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THE SHOTTENSTEIN CENTER - OSU

Last Updated - 04/15/11

April 3, 1999
Schottenstein Arena, Columbus, OH
9:30 P.M.


The crown stirs with anticipation after Johny Lang serves up a potent set of bluesy Rock 'n' Roll. Now, it's time for the main event - "Ladies and Gentlemen... the Rolling Stones"!! And then it hits me - that's exactly what is different about this concert... the audience is made up of precisely that... Ladies and Gentlemen. Think back to the sixties, the glory days of Rock 'n' Roll. Remember what your Mom and Dad, and your Aunts and Uncles looked like? That's exactly of what this audience consisted. Not long-haired guys with tattoos, with beautiful, lushious,well-built, long-legged babes at their sides! Oh, no, it was pot-bellied fifty year old men, with their wives (or maybe their mothers), women who made you cringe at the thought that they might actually decide to flash their boobs at Mick & the boys!!

As the band gathered in the tunnel for another in a life-long series of shows, it occurred to me that we were just as responsible for this situation as were the Stones. By refusing to let go of the past, by trying to relive the glory days of the sixties, we keep the legend going by paying higher and higher prices for tickets for "just one more show". $26.50 in 1989, $60 in 1998, and $90 in 1999. But what can they possibly do that they haven't already done better? How many times can they play "Jumpin' Jack Flash" before it's no longer a "gas", but merely a "gasp". It's like and old, past her prime hooker, putting on her caked-on make-up, lipstick smeared sort of on the lips, heavy eye make-up to hide the bags under her eyes. She puts on her tattered, too tight dress, torn hose, and broken down pumps. In the mirror of her darkened room, she admires herself, thinking, "I haven't lost a thing", but deep down she knows that the only customer she'll bag tonight is the lonely, balding, stale-breathed, pot-belied salesman, who can come up with a couple of drinks for her and fifty bucks...not the hot, young, romantic stud who left hours before with her younger, prettier competition.

Ah, but I digress... the Stones came on to play another great show...they still have it...it's a shame that the audience doesn't. I know, I know, nobody forced me to buy tickets...I love the Stones for the music and the memories and the countless pleasures that they have provided for me over the years. But, I want those memories to remain, "Not Fade Away" as an aging, over-the-hill band. So for me, this was truly "The Last Time".

THE SET LIST

1. Jumpin' Jack Flash
2. Live With Me
3. You Got Me Rockin'
4. Respectable
5. Honky Tonk Women
6. Moonlight Mile
7. Saint Of Me
8. Some Girls
9. Paint It, Black
Introductions (Ronnie got a tremendous ovation)
10. Thief In The Night
11. Before They Make Me Run (think about the lyrics, boys)
12. Out Of Control
13. Route 66 ("B" Stage)
14. Get Off Of My Cloud ("B" Stage)
15. Midnight Rambler ("B" Stage)
16. Tumbling Dice
17. It's Only Rock 'n' Roll
18. Start Me Up
19. Brown Sugar (encore)
20. Sympathy For The Devil (encore)

ElChae@juno.com.


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©2002 Larry Knopp