By Walter Geiger In case you missed it, The Rolling Stones blew into Sanford Stadium West in Atlanta last week on their Zip Code Tour. This was the least-hyped Stones tour that I can recall and I have pretty much seen them all. Apparently, at this juncture, the Stones don’t need any hype. My daughters grew up listening to the Stones. Their Pandora station is my go to driving soundtrack. I have countless CDs as well that May Melton and Livia Lanier have heard many times. I tried to get really good tickets so my daughters could see the Stones up close. I figured this might be their last chance. Fourth row seats were out there for $1100 apiece. When the day of the show dawned I was ticketless and wondering if I really wanted to go. The first words out of the eldest’s mouth that morning were, ‘Dad, are we going to see the Stones?’. Well, of course, we were. I did one last check with my connected folks who can usually score tickets and struck out. So, I got on Stubhub, a very well-run operation, for the first time and after a hit to the credit card we had three decent seats. May Melton drove her car to Atlanta and I was amazed that her phone had all the Stones music I had played for her for so long. I thought she and her sister only listened to hip hop nowadays. After dinner with others of the Barnesville contingent attending the show, we paid dearly to park then walked a half mile to Sanford West and, after some difficulty, found our seats. Apparently big crowds are not the norm at this particular facility. Finally, the house lights went down, the huge video screens lit up with a lead-in collage of Stones memorabilia, the initial power chord from ‘˜Start Me Up’ exploded from the amps and fireworks erupted from the back of the stage. My girls and everybody else stood up and we all danced and sang for two hours and forty five minutes as the greatest rock and roll band in the world took us down memory lane with an onslaught of hits with an emphasis on songs from the iconic ‘˜Sticky Fingers’ album. I was worried that age might limit the band. Drummer Charlie Watts is 74. The Glimmer Twins, Mick and Keith, are 71. Guitarist Ronnie Wood is 68. When you include keyboardist Chuck Leavell and longtime backup singers Lisa Fischer and Bernard Fowler, the Stones have spent a total of 459 years on this earth and they have been rocking for most of them. What they lack in youth they make up for in experience. They remain the best live band in existence and I have two teenagers who can now attest to that fact. Walter Geiger is editor and publisher of The Herald Gazette.
Be First to Comment