(This originally appeared in Soundcheck Magazine)

The Rolling Stones
at Gillette Stadium 9/5/02

On September 1, 2002, music critic Neal Pollack wrote an unfortunate article in the New York Times stating that the Rolling Stones were irrelevant, washed-up, a mockery to their own reputation, and that they should have had the good sense to call it a day a long time ago. Needless to say, Pollack’s argument rings hollow on many different levels. Certainly, the fact that so many people under age 30 were probably conceived to a Rolling Stones record points to their relevance, and going to see the Stones perform on this, their 40th anniversary tour, is akin to going to a religious revival. The band has not released anything on par with “Satisfaction” in ages, but just the fact that they are still walking among us, getting their rocks off night after night, is like spitting in the face against death, and it’s a celebration of the music that’s pumped through our collective veins for over four decades.

The Stones kicked off their Licks World Tour in Boston two days earlier, at the Fleet Center, playing an eclectic set that featured rare and never-before-played songs, but for the stadium show, the set list was hits-heavy, with few surprises. They opened with a rousing “Brown Sugar,” with Jagger strutting across a variation of the same stage they’ve played on for years--huge, sparse, full of multicolored lights and industrial scaffolding. The thunderous applause barely let up as they tore into “Start Me Up,” and then into “It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll.” The only new song, “Don’t Stop,” was a pleasant, well-received (if somewhat unmemorable) mid-tempo rocker, but it was clearly the hits that had the crowd cheering, such as “Honky Tonk Women” which featured a naughty cartoon featuring the Stones’ famous lapping tongue logo on the huge overhead screens. Surprise songs included “Rock And A Hard Place” from the “Steel Wheels” album, a delightful cover of Otis Redding’s “I Can’t Turn You Lose” (featuring terrific horn work from the Stones’ auxiliary ensemble), “Monkey Man” from the “Let It Bleed” album, and a dirty, exhilarating version of “Midnight Rambler” from the same album.

Keith Richards sang his usual allotment of two songs (“Slipping Away” and “Before They Make Me Run”), and one wishes that he had a longer moment in the spotlight. The real treat of the show was when the band descended upon the B-Stage in the center of the stadium and played a stripped down set. Three songs from the “Some Girls” album--”Shattered,” “Beast Of Burden,” and “Miss You”--showed that the band still have their chops in fine form, while the expected encore of “Satisfaction” left the audience quite content. The sound system at the new stadium was crisp, the show spared down, and the only real complaint with the Stones is that it would be impossible for them to play everyone’s favorite songs. Still, at this point, one cannot merely critique a Rolling Stones concert as simply a concert. Rather, this is a ritual that goes back to the mid 1960s, when a previous generation made an event of going to see a rock and roll band, because the music helped them celebrate all the best parts of youth. The fact that the Stones can still do that 40 years on, despite the cynicism that has grown around them, says more than my words ever could.

-Neal Alpert