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San Antonio  Tour

San Antonio, SBC Center, Texas on Saturday, November 23rd. 2002.     Set list: Street Fighting Man - It's Only Rock'n'Roll - If You Can't Rock Me -  Don't Stop - You Got Me Rocking - Wild Horses - Dead Flowers - Bitch - Can't You Hear Me Knocking -  Tumbling Dice - Slipping Away -  Before They Make Me Run - Midnight Rambler - Start Me Up - Gimme Shelter - Honky Tonk Women - Satisfaction - Mannish Boy - Like a Rolling Stone - Brown Sugar - Jumping Jack Flash   Raucous Stones rock on By Hector Saldaña, San Antonio Express-News What a drag it is getting old? Don't you believe it. The Rolling Stones quickly disposed of that notion (a sentiment from their '60s song "Mother's Little Helper") at the SBC Center on Saturday. Opening song "Street Fightin' Man" set the tone for a raucous and eclectic set that included "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll," "Wild Horses," "Dead Flowers" and "Heartbreaker." In short, Mick Jagger danced and wailed. Keith Richards played like a man possessed. Drummer Charlie Watts kept it all together mightily. It was a homecoming of sorts, as the Stones returned to the grounds of their second gig in America way back in June 1964. That's when they played Teen Fair of Texas at Freeman Coliseum. Of course, this time there were kids in the audience that weren't even teens yet — and Mick Jagger and Keith Richards turn 60 next year. Forget those $2.50 tickets of yesteryear. The Rock 'n' Roll circus now is underwritten by corporate giants and comes with a big price tag ($300 tickets and up aren't uncommon). But time has proven to be on their side, as the boos and jeers of those infamous Teen Fair shows are long-faded memories for very few, replaced by thunderous approval 17,000 strong and overwhelming sympathy for these rock 'n' roll devils. Diana Hodges of Corpus Christi accompanied her two young sons, Alden, 11, and Hayden, 10, to their first rock concert. What an initiation for the 'N Sync and Britney Spears generation. "They just rock," Alden Hodges said as he waited in line to enter the center, hoping the band would play "Love Is Strong." Hayden Hodges summed up the Stones' lead singer: "Mick Jagger, he's a real cool guy." Their mom had never seen the band but says this was a rite of passage she wanted for her sons. "And I've always dreamed of seeing them," she added. "They're the beginning of rock," said Lloyd Chaves, 45. "They're the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world. I really believe it. No one's close." Central Catholic sophomore Ryan Reiss, 15, said he likes the Stones' music. "They still rock," said Reiss, attending with his mother Janet Denn, a die-hard fan. Before the show, Alma Rodriguez and her friends said they were "gonna relive our youth!" Ken and Annette Wertzberger flew in from Kansas City, Mo., to see the Stones here. The pair have seen the band 15 times. "Nothing triggers good old memories like the Stones," Ken said. "They still sound great," Annette added. "There are more orthopedic shoes here than kids smoking dope and rock 'n' rolling," said Kirk Oden, 35. Jason Bolt and Tracy Snyder won their tickets from an Austin radio station. "I figure it's getting late in their careers and I better see them," Bolt said.     Stones show was raucous, raw and even eclectic   By Hector Saldana, San Antonio Express News   The Rolling Stones' music is built on Keith Richards' guitar playing and Charlie Watts' drumming. Mick Jagger's singing, strutting (and stuffing his microphone down his pants) is the icing on the cake.   It has always been so with this infamous two-man rhythm section in the most famous graying rock 'n' roll band in the world. On Saturday, the two opened the concert for more than 17,000 fans at the SBC Center with the hard strummed open-tuned chords and hard-charging beat of "Street Fighting Man." Odd choice, but a most telling lyric. Because really, what can Mick Jagger and the rest of the Rolling Stones do "except play in a rock 'n' roll band?" They're no longer young boys, but rock is Jagger's, Richards,' Watts' and Ron Wood's destiny. Saturday's two-hour and 15-minute show - part of the 40th anniversary "Licks" tour - was raucous, raw and even eclectic at times. Jagger, 59, never stopped moving. And contrary to his image, Richards smiles often. Though he played the Stones most famous riffs on his five-string Fender Telecaster electric guitar, Richards looked gleefully happy aping Chuck Berry licks like a teen-ager on a standard hollow body on "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll." "Howdy, San Antonio," Jagger crooned in his best Texas drawl (he would later wear a cowboy hat on "Tumbling Dice"). "Are you doin' good?" He didn't wait for the roaring answer that came as the Stones played "If You Can't Rock Me" and a new song, "Don't Stop," with Jagger on guitar. At some shows, the Stones have dusted off "Angie" for an acoustic segment, but here fans were treated to "Wild Horses" and the wicked, country-tinged "Dead Flowers." With "Bitch," the Stones unleashed a four-piece horn section led by saxophonist Bobby Keys and a lineup of backup singers that included Blondie Chaplin. "Bobby Keys never lets us forget how big Texas can be," Richards said before his spotlight "Slipping Away," a sweet, if barely intelligible, blues ballad and "Before They Make Me Run" from the "Some Girls" album. Keys also played at the infamous Teen Fair of Texas concerts (playing with Bobby Vee) with the Stones at Freeman Coliseum in June 1964. "It's been awhile," said Richards, impressed with the new arena built next to the Freeman. "This is a nice new room." Jagger re-emerged in a black leather jacket for a primitive harmonica take on "Midnight Rambler." On "Gimme Shelter," Jagger checked with Richards when to come in singing and then attacked the brooding lyric. "Honky Tonk Women" was accompanied by R-rated animation on giant screens behind the band. