Rolling Stones
Sat., Oct. 15, Philips Arena
Touring to support their best album in more than 20 years, the Rolling Stones’ Bigger Bang World Tour featured a prancing Mick Jagger and the gang starting things up with, appropriately, “Start Me Up.”
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Without the overblown theatrics of previous visits, the Stones played a raw, rocking and surprisingly intimate set that relied on the music — and their larger-than-life images on the giant video screen — to carry the hit-heavy and heavy-hitting show. They waited until the fifth song to drop any A Bigger Bang material into the program, beginning with the lead single, “Rough Justice.” Even “Rain Fall Down,” the least familiar of the four new songs of the evening, was greeted with enthusiasm. The politely rowdy crowd at the sold-out arena remained on its feet throughout most of the evening.
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Instead of this tour’s usual Ray Charles tribute, the band toasted Georgia soul legend Otis Redding with a great rendition of “Mr. Pitiful.” Further nods to the Peach State: Jagger noted that drummer Charlie Watts was wearing the team colors of the Thrashers and Macon-based keyboardist/musical director/tree farmer Chuck Leavell received a roaring home-state welcome.
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The almost telepathic players easily smoothed over mistakes and missed cues, making the overall presentation seem virtually flawless. The brassy horn section and sassy backing vocalists, and the dual guitar attack of Keith Richards and Ron Wood helped bring selections from the Stones’ dog-eared songbook to powerfully impressive new life.
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Even for a grizzled old concert veteran, the four songs performed on the mechanical stage that transported the gracefully aging icons to the middle of the arena were especially exciting. “Miss You” melded into the new (“Oh No, Not You Again”), the classic (“Get Off of My Cloud”) and the timeless (“Honky Tonk Women”). The Stones’ two-song encore, punctuated with a rain of colorful streamers, proved that “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” but two hours and 21 songs from these old pros provided the ultimate rock ‘n’ roll “Satisfaction.”