It’s common for bands to hype a tour by calling it their biggest production yet.
The Rolling Stones, in 2005, even launched one called A Bigger Bang. Fans will also remember from the Steel Wheels Tour in 1989 the 60-foot-tall inflatable dolls, aka the Honky Tonk Women.
“All the lovely inflatables still exist and they’re in storage and well taken care of,” said Dale Skjerseth, production director for the Stones.
In a Zoom call from The Dome of America’s Center in St. Louis on Sept. 24, two days before the tour opener, he said of the No Filter Tour, “We go back to basics in a certain way.”
The four 45-foot video walls, he says, “will light up the whole place and your visual is what it is.” There aren’t a lot of other toys and frills.
The shift in the band’s visual approach goes back to the 50 & Counting Tour when the Stones began to reduce the scale of the show and put the focus more on the band.
“Since 2012, on the 50th, we’ve converted to just a nice deck surface and lots of flat running spaces for Mick [Jagger] to put it out there, a playing area,” Skjerseth said. “We’re shooting for the sound, the importance of the sound, and what the band is. There are the four large video screens and a nice backline setup, and off we go. It’s a good-looking show, and it’s a good-sounding show. We went not for the cosmetics but for the basics: sound.”
The good-natured Skjerseth, who has the nickname “Opie,” began his career in 1979 working with club bands in Minneapolis and did his first big run with Gun N’ Roses on the Use Your Illusion Tour in 1991.
“I learned a lot out there those days,” Skjerseth said. Being Axl Rose’s stage manager, we’re guessing he would.
He had never seen the Stones before when he signed on with them as stage manager for the Voodoo Lounge Tour in 1994.
“I’ve been in and out of all the venues so many times, I can tell you how to load in here before you get there and who’s the guy you’re gonna meet at the front door...Mick saw my resume and said, ‘If he can do Guns N’ Roses, he can do us.’ ”
Skjerseth’s resume also includes AC/DC’s Rock or Bust Tour in 2016, which took place between the Stones’ 2015 Zip Code Tour and No Filter, which began in 2017 and is now on its fourth leg.
Sadly, this is the first Stones tour without the heartbeat of the band, Charlie Watts. The plan was for the beloved drummer to sit this one out while he recovered from a medical procedure relating to his throat cancer. He died in August at 80, having been a Rolling Stone for 59 years.
The band does a tribute to Watts, but you can also think about the fallen Stone when you look at the show.
“He did the artwork and all of that," Skjerseth said. “That's part of his world. He always picked out those things. He's part of the creative end, so everything from the top to the bottom — looks and things like the colors — his input is on the show... What you see is always a piece of Charlie."
Steve Jordan, his replacement (if we can use that term), has a history with the Stones, having played on the 1986 album “Dirty Work,” when Watts was struggling with substance abuse, and then becoming a member of Richards’ touring band, the X-pensive Winos, in the late ‘80s.
"Steve is up to speed with everything,” Skjerseth said. “It is big shoes. I don't think you'll ever fill Charlie's shoes -- no one ever will. But for what they're doing and will be doing, it's spot-on for what it needs. The crowd will love it."
To keep everyone safe from COVID during this 13-city No Filter run, he said the band and the crew are vaccinated and are traveling with N95s, doctors and PCR machines.
"We're paying attention to basic common sense. We social distance. Dressing rooms have all been sanitized, everything’s been sanitized. We divided up catering for local staff and our staff. We have zones that only allow certain people in for our staff, just to keep the numbers down. The venues all across America are on board with our plan. We have nine weeks of a tour, so let's get through it and be successful and go home safe and healthy.
"That's what it's all about," he added. “We follow the protocols. We all came to the table and said we want to do this, so if we're gonna do it we have to do it together.”
On working with the Stones now for almost 30 years, he said, “They are the top of the class. Sixty years of doing this -- rock ’n’ roll -- and still standing, in-stadium mode. Their fan base is huge, their catalog is big and their performances are live. No one should pass up the opportunity. It’s a show that everybody should see.”
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