Today's sky report

I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black…..
…..I wanna see the sun blotted out from the sky
I wanna see it painted, painted, painted, painted black

With these lyrics, the Rolling Stones opened the second leg of their Bigger Bang tour. Courtesy of some freebee tickets from my employer, I was able to attend the event at Gillette Stadium. I was initially not that excited, expecting to see a bunch of guys rolling around the stage on wheel chairs lip-synching their music. How wrong I was. From the enormous colorful set to the brilliance of the ever-changing lights to the quality of the sound to the spectacular fire and fireworks finish, it was an "A" quality experience. As they played, you kept remembering how much you liked each song and as the playlist accumulated, you began to realize just how many hits these old guys have had. We were at the far end of the stadium, so Mick looked about one inch tall, but you can tell he went to the big stage school of showmanship. As he ran from one side of the stage to the other, he swung his hands in wide arcs so even the highest seats could see him. His outfits were brightly colored and visible from afar. They tried really hard to help the distant seats feel involved. At one point, a section of the stage broke away with the old guys aboard and rolled down a catwalk to the center of the stadium. Even us guys in the (so called) cheap seats got a decent view of the band for a couple of songs. They played for two solid hours with only one or two newer songs included. Their last song and encore were well orchestrated to keep the fans on their feet and feeling good as they left.

Eric Clapton at the Boston Garden in two weeks. Let's see the old guitar players fare against the old guys we just saw.