STONED IN SYRACUSE AND CHICAGO

Start time: 8:10 End time : 10:25 The set list: 1.Satisfaction 2.Let's Spend The Night Together 3.Flip The Switch 4.Gimme Shelter 5.Sister Morphine 6.You Got Me Rocking 7.Saint Of Me 8.Out Of Control 9.Miss You -- Introductions -- 10.Thief In The Night (Keith) 11.Wanna Hold You (Keith) 12.Little Queenie (center stage) 13.I Just Want To Make Love To You (center stage) 14.Like A Rolling Stone (center stage) 15.Sympathy For The Devil 16.Tumbling Dice 17.Honky Tonk Women 18.Start Me Up 19.Jumping Jack Flash 20.You Can't Always Get What You Want (encore) 21.Brown Sugar (encore)

Just returned from Chicago on Sunday night 4-26-98 & I must say that I had a blast. I heard a lot of bitching about this show in terms of the set list & sound quality, but frankly I wasn't at all disappointed. Sure MSG Friday remains my favorite of all time past & present , but Chicago rocked me as well. Maybe it was the nostalgia of knowing that it may be my last show this tour, hell as much as I hate to let it enter my mind-my last show ever. Let's hope that's not true. I kinda wished as everyone did , that they would throw some special treat in for us because it was the last US show or at least bring Buddy Guy on to play, but You Can't Always Get What You Want eh? I picked up my tix (thanks JGW dahling) at the Ritz Cartlon Stones ticket office on Thursday about 11, hoping to get Bar Babylon or at least VIP passes, but it wasn't meant to be-there was a whole stack of blank ones just sittin' on the table in front of me-if only I were a thief in the night. In any case, I wasn't disappointed with section 4 row 8 & neither was Elizabeth. We ended up being 2 seats in from the catwalk which was also cool. We met all of our fellow Stones Mania Backstage Chat friends (Elizabeth, Little T&A, Stray Cat, Peachy Kinda Girl, Midnight Rambler, Madbull, George, Mars Bar, Goat's Head, Soul Survivor, Kazdog, Torn & Frayed, Blinded, et al) at Houston's Bar next to the Lenox Suites where we were all staying & ended up having a private party, since no other SFJers or other Net folks showed up to the best of my knowledge. And the Hags were once again pleased that we drank another bar dry of Stoli! We had drank the Velvet Elvis dry in Feb. in Houston. We took some great photos & video of the party. Then onto the show! I had found a great cheetah belt in Syracuse & wore that along with my zebra shirt I found at the MTV store & my long black velvet Keithian waist coat-complete with skull scarf :-) We made our way in just as the lights went down & Buddy Guy took the stage. Buddy was the only opener of this tour that I vowed not to miss, I saw him in Pittsburgh in 95 & he blew me away. He played for about a 1/2 hour & I recall singing "and it feels like rain" and Mustang Sally, while most people around me weren't too interested. Elizabeth & I checked out the center stage after that & there was a skeleton hanging on Keith's mic stand & all kinds of bras & panties laying around stapled to the stage. We noticed a setlist laying on the floor beside the railing & asked the security guy to get it for us & he kept it for himself! The jerk. Then he proceeded to show us 2 guitar picks & said Keith only gives out 2 of these a show, which is BS. We roamed back to our seats & were dismayed to find the 5 guys in front of us were all well over 6 foot tall! And to top it off they talked the WHOLE night, never once watching the show from their $300 seats. The lights went down damn early, about 8:12 on my watch & with the scaled down stage-the barest I've seen this tour, it was a clubbish atmosphere. I screamed my lungs out when Keith slinked out in his cheetah (although this coat had some black trim on it that seemed to differ from the other cheetah coat). I always am just in awe during the opening number & then seem to regain my grip during Let's Spend The Night Together. Gimme Shelter was smokin'. Flip The Switch, ah yeah, that riff of Keith's just does it for me. I thought Out Of Control despite the feedback was killer, and I was also glad to hear You Got Me Rocking again on the main stage again (Mick kicking his cup of water during "dying to get wet"). Sister Morphine always puts a hush on the crowd & Saint always kicks ass with the "yeah oh yeah's". When Keith took the stage I held my breath & prayed to the Keithian Gods for Thief & the prayer was anwered. E & I screamed so loud that I swear 5 rows turned around to look at us! Thanks Keith!!! I was living in a corner praying to his shrine for quite a while for that one. The people next to us who had the 2 end seats next to the catwalk didn't have a clue, so we had to explain to them that the boys were gonna walk right by us. I hate the dilemma of making a plan- A (stay by that catwalk & hope to slap someone's hand) or B (rush the small stage & get as close as you can). We chose plan A this time & it worked out well. I only succeeded in reaching Chuck Leavell, Keith stayed to the other side of the walk (he probably thought "there's that chick with the scarf-yikes"). I tried to give Charlie my cheetah panties & he looked terribly embarrased & slapped Elizabeth's hand instead. We did have an excellent view of the B stage though, we just hung over the catwalk & no one was blocking our view, we were about 8 rows away. We sang this chorus "I just wanna make love to Keith, baby, love to Keith!" It gets some funny looks from those around us. When the house lights go up & everyone is standing, arms in the air, shouting "how does it feel?" there ain't nothing better than that! The rest of the show after the center stage always goes too quickly, I remember gasping during the fury of JJF, Keith was a madman. I always feel blessed just to be in the same room inhaling the same air as that man. Just like MSG, we almost cried when the glitter was falling & Brown Sugar was playing-we were drenched in glitter & it's always a beautiful site to look through the sparkling stuff toward the stage-Stones fantasy land. I tried to burn the image of the final bow in my mind as they turned to bow arm & arm to the front & back of the stage. After the lights went up we sat for a bit to just try to get used to the fact that the North American Tour was over, we had been there, and the bridge in the US was indeed closed. God Bless The Rolling Stones!