Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood rocked the Wanda Metropolitano without taking risks, but leaving their skin behind in every note and chord
He doesn’t run, he doesn’t jump, but he is 78 years old and 90% of the soloists and groups that today make a living from music remain hieratic before their audience. At 78 years old, a splendid Mick Jagger yesterday showed that age is a state of mind and that the Rolling Stones’ 231 years are barely noticeable on stage. “Hello Madrid,” he shouted as soon as the concert began.
The thousands of fans who packed a stadium that did not hang the no-ticket sign already sensed it, but it was close. The Stones kicked off with a tribute to Charlie Watts, their drummer, who died in August of last year at the age of 80 and madness took over the Wanda Metropolitano. Jagger, dressed in rigorous black, but with a red sequined jacket -he would change it several times throughout the concert-, made it clear: «This is our first tour in Europe without Charlie, we miss him very much». How not to get excited. Impossible, the thousands of people gathered in the stadium applauded.
It took time for the Stones to take advantage of the enormous stage that they had under their feet. Delimited with fluorescent tapes, to avoid a false step, they played with the sides and stepped on the first sections of the tongue -the stage drew on its upper part the sexy mouth that has served as the British logo-, but it was not until ‘ Miss You’, eleven songs later, when Jagger dared to cross the bridge that brought him closer to the public.
It didn’t matter that the Stones were late – they started at 10:15 p.m. -, because the public was dedicated, supporting every gesture and every word of an exultant Jagger. There was a ‘happy birthday’ to the public for a Ronnie Wood who turned 75 clubs and it’s a milestone because, you know, these concerts are measured to the second. The final explosion came when, after 11:30 pm, precisely with ‘Miss You’, the trio approached the end of the stage and the audience chanted “Uh, uh, uh”.
Before, there were songs like ‘Street Fightin Man’, ’19th Nervous Breakdown’, ‘Sad Sad Sad’, ‘Tumbling Dice’, ‘Beast of Burden’, ‘Living In a Ghost Town’, ‘Happy’ and ‘Slipping Away’. Clinging to their Les Paul and Telecaster, Wood and Richards set the pace for a vibrant concert, enjoyable but also low risk. There were attacks from Jagger to the public, Mercury style, and a simply spectacular blues towards the end -sometimes it was enough to turn up the volume of the guitars for the stadium to collapse-.
“You are the best audience,” Jagger conceded truthfully. The reaction when ‘Start Me Up’, ‘Paint In Black’, ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ were played – the stage turned red, simulating the flames of hell – he confirmed it. A few minutes later, ‘Gimme Shelter’ and ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ closed a tremendous concert. Jagger is no longer a mountebank, nor Wood, nor Richards, but who cares about him. The important thing was always the music and the Stones are masters of that.
#Rolling #Stones #Madrid #vibrate