My Bigger Bang Review

I was one of 45,000 at Taylor Field last Friday night for The Rolling Stones Bigger Bang show. What an experience!

My daughter, Kate, and I even stood in line for an hour for me to buy a t-shirt. I've never done it before. One hour on my feet and $40! Outrageous, but all part of the experience.

The show was technically superb...sound, lights, fireworks, fire. The performance was first class. Those old guys give good value for money. We got a more than reasonable bang for our buck.

Dead-pan faced Charlie made the drumming look and sound easy. Ron Wood has among the thinnest and longest legs I've ever seen. They looked to be in danger of bending backwards at times. Keith Richard really does look like a cadaver walking around. Jagger is an absolute dynamo. After two full high energy hours he ended the show with a 50 yard gallop out on the apron into the middle of the field and back while singing Satisfaction in full voice and with no hint of breathlessness. An amazing performance.

They don't exactly promote family values. They're still among the bad boys of rock and roll but they provided this old fan with some quality time with my daughter and her family. I loved it.

Bigger Bang is the culmination of my concert-going so far. I've not been to many. I think I began with The Dave Clark Five in Dunedin, New Zealand in the 60's. I remember being wowed by the ultra-violet light on their white trousers and turtle-necks. Very high-tech and impressive. They were followed by The Yardbirds (I think that was in Wellington, New Zealand) to which I went hoping to see guitar-hero of the time, Jeff Beck, only to find he had left the band. Instead, an unknown-to-me guitar player had replaced Beck...Jimmy Page...all feed-back and purple bell-bottoms. Then there was John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Then there was a long gap until I decided to take Kate and Anthony to their first rock concert...the Christian band, Petra, in Calgary. The memorable thing about that was the fact that the bass drum was amplified...I could actually feel the sound of it in my chest! After that came Dire Straits, also in Calgary. And now this. If I go to no other, I've experienced the Stones live and that was just fine.

Thanks to Kate and Stewart, Jude, Anthony and Kristy for humouring this old guy and making it possible.

Read more in the Regina Leader-Post here.