Next Monday, June 24, the Rolling Stones will close out their 17
th U.S. tour with one show at Verizon Center. If you don’t have
a ticket yet, there are still some available for what could be their last U.S.
show ever. Or maybe it won’t be – people have been (wrongly) predicting their
demise since 1969, longer than most of their current fans have been alive.
By the way, that’s 17 U.S. tours in the past 50 years. Not
exactly a heavy workload, but with extra points for longevity and still
giving a great bang for the bucks it takes to buy their tickets, they
remain at the top of “you gotta at least see them once” pile. After all, this
is the British rock ‘n’ roll band that truly integrated black American RnB into
their music and sold it to the masses. Then they added country music and,
later, reggae and funk to the mix, creating a sound that’s ten times richer than
you hear on their greatest hits albums.
I’ve seen the band twenty times and on every tour since
1975, so I don’t see any reason to break my streak and skip this tour despite
the ticket prices. There, I said it: ticket prices. I learned by the early
1990s that you can count on a few things when the Stones tour:
- They’ll play “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and a handful
of the old warhorses they’ve played every show since the 1970s
- Mick Jagger will move like the one man on the
planet unaffected by the aging process
- People will complain about ticket prices
- Many will still buy tickets
- Almost all will be glad they did
Tickets to the 1975 Stones tour cost $5.50 and $6.50 and
enraged people with the “price gouging.” When tickets prices jumped to $15.00 a
few years later, the band were called decadent robber barons, lining their
pockets off the hard-earned dollars of their foolish fans. So it continued
until today when ticket prices (not even the VIP prices) top out at $600.
For $2500 you get dinner, souvenir programs and other items, and top-tier
seats. Maybe they’ll let you play Keith’s parts on a song or two or dance
backstage with Mick. I don’t know.
But who can say what it’s really worth to see a band like the
Stones who’ve miraculously all managed to survive since the unfortunate death of Brian
Jones in 1969, Charlie Watts’ battle with throat cancer, Keith’s heroin
addiction and more recent severe brain injury, and Ronnie Wood’s struggles to
stay sober? That’s a decision each Stones’ fan has to make.
I’ve made that decision and am looking forward to seeing the
band sharing the stage with guitarist Mick Taylor for the first tour since
1972. And, perhaps, for the last time.
