robert has a few good questions that need to be answered ASAP.

the first being would you lay out a few hundred bucks to see the Rolling Stones play?

the answer depends on if you’ve seen them already.

i have had the great fortune of seeing the living legends a few times. the first being at the LA Collesium when Living Color and Guns and Roses opened up for them.

“Appetite for Destruction” had been out a year and was everyone’s favorite album and we walked through south central LA thinking “the Stones are going to get their ass beat.”

as i get older, i start to realize that experience has a few things going for it.

the Guns and Roses were infighting, unfocused, at the mercy of heroin, scattered, doubting, tangled up with girls, drunk with success, living up to their album title.

they went limp about ten minutes into the show. total disaster.

The LA Collesium is like a big angry ugly hole when it comes to music. It owns you. The front row is miles away and cute little smirks dont cut it. You need a machette the size of montana to cut through the emptiness. you need a road map to reach the hearts of the kids. This was a place that was built best for monster truck races, and for having the Pope speak. not for music. the echos themselves are something to contend with, never mind your wasted lead guitar player.

The Stones, meanwhile had spent their whole lives playing impossible venues like this. Last time they were there a guy named Prince opened for them and had bottles thrown at him and got booed off the stage.

As a unit the Rolling Stones took the stage that summer of 1988 like five sailors back from a long journey entering a whore house with a bag of condoms in one hand and a bucket of $20s in the other. They sized up the situation in about two minutes, spread out, and rocked the living shit out of anything that moved.

they were sticky they were sweet they were even psychedelic to remind us that they didnt just come from another country, but from another time entirely, a better time where you either master your surroundings or be a victim to them.

they rocked for two hours, took a polite break and got the rest of their ya yas out.

ok, that was then.

now, theyre one old guy on drums, a wastoid on guitar, and a complete mad man on the mic. they still rock better than 95% of the shows that you’ll go to this year, and you’ll know a majority of the songs and its super good to hear those played live. but there is little chance of magic.

so i say if you have never seen them before, go. do go. spend the money. they deserve it.

if you have seen them play, do like i am doing, hold out to see if someone has an extra ticket and will buy you a beer if you go with them.

$200 buys a bunch of lapdances.

as for your other questions, nothing in here is being written by me right now. i have the summer interns here for three more weeks then i have to do this shit myself.

i just draw the outlines and they fill in the blanks.

see you at subway!

peace out to my man Ric at Bitchen for the $3. and TPB at unbillable hours who busted with the Fiver. thats a beer! and thats all i ask. rock on, bros.