to let no cars pass.  Finally we all started screaming at the "traffic control officer" to let us the fuck through because there was no vehicular cross traffic.  Walked to the other side of the venue, entered, bunch of people standing around distributing wristbands, no one knew if we needed on or what color. Asked where our seats were and was told we came in the wrong entrance and now we had to either a) walk all the way back around or b) wait for an "escort".  Waited for an escort while screaming at anyone who would listen about the complete shitshow that was ensuing. Now it's 8:40.  Got "escorted" to our seats in the grandstand, made it up at 8:55.  Stones went on at 8:59.  

The show?  Well, the sound sucked.  Vocals were distorted, guitars were too loud at some points and non-existent at others.  Mick missed a few notes but was in top form otherwise with the Mick moves.  That man's body is ageless.  Keef looked old AF, missed a few notes.  Ronnie is the coolest cat out there.  Steve Jordan is an excellent drummer but he's not Charlie.  It was evident from the very first song that the band is completely different and not near as tight. That "jazz drag" behind the beat thing Charlie did was missing.  Steve hits a LOT harder even though he does lay off on the hi-hat on the 4 like Charlie did.  Lots of breaks and endings missed. 

"Miss You' was the best song of the night.  A ton of energy, tight, and fun.  Sympathy for the Devil was second-best, I've never seen pyrotechnics used as well.  Seemed obvious that the guys were moved about the fact that it was the end of the tour.  Honored Charlie with a video montage at the beginning and a shout-out in the middle. Keef did a couple of his songs in the middle of the set.  They were....not good.  Keef and Ronnie did some great slide duet things that kicked a ton of ass.  Either something was wrong with Sasha Allen's voice on Gimme Shelter or her mic.  She sounded clipped and distorted.  Overall I'd give the whole effort a B+


Show ended just after 11PM.  We left about 2 minutes before the end of the encore, which pained me, but I figured it would be worth about an hour of time getting out of the venue and I was probably right.  Half an hour to find the car in the sea of vehicles, another hour and a half to get out.  So an 8 hour ordeal overall.  Would I do it again?  Eh probably.  I mean it was probably their last hurrah.

 

 

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Show was incredible. I live about 30 min away and left around 5 - took the toll and was in my spot in Lot C by 630. Had zero wait getting out.

Guess I was fortunate - I could see a sea of cars trying to get in from my spot on the silver lawn until well into the Stones set.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Left north austin at 4:45, in Lot F by 6:00. Sound was loud af on silver lawn. Miss You and Midnight Rambler were great. Ronnie can still play, Keith not so much...they all look like death. Had a blast and saw one of the greatest rock bands of all time. Not a bad night and couldn't have asked for better November weather. Zero wait getting out of the lot. e85734fe9e42ef334a61673f707e5d06.jpg

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 the place is not made to have 40-50K people show up at once.  I think before Covid this was gonna be an all day event with multiple bands and then got scrubbed.

I knew traffic would be a shitshow so I convinced our group to make it a tailgate and leave early.  we left at 4PM, picked up some rudy's and parked at 5PM right behind the stage.

I had lucky dips and for the first time ever got Pit.  I had gold circle with the rest of our crew, which was fine but the problem with those were the donwhill grade away from the stage. stupid fucking setup.  if you weren't within 10-15 feet of the rail you couldn't see the band. went to the pit and the view was 1000 times better.  Got the rest of our crew into the pit.

show was incredible.  Keef kinda f'd up SFTD but other than that I thought he was pretty damn on for Keef, better than Dallas.   Sasha does OK on GS but after you've seen Fischer everything pales.  still great song.

Ronnie was great on some slide work.  he can still play.   Jagger is the man.  the dude is just incredible to do what he does at his age.  

we hung at the tailgate for about 45 min after and the traffice had mostly cleared.  I'm sure its the last time they come to Austin.  95% sure its the last time I see them but it was a great way to go out. weather was perfect, band was pretty on.

my one ask is that Musk creates a time machine for Keith.

 

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8 hours ago, M12BH said:

Here's my experience:


Left the house in West Austin at 5PM, expecting an hour to get to the venue and then maybe 30-45 minutes to park and get to the seats..  Hit a big traffic jam on 71 Eastbound just before I-35.  Apparently there was a wreck.  Waited 30 minutes for that to clear.  Hit 130 just before 6PM.  Decided to take the Elroy exit because it was closer to our parking.  That's when the shitshow started.    Took an hour to get from 130/Elroy to COTA entrance.  Now it's 7PM and I'm pissed because I wanted to hear the opening band.  Took another hour to get from the COTA entrance to our parking spot.  Got misdirected at least once.  No one checked our parking permit so why the fuck did I pay for it.  Now it's 8PM and I'm fucking furious because I was afraid we'd miss the beginning of the Stones set.  Started walking to the venue.  Got directed by a flunkee to walk all the way to the other side to enter.  Was stopped by "traffic control" with about 50 other people at a crosswalk to let no cars pass.  Finally we all started screaming at the "traffic control officer" to let us the fuck through because there was no vehicular cross traffic.  Walked to the other side of the venue, entered, bunch of people standing around distributing wristbands, no one knew if we needed on or what color. Asked where our seats were and was told we came in the wrong entrance and now we had to either a) walk all the way back around or b) wait for an "escort".  Waited for an escort while screaming at anyone who would listen about the complete shitshow that was ensuing. Now it's 8:40.  Got "escorted" to our seats in the grandstand, made it up at 8:55.  Stones went on at 8:59.  

The show?  Well, the sound sucked.  Vocals were distorted, guitars were too loud at some points and non-existent at others.  Mick missed a few notes but was in top form otherwise with the Mick moves.  That man's body is ageless.  Keef looked old AF, missed a few notes.  Ronnie is the coolest cat out there.  Steve Jordan is an excellent drummer but he's not Charlie.  It was evident from the very first song that the band is completely different and not near as tight. That "jazz drag" behind the beat thing Charlie did was missing.  Steve hits a LOT harder even though he does lay off on the hi-hat on the 4 like Charlie did.  Lots of breaks and endings missed. 

"Miss You' was the best song of the night.  A ton of energy, tight, and fun.  Sympathy for the Devil was second-best, I've never seen pyrotechnics used as well.  Seemed obvious that the guys were moved about the fact that it was the end of the tour.  Honored Charlie with a video montage at the beginning and a shout-out in the middle. Keef did a couple of his songs in the middle of the set.  They were....not good.  Keef and Ronnie did some great slide duet things that kicked a ton of ass.  Either something was wrong with Sasha Allen's voice on Gimme Shelter or her mic.  She sounded clipped and distorted.  Overall I'd give the whole effort a B+


Show ended just after 11PM.  We left about 2 minutes before the end of the encore, which pained me, but I figured it would be worth about an hour of time getting out of the venue and I was probably right.  Half an hour to find the car in the sea of vehicles, another hour and a half to get out.  So an 8 hour ordeal overall.  Would I do it again?  Eh probably.  I mean it was probably their last hurrah.

COTA just fucking sucks.

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Epstein is a POS & doesn't give a fuck about anything but the $$$ coming in, and it shows more than ever lately. He's not spending on anything he can get away without, even for the biggest events. Seems almost like he's winding the place up, and getting whatever he can get on the way out.

Buyer beware.

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