Against a video backdrop of projecting asteroids, the curtain parted at about 9:40pm with Keith Richards stepping out stage left, mid-front launching into the first few chords of Jumping Jack Flash. The rhythm section kicked in, Mick pranced out center stage and voila---The Rolling Stones.

This was the first arena concert I've seen in many, many years and it seemed to me from what little I recall that much has changed, mostly all for the better.

After Let's Spend the Night Together, song two, the Stones and sound engineers seemed to have tweaked the sound to optimal tone and volume. Indeed, it was surprising how clear it sounded to me up in the not-so-cheap seats of section 304.

The band was tight. Mick and crew were in fine form with Mick prancing around left, right, center stage, up and down the catwalks engaging the audience, and likewise Keith to a slightly lesser extent.

The backup singers were located stage right back, keyboardist and exotic wood grower Chuck Leavall, stage right center back, guitarist Ron Wood stage right center front, drummer Charlie Watts plexiglass sidewalled off, center back, equipment, horns stage left back, bassist (didn't catch his name) stage left front, Keith stage left center front and Mick center stage roaming about.

Good set-up, good sound, big stage with a lots of room for Mick, Keith and Ron to move about. I don't think they played much if anything from their new album. Instead it was the usual suspects so-to-speak in no particular order--Sympathy For The Devil, Brown Sugar, Happy, Honky Tonk Women, Miss You, Love Is Strong, Start Me Up, You Can't Always Get What You Want, Midnight Rambler, Tumbling Dice and about an hour in Gimme Shelter.

Gimme Shelter was a highlight especially the third verse sung by Lisa Fisher, who with her power and energy amply delivered the vocal intensity the verse and song demanded. Good stuff, thrilling, goose-pimple rushes, and yet for one who remembers and/or still listens to the original, there's no way ever to replicate the serendipitous voice crackle, cracking Merry Clayton vocalized.

Mick mentioned mid-show they were playing the Super Bowl and he promised to bare both t*ts--some humor.

They a solid 1h50m before leaving the stage only to come back with Satisfaction as the encore.

Altogether they played 2h. It was very professional. The sound was clear, crisp, the band was tight and engaging. It was a multigenerational audience--saw some moms and pops with their tots, and lots of young adults, obviously second or third generation Stones fans.

My sight lines were good, no auras of smoke hovering, although I did smell some of that funny stuff, not much, 15 or 20m in. It dissipated only to return an hour or so later. Oh the good old days. A friendly, well behaved, responsive of not overexuberant crowd. At this point in time, the urgency, either from this audience member nor from the band itself, I would say, although as I said they were engaging, energetic and professional, isn't the same.

As Jagger-Richard wrote but did not sing or play last night, Time Waits For No One.







Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2006 04:14PM by TGAB.