Rock n’ Roll Satisfaction

Why I Passed on Attending the Rolling Stones Concert in Las Vegas

Apparently, I’m the only boomer in Las Vegas who wasn’t at Saturday night’s Rolling Stones concert.

Tickets were available to me. The price was certainly right. And we can’t dismiss the very real possibility that the live show at the Raiders Stadium might have been the final hoorah of the self-proclaimed “world’s greatest rock n’ roll band.” Yeah, I totally get the historical importance of the occasion.

But I still couldn’t bring myself to go.

Instead, I’ll take this occasion to thank more than a dozen contacts on Facebook who posted their own videos and photos of the Rolling Stones 2024 tour stop here in Las Vegas. From what I saw and read, the show looked exciting and the band of octogenarians hasn’t aged much in terms of on-stage energy. I love that. We might not always get what we want, but we get what we need.

I’m not sure when why or how, but some time ago I realized most live concerts aren’t nearly as interesting as the more private and personal journey that came long before those moments in the public spotlight.
Through countless music documentaries I’ve decided that the creative process is usually more fascinating than the final project. How a song — or any art form — gets made *is* the best show. Behind the scenes and unrehearsed moments make the process and the project all the more intriguing.

The pinnacle documentary of musical creation is probably the eight-hour trilogy of The Beatles Let It Be sessions that were redone a few years ago by director Peter Jackson. In that film, revealed in excruciating detail, we witness the painstaking process of going from literally nothing to something into something extraordinary, within just hours, days, and weeks. Indeed, the entirety of the Let It Be album was essentially recorded in less than a month’s time. And it all happened in front of the unblinking eyes of cameras, de facto, the world.

Another outstanding documentary of this kind was The Wrecking Crew, released in 2008 which is about all the famed session musicians who played on an astounding number of hit records during the 1960s. Again, the process of creativity is the star here, not the final songs which are familiar. In fact, there is no stage act.

Most frustrated artists out there, and there are many among you (I count myself in this group) envy those who somehow overcome creative blocks and leap past dead ends, and end up making great art. The process of going from A to Z is what’s exciting, and the stories behind those *struggles* never get old.

For those musicians who become icons, the culmination of those studio sessions is the rock concert. Yet, the stage show also often becomes the very antithesis of the creative spark that lit the fuse. The Rolling Stones have probably performed their 1965 hit “Satisfaction” more than a thousand times. For them, there’s nothing fresh or exciting about that song anymore, yet it must be delivered to the audience like a package shipped from Amazon. It’s expected. Right now, Mick Jagger is out on his route, as a delivery driver.

Don’t misunderstand my enthusiasm for live concerts. I envy those of you who attended and enjoyed the Rolling Stones’ show over the weekend. It sure looked like great fun. Nonetheless, the far superior revelations of the Rolling Stones (or anyone else) take place in the much quieter moments, often spent in reflection, disharmony fusing into harmonies, when the magic of a new sound was happening for the first time.

Video Clip: “Sympathy for the Devil” recording session from 1968.