We saw the Rolling Stones at Soldier Field on Friday night and they were AMAZING. They sounded great and had tons of energy. I couldn’t believe I was hearing such iconic songs LIVE by the ORIGINAL band members. Wow. Just wow.
I typically don’t go to huge events like this in Chicago because they’re logistically a complete pain the ass (see below) but this was 1000% worth it. There were so many special moments in this concert that I’m sure I’ll remember the next time I hear these songs!
Here’s the setlist, from here. The concert was just over two hours long!
Street Fighting Man
Let’s Spend the Night Together
Tumbling Dice
Sad Sad Sad
You Got Me Rocking
You Can’t Always Get What You Want
B-Stage/Acoustic: Angie
B-Stage/Acoustic: Dead Flowers
Sympathy for the Devil
Honky Tonk Women
You Got the Silver (Keith Richards on lead vocals)
Before They Make Me Run (Keith Richards on lead vocals)
Miss You
Paint It Black
Midnight Rambler (with snippet of ‘You Gotta Move’)
Start Me Up
Jumpin’ Jack Flash
Brown Sugar
Encore: Gimme Shelter
Encore: (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
They opened with songs I was less familiar with (but knew), then moved the drums to the end of the stage for an acoustic set. As they were walking back from the acoustic set they started playing the intro for “Sympathy for the Devil” and it sounded AMAZING live, and so loud. The audience was singing the “who who” from the song during the extended intro. Gah, it was so cool.
The two songs I really hoped to hear were “Paint It Black” and “She’s So Cold,” and I got the first one! Man, it was just so cool. It all was. I don’t know what else to say. I’m so glad we got to go!
Now, getting there…
Our drive to the city is typically a little over an hour, and I figured it would take two. It took three. Ha. I had reserved a SpotHero parking spot but when we got there, it was overbooked (by SpotHero). Gah (still fighting that one out with SpotHero). Luckily, we found an open lot only a little farther away, for $10 less ($40 for the night). I was a bit frazzled by that though.
Happily, Xaarlin lives really close to where we parked and invited us up to visit before the show!
We hung out, had a few drinks, ate the picnic dinner we brought, and admired their views of the city and Soldier Field!
That’s Soldier Field to the left in this pic. They could definitely hear the concert!
I’m really glad we stopped by and chatted for a bit. I was feeling agitated by the parking situation and it helped me calm down. And of course, I loved seeing them all again, so soon from our last visit!
We joined the hordes walking to the stadium and it was time for the moment of truth – for me to find out if the tickets I bought off of StubHub were real or not. I bought them on resale and they were screenshots of someone else’s tickets and all this time (since NOVEMBER!!!!) I’ve been wondering if they were real, or if this person sold them to other people as well.
But we obviously got in! Phew!
And got to our seats in the VERY LAST row. Ha. Rich, I am not. (But the sound was great and we could see the screens, so it was all good!)
We caught part of the last song of the opener St. Paul & The Broken Bones (we weren’t upset to miss it).
We waited a long time after the show was over to walk down, and it was still a zombie walk to get out of the stadium and away from that area because there were just so many people. But, everyone was in good spirits, and the weather was great for being outside, so it was all good! Although, we didn’t get home until 1:30 am (traffic was a little cray getting out of the city) and I was a little beat and out of it at that point. But… SO SO SO SO WORTH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow, that looks like quite the concert! I am so glad your tickets turned out to be the real thing; that would have stressed me out too (wondering if you’d gotten fake ones). I thought the first photos were inside a venue; I had no idea it was such a huge venue! (But I guess I shouldn’t be because it’s the Rolling Stones…not that I actually know their music.) I’m glad you could see the screens and enjoyed the show!
PS I told Harrison you were going, and his reaction was, “Wait, they’re still touring? They’ve been old forever.”
Yeah, I don’t buy tickets often and don’t understand how StubHub works and if they guarantee they’re real tickets or not. Maybe they do! Soldier Field is huge – it can seat up to 61,500, and I bet there were around 45K or 50K people there!
Ha. They formed in 1962! They’re all in their 70s! That is why I was impressed they sounded so good and could move so much. Ha. And you definitely would know some of their music.
Oh, I would have been so stressed about the tickets, too! So glad they were legit and you guys had such a great time!
On Saturday morning on the local radio news here, one of the stories was about the Rolling Stones playing in Chicago, and I thought, Kim was there!
Me too! It was way too long to have that in the back of my mind!
Oh cool!!!! That’s interesting they mentioned it there.
Sounds like a great concert! That really sucks about it taking 3 hours and spot hero overbooking 🙁 But how fun that your friend could hear the concert from their apartment.
The worst part of sitting in traffic was that I had to pee. Ha! I’m so glad we left extra early!
Oh, your “moment of truth” comment struck me so deeply! I am constantly worried about stuff like that. I remember being worried I had screwed up my flight to Ireland somehow and we were NOT going to be able to go, right up until we were sitting in the airport. Haha.
I hate traffic stuff like this! Traffic makes me so anxious, especially parking downtown!
I was actually thinking about you when I wrote that and thinking that if anyone got it, you would! But this is part of our worst scenario planning, right? Ha ha, jk, I had no idea what I would have done had the tickets been fake, except cry!
Yeah, I was so glad Steven was driving. He actually put the car in autodrive and let it do some of the stop and go traffic!
Sounds like a ton of fun! I’m embarrassed to admit that I don’t think I know any Rolling Stones songs – at least not based on the setlist! I’m pretty sure I’d recognize part of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and “I Can’t Get No (Satisfaction)”, but that’s it. I’m glad they sang the songs you wanted to hear!
The parking situation sounds SO stressful. Ugh. This is what I’m dreading about moving out to the suburbs! Everything is SO much simpler when you already live here!
You don’t have to be embarrassed. And I really think you’d recognize more than you think, especially “Satisfaction,” like you mentioned!
Yeah, if public transit worked better for this, I would have done it! But I can’t imagine taking the train or bus or L to this event either – it honestly would have taken just as long, from the suburbs! And once you get close, you’re still in that zombie walk of people! Even if you lived right off Michigan Avenue it would probably still take you 30 mins to walk there. Insane how many people were there!