Gimme Shelter

So, yesterday was a very surreal day in Halifax, what with the Rolling Stones — not to mention Kanye West, Alice Cooper, and Sloan — playing a gigantic outdoor show on the Commons, right behind our house. The whole city's been going completely bonkers about it for months. The Daily News printed a special five-page "Stonegazing" section, wherein "We investigate where the Rolling Stones will likely stay, and tell you what you should — and shouldn't — do if you meet them." (Delta Halifax, be nice, ask for free tickets.) Heaven forbid we embarass The Daily News with our small-town behaviour. The week leading up to the show was particularly insane-o as they built the humongous stage and seating and closed off street after street to traffic, thereby causing long impassable jamups. Basically, if you think about the Halifax Explosion, you start to get a sense of the historical importance this event holds for the city.

Here's what the scene looked like the night before and then morning of the concert.



This guy has kept a great photographic record of the week-long preparations.

When Sloan took the stage in the afternoon we were walking past on our way back from yoga and grocery shopping, in exactly the opposite direcion from what seemed like most of the rest of the city's population. It felt weird to hear Chris Murphy's voice echoing around everywhere, expressing excitement that they were opening for the Stones. They launched into the Future Shop commercial, which sounded great, just before we got home.

I think I've already gone into why we weren't going to the show. The most succinct and funniest way I've heard it put was on the Halifax Locals bulletin board: "If I wanted to see a bunch of seniors jumping around, I'd watch The Price Is Right." Tickets were over a hundred dollars for general admission standing room (which was absolutely no better than standing outside the fence for free, if you felt like doing that) and over three hundred for bleacher seating! They really raked it in, as did the many, many citizens in the area selling hot dogs, water, raincoats, Rolling Stones hats, slightly used undergarments, and pretty much anything else they could think of from their front doorsteps.

The whole show was very loud, especially when the main act finally came on at about 8:00, and we could hear everything from our back yard.



This was the opening number. The bang at the beginning is fireworks going off, visible out our window, and the cheering and barking at the end are other neighbourhood residents enjoying the show from their balconies. Even the light show was pretty spectacular and psychedelic.



When it was almost over, we headed out to catch Al Tuck at Gus' Pub a little further north. Agricola Street turned out to be a pretty great place from which to enjoy the spectacle, and lots of people were doing just that.


The scene was different, but almost as interesting, when we stumbled home many hours later.


Now they're tearing all the scaffolding back down, and the 200 people who suffered from mild hypothermia due to the fact — and who could have predicted this in Nova Scotia, really — that it rained, not to mention the more seriously and innumerable hungover are recovering nicely and humming "Bitch" to themselves, smiling through the pain. And I hear the Commons may even be usable as a sports field again in another year or two.

- Andrew