By Steve Rhodes
The Rolling Stones opened a world tour in 1997 at Soldier Field and while it wasn’t well-received by our esteemed local rock writers – and for good reason; I was there with a colleague from Newsweek and found it to be a boring, sorry spectacle – it’s always interesting to watch a band behind the scenes and in rehearsals, and that’s what Meeuweschijt brought us this week with some YouTube uploads. Let’s kind of mash a few things together and take a look just for old time’s sake.
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“On September 25, the Rolling Stones brushed off its opening night jitters and performed a vigorous set of mostly pre-1980 material that also contained a few notable surprises,” the Music Box wrote back then.
“As the lights went down, strange effects pumped through the $3 million sound system and with a pyrotechnic flash, the band launched into a raging ‘Satisfaction.'”
Here is the rehearsal of that opening.
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Greg Kot wasn’t amused, writing this in the Tribune
A slow start, a blast of invigorating nastiness in the middle, and a predictable string o’ hits at the finish. The Rolling Stones rolled out their 1997-98 world tour Tuesday at sold-out Soldier Field, and the challenge was finding whether the heart of a rock ‘n’ roll band still throbbed inside this gilded, choreographed spectacle.
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Jim DeRogatis concurred in the pages of the Sun-Times:
The Rolling Stones may still be a big step above the standard Star Plaza fare, but their performance at Soldier Field Tuesday night didn’t do much to dispel the notion that, in 1997, they’re just another oldies act.
The group kicked off its third stadium tour of the ’90s before a full house of fans and media from around the world. The band was five songs into its set, however, before it played anything written in this decade, and 10 songs in before it turned off the autopilot.
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“Only two tracks were performed from the Stones’ forthcoming album, Bridges to Babylon,,” Kot continued.
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Rehearsals including both.
Under My Thumb/Out of Control.
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Wanna Hold You/Anybody Seen My Baby/19th Nervous Breakdown.
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The Stones played a second show two nights later, which explains a second rehearsal of “Miss You.”
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Of course, that was the year the tour really opened with a “secret” show at the Double Door.
Here’s “Anybody Seen My Baby” from that performance.
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And the setlist for the first Soldier Field show.
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Comments welcome.
Posted on October 4, 2012