The Veteran Stadium show, the biggest of the three shows in Philadelphia, on
September 18th 2002 was again a great show for the audience. Rolling Stones
always liked to play in Philadelphia.
From this show we will have the review later on from Blue Lena.
The average age of the members of the Rolling Stones is 581/4. Old enough to
be great-grandfathers. Respectable enough to be knighted by the queen. Too old
to rock and roll?
"No way!" said retired factory worker Bob Lee, 63, of Millville,
N.J., who wore a red, white and blue bandanna and a 1997 Bridges to Babylon
T-shirt in the parking lot of Veterans Stadium last night before the first and
largest of three shows the archetypal band will play in the area in five days.
The Stones began to make the case for their continued relevance at 9:40. They
opened with Keith Richards' dirty guitar riff to 1971's "Brown Sugar,"
Mick Jagger, dressed in a bright-blue waist-length jacket and black pants,
prancing about the oversize stage. The British rockers followed with a snarling
version of the 1974 hit "It's Only Rock & Roll (But I Like It)"
and were off on an evening-long exploration of their back catalog.
Tomorrow, Sir Mick and his co-rockers will continue their Licks Tour with a
sold-out show at the First Union Center, and on Sunday they will perform at
Upper Darby's Tower Theater, the smallest venue the 40-year-old band will ever
have played in the Philadelphia market and its smallest in the region since it
headlined at Atlantic City's Steel Pier in 1966.
Last night's show, for which the Pretenders were the opening act, was not a
sellout; the crowd was about 45,000, and many blue seats were empty in the Vet's
upper tiers. Still, the Stones will perform for close to 70,000 fans during
their run here, with tickets ranging from $300 to $50.
Lee - like everyone else in the parking lot, which was decorated with the
Stones' red- tongue logo - was stoked to see his favorite band in its first
Philly show since 1999. He had paid $320 to attend his fourth Stones concert
since 1989.
"My wife says I'm crazy, but when the time comes, you've got to
go," Lee said. "This is the only band that I really like. For me, it's
these guys and NASCAR."
Age-wise, Lee was at the upper end in a crowd that started to fire up
tailgate parties in the South Philadelphia parking lot at noon. It was by no
means an exclusively graybeard scene to see Jagger, guitarists Richards and Ron
Wood, drummer Charlie Watts, and their touring associates.
"I'm glad to be here before they die," said Beth Kaczmarski, 23, of
West Chester, who agreed with her friend Jill Cox, 22, that the 59-year-old
Jagger was still an impressive specimen. "He's hot," Kaczmarski said.
In the view of Cara Rubino, 17, of Haddon Heights, the Stones' age is
irrelevant. "If they were 80, we'd still go see them. They could wheel
Keith out in a wheelchair, for all I care," Rubino said. "The music is
the only thing that matters."
Rubino's companion, Vincent Zito, 16, also of Haddon Heights, said: "It
doesn't matter if you're 5 or 103, the Rolling Stones are still the greatest
rock-and-roll band in the world."
Besides the music, Zito seemed impressed with Richards' famous iron
constitution: "Keith has had like five blood transfusions. He's taken all
the drugs in the world. There aren't any left for anyone else."
There were a lot of father-son tandems at the Vet, with dads taking teenagers
to see the band of their youth.
"He went to see Weezer, and he loved it," said Fred Kriger, 40, of
Doylestown. "And I told him you've got to see the Stones. It's a little
bonding and a little classic rock."
Kriger's stepson, Jason Serko, 16, who sported a T-shirt from the punk band
Minor Threat, was hoping to hear "Paint It Black."
"I don't care how old they are," Serko said. "The Stones
are classic."
Jay Weathersby, 50, a real estate broker, gathered in the parking lot with a
group of old friends from Woodbury (N.J.) High School to eat grilled chicken
while the band could be heard playing Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling
Stone" during its sound check. "They're almost 60," said
Weathersby, who wore an Elvis Presley shirt. "They're old, but they can
still kick it."
The strangest sight in the stadium lot was Jim O'Hanlon's pickup truck, on
which the Drexel Hill landscaper had set up life-size plywood cutouts of Jagger
and Richards. A mannequin depicting Jesus stood on the truck's roof. "Thank
you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord," a sign said, in lyrics adapted from the
Stones' "Far Away Eyes."
O'Hanlon, 41, played and sang selections from the band's catalog for
tailgaters. "I'm here to have a little fun and entertain the people,"
he said. "But the number-one idea of this is to bring people to Jesus."
Veterans Stadium
