America West Arena, Poenix, Arizona
on Thursday, January 30th. 2002. Long time ago the band last visited Phoenix. Now they were back to play for an audience of almost 19.000 people. 

Set list:
Street Fighting Man - Start Me Up - Bitch - Don't Stop - All Down the Line - Wild Horses
Let It Bleed - Live With Me  - Midnight Rambler - Tumbling Dice - Thru and Thru - Before They Make Me Run - Sympathy for the Devil - You Got Me Rockin' - Gimme Shelter - Honky Tonk Women - Satisfaction - It's Only Rock'n'Roll - Like A Rolling Stone - Brown Sugar - Jumpin' Jack Flash.

Mick, Keith, etc. show they've gathered no moss

PHOENIX - Who knew watching a crew of aging multimillionaires work up a sweat could be so much fun?

The Rolling Stones did their thing for a sold-out crowd of nearly 20,000 Thursday at America West Arena in Phoenix.

These lovable rock 'n' roll antiques have become so iconized over their 40-plus years that it's easy to forget why they got that way.

They are just plain, damn good at what they do.

From the first spotlighted glimpse of Keith Richards alone on stage, the crowd was on its feet and ready to rock.

Clad in what can only be described as a pea-green bathrobe and a black Rastafarian headband, he grimly stroked the unmistakble opening riff of "Start Me Up." The familiar song did just that for Keith and Co.

With a cigarette hanging from his lips, a grinning Richards actually looked like he might be having a good time.

An apparently jubilant Mick Jagger stalked the stage in a series of brightly colored shirts and jackets, bellowing out the lyrics with cocky ease.

"It feels so good to be back here," Jagger drawled in his aristocratic/gutterpunk growl. "Somebody told me this is the first time we've been here since 1995. . . . If you were here then, thanks for coming back."

Armed with a three-man brass section, the Stones whipped up a jazzy Ike and Tina Turner Revue vibe with "Bitch."

Jagger's squatting, high-kicking and bootie wiggling were so non-stop that he soaked through a rainbow's worth of shirts.

A message to the Strokes, the Hives and the scores of other imitators: There's nothing like the real thing.

Wiping his perpetually damp brow, the bantam rooster frontman ignited an explosion of screams from the crowd.

Sure, his haggard visage is widely regarded as a caricature of its former pouty glory, but he still oozes rock star bravado and sex appeal.

A medley of tunes from the seminal "Let It Bleed" album made the show, especially the honky-tonkin' title track.

One of the concert's rare "down" moment came during a sweet rendition of "Wild Horses."

Jagger's weathered voice suited the tender song perfectly. With Richards' and Ronnie Wood's drawling/dueling guitars backing him up, the song resonated off the venue's walls like a righteous ballad should.

A "guitar cam" rigged up to Wood's axe gave the crowd some interesting perspective shots on the giant split-screens backing the stage.

And the frequently broadcast close-ups of glossy, cherry red lips and tongues paid homage to the band's Andy Warhol trademark.

But that was the only self-conscious touch of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame reverence.

Live shows by bands with this much history are usually melancholy, nostalgic affairs, overstocked with teary smiles of recognition.

The Rolling Stones' Forty Licks Tour stop in Arizona was the polar opposite:

An all-out bash with plenty of beer to go around and kickin' house band to crank out some of your favorite jams.

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