RSFCO

Start Me Up - You Got Me Rockin' - She's So Cold - Tumbling Dice - Oh No Not You Again - Wild Horses - Dead Flowers - Bitch - Nightime - Intros - The Worst - Infamy - Miss You - Rough Justice - Satisfaction - Honky Tonk Women - Out Of Control - Sympathy For The Devil - Brown Sugar - Jumpin' Jack Flash - You Can't Always Get What You Want (encore) - It's Only Rock'n'Roll (encore)

DURHAM -- Say what you will about the Rolling Stones' current relevance or lack thereof: There just ain't a better band of capital-R Rock Stars in the world. These aging rocker barons can still put on a rousing show.

On Saturday night, the Stones drew a near-capacity crowd of about 40,000 souls to Duke University's Wallace Wade Stadium, the biggest crowd there in years. In most ways, it was a thoroughly predictable show -- a smattering of songs from the current album, "A Bigger Bang" (Virgin Records); most of the big juggernaut warhorses; cool crowd-interaction interlude; lots of pyrotechnics; a few "surprises." Most predictable of all, it was quite good.

A Stones tour is nothing if not detail-oriented, and every i was dotted and t crossed before, during and after the show. Seconds after opening act Trey Anastasio finished his set, a battalion-sized road crew went to work setting up for the headliners, accomplishing the task about as quickly as a typical NASCAR pit stop.

This tour's stage backdrop is a massive structure that looks like a butterfly-shaped apartment building, with extra seats above and behind the band (concert-goers earned those seats in a text-messaging contest). As a bomb-sniffing dog checked the stage, one roadie gave it a quick sweep with a push broom as a few others removed the sponsorship banners from each side of the stage.

After an introductory video that seemed oddly similar to what you'd see in a movie theater (I kept expecting a message to flash, "Welcome to Carmike Cinemas!"), fireworks shot above the stage as the band came out and kicked off the inevitable first song, "Start Me Up." A couple of songs later, someone from the road crew went to each usher in front of the stage and made them all take one step backward so they'd be lined up straight.

The early part of the set concentrated on B-list favorites, with as many as a dozen musicians wailing away on some songs. Early selections included "You Got Me Rockin'" and "She's So Cold" (honestly, one of the silliest knockoffs they've ever done).

Visual dissonance

It did take a while to get over the cadaverous visual impression they made, especially when the video screen behind the stage showed 25-year-old video footage of the band during "She's So Cold." Mick Jagger appears to be shriveling away to nothing but bones and cartilage, Ron Wood has wrinkles the depth of the Mariana Trench and Keith Richards looked positively embalmed. Still cooler than just about anyone else on the planet, but embalmed, and don't think he doesn't know it.

"Good to see you all," he quipped during his obligatory two-song vocal cameo. "Good to see anything!"

Nice surprises

One pleasant surprise was "Wild Horses," the Stones' Gram Parsons tribute, on which Jagger strummed an acoustic guitar; the line, "I've got my freedom, but I don't have much time" has acquired more resonance now that Jagger is older than 60. That led to "Dead Flowers," another song from the twangier pages of the Stones songbook. Also quite nice was a tribute to the late great Ray Charles with "The Right Time," with a house-shaking vocal from backup singer Lisa Fischer.

During "Miss You," part of the stage detached and traveled out on a track into the audience, coming to rest toward the back of the stadium for a couple of songs. The sound for this part of the show was actually rather poor and echo-plagued, but that didn't stop a woman from removing her bra and heaving it at Wood (who hung it from Jagger's microphone stand between guitar solos). And the echoes created an interesting off-beat effect for "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction."

Then it was back to the main stage during "Honky Tonk Women," where a huge psychedelic inflatable tongue-and-lips logo awaited. There was one more also-ran ("Out of Control"), but then it was one classic after another -- "Sympathy for the Devil," "Brown Sugar," "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and an encore of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and "It's Only Rock and Roll."

We shall not see their like again.