Ecce Dei Musicae: The Rolling Stones

Even with a clear writing path ahead, this article wasn't planned. Welcome to my chaotic world...;-) ! Tuesday, Oct17th2006, I went to see those rocking grandpa's, those immortal godfathers of rock'n roll, those amazing zombies, more alive than ever.
I knew it was going to be amazing, I hoped I'd get a feeling of how legendary their music was...then, and now... I wondered if I shouldn't have spent the 170 USD on something more tangible than a few hours of heavenly music... After 5 min it was crystal clear I had been wrong: I was never prepared to see something like this ! At 63, Mick Jagger jumped around for more than 2 hours, more energetic than any aerobics world champion. Ok, in the middle he went off 10 min to slurp some oxygen, but Keith Richards kept us entertained with a solo song. He was drunk by the way. And high. And smoking like a steam locomotive. He couldn't keep a constant distance to the mike and his wobbly performance was more than hilarious. His bony fingers seemed unaffected though, 'cos if there is one guitar GOD, it's him.
Light and special effects were undescribable, from fireworks to 30feet high flames (On Mick's solo trip "Sympathy for the devil"), a 100x100' screen, hydraulic moving stage (they came as close as 90 feet to where I was sitting) and enormous inflatable "sticking-out-tongue", this was just not a regular gig in the dive bar around the corner...

Off course it's a kicking rush to see more than 50000 people sing and dance along but in the end it was the MUSIC that made this a lifetime experience for me. After 40 years their songs are still fresh and come in as a raging thunderbolt. Songs I didn't know of as "Street of love" (Jagger on the Fender) became instant favorites of mine. "Start me up"'s greasy guitar riff is about the most pure and harmonous tune you can get out of a telecaster. No cams, so bad (but REAL) cell phone pictures (and some from the Seattle Times).

No way to end this article better than quoting Mr.Keith Richards Himself: "We're on the cutting edge. Nobody's been here before, and it's kind of an adventure. They wonder why we're still here. Well, why not? We're a great band. We love to play. If there's that many people who love to hear us, what's the beef? I intend to get a lot older and a lot more wrinkled. So sharpen your pen."
Stijn

The future of this blog

Hey there all,
I promised myself to get (at least) the blog-ball rolling again by the end of this weekend. So here I am again. We're approaching the blog's one year anniversary, and it's time to look back and then forward ! I'll be in Belgium (for work) first week of November, so lots of stuff here have to be finished/prepared. I'll line out the structure, or rather a to-do list, of coming up postings: (I have the dreamy habit of ending up with to-do items as "finish other to-do lists", but I owe you completion of this one).
- living in Seattle - one year and looking back
- travels during the last couple of months
- building an airplane
- BMW F650
- e-mail, has it lost it's impact ?
Curious ? Me too ;-). Actually I have no idea who reads these little shallow stories, maybe I'd like to know, maybe it'd motivate me to write more ? Comments are welcome, stories too. All the best to you all, take care. Stijn (P.S. The pic dates from summer, flying over Seattle in a Beaver Seaplane)