It's Only Rock'n Roll
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It's Only Rock'n Roll |
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Stones
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Tour 2024 |
Mick Jagger |
Keith Richards |
Charlie Watts |
Ronnie
Wood |
Show start : 9:15pm Show end : 11:15pm
The band came out HOT, the crowd was SOOOOO into it, and all of a sudden they were playing ANGIE!!! Keith was up there strumming acoustic guitar, it seemed like old times, and the concert just took off from there...... incredible version of Rain Fall Down from the new album, then Rocks Off, smokin!!!!! The B-Stage set the crowd crazy, with Rough Justice, GET OFF MY CLOUD, and Honky Tonk Women! I can't believe what I just saw!!! Go see The Stones, just GO! Love You Live.
My first arena show on this tour after 5 stadium spectacles....Great to be in the arena again...Made me appreciate it that much more. Chatted with trumpeter Kent Smith in the lobby... Told him what a great job the horn section is doing on this tour. I'm a fan of opening act John Mayer and he put on a good set with his new trio. A lot of blues, not the radio pop many would expect. If you're going to Philly #2 on Wednesday, check out Mayer. Interesting note- his bandmates are Steve Jordan on drums...yes, the great engine for the Expensive Winos...and on bass, Pino Palladino, who was one of the bassists to audition for the Stones when Bill Wyman left the band, (of course we all know who won that job, the great D. Jones)
The Stones hit the stage and were loud and aggressive all night...always a huge plus. I don't care if things get sloppy at times, or if the setlist is "run of the mill" ..if they are pushing and just plain rocking out...it's all good. They certainly rocked on this night. Start Me Up started us up with loud guitars and great energy from the band and the crowd. You Got Me Rocking continues to be a favorite of mine, go ahead make fun of me, I don't care. Keith's guitar on that song always puts a smile on my face. She's So Cold featured some nasty work by Keith, great fills and riffs....and great transitions. Mick greeted the crowd and gave a shout out to Morristown...love how they put the towns in the teleprompter for him to read...an ongoing funny bit. He also said he was full from eating two cheesesteaks for lunch..yeah right! Tumbling Dice was cooking more than usual. And the move of Oh No Not You Again to the main stage is a great thing. I just love this song every time...live or on the record. Then we got a tour premiere of Angie...and Mick was in top form on the vocals...He really was in the zone on this one. Great to see. And next, the curveball we had all hoped for...Mick strapped on the guitar and I just had a feeling we would get a world premiere of a new song from A Bigger Bang. Mick told us, "We've got a new one and we've never done it before....Rain Fall Down." Yesssssss! And the band hit this one out of the park, they nailed it....and it's a tough song to do live. The funky groove was great, Keith was dancing in the back line. Mick was great as usual. Huge highlight for me and many others. and then to follow it up with Rocks Off....thank you! Time for a cover tune and Bob Marley's Get Up Stand Up. Great reggae groove. Keith was loving it. As the song went on and photos of Marley were shown on the screen, I thought of the great photo of Mick with Marley and Peter Tosh....sure enough as the song ended, they put that classic pic on the screen...Great.
Band intros brought us Charlie "Banger" Watts... and Keith stepped forward to greet us. "hey Philly, back around again...it don't change..same pants, same shirt, same shit."...classic...maybe a little jab at the rumored L'Wren Scott (Jagger's babe) stylist clash with the band. who knows???... Keith and the crew kicked ass on The Worst, Bernard Fowler and Keith were in sync..Keith grabbing Bernard and keeping him in a big hug around the neck while singing. Infamy brought us classic Keith...making it up as he goes, trying to follow verses in the teleprompter...always putting his own soulful twist on things. And the stop-transition had Charlie speeding up to trick Keith and the band... as Keith chimes in 'oh shit"...on the down beat by Charlie. Just one of those little twists that is easy to miss, but makes me enjoys things even more...the moments that make a show for me.
