 January 21, 2003 is the first of two
stops at United Center in Chicago. The audience is around 20.000 people to this
show.Set list:
You Got Me Rockin' - Street Fighting Man - If You Can't Rock Me - Don't Stop -
Live With Me - Wild Horses - Sweet Virginia - Rocks Off - Tumbling Dice -
Slipping Away - Before They Make Me Run - Gimme Shelter - Start Me Up - Can't
You Hear Me Knocking - Honky Tonk Women - Satisfaction - It's Only Rock'n'Roll
- Midnight Rambler - Brown Sugar - Jumping Jack Flash.
 Rolling
Stones show they have the energy of men half their age
by Joel Reese, Daily Herald
There are two ways to look at the Rolling Stones' never-ending nostalgia express
that wheezed into the United Center last night.
Skeptics will likely say the band should have hung it up decades ago, when
they last released a relevant new album. (When was the last time even the most
die-hard Stones fan tossed 1994's "Voodoo Lounge" into the CD player?)
But the thousands who packed the sold-out United Center for the band's strong
set would likely respond, "Shut up you predictable cynics and enjoy the
Stones while they're still around."
The band gave the doubters ammunition with their unfortunate opener,
"You Got Me Rocking" (from the aforementioned "Voodoo
Lounge"), but the band still attacked it with a respectable relish. And
even the most pessimistic couldn't help but appreciate the eternally astonishing
sight of Sir Mick Jagger bounding across the stage, lithe and whippet-thin,
shaming lazy rockers half his age.
Mick and the boys atoned for the opening gaffe by following it with
"Street Fighting Man," a war horse that still packs a wallop. The song
culminated with a classic moment as Ron Wood, Keith Richards and Chicago's own
bassist Darryl Jones jammed by Charlie Watts' drum kit as Jagger writhed,
wriggled and danced across the massive stage.
The concert lagged when Jagger donned a guitar of his own for the uninspired
"Don't Stop" from the recent "Forty Licks" -- even a
gargantuan pair of seductive ruby-red lips on the colossal video screen couldn't
lift this number above lackadaisical.
 The band then turned the vast arena into a giant honky-tonk, playing three
consecutive songs from their classic "Exile on Main Street." Jagger
played an acoustic guitar for the country-tinged "Sweet Virginia" (aided
by a superb Bobby Keyes sax solo), followed by a rollicking "Rocks
Off," topped by an outstanding "Tumbling Dice." The song ended
with a dizzying rave-up -- horns blaring, Jagger dancing and Wood and Richards
beating on their worn guitars with reckless abandon.
© Blue Lena 2003
Doubters had their moments, but by end the Stones proved that even with the
ravages of time -- the four main Stones players are a combined 234 years old,
for those keeping score at home -- the Stones still have it.
 Denim-clad bad-boy wannabe Ryan Adams provided a solid -- if largely
unappreciated -- warm up. The former Whiskeytown singer imbued the song
"New York, New York" with a welcome rocking kick, but his mid-tempo
jam-twang was greeted with mostly polite applause and indifference.
Hopefully, the enfant-terrible, who covered several Stones songs on his last
trip through Chicago, stuck around for the Stones' show to learn lessons about
energizing a crowd.
©Blue Lena 2003
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