Like Altamont, but without the Hells Angels and random violence

I found out last week that the Rolling Stones still give free concerts, if inadvertently. See, our house in Ottawa is just across the Rideau Canal from Lansdowne Park, which is the old-school, open-air football stadium that hosts the local CFL team and, it turns out, all the crappy bands that play the Ottawa summer expo. We'd been hearing the muddy sound of second-rate live acts all weekend, so I figured we'd be able to hear the Stones a bit from our back yard when they played their much-hyped concert. Well. Henry was in bed and I was enjoying a beautiful evening on our deck when I heard a dull roar and the opening notes of "Start Me Up" ringing clearly through the air. I'm not a diehard Stones fan or anything, but I like their old stuff well enough so figured I'd get closer and listen to a few songs.

I headed down to Echo Drive, which is a residential street running alongside the Canal. As soon as I turned the corner I saw HUNDREDS of people hanging out on the street (it's blocked off to all but local traffic, so there are never cars on it), taking in the show like they had paid for tickets to the stadium. Not only could we hear the Stones pretty much perfectly, but the hi-def Jumbotron inside the stadium was positioned so that we has a clear view of the show, too. I guess the locals know that you can see inside the stadium from Echo, because they came prepared for an evening of Free Rock. It was quite a scene--there were lawnchairs, snacks, families with kids, burnouts, grandparents, dudes drinking beer, yuppies drinking wine from glasses, a couple cops not caring about any of it, and white people busting arythmic white moves everywhere. The strangest thing to me was that the crowd actually applauded after each number, like we were part of the paying audience inside. The funniest thing was when a guy near me shouted, "Dude! You're missing 'Sympathy for the Devil,' Muthaf**kaaa!" into his cell phone. I was like, "dude, basically so are you." But, really, we weren't. I saw the Stones in 1989 at BC Place, and I think my view of the stage and the sound were better this time (man, those were some crappy seats). They didn't play "Gimmie Shelter," which I always like to hear, but hey--who am I to complain? It was still a fun, unique experience, and a good introduction to the laid-back vibe here in Ottawa.

Please note that I resisted using the phrase, "you can't always get what you want" after my "Gimmie Shelter" comment.