Mick Jagger is the 8th wonder of the world, that much we saw last night at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey.
Two months shy of 81, Jagger remains remains remarkably lithe, trim, and agile. Still fronting the Rolling Stones after 60 years, he not only runs the width of the stadium back and forth, skipping sometimes, but then prances down a runway stage into the middle of the audience with wild abandon and precision. The whole thing is quite mad.
The Rolling Stones put on a two hour show last night that is both economical and textured. It’s like a military exercise it’s so well planned, but it also seems off the cuff and improvised. That’s the beauty of it. But when you have three front men — Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood — whose total ages are over 300, there’s no room for error. Plus, they’ve been playing these songs for six decades.
The set list of greatest hits (mixing in a couple of songs from the very good new “Hackney Diamonds” album) varies a little from city to city, but last night the New York-New Jersey crowd got “Shattered,” because it’s got local references. “Miss You,” also a New York song, took off slowly and then built into an incantation. Every single entry including Richards’ two solo bits — “You Got the Silver” and “Little T and A” — had surprises. (Richards joked about the latter song, “I wrote it but I don’t remember what it’s about!” Oh, he does.)
Jagger gave the obligatory “Welcome to (blank city)” salutations a couple of times. But he finally got a little cheeky. “New York — I know you have your trials and tribulations,” he said, emphasizing trial. “I was worried about the weather,” he joked, “I thought we were going to get a little Stormy Daniels!”
The Jagger-Richards canon of songs never ceases to amaze after all these years. Numbers like “Paint it Black,” “Gimme Shelter,” and “Sympathy for the Devil” remain as sinister as they were originally. “Tumbling Dice” and “Wild Horses” are R&B classics. Richards, Wood, and co made “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Honky Tonk Woman,” to mention, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” into dizzying jams of blues and rock.
Jagger’s voice is equal to his physical presence. How can he still be singing like that? He had some falsetto runs last night that were spine chilling. It can’t just be lots and lots of sex and yoga, can it? His face has grown into a chiseled replica of his former visage. When he spreads his arms wide while dancing, he lifts into the air. You can see the ballet moves. He’s Nureyev and Tina Turner rolled into one.
Kudos to the band, plus Chanel Haynes with her blistering vocals on “Gimme Shelter” (a tribute to the original, Merry Clayton). Haynes was playing Tina Turner in the West End of London when got this job and was immediately fired by the production. She gets the last laugh here– touring with the Stones, playing to 100,000 people a night, and ripping the paint off the metal girders.
Is this the last Stones tour? I don’t think so. I really believe we’ll see them back in two years. Impossible but likely. Richards, who’s seen a lifetime of indulgence and health issues, never looked stronger than last night. While Jagger never sits nor barely pauses for water, Richards briefly — like two seconds — took a breather. But then he was up quickly, not missing a beat.
The Stones return to Met Life for a second show on Sunday. I’m too tired to be there, but they’ll be back as a life force.
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