When Feng and I went to see The Rolling Stones in 2005 in Ottawa—our first concert together—we joked that it may be our last chance to catch them live.
The joke was on us. Eight years later The Rolling Stones are still on the road with their 50 & Counting Tour and we couldn’t resist going to see them, again. Back in 2005, we had crappy tickets and the band played at Lansdowne Park in Ottawa, an outdoor stadium that isn’t great for concerts.
We bought the special $85 tickets—a bargain. However, these lower-priced tickets came with strings attached: the seat locations would only be revealed when we pick up the tickets the night of the show, and once we had the tickets in hand, we had to be escorted inside—no refunds, no exchange.
This meant we could land great seats or end up with 300-level obstructed view seats.
We took a chance.
We travelled to Toronto (more on that later!), showed up at the Air Canada Centre around 7 p.m. and queued with other overexcited fans to pick up the $85 tickets. The staff picked an envelope from a huge pile, opened it and announced “…and you’ve got… great seats!”
Oh boy did we get great seats! We landed the sought-after “Tongue Pit” tickets, just meters away from the scene. Retail value? $600.
We felt like we had won the lottery.
We made our way to the pit and truly realized how close we were to the stage, even closer than we were when we saw U2 in Sydney. It was amazing. I could count the wrinkles on Mike Jagger’s face, and be the first one to notice each time Keith Richards lit up a cigarette.
This was my first concert since Bryan Adams last year, when I was five-month pregnant with Mark. Trust me, this time I was happy I wasn’t pregnant—being in the pit for three hours is exhausting, and the band put up quite a show!
I couldn’t help wondering what Mike Jagger was on… he had so much energy it felt unreal!
The show ended shortly before midnight and we wandered downtown Toronto, looking for a bite to eat before giving up and getting a pizza we ate on our bed, at the hotel.
Rock on!
SET LIST
Get Off of My Cloud; It’s Only Rock ’N’Roll (But I Like It); Paint It Black; Gimme Shelter; Worried About You; Rocks off; Emotional Rescue; Doom and Gloom; One More Shot; Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’ (with Mick Taylor); Honky Tonk Women; You Got the Silver (Keith on lead vocals); Before They Make Me Run (Keith on lead vocals); Midnight Rambler (with Mick Taylor); Miss You; Start Me Up; Tumbling Dice; Brown Sugar; Sympathy For the Devil
ENCORE
You Can’t Always Get What You Want (with Cawthra Park Secondary School’s Chamber Choir), Jumpin’ Jack Flash; (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (with Mick Taylor).
Jealous! Your photos are so close! Jagger looks excellent as ever. My Dad used to play get off of my cloud when we were young. It is my very favourite.
My dad played The Rolling Stones at home too 😉 Yep, we were very close… lucky us!
You really were close. I can’t believe you only paid 85 dollars to be that close!
Seeing your picture of the lips reminded me that my Canadian friends had no idea that Mick Jagger is call “The Lips”, at least in Europe he is. For North Americans “The Lips” is Steven Tyler. While we playing charades and I kept pucking my lips and playing air guitar, they kept shouting out Steven Tyler.
Come to think of it, I haven’t heard that nickname, “the lips” in a while! Well, he is still pouting like crazy, trust me 😆
This is so cool, can’t remember my last trip to a rock concert….now it’s K-pop craze for both my Daughters and Superjunior is heading to Singapore in July and you bet both my girls are going 🙂
Now in Europe Zhu and great to be back in Paris for the fourth time!!!! 😀
If you have recommendation for good K-Pop music, I’d love to give it a try! Different but fun too 😉
85 CAD for 600 CAD tickets! That’s awesome! I am not a fan of the Rolling Stones, but I do agree they are legendary and it definitely is a once-in-a-lifetime experience to be that close with the band!