 Madison Square Garden
Saturday night show is no doubt Madison Square Garden in New York, also
transmitted live through HBO.
19.000 people will attend the show and millions at their Television set at
home.
Reporter from Stonesplanet, Henrik Andersen will be at MSG tonite.
Set list:
Street Fighting Man - Start Me Up - If You Can't Rock Me - Don't Stop - Monkey
Man - Angie - Let It Bleed - Midnight Rambler - Tumbling Dice - Thru And Thru -
Happy -
Gimme Shelter - You Got Me Rocking - Can't You Hear Me Knockin' - Honky Tonk
Women - Satisfaction - It's Only Rock'n'Roll - When The Whip Comes Down - Brown
Sugar - Sympathy For The Devil - Jumping Jack Flash.
 STONES'
THROW TO HISTORY
by Dan Aquuilante, NY POST.
January 18, 2003
--
DEFYING rock 'n' roll wisdom nearly as old as the band itself, the Rolling
Stones gave the sold-out house at Madison Square Garden what they needed. Better
yet, musicians and audience got what they wanted.
At the Stones' Garden return Thursday - four months since the tour started -
there were few flaws, glitches or musical hiccups, just the wizened band
unleashing its aggressive, chunky rock 'n' roll that's been sharpened over the
last 40 years.
That still-razor edge is what makes tonight's live HBO broadcast from the
Garden such an important concert document.
If Thursday's practice run was telling, tonight's concert will capture the
band in top form, playing its best-known, most-loved songs, possibly for the
last time as a group in New York City.
Nobody in the Stones' camp has ever suggested that this is a farewell tour,
but considering the band's senior citizen status, it doesn't have to be said.
Sure, the Stones are in it for the money - seats cost up to $350 - but this
broadcast is about fan appreciation as well as vindication. The Stones may be
old, but they aren't geezers.
What you'll see on HBO is nearly three hours of Rolling Stone classics,
opening with rail-thin Mick Jagger punching out "Street Fighting Man,"
and bowing with him and his bandmates ripping it up with encores of "Sympathy
for the Devil" and "Jumping Jack Flash."
This live TV concert is generous and daring on the part of the Stones. Even
those who had top seats at Thursday's warm-up show didn't see what the camera
close-ups will reveal tonight: how the ravages of time and a life in rock 'n'
roll have deeply etched the faces of Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and
Ronnie Wood.
Tonight's show spits in the eye of vanity, proclaiming, "This one's for
the record. This is who we are, and this is what we've done."
Expect tonight's show, like this entire tour, to be focused on music, not
pretty faces, sex appeal or even concert spectacle.
After the Stones are retired to the old rockers' home, copies of this concert
will serve as a record for the power of blues-inflected hard rock and the band
that made it blossom around the world.
That sound was heard best in the Stones' ode to Jack the Ripper, "Midnight
Rambler" and the band's concert rarity, "Can't You Hear Me Knocking,"
both of which were extended into 10-minute jams.
That isn't to take anything away from "Honky Tonk Women," "(I
Can't Get No) Satisfaction," "Gimme Shelter," "Tumbling
Dice," "Let It Bleed" or the night's single ballad,
"Angie," but those two jams, more than any other tunes, showed the
complete command the Stones have over their music.
It wasn't wasted on the audience, who perceived the power of the moment.
Sure, it was all familiar to them, but rather than hearing a band rework old
tired songs, they heard Jagger and company rejuvenate classics, making them as
pertinent today as they were when they were first written.
That's why tonight will truly be "Must-See TV."
Keith
Richards Keeps the Stones Rolling
By BEN RATLIFF, New York Times
eith Richards is the formula for the Rolling Stones as well as its claim to
spontaneity. The best moments of the Stones' show at Madison Square Garden on
Thursday were introduced by his riffs, which appeared suddenly, bright and
cutting and emphasizing the weak beats of a rhythm. They sliced through the
music's laggardly atmosphere.
When you're nearing 60, you don't cross through New York City four times on a
yearlong world tour unless you have astounding amounts of money to make. (In
September the band played at Madison Square Garden, Roseland Ballroom and Giants
Stadium; this "Forty Licks" tour will soon continue in Europe through
August.)
A few years ago one witty reviewer wrote of one of the band's 90's albums that
it sounded as if the Stones had eliminated the in-between steps and recorded it
inside a bank. But at some point in the 1970's, through its music and its
publicity, the band really did create a kind of delicate golden mean, balancing
rock, money, sloth and sex; our culture has grown up understanding the
proportions, and the context of popular culture prevents the group from seeming
like venal laughingstocks.
Really, the Rolling Stones are predicated on good songwriting. The Stones
rehearsed about 130 songs for this tour, and also revolved various sequences of
songs that are deep-catalog although certainly not obscure. On Thursday at
midconcert they played a triptych of songs from "Let It Bleed,"
flashing a giant image of the album's cover above them before and after the set.
