Stones Rock Charlotte!!

Mick at the brand new $265 million Bobcats Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina last night. The wife Julie and I were there just before the last light of day faded. Her friend Crys from Oklahoma was in town to visit for the weekend and we all enjoyed some cool appetizers a couple of blocks away with our pal Jim Liberatore.

Here is a very cool link to a photo and music clip. I wish I had a few more pictures to share myself but my cameras had to stay home due to the security at the event. I am not sure how long this link will be active but it is very nice. Click on Rolling Stones Sights and Sounds:

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/entertainment/music/12967063.htm

This was the "grand opening." In fact the place is so new some of the tiles weren't installed in the bathrooms but the place is very, very nice. In fact if you have never travelled to downtown Charlotte, you should. It is without a doubt one of the finest downtowns in the South. Back to the story....

As we came down the hill you could see search lights surrounding the building spinning lights all over the sky. The sounds of multiple helicopters reverberated through the air. A warm night for this time of year, it was almost 80 degrees. Is the South wonderful or not? There was a buzz in the air from all the hundreds of people getting out of limos, walking from downtown hotels, arriving by cab and bus...you name it this place was humming. East Coast Entertainment had a tent out and a band was playing. TV crews and radio people were everywhere. This place had the feel of one of those California award shows you see on TV all the time. I kept looking for Joan Rivers to pop up! A line was forming and everyone who entered had to be scanned by a metal detector. I used to really get annoyed by this but these days there are too many weird things happening and I actually prefer the security we see at events like this. As we came into the building a nice lady scanned our tickets with a palm-sized machine. I smiled. Remember back in the 1970's when you had this printed ...I mean real printed ticket, not one of those thermal-printed TicketBastard things? The door folks would always tear the ticket into two pieces and that was all it took to get in....so much for flashbacks. As we came into the Arena we began to marvel at the layout. Very nice escalators and drinks everywhere....We made it too our seats which were just above the corporate boxes on the front row. Three feet of concrete wall and six inch piece of glass was all that physically separated us from the stage. Not bad. Right away I could tell this was going to be a very different show from the one thirteen nights ago. The huge stadium stage was not there. A scaled down version was present. I wondered how this would go. At promptly 7:30 Joss Stone stepped on the stage and her microphone failed causing her to grab a backup singer mike for one song. She did a good job of recovery given the circumstance. Her set rolled by and 45 minutes later she said goodbye.
At about 9:15 the lights went off and the sold-out crowd roared. I mean they shook the building. The 3-D introduction screamed on the giant display at stage center. Suddenly Keith hit the riff and the stage lights came up. Start Me Up was on again. This show was very different from the stadium version. No fireworks or flames tonight but it seemed the boys were playing better and much tighter than two weeks ago. As the crowd screamed "Kieth" you could tell he would respond with some blazing Chuck Berry-esqe riffs. He was on for sure. Ron was looking good, he at one point had a pink and green striped CBGB's shirt on.... Charlie smiled continuously as always, and that Lisa Fisher can wail on Ray Charles' "The Night Time is the Right Time" That tune will send a chill up your back. The crowd gave a very good acknowledgement to Bobby Keys on saxophone and I gave the nod to that one. Bobby is the man on the Stones sax, one of my favorites.

A few funny notes, well at least I thought they were. Keith came out to do two solo songs and started by saying "You guys didn't have to build a new building for us!" Kind of funny as they were also the first concert / event at the Panther's stadium downtown Charlotte in 1997. Yes I was there too but we will leave that story alone at present. Another thing Keith said was "Here's one from that Big Bang, Boom thing" Heheh... and finally, as Keith played during one song off to extreme stage ramp right a very well-endowed lady pulled her bra off and threw it to him. He yelled at the local security guy, got a pen, and signed an autograph for her. Her bra was now tangled in his strings...he was still playing! Finally he got the bra loose, gave a wave and headed back to stage center. Just another tough night as a rock star I suppose.

I could talk about this show all night but I will close by saying I heard person after person last night say how great this band is. These guys still rock their asses off and if there is a such thing as a "Best" Rock & Roll band they get my vote. Long live the Rolling Stones. Let's hope this isn't the last time!