Last night Julie and I saw The Rolling Stones at the United Center. We have both been to a decent amount of shows in our time but neither of us have ever seen the Stones. This was probably the best concert I’ve ever seen.

All the reviews of the other concerts mention how the setlist doesn’t change much from show to show. This didn’t really matter to me but I thought the list was great. I got to see Rescue and Miss You and I thought Jumpin’ Jack Flash along with You Got The Silver were two of my favorite songs. Really an all around great show and the special guest, Taj Mahal, was more ideal than the other shows.

Setlist:

Get Off Of My Cloud
It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll (But I Like It)
Paint It Black
Gimme Shelter
Wild Horses
Rocks Off (By Request)
Emotional Rescue
Six Days On The Road (with Taj Mahal)
Doom And Gloom
One More Shot
Honky Tonk Women
You Got The Silver (with Keith on lead vocals)
Before They Make Me Run (with Keith on lead vocals)
Midnight Rambler (with Mick Taylor)
Miss You
Start Me Up
Tumbling Dice
Brown Sugar
Sympathy For Devil

ENCORE
You Can’t Always Get What You Want (with the Roosevelt University Conservatory Chorus)
Jumpin’ Jack Flash
(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (with Mick Taylor)

Tickets

For the initial on-sale tickets were priced at $150, $250 and $300. We had some difficulty trying to get the $150 tickets through ticketmaster and then we found that the Stones were selling $85 General Admission tickets through their website. Julie was able to get through on those and our seats were set as ‘Section 4 GA’ which looked on the seating chart like the back of the floor.

The day of the show we got an email regarding the ticket pickup info with instructions and it noted that ‘Seating locations are pulled at random’. When we arrived there was a line of about 60 people that moved quickly. Once inside the ticket pickup area they checked our ID, credit card info, and confirmation print out. Then the ticket person picked an envelope from a stack and asked us if we would mind standing for the whole show. He then gave us wristband for Pit Access and actual printed tickets (which is always a plus in this day and age). We left the ticket area and moved along to the main UC entrance. From there we headed right down to the floor and then into the pit area. At this point we’re probably an hour and half before the show starts and there was about 75 people in the pit. We were able to get a nice spot to the left of the stage and one person back from the barrier.

These are by far the best seats I’ve had at any show. Especially a stadium/arena show. I’ve been on the floor for Springsteen and Pearl Jam but neither was this close or had as much room.

Amazing experience.

Side Notes:

* Ronnie Wood was throwing guitar picks like it was a part-time job. I kept and eye out and towards the end of the show I was able to beat out an old lady in a scramble for one.
** The rest of my photographs from the show are here.
*** Julie’s photographs from the show and a couple videos are here.

**** Mick Jagger doing his thing.
**** I’m 89% sure that Keith Richards was wearing a pair of Rolling Stones branded high-tops.