An unsmiling Mick Jagger spent the show on his tiptoes, flopping from the elbows
out and the knees down; he's still a great antivirtuosic dancer, if not the
electrifying singer he was. The steady-enough rhythm section — the drummer
Charlie Watts, the bassist Darryl Jones and the keyboardist Chuck Leavell —
hit some tempos that felt wrong (a too brisk "Angie," a mellow
"Monkey Man") but also some that felt beautifully right, particularly
a nasty, leisurely "Can't You Hear Me Knocking."
The same song pointed out the difference between the two guitarists, Ron Wood
and Mr. Richards. Mr. Wood re-enacted the iconic solos recorded by Mick Taylor,
his predecessor in the band; when casually improvising, he was a totally banal
musician. Mr. Richards barely soloed, but when he did, each phrase had a spindly
power and was based in rhythmic ideas. For long stretches, he parked in front of
the drum set and locked into a groove.
The lasting image of the show, which was a run-through before another one to be
broadcast live on HBO tonight, wasn't the red confetti during "Jumping Jack
Flash." Nor was it the catwalk from a big stage to a small stage in the
center of the arena — a device from the last tour — nor the thrashing return
to the A section of "Midnight Rambler" after a five-minute slow-blues
sojourn. It was Keith Richards, looking like a ragbag sponsored by Van Cleef
& Arpels, sweetly smiling for the audience and embracing his guitar: a
startling, cuddly scene.
 Stones
Take The Stage At MSG With Whole World Watching
By
Dale M. Zupsansky
The Stones strutted their stuff once again in New York City playing a live
concert on HBO at Madison Square Garden. The Stones have played many memorable
shows at the world’s most famous arena dating back to their legendary
performances in November 1969, which later became known as Get Your Ya Ya’s
Out. After playing at the Garden in the fall, the Stones have come back to New
York and other North American cities before packing up their traveling rock n’
roll show for Europe, Japan, Australia and China.
This time however the Stones were doing something that many bands fear.
Playing a live show to a national TV audience with no room for mistakes. The
Stones playing almost seemed too perfect to be live. After touring North America
playing mostly different set lists every night, the band seemed to have the
concert rarities such as Can’t You Hear Me Knocking down pat. The air at MSG
was electric, as it is most of the time the Stones take the stage in the Big
Apple, and the band seemed energized and youthful as Keith strummed the opening
chords of Street Fighting Man.
After settling in on stage, Mick addressed New York City as the top of the
world and the crowd returned the favor with a roar. If You Can’t Rock Me made
you feel as if you were taken back to the seventies as the famous tongue logo
appeared on the screen behind the band. This song always sounds raw and rugged
when the Stones play it live but the band has really tightened it up as the tour
has progressed giving the audience the feel as if they were listening to Love
You Live.
This night the Stones would do a mini-set from Let It Bleed after giving the
Garden crowd a set of Exile on Main Street in the fall. The title track Let It
Bleed sounded flawless, with the spidery, double lead guitars of Ronnie and
Keith providing the song with never-ending solos. A nicely played version of
Midnight Rambler followed with Mick howling away on the harmonica and Keith
adding one of his signature riffs.
The band introductions seemed to be almost like a reunion of some sort with
each of the four main Stones getting tremendous ovations from the sold out crowd.
Ronnie received an ear-piercing roar; his brilliant guitar playing due to his
sobriety seems to have really brought new life into recent performances. Charlie
was, of course, greeted with a roar as the rest of the band bowed to him as if
he has been the true leader of the band for the past 40 years. And Keith and
Mick AKA the Glimmer Twins joined hands and paid homage to the crowd as Keith
got ready to take center stage and the Garden echoed with fans screaming Keeefff!!!
After Keith’s mini-set of Thru and Thru and Happy, Mick returned to the
stage for a haunting version of Gimme Shelter, which is always a crowd pleaser.
Soon after Keith ripped into the opening chords of Can’t You Hear Me Knocking,
which has become the highlight of most of the shows this tour. The crowd
applauded Bobby Keys after his tremendous sax solo, which led into a harmonica
solo from Mick, followed by a gritty guitar solo from Ronnie who extended Mick
Taylor’s original solo but still hit the familiar notes from the original
version from Sticky Fingers.
The band’s b-stage set included It’s Only Rock and Roll, When the Whip
Comes Down and Brown Sugar. The crowd seemed to never stop dancing and those
sitting close to the miniature stage seemed almost shocked about how close they
were to the grizzly rockers.
For the encore, the Stones returned to the stage and played Sympathy For the
Devil followed by an energetic version of Jumping Jack Flash. The band took
their bows and Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ronnie kissed the crowd and TV viewers
goodnight leaving the stage and the standing applause from the 18,000 fans at
the Garden.
|
