 Comiskey
Park in Chicago
on Friday 13rd of September 2002.
Around 45.000 people enjoyed the evening show, again many in the audience are
seen both yesterday, and a few on Aragon show on Monday - one of the small
stages on this tour, with only 4.500 seats.
Set list:
Brown Sugar - Start Me Up It's Only Rock'n'Roll - Don't Stop Honky Tonk
Women
Undercover - Angie - You Can't Always Get What You Want - Monkey Man - Love
Train - Slipping Away - Before They Make Me Run - Sympathy for the
Devil - Neighbours - Little Red Rooster - Like A Rolling Stone - Gimme Shelter -
Tumbling Dice - Street Fighting Man - Jumping Jack Flash - Midnight Rambler -
Satisfaction
 Review:
Finally, a winning team rocks Comiskey
BY JEFF WISSER Sun Times in Chicago
If this is what it takes to put a winner on the field and fannies in the seats,
well, by god, let's do this 81 times a year.
Nobody hit behind the runner, bunted the man over to second or turned a double
play Friday night at Comiskey Park. The home team won nonetheless.
That's because the Rolling Stones, England's oldest hitmakers, hit a few home
runs and made all the routine plays in the inaugural rock concert at the South
Side ballpark.
The Stones offered few surprises in their 22-song set. Gone were the rarities
such as "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" and "I Can't Turn You Loose"
that the band performed during Tuesday night's stop at the United Center.
Instead, playing to a packed venue that singer Mick Jagger described as an
"enormous place," the band stuck with old and well-worn reliables such
as "Jumping Jack Flash," "Start Me Up," "Tumbling
Dice," "Honky Tonk Women" and "Brown Sugar."
But where, on previous tours, the band might have slogged through these usual
suspects with workmanlike skill, there is something different going on this year.
It starts with the rhythm section.
British country gentleman Charlie Watts continues to be one of rock's wonders of
the world, a drummer whose sure touch makes it look too easy. He held down a
steady, stunning beat on his spartan drum kit throughout the night, drawing
attention only with his solo volleys on "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction."
Chicago native Daryl Jones, meanwhile, seems to have finally found a comfort
level with the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers. His churning bass helped turn the
previously undistinguished "Tattoo You" track "Neighbours"
into a driving rocker for the ages. His depth-charge rumblings provided the
solid foundation underneath the blues classic "Little Red Rooster."
And his loping bass lines brought a touch of R&B to a winning cover of Bob
Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone."
If Jones has forged a more significant place with the Stones, guitarists Ron
Wood and Keith Richards have rededicated themselves to their established roles
in the band. Fresh out of detox (one wonders if his counselors there were aware
that his business partner is the walking bad habit himself, Richards), Wood is
playing with a clarity and precision missing in previous outings. His riffing on
"Street Fighting Man" and "Midnight Rambler" were inspired.
And on "Tumbling Dice," perhaps the most guitar lick-friendly number
in the rock canon, Wood delivered the goods.
Richards, for his part, continues to prove that rock guitar may be a dirty
business, but he is the somebody who's gotta do it. Looking worse for the wear
and tear with a receding hairline, slightly puffy countenance and a chaotic
tangle of a hairstyle, he demonstrated that his is not a pretty business. But he
also gave ample evidence that he remains the lord and master of all riffs,
particularly as he wrestled notes from his instrument on crunchy rockers such as
"Sympathy for the Devil" and, during his two-song showcase,
"Before They Make Me Run." And if a slowed-down, bluesy "Gimme
Shelter" didn't quite work, it wasn't for lack of effort on Richards' part.
And then there is Jagger, the lithe libertine who makes this entire
rock-show-as-gladiator-spectacle stuff work. Yes, the recently knighted Sir Mick
is a bit longer in the tooth, as he demonstrated by hiding behind an
infrequently strummed electric guitar to take a breather on the sweet new
pop-rocker "Don't Stop." But for a man of modest stature, he plays big.
This was nowhere more evident than when, with a few simple gestures, a shake and
maybe a wiggle, he sold the acoustic ballad "Angie" even to those in
the high-altitude seats in Comiskey's upper deck. His preening and mugging, clad
in a sequined Pimp Daddy outfit, through the O'Jays' classic "Love Train"
offered further evidence.
Jagger may be the star, but Friday, the Stones proved again that great rock 'n'
roll is a team effort.
And if they're going to bring this much energy and intensity to a stadium show,
hey, next time, let's play two.
 Rock
review, Rolling Stones at Comiskey Park
By Joshua Klein
Only the self-proclaimed "World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band" would
dare play the gigantic Comiskey Park with nothing new to plug except a handful
of songs stuck on yet another greatest-hits disc.
Rock-star arrogance is expected from the Rolling Stones, but in recent years
that arrogance had given way to outright hubris, since the band had done little
to shake up its staid set lists and rote performances.
But something feels different about the band's current "Licks" tour,
which brought the Rolling Stones to the giant concrete stadium Friday night.
With changing song selections stressing various stages of the band's monumental
career and shows performed in different-size venues (ranging from the mini to
the mammoth), the Stones have found a way to keep things interesting not only
for their fans but for themselves.
Needless to say, Comiskey Park fit the mammoth category, a venue size that
matched the band's ticket prices — well into triple digits.
Fortunately, after four decades of honing their larger-than-life personas,
the Stones did a remarkably good job entertaining and energizing such a large
crowd. Yes, the Stones seemed a little smug as they smirked and strutted for the
outsize projection screens, but the cockiness was backed up by a sense of
adventure not heard from the band in a long time.
Hedging their bets, the band opened with the irresistible trio of "Brown
Sugar," "Start Me Up" and "It's Only Rock and Roll"
before embarking on a great mix of classics and lost nuggets. They dusted off
the '80s disco ditty "Undercover of the Night," and followed it with a
haunting "Angie," which Mick Jagger sang with more nuance than many
have come to expect from him these days. Renditions of "You Can't Always
Get What You Want" and "Monkey Man," both from '69's masterpiece
"Let It Bleed," were sluggish, if well-received, but then the band
pulled out a cover of the O'Jay's "Love Train" that lit up the
stadium.
The band's short performance of "Neighbors" and "Little Red
Rooster" on the smaller satellite stage in the middle of the stadium was
hampered by bad sound, but the crowd appreciated the impassioned take on Bob
Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone." Back on the main stage, Keith Richards
drifted through a sloppy "Before They Make Me Run" and a sensitive
"Slipping Away," one of only three songs drawn from the last 20 years
(that's a good thing). But the nicest surprise of the night was an epic
rendition of "Midnight Rambler" that preceded a pro forma set-ending
"Satisfaction." As drummer Charlie Watts pushed the tempo and Richards
and Ronnie Woods chugged their guitars, the band erased any doubt that — when
they put their minds to it — they have no trouble justifying that "world's
greatest" title, if only for two euphoric hours.
|
