How the Rolling Stones’ 1998 Bridges to Babylon Setlist Shifted: ‘Saint of Me’ and ‘Out of Control’ Become Stalwarts While Classics Get Cut

The Bridges to Babylon tour kicked off in September 1997 with a relatively static setlist built around the new album’s singles and a handful of untouchable hits. But by the time the European leg wrapped in 1998, the band had quietly turned “Saint of Me” and “Out of Control” into near-daily fixtures, while occasionally dropping songs like “Honky Tonk Women” or “Start Me Up” to keep each show unpredictable. The shift reflected both a desire to sell the new material and a subtle acknowledgment that not every classic needed to be played every night.

Early shows in Chicago and Toronto leaned heavily on the album’s lead singles—“Anybody Seen My Baby?” and “Flip the Switch”—but “Saint of Me” didn’t become a regular until the November 1997 arena run. By the time the tour hit Europe in summer 1998, “Out of Control” (with its extended harmonica intro) was a nightly closer for the main set, and “Saint of Me” had replaced “Flip the Switch” as the set’s gospel-grit centerpiece. The trade‑off: older hits like “Brown Sugar” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” stayed locked in, but deeper cuts like “Miss You” and “Shattered” got rotated out more often than not.

The most noticeable removal wasn’t a single song but a category. Early shows featured a mid‑set acoustic block with “The Spider and the Fly” and “Let It Bleed.” By the 1998 European shows, that block was mostly replaced by “Saint of Me” and “Out of Control,” meaning the setlist tilted harder toward the tour’s own production.