Show Review

BOOM! BANG! Fireworks? Flame-throwers? At a rock show?

Here’s the deal...those of us who sit in dark packed clubs drinking cheap booze waiting for the “next big thing” are actually missing the “Big Thing,” and that my friends is The Rolling Stones. Call them your grandmothers band, make fun of Mick’s Cissy Strut, but don't dismiss The Rolling Stones. I did for a long time, and boy was I wrong.

The other night in the Meadowlands; Mick, Keith, Ronnie, Charlie, Daryl Jones, Chuck Leavell, along with a ton of back up singers and a horn section proved that good music truly has no limits. I've read reviews claiming that the Stones create a rock and roll environment in which an arena feels like a club, Horseshit. They take a 75,000 seat football stadium and make it feel like 300,000 people are rocking along to "Jumping Jack Flash." Massive is the word that kept coming to mind last night, simply massive. After seeing Mick run sideline to sideline I will never feel sorry for Tiki Barber again. Granted Keith Richards wasn’t trying to tackle him, but that man was a whirling dervish from pillar to post. It's easy to see why literally thousands of kids have started garage bands with visions of glory, only to end up singing bad white boy blues. Mick Jagger has something special - go ahead make fun of him copping Tina Turner and sleeping with David Bowie, the man will kick YOUR ass. I've never seen a 61-year-old "grandfather" doing anything remotely close to what Glimmer Twin #1 pulled off in the swamps of Jersey. From the opening strains of "Start Me Up" to the closing Notes of "It’s Only Rock and Roll," Mick had the capacity crowd in the palm of his hand.

As for Glimmer Twin #2 well, that was a different story. For the first five songs he was barely audible, Keith Richards doing his Keith Richards impersonation. He looked dead in the water until a Ray Charles cover started up. Now the Stones covering Ray Charles requires zero stretching of the imagination, but in 2005 it wouldn't surprise me if Jamie Foxx came out to help Mick sing. Thankfully he didn’t and thankfully Keith came alive covering the blues of "The Night Time is the Right Time." From here on out Richards was alive and blazing, pulling out the dynamite riffs from his pasty hands that are simply timeless. When he stumbled to the mic and gargled, “It is good to be here. Actually, it is good to be anywhere,” you couldn’t help but chuckle. And when the acoustic guitar came out and the "Worst" dripped into your ear, you couldn’t help but be moved. For the world's biggest rock band they sure can throw some sentimental curveballs at you.

The string of hits that followed sealed the deal. "Heartbreaker," admittedly only a hit to a select few, had the brass balls of a 70’s soul review on heroin, "Miss You" gave a Studio 54 feel to the show, and "Sympathy For The Devil" made you wonder how anyone could have been scared of Mick being possessed when he's shilling mortgages now. Yeah, the whole show had an, “I'm in an American Express commercial” feel to it, but it was a hip AmEx spot if ya’ dig. Mick even announced that they're playing at halftime during the Superbowl.

The encore of "You Can’t Always Get What You Want" and "It’s Only Rock and Roll" capped off a killer show. Sure, they are sloppy at points, but they are a sloppy bar band that rocks the hell out of the biggest stages on the planet, God bless 'em. Good show old dogs, good show, don’t you ever stop.

1.Start Me Up

2.You Got Me Rockin

3.Shattered

4.Tumbling Dice

5.Rough Justice

6.Ruby Tuesday

7.Heartbreaker

8.Night Time

Intros Ronnie RAVING MAD WOOD

9.Worst

10.Infamy

11.Miss you (on the B-Stage)

12.Oh No Not You Again (on the B-Stage)

13.She's So Cold (on the B-Stage)

14.Honky Tonk Woman (on the B-stage)

15.Out of Control

16.Sympathy for the Devil

17.Jumping Jack Flash

18.Brown Sugar

19.Satisfaction

Encore

20.You Can't Always Get What You Want

21.It's Only Rock n Roll

Photos originally appeared on novogate.com