Miss You brought the moving stage right over our heads, literally. In the arena, it's a tight fit...very exciting. Rough Justice has found a home on the b-stage...grittty and great. Get Off of My Cloud is a real lift to the crowd. and Honky Tonk was rolling as usual, as the stage came back to us up front. Out Of Control and that great Kent Smith trumpet solo...and Mick took off on this one, with a soaring vocal and huge energy. Keith ripped and sliced and then Mick is on harp...always loved this song. Sympathy for the Devil was really alive. The vocal was powerful and then Keith jumped in with a searing guitar that just set the song ablaze..Again, it's that loud, aggressive attitude that makes these shows fantastic. Brown Sugar had a high energy and long run that we usually see when it's a show closer. Keith, again, was in the groove...and I have to mention how powerful Charlie was tonight. His snare was super hard and late in the show, he beat the hell out of the bass. Jumping Jack Flash brought a thunderous exclamation to the set. The double encore opened with You Can't Always Get What You Want...as in Pittsburgh, Ronnie hit a great solo...running fast and loud. Mick was moving the crowd all night and this was a real standout.
Our finale was one that will be talked about for a long time. I had seen the setlist earlier on Charlie's plexiglass...Satisfaction. Keith came out and started into It's Only Rock'n Roll...where are they going??... finally Mick decides to sing Satisfaction and the groove was all mish-mashed. They started to work through it and Keith slowly realized the screw-up. No matter, he laughed it off and looked sheepish, while still not going into the Satisfaction riffs. The weaving early on was Keith jawing and laughing with Ronnie...forehead-to-forehead...From there, what we got was an extra-long version that eventually took off as Keith stormed forward and blasted us with the famous riff. Then the song soared...again, on the strength of aggressive, loud, rock musicianship..plain and simple. The vocal was great, the back-up singers made a real impact, Mick worked his ass off, as usual. Keith just kept going with in-your-face tight riffs. Charlie turned it up in an instant and was booming the bass and killing the snare. It rocked. So what that it was screwed up early??, the song took a new form once it was back on track. And it did so because these guys can ride out the toughest stumbles, thanks to a great dependable rhythm line of Charlie and Darryl. ...I think it epitomized what this band does on the live stage... It fills where it needs, when it needs, with no apologies and finds that rocking groove. I loved the way this show ended. The whole night was loud, with big guitars that sliced through the arena.... a great thing to hear, see and feel. I think it set the stage for a great second chapter in Philly come Wednesday.
The details: show started at 9:15 and ended exactly 2 hours later at 11:15. The trend of having "Oh No, not you Again" replace "Rough Justice" early in the set continued tonight with the two songs trading places and the later finding its way to the B-Stage. I like this change and hope they keep it. Also tonight was the performance premier of "Rain Came Down" and they did a nice, tight version. Same can be said for a sweet version of Angie. However, this was not a great night for Mick, he flubbed the lines to "Rocks Off" badly, you could see the rest of the band including the back up singers trying to rescue the song. They finally got things right in time to deliver the killer lines "the sunshine bores the daylights out of me" but it was really too late to save this great, great song.
Two other major snafu's. The first and I'll admit this is an opinion: the inclusion of "Out of Control" in the set after "Honky Tonk" is a huge momentum killer and should be scrapped. Especially since they follow this with "Sympathy" and on into the warhorse section of the show there just isn't any need to play a song that most of the crowd either doesn't like or doesn't know. Much better to play "Paint it Black" as an example and then go into "Sympathy".
The second major gaff: After they played "JJF" and went off I turned to the person I came with and said that this would be the first time I had seen the Stones when they didn't play "Satisfaction". They had already played "Brown Sugar" and I figured that they'd come back and play "YCAGWYW" and then "IORR". Sure enough Keith came out and started a first rate version of "YCA..." and then started to play the opening of "IORR" but Mick must have read my mind because he started singing "Satisfaction". It took the band a good minute to recover. At a point Woody put his arm around Mick and said something about this, Mick never really let on how badly he'd screwed up and Keith saved the day with stellar guitar on this final number, even better than "Sympathy" where he's been playing great every night.
To sum up, not a great show but to paraphrase Woody Allen's line that even bad sex is good sex, well even a second rate Stones show is better than almost any other rock show you're likely to see.
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It's Only Rock'n Roll 1980 - 2005