 Giants Stadium, East
Rutherford, NJ
on Thursday, September 15th. 2005. Alanis Morissette is warm up on
the 75000 people big stadium.
Set list:
Start Me Up - You Got Me Rocking - Shattered - Tumbling Dice - Rough Justice
- Ruby Tuesday - Heartbreaker - Night Time - Intros - Worst - Infamy - Miss You
- Oh No, Not You Again - She's So Cold - Honky Tonk Woman - Out Of Control
- Sympathy For The Devil - Jumping Jack Flash - Brown Sugar - Satisfaction - You
Can't Always Get What You Want (encore) - It's Only Rock'n'Roll (encore)
Reviews:
Rolling Stones rocking hard at Giants Stadium
by John Petrick
CHRIS PEDOTA / THE RECORD
Mick Jagger dancing on stage during The Rolling Stones' Thursday night
performance at Giants Stadium.
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Worried what it’ll be like to get old? Go see a Rolling Stones concert.
The legendary band proved last Thursday night at Giants Stadium that you can
live the rock n’ - and-roll life all the way into your retirement years
without losing the raucous, party-’til-you-drop attitude that has obviously
kept them it feeling young.
A pyrotechnic blaze of glory launched last night’s the concert with the
classics “Start Me Up,” “You Got Me Rocking” and “Shattered,” with
lead singer Mick Jagger quickly discarding his sequined jacket and dancing up a
frenzy in black T-shirt and jeans.
“Are you feeling gooooood?” he asked the crowd, toweling off after the
first three songs. The roaring response made the answer obvious.
Another Rolling Stones tour? Sure, the news always brings a collective roll
of the eyes. But the show is a different story. Though by now there should be
something pathetic about a bunch of shriveled guys in their 60s behaving and
dressing like they don’t know when to stop, in performance, it’s quite the
opposite. Their bigger-than-life aura filled the house, as did fans young and
old in this sold-out one-night gig.
The band is Stones are touring in support of their new release, “A Bigger
Bang,” their first album of new material in eight years.
Some aging rock stars try to capitalize on the taxing effects of time, using
the coarseness in their tour-weathered voices to new and special effect. Not
Mick Jagger. He didn’t need to. His voice had all the muscle behind it that it
had 40 years ago. More impressive is the irrepressible charm he still radiates,
whether by parading around the stage like a sneering street punk or in the way
he relates to the rest of the ensemble. This is the man who invented the term
“attitude.”
Their last tour, in 2002 and 2003, was launched in tandem with a
greatest-hits release. This time around, the show is obviously still more about
greatest hits than new material. After all, that’s what people came to see.
But in hearing such new songs as “Oh No Not You Again” in juxtaposition to
juxtaposed with such classics as “Tumbling Dice” or “Honkey Tonk Womaen,”
it seemed, in fact, that juxtaposition was the only thing missing. The new
Stones songs peppered into the set sounded pretty much like badly embroidered
bits and pieces of old Stones songs peeled off of the beer-sticky editing room
floor.
But it didn’t matter. While more progressive acts might think it’s
stagnant not to change with the times, these old-school rock n’ -and-rollers
know who they are. The only thing that would make them come across as
undignified would be in trying to be trendy.
While the rest of the band may not have done as much moving as Jagger, they
still did plenty of communicating. Drummer Charlie Watts was a well-honed
metronome to Keith Richards’ and Ron Wood’s ricocheting, raw chords and
riffs. Only occasionally - like on “She’s So Cold” - did it feel like the
guitar playing started overwhelming to overwhelm Jagger’s vocals.
One of the most thrilling parts of the evening came with a cover of Ray
Charles’ “Night Time Is the Right Time,” with the band clearly having as
much fun playing to each other as to the audience. As a video montage of Charles
loomed above, a raise-the-roof horn section (had there been a roof) and a
soulful set of back-up singers were terrific. Supporting vocalist Lisa Fischer
wowed the audience with a solo as athletic as anything heard on “American
Idol” - only she didn’t choke it, or overcomplicate it. She sang it like she
meant it.
The flashy production - which included bursts of flame so unexpected at times
it could momentarily scare the daylights out of you - included a sideshow, of
sorts. During the band’s performance of “Miss You,” part of the stage
detached and floated across the floor to the opposite end of the stadium. It not
only created a sense of journey - it gave people in the back of the stadium
better seats, for a few songs.
What’s so endearing about Jagger - both musically and in his persona - is
the combination of childishness mischief and grown-up honesty that makes him so
much more than a caricature in his 60s. Just watch as the stage turns a moody
glaze of purples, greens or deep reds and Jagger’s tough-as-shoe-leather face
turns somehow choir-boyish during the more down-tempo “You Can’t Always Get
What You Want,” or the beginning of “Ruby Tuesday.”
Finishing up the show with “It’s Only Rock and Roll,” one final,
prolonged blast of fireworks closed the night’s proceedings. This is the tour
to support “The A Bigger Bang,” after all. And the Stones clearly have no
intentions of going out with a whimper.
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