| September 14th, 2005 10:37 AM |
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| Mel Belli |
Stones: A Bigger Bang on Stage Than in Stores
Call Mick Jagger “snakehips.” Or even a wonder of the world at this point.
He’s 62 years old and has the body of a 16-year-old girl. He’s happy to show off his six pack, too, anytime he can get away with lifting his shirt.
Seeing him run marathons back and forth across the stage at Madison Square Garden last night was kind of exhausting. He shakes his full head of shaggy, dark hair and swivels around on one foot. It’s a revelation.
The Rolling Stones’ whole show at the Garden last night was a revelation, though. They may not be selling lots of albums anymore (their “A Bigger Bang” finished third this week with a lukewarm 124,000 copies sold). But they can pack a 15,000 seat house at $454 a ticket and rock like there’s no tomorrow.
I’ve seen the Stones a lot over the last 33 years, but this seemed like the tightest, hardest show they’d ever performed.
It was funny too, thanks to Jagger’s relaxed interplay with the audience.
"This is our 20th show here at the Garden,” he said. “People who came in 1969 now come with their kids. It’s like a big bong.”
Then he made a joke about bringing all of the family, considering the high ticket price: “It’s their college fund.”
More amusing though was Jagger’s insistence on speaking in an affected Cockney accent. He must know by now that we all know this former student from the London School of Economics is from money and has money.
In a video interview on this Web site with Grrr! columnist Mike Straka, he’s erudite and articulate. But I guess the Cockney thing equals “street,” a cred Jagger thinks he still needs to prove.
But he doesn’t. Mixing their past glories with new songs, the Stones played a blues number not too long into the show.
“Back of My Hand” owes more to Robert Johnson and the Mississippi Delta than to anything you could hear on contemporary radio.
It was a beautiful moment, and it signaled that the show was not going to be a lazy one.
Keith Richards said in a recent interview that Jagger had taken more of an interest musically in “A Bigger Bang” than in any of the Stones' recent albums. He seems to have taken a similar interest in the show, too, pushing himself to the limits physically.
Jagger struts, runs, dances in a frenzy and generally radiates for two hours and 10 minutes (and three small costume changes). He also plays — or attempts to play — lead guitar, although Richards is always there to back him up or bail him out.
There were many highlights from the show — even though the proceedings kicked off 50 minutes late. (At 140 minutes, the show cost most fans $3.24 a minute.) “Sympathy for the Devil,” “Satisfaction” (now 40 years old), “Honky Tonk Woman,” “Paint It Black” and a slowed-down, bluesy version of “19th Nervous Breakdown” were all excellent. Jagger was particularly good on “Bitch,” “Tumbling Dice” and “All Down the Line.”
Disappointments: a total skipping of the Stones’ albums of the late '80s and '90s. Nothing from "Dirty Work," "Steel Wheels," "Voodoo Lounge" or "Bridges to Babylon" except for “You Got Me Rocking.” And no ballads or particularly intimate moments: no “Wild Horses,” “Angie” or “Fool to Cry.”
No real surprises, in other words. But lots of adrenalin, and no end of high octane. And that’s why, no matter what they play or for how long, the Stones remain the World’s Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band for a reason.
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| September 16th, 2005 07:21 PM |
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| Back Street Girl |
Thanks |
| September 16th, 2005 07:51 PM |
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| FPM C10 |
wait...the DISAPPOINTMENTS are that there are no songs from Dirty Work, Steel Wheels, and only one from Voodoo Lounge?
How much you wanna bet that if they HAD played songs from those albums this guy would've bitched about it?
And this guy WASN'T surprised that they played "Get Up Stand Up" and re-worked "19th NB"? I guess he must hang out on a Stones message board then. Anyone else would've been saying "Who'da thunk it?"
So I guess the best thing about the show was Mick's hair. That guy seemed to really like that. |
| September 16th, 2005 07:57 PM |
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| Soldatti |
quote:
Disappointments: a total skipping of the Stones’ albums of the late '80s and '90s. Nothing from "Dirty Work," "Steel Wheels," "Voodoo Lounge" or "Bridges to Babylon" except for “You Got Me Rocking.” And no ballads or particularly intimate moments: no “Wild Horses,” “Angie” or “Fool to Cry.”
When you have a 1964-1981 catalog so good it's very hard to throw others songs in, and it's more hard if you have a new album this time. |
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