Posted by The Storm on April 20, 1999 at 08:23:17:
Can't say much because I just pulled a red-eye driving all the way back down to Pasadena. Perhaps this will suffice: I met a guy, Robert, who'd been to about 70 shows in his life, and hasn't missed a tour since 1969. He said that in his opinion, last night's San Jose show was one of the top 5 best EVER. And I concur wholeheartedly. I mean, the band was tight, everybody was playing hard-hard-hard (even Ronnie), and the attitude was there: absolutely no going through the motions or anything like that. They played 20 songs, but mixed 'em up, playing "Bitch," "I Got the Blues," "You Got The Silver," "Before They Make Me Run," "Get Off My Cloud," etc. But the main think I liked about his show was it extended to 2 hours and 10 minutes. They played and played on "Midnight Rambler" for a tantalizing eternity. At one point Mick put his face fight down in front for Keith's guitar and engaged in this call-response kind of scat-lick/scat-lick that must have gone on for 5 minutes. Charlie and Darryl had huge grins on their faces. They really stretched out "Midnight Rambler" and played it for all it was worth. God it was great. And folks: There's no way in hell this band is done. It's just so bloody obvious they love playing this music, and Charlie's busting his butt. The show was so goddamned good I'm thinking about flying to Asia via Europe to see them there, since I imagine they'll vary the set list and the whole gestalt will be different. Anyone else going to be in Europe (except Blue)? It would be really, really cool to see that Stones there. How does one get tickets there, anyway?
Oh, right, the one flaw in tonight's show: Sugar Ray, the warm up act. My worst night mare: 90 percent of the drumming was done by a machine. In fact, the drummer would leave his kit and wander to the front of the stage to play the guitar. What a goddamned joke. Pre-programmed rhythms. Just the kind of thing to give the Dust Brothers erections. That and she-goats.