It's Only Rock'n Roll
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It's Only Rock'n Roll |
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Stones
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The Rolling Stones live at the Letnany field, Prague Czech Republic, Wednesday July4, 2018 - Photo by Bjornulf Vik
Show start : 8:52pm Show end : 10:53pm
Pre-show info and live comments:
Prague Czech Republic 04-July-2018 Rolling Stones No Filter live updates
While the weather in Berlin was pretty chilly, just twelve days ago, the shows after that have been hot hot hot, so it was important to stay close, in the shade, and arrive late, to avoid the heat at the venue for hours. I had booked a hotel 30 minutes walk from the venue, two metro stops away from Letnany, so getting in and out of the show was carefully planned at this stage. The 115th anniversary celebrations of Harley-Davidson takes place in Prague these days, and many bikers arrived early for the Stones show. There were Harley Davidson bikers all over the city, also many at our hotel, with their typical bikers vests, and some had Stones shirts under their vests. I could see large biker groups from Germany, Italy, Belgium and so on, and quite a few went to the show tonight.
At this stage the Stones feel safe about their show. They don't change much. In fact they changed very little tonight, as compared to the previous show in Stuttgart, except for the "vote song". Both shows started and ended within one minute to the clock, these guys are like a clockwork these days. "Under My Thumb" was the vote song, replacing "Let's Spend The Night Together" from Stuttgart. Then "Like A Rolling Stone" followed, that song has found it's place in the 6th or 7th position a few times now. I am happy with whatever they play, but to be honest, I think "Under My Thumb" sounds a bit weak in the league of "Street Fighting Man", "Paint It Black", "It's Only Rock'n'Roll" and all the other power songs of the show.
Everything was highly controlled tonight. Keith and Ronnie stood next to each others right in front of Charlie more often than normal may be, following Mick close, and Darryl seemed to join in to the center with Keith and Ronnie several times as well. I had to use earplugs for this show, as I have been feeling the power up volume for 3-4 shows now, since Berlin. The shows feels like the same, but when the show is over, and I remove the plugs, it feels like the crowd is super strong, so the plugs do work quite well, still I hear all the great guitars through the show.
After the show everybody seemed to be happy, relaxed, no rush, and we walked out with smiles on our faces. Many many thanks to the Letnany field organizers for pushing away all the barriers, so that we could walk normally out of the 80,000 capacity field in less than 10 minutes. Completely exhausted from a great show, half an hour walk, and the heat, it took a couple of hours to come back to normal life and sleep, then another day, another city, and soon the last show of the tour, sadly.
Sasha got some extra work in “Gimme Shelter” with Mick unable to complete such phrases as “It's just a shot away.” There was a lot of miming going on in the last three minutes of both “Brown Sugar” and “Satisfaction” as the backing singers stepped up in a big way. Mick would sing, “I can't" and they would take over with “Get no. No, no, no.” They even sang, “Hey, hey, hey! That's what I say” for him. Bernard watched Mick's every move while maintaining eye contact with Sasha. Very impressive stuff, and Mick was grateful. As everyone gathered for the bows, Mick tried to get Bernard to stand next to him, but Bernard was distracted and the opportunity was lost. I may have nodded off during the intros, but did Mick forget to introduce Darryl and the horn section? He definitely did not give his usual descriptive call-out to Ronnie.
Mick's woes made a rather so-so show more interesting. I really, really don't want to hear their big hit, “Like A Rolling Stone,” if Warsaw happens. The best bit was Mick’s remark that Bob Dylan “doesn't speak to me anymore.” And the most memorable part of “Miss You” was when Mick launched into the bridge while the backing singers were still cooing away. I didn't pay much attention to “It's Only Rock’n Roll” because I was distracted by Jade Jagger dancing in the wings with a blond moppet - her son? half-brother? granddaughter? I get confused with those people.
Similarly, I hope Warsaw will finally yield a satisfying ballot-winner, although “Under My Thumb” was tolerable, and Mick revived the staccato outro grunts heard on the recorded version.
Keith delivered the most soulful performance of the night with “You Got the Silver,” complemented by some beautiful slide work from Ronnie. Maybe Mick and Chuck will reward Keith with a three-song set in Warsaw?
It was an interesting crowd, some non-threatening bikers from Norway and Belgium, a lot of kids in heavy metal t-shirts, and girls in Stones shirts. The local opening band was a hoot to look at. The location wasn't as distant as I had feared, and the weather certainly could have been much hotter and nastier. Public transportation was efficient, and I was able to get two Metros and a bus to the airport just after midnight for a well-illuminated night in the terminal.
