Well.
QOTSA may have been better if their new material wasn't so mediocre. I recognized two songs from Songs for the Deaf, and the quality of that material versus the new stuff...the new stuff don't sound good. The band did a great job in front of an alternately apathetic and absent crowd. There were a few of us who appreciated their effort, but I had to turn around and tell the well-heeled old fuckwads behind me to pipe down during QOTSA's set. One of the dickwads said that they were here to hear the Stones. I pointed out that I was there to hear the opening band too. They were able to shut the fuck up after that.
Anyway, Queens of the Stone Age has sounded better I'm sure when 1. they weren't playing to an audience who could give a shit and 2. they were playing good songs. Maybe next time.
The Stones, however were a fucking
TRIP. It was hard for me to process the whole thing. Here's this band that I thought was over 25 years ago, performing songs that I've grown up with. The quality of the performance was no problem. These men are pros and they did a hell of a job. The insane part was the songs. I knew the songs, but they were Stones songs. And those were the Stones performing them. :headexploding:
Girl With Faraway Eyes was great! It got my hopes up for Before They Make Me Run and Street Fighting Man, but I knew those weren't going to happen and they didn't.
The disturbing thing was the whoring of the band. The Ameriquest banners and miniblimp (!) were awful. Like the band didn't make enough money from the ticket prices; they to align thenselves with a company under investigation for predatory loan practices.
And how come I didn't know about the moving stage?! During Miss You, the band got together on one part of the stage.
As they performed the song, the part of the stage they were on lifted up and moved to the center of the arena!!!! (Maybe that's why tickets were so expensive?) And the as the band performed Honkytonk Women, the whole damn thing moved back again. It was pretty cool.
It was a good show. I'm glad I went. The music was great. The band was great. Now I've seen the Stones. Although my husband is still cooler; he saw them when Prince opened for them and was booed off the stage. (No, Steve wasn't booing; he was cheering.)