Hello,Flex wrote: ↑11 Aug 2019, 10:14amSaw the Stones at Broncos Stadium in Denver last night. Nathaniel Rateliff, who I've seen a few times now, opened. Great performances from both artists, the Stones definitely look like they're having a lot of fun on stage. Song mix was quite good, with the preponderance of tunes coming from that killer 67-73 timeframe. Technically, the latest album represented was Stripped with a cover of Like a Rolling Stone that the band and audience all got a real kick out of. A few long jams like when they played Midnight Rambler, so they weren't just going through the motions. A better set and performance than when I saw them at Desert Trip a few years ago, I reckon. Setlist here: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-roll ... f9630.html
Downside: I've never been to the stadium for a concert (or anything else) before and the sound mix was absolutely terrible. 3/4 of Rateliff's set was genuinely unlistenable until they made a few fixes and it became tolerable. Really too bad for him since he's so good (and he's a big name, so the audience was into his songs too). The Stones were marginally better but everything was slammed and distorted and the mixing was all off all night (I remember one time the camera panned to the sax player jamming out and you couldn't make the instrument out at all in the sound mix). I've been generally impressed with how good the sound is at arenas, outdoor festivals, etc. throughout my concert going life, but this was probably the worst sounding venue I've ever paid money to be in. Maybe it was better for the super rich down on the field, but us peasants got a lousy job at the mixing board.
Other minor grievances include: apparently in other tour stops the Stones worked with the venues to provide reusable cups that could be returned at the end of the night for a return on deposit. Not here! The stadium was hawking their $11 Broncos plastic cups and apparently didn't agree to do whatever it was the Stones arranged elsewhere. Nice to see the malignant Republican ownership of the NFL franchise blocking even a modest gesture towards reducing waste at the event. I also tried to get a (regular) cup of ice and was told it would cost $5, lol.
And finally, we had a little drama with security. We checked ahead of time for the written policies of what we could bring in and followed the website's instructions, which mirrored NFL policy. When we got there, security told is they were following a more restrictive policy and we had to throw away some stuff we had, take it back to the car (more than a 20 minute walk one way), or pay for a security locker (still a 10 minute walk one way away and a charge) and then go through the security line again. All that would have made us easily miss all of Rateliff and possibly the beginning of the Stones set. It was admittedly frustrating since we'd read all the rules (and I had them with me on my phone to show security!) Ahead of time specifically to do the right thing. It took asking for a supervisor and then manager to finally get someone who helped us stash the (apparently) verboten gear in a corner that we could pick up on the way out. Hate doing the "can we speak to a manager" thing, but that still only took a fraction of the time that leaving and reentering would have (or throwing away, I dunno, $40-$50 worth of umbrellas, binocular cases, random stuff like that). But I was probably more argumentative than I should have been, so I still feel kinda bad.
That said, I doubt the Stones are ever coming back to Colorado, and the quality of their performance was good enough to overcome the lousy venue, so worth it in the end. I'd be hard pressed to ever go see a concert at the Stadium ever again, but in the grand scheme of things the problems will fade and I'm glad for the great live music and a fun night out, so all good.
I'm glad you enjoyed the show! I have't seen a stadium show in so long as I'm not sure I'd really enjoy it.
I'm also glad/appreciative you asked for the manager. It sounds like you were rational and had supporting evidence - rational arguments and evidence are what changes policy.