The show started off with Street Fighting Man, followed by It’s Only Rock’n Roll and Tumbling Dice. Heard so many times, but they are just so much fun and excitement to hear as ever. Our small group stood by the end of the catwalk, in the very middle of the FOS Golden Circle. Let me say that the sound was excellent, every guitar line (and those of many other instruments) was loud and clear. From the beginning, we had the impression that – our interpretation – Mr. Jagger told his guitar colleagues to polish up their playing before hitting the road again for this second leg of the No Filter tour, and they somehow managed to get their playing to a new level. Don’t get me wrong, I loved last year’s No Filter shows in terms of their playing. But they somehow had a new focus and motivation to show off. I heard some guitar lines I missed by now.
One of my wishes was fulfilled, we got Ride ‘Em All Down as the Blues song. As always, I voted with the minority for All Down the Line – and the majority of voters chose Under My Thumb. Played excellently and with the right tempo. Btw., I thought that in Berlin, one or the other songs was played somewhat too slow, but in Prague, everything just had the right tempo. Anyway, this band could play everything they liked, and we would be glad to hear them.
The Stones anthem followed, Like A Rolling Stone. YCAGWYW, PIB and HTW were next (as usual) before the band intros. Perfect! Keith’s set is a highlight by its own; this song was always wonderfully played, but I liked yesterday’s version even more. The guitars weaved together, great. Again, Before They Make Me Run, super!
Can a rock show really go by so quickly? With the blink of an eye, the second half of the show started with Sympathy (again strong guitars), Miss You (with some charmingly missed and falsely started lyrics by the front man). Midnight Rambler with a small insert of You Gotta Move in the middle, Start Me Up, JJF, and Brown Sugar. Finally Gimme Shelter and Satisfaction.
Funnily, Mr. Jagger tried some Czech, but asked the audience from where they were (mentioned “Ostereik” for Austria, Poland and other countries). Great mood on the stage, a little duet by Mr.s Jagger and Richards during Like A Rolling Stone. And Mr. Wood funny as always. In Berlin, it said after the pyro: “Bis Bald”, in Prague: “Uvidíme se brzy” – so, see you soon!
The last show before the Prague one I took part in was in Spielberg, Austria, 2017. We, my brother and one of his colleagues were standing then almost 100 metres from the stage seeing only ‘ants’ on the stage. Of course, the four giant towers or screens helped me recognise who was who. After that show my brother and me made the decision to buy the most expensive tickets next time so that we could enjoy the show as close as possible.
This year after almost three months of checking when the Pit tickets were available, finally, we succeeded in buying three No Filter Pit B tickets. So, we found ourselves 1.5 metres behind the barrier at the front on 4th July in Prague, Letnany, some hours before the first riffs of ‘Street Fighting Man’.
Almost perfect weather for an open air show had been waiting for us, however, it was a bit of hot in the afternoon. The temperature was dropping while the sun was setting down, so all in all, there was no reason to complain about the weather.
Seeing the Rolling Stones live is always an unforgettable experience, but in the front it is more special and more enjoyable. It was clear to see how Mick was controlling and leading the whole band greeting the audience in Czech and, of course, more remarks were made by him starting the crowd up. As for the crowd, 80,000 of us gathered that night, many of them were very young teenagers, especially girls where we were standing. From the facial expressions of the band members it was clear to conclude that the Stones still love what they have been doing for 56 years. They are not giving concerts for fame or money any more. I was able to see how they behaved backstage supporting my view above.
As for the setlist, it was predictable for me despite the fact that I had not checked the previous ones before. I like the idea of not starting the shows with the same song, so the first number was a bit of unpredictable. ‘Street Fighting Man’ is a great opener, the crowd went crazy upon starting it. Basically all of their hits written between 1968 – 1972 were played, beyond these, crowd pleasers were ‘Ride 'em On Down’, ’Under My Thumb and ’Like A Rolling Stone’.
Keith’s numbers went down really well, I was happy to listen to ‘You Got The Silver’ instead of another ballad ‘Slipping Away’.
After these two songs above, the warhorses came played by the band with control, however, Mick missed the lyrics in ‘Miss You’ and we got a bit of ‘You Gotta Move’ in ‘Midnight Rambler’.
So, I feel we got what we had wanted. Seeing the energy coming from the Stones especially from Mick who was dancing, running and wriggling throughout, we can expect at least one more tour again in Europe in the future.
Photos by Bjornulf Vik
Photos by Bjornulf Vik
Photos by Bjornulf Vik
Photos by Hendrik Mulder
Photos by Hendrik Mulder
Photos by Hendrik Mulder
Photos by Hauke Jürgensen'
Photos by Hauke Jürgensen
Photos by Hauke Jürgensen
Photos by Hauke Jürgensen
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