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July 28, 2007: Palace Square, St. Petersburg, Russia Start Me Up/You Got Me Rocking/Rough Justice/Bitch/She’s So Cold/You Can’t Always Get What You Want/Midnight Rambler/I’ll Go Crazy/Tumbling Dice/Band introduction/You Got The Silver/Little T & A/Miss You/It’s Only Rock’n Roll/Satisfaction/Honky Tonk Women/Sympathy For The Devil/Paint It Black/Jumping Jack Flash/Brown Sugar
From IORR: This was the best show of the summer for sure. And it was the best performance of the tour. The cheapest ticket was only 1,000 Rubel which is 30 Euro i.e. 40 us dollars. Cheap cheap cheap. And if you walked by you could see the show for free from the distance across this hugh and beautiful place. The crowd was great. Few were sitting down. They were absolutely into the show. Wherever you watched there were big smiles on all faces. The fans could not stand still. Their bodies just had to groove and rock with the music. And the “venue” was absolute beautiful. Unique buildings surrounding a large place/square in historic beautiful St Petersburg. Keith did his best opening parts on Rough Justice, see reports from his previous highlight in Russia, about Flip The Switch in Moscow 1998.
Indeed it was a great great show and a great great crowd. Mick, Keith and Ronnie were running around on the B-stage like maniacs. They wanted this to be a great show. Keith was 100% sharp and concentrated all through the show. The security style was changed 180 degrees vs. the previous show in Russia 1998, when they had 1200 uniformed police all over. Now there were suit and tie style security, in Las Vegas usher style, firm but nice. Nothing on sale anywhere except for special t-shirts. Total of 10 – ten – toilets for the entire crowd. But it was a great show.
St Petersburg is on Moscow time which means it is a city quite north but also quite west in it’s time zone, which means we got the sun shining until after 10pm and not dark at all during the show. The twilight was coming as they played the encore. The show worked by the music and not by the visuals, as it is hard to make visuals with a blue sky. The rainbow was dropping down right into the palace on Keith side which made a visual effect you can’t pay for, and thousands of great Russian smiles work great as well.
Ronnie was absolutely overdoing himself on some of his solo playing tonight. There were times you started wondering – did Ronnie ever do these great licks? Where does these come from? So great and intense. Fast playing on the end of some songs, playing the way only socalled mastermind guitar players play. Well so then Ronnie joined the league tonight, like he have done already of course to those who listen closely and not just look for errors and jokes.
When a Russian army cap was thrown on the B-stage Mick picked it up, did a nice bow as saying thank you for the hat, then placed it on Ronnie, see photos coming up here soon. Ronnie was wearing the hat with pride of course.
After the show the fans were out in few minutes. The organization was perfect. The streets of St Peterburg were filled with fans who outnumbered the cars. And when you know this is a city of 4.5 million people you understand this crowd was pretty large.
The Stones should add Russia to every tour. Just like Germany, UK, France and the other major markets they perform in Europe. And give the fans the same kind of show they did tonight in St Peterburg. Sure it is hard, but it happened tonight!
