Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood rocked the Wanda Metropolitano without taking any risks, but left their skin in every note and chord
He doesn’t run, he doesn’t jump, but he’s 78 years old and 90% of the soloists and groups living off music today remain hieratic to their audiences. At the age of 78, a gorgeous Mick Jagger showed yesterday that age is a state of mind and that the 231 years of the Rolling Stones on stage are barely noticeable. “Hello Madrid”, he shouted as soon as the concert started.
The thousands of fans who packed a stadium that didn’t put up the no-ticket sign already felt it, but it was close. The Stones kicked off with a tribute to Charlie Watts, their drummer, who passed away last August at the age of 80 and madness took over the Wanda Metropolitano. Dressed in stern black, but with a red sequined jacket -he would change it several times during the concert- Jagger made it clear: “This is our first tour in Europe without Charlie, we miss him very much”. How not to get excited. Impossible, applauded the thousands of people who had gathered in the stadium.
It took the Stones time to take advantage of the huge stage they had under their feet. Demarcated with fluorescent bands, to avoid a wrong step, they played with the sides and stepped on the first parts of the tongue -the podium drew on the upper part the sexy mouth that has served as the British logo-, but the it wasn’t until ‘Miss You’, eleven tracks later, when Jagger dared to cross the bridge that brought him closer to the audience.
It didn’t matter that the Stones were late—they started at 10:15 p.m.—because the audience was committed, supporting every gesture and word of a cheering Jagger. There was a ‘happy birthday’ to the audience for a Ronnie Wood who turned 75 clubs and it’s a milestone because, you know, these concerts are measured down to the second. The final explosion came when, after 11:30 p.m., precisely with “Miss You,” the trio approached the end of the stage and the audience chanted “Uh, uh, uh.”
It used to be 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 their Telecaster, Wood and Richards set the pace for a lively, enjoyable yet risk-free concert. There were attacks from Jagger on the crowd, Mercury-style, and a downright spectacular blues towards the end—sometimes turning up the volume on the guitars was enough to make the stadium collapse.
“You’re the best audience,” Jagger admitted honestly. The reaction when ‘Start Me Up’, ‘Paint In Black’, ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ were played – the stage turned red and simulated the flames of hell – confirmed it. A few minutes later, ‘Gimme Shelter’ and ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ concluded a great concert. Jagger is no longer a mountebank, neither Wood nor Richards, but who cares. The most important thing was always the music and the Stones are masters at that.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
