 Pepsi
Center, Denver, Colorado
on February 1st. 2003. 20.000 people found their way to Pepsi Center for
this concert. With special guest star Johnny Lang, an excellent performance from
him during the Rock Me Baby.
Set list:
Street Fighting Man - You Got Me Rockin' - Start Me Up - Don't Stop - Rocks Off
- Dead Flowers - You Can't Always Get What You Want - Monkey Man - Gimme Shelter
- Rock Me Baby - Tumbling Dice - Slipping Away - Happy - Sympathy For The Devil
- Can't You Hear Me Knocking - Honky Tonk Woman - Satisfaction - Mannish Boy -
It's Only Rock'n'Roll - Brown Sugar - Jumpin' Jack Flash.
 Stones' show has old age licked:
Mark Harden, Denver Post
Sunday, February 02, 2003 - We interrupt this review
to address a matter of propriety:
Forty tongue-lashings to the Rolling Stones for going ahead with their concert
Saturday night at the Pepsi Center mere hours after a national tragedy.
Of course, the Stones have sneered at popular notions of propriety throughout
their career. That may be one reason why we can't help but love these wizened
musical marauders, and why they sold out the arena Saturday night, with some
seats going for as much as $304 (plus service charges and parking).
The Stones make their own rules, and have for 40 years.
So enough of a critic's huffing and puffing.
You want to know how the show went.
It went astoundingly well.
Appropriately for the day, the Stones played a bluesy, salty set, showcasing
the stabbing guitar licks traded all night by Keith Richards and Ron Wood.
And at age 59, singer Mick Jagger continues to cheat time. Whippet thin,
wiggling that little butt of his in black stretch pants, Jagger strutted, jutted
his fingers, changed silky shirts every few songs and sang with insinuating
power.
This was the Stones' first Colorado show since their date at the old
McNichols Arena in February 1999.
Then, as now, the band divided its time between a main stage and a pier-like
second stage that jutted out into the crowd, where at press time they were
gnawing their way through "Mannish Boy" and "It's Only Rock 'n'
Roll."
On their "Licks" tour, the Stones are mixing venue sizes in various
cities, playing at stadiums, arenas and ballrooms.
Alas, the rumors that their Denver visit would include an in-your-face show
at the 3,600-capacity Fillmore Auditorium proved untrue.
And unlike most past tours, there was no new album to flog (other than last
year's greatest-hits set, "Forty Licks," from which the Stones played
a new number, the jaunty "Don't Stop").
So, instead of having to sprinkle several unfamiliar new songs into the set,
the Stones were able to dig that much deeper into their wickedly rich catalog. (They
reportedly rehearsed 130 tunes for the tour.)
Saturday night they showcased the late-'60s "Let It Bleed" album
with a funked-up take on "You Can't Always Get What You Want,"
offering a slinky lead from Richards and a double-time, revival-meeting ending;
a jittery "Monkey Man"; and a roiling "Gimme Shelter"
featuring a towering vocal duet by Jagger and backing singer Lisa Fischer.
There were also such '70s gems as "Rocks Off," "Dead Flowers,"
"Tumbling Dice," "Happy" and a protracted "Can't You
Hear Me Knocking" fueled by Wood's guitar solo and Bobby Keys' sultry sax.
And there were plenty of '60s classics, including the opener, "Street
Fighting Man," plus "Sympathy for the Devil," "Honky Tonk
Women" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction."
The stage was fairly simple, with a few arcs of lights and a massive screen
displaying big lips and images from the "Ronnie-Cam," a tiny camera
mounted on the neck of Wood's guitar.
Looking at it charitably, there's no doubt that the Stones offered some
hard-rocking solace to fans for whom the space shuttle Columbia disaster was but
the latest collective jolt in an era of terrorist attacks and looming war in
Iraq.
And for those who came and filled every seat, perhaps the show seemed a small
but needed satisfaction.
Young blues-guitar phenom Jonny Lang - who just turned 22 - opened the night
with 45 minutes of stinging leads and a voice that sounds like it comes from ...
well, a 59-year-old.
 
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