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" found Wood and Richards working nuance into the familiar riffs. But the Stones saved the best for last when they performed on a smaller second stage. Unadorned, but for pianist Chuck Leavell, the basic band returned to its roots on "Mannish Boy." Wood's brilliant slide work dominated. A faithful rendition of Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" saw Jagger playing a lovely melody line on blues harp and catching a bra thrown from the audience. "Brown Sugar" closed the show on a "whoo" high as Richards and bassist Daryl Jones drove the thumping band. The encore number "Jumpin' Jack Flash" turned into a hard guitar jam with Richards and Wood refusing to end the song just to watch what Jagger would do next. Rock 'n' roll circus? Nah, rock 'n' roll burlesque   Warm up: Stones to light up the SBC Center   By Hector Saldaña, San Antonio Express-News   Web Posted : 11/22/2002 12:00 AM   Here's an easy prediction: As thousands of fans exit the SBC Center with their ears ringing Saturday, they will be sure of one thing. That they've just seen the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world.   The Rolling Stones return to San Antonio, to the site where they played their second gig on American soil in June 1964. Lucky ticket holders will find today's Stones playing with a renewed fire in a spectacular 40th anniversary "Forty Licks" show featuring moveable video screen panels, lips on fire, animation and fireworks. Oh yeah, and blistering takes of "Jumpin' Jack Flash," "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll," "Sympathy for the Devil," "Tumbling Dice," and so many more in 21/2 hours of ecstasy. The SBC Center has yet to see such a slam-dunk. George Strait may have christened it, but Saturday comes its baptism by fire. And baptism by fire sums up the Stones first U.S. tour. "It's good to be back," a beaming Richards told an Atlanta audience last month, relishing the irony. "It's good to be anywhere." Thirty-eight years ago, the Stones were, in the modern vernacular, a virtually unknown "baby band" unlike anything anyone had ever seen. "They were all bad boys when I found them," former manager Andrew Loog Oldham wrote in his memoirs, "Stoned" (St. Martin's Press, 2000). "I just brought out the worst in them." And America reacted. While Coliseum Road street signs came down this week in the name of progress, it's unlikely Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts (the remaining original Stones) have forgotten their disastrous two matinees and two evening shows at Teen Fair of Texas at Freeman Coliseum on June 6-7, 1964. Jagger has never failed to mention it from the stage every time the Stones have come back (in 1975 and 1994). "We went on after some performing monkeys," recalled Bill Wyman in his new book, "Rolling With the Stones." "People didn't know whether to take us seriously or not." The now-infamous '64 concerts are recalled mostly for the boos and heckling. The Stones opened with "Route 66" and also played "Not Fade Away," "I Wanna Be Your Man" and "I Just Want to Make Love to You." Wyman writes, "We got a poor reception from a crowd of cowboys and kids." On that S.A. visit, Watts and Ian "Stu" Stewart (the sixth Stone and road manager) went looking for rattlesnakes in a dry riverbed. The rest of the band spent the following morning around the hotel pool with six topless local girls, sunbathing, Wyman recalled. Wyman and Richards would later smuggle guns they had bought in the Alamo City through London customs, hidden in their underwear. When the Stones returned for two shows at HemisFair Arena in June 1975 (the second stop on the tour introducing Ron Wood), Jagger recalled that Teen Fair "must have been about 110 degrees." Onstage, Jagger asked, "How many of you were at the Teen Fair in 1964 when we were here? Two of you? Or three?" Saturday, the Stones will at times be accompanied by a four-piece horn section led by Bobby Keys and backup singers, including former Beach Boy Blondie Chaplin ("Sail on Sailor"). Of course, Chuck Leavell is on piano and Daryl Jones plays bass. Wyman, who this month intimated in Billboard that he might play a future reunion show, in his new book calls today's Stones "the real Rock 'n' Roll Circus." "I really rather like it," he says of the latest lineup

Stones Planet Four times a year we issue our fanzine, STONES PLANET - the fanzine is done by fans for fans! Read the reviews from the tour in the common issues and send your stuff to us - all published material will obtain nice prices.