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The Rolling Stones play Thursday night at U.Va.'s Scott Stadium. |
CHARLOTTESVILLE--Even
Yes, I've heard they put on
And, yes, they've got a hit catalogue few bands in the world can match.
But Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, past their prime and still setting the stage on fire?
I somehow doubted it.
It took me about 30 seconds at the University of Virginia's Scott Stadium to eat those words and have my respect for both the Stones and the power of rock 'n' roll reinvigorated.
It's hard to explain what it is about these graying musicians and their show that makes seeing them as incendiary as the pyrotechnics they set off at times to punctuate their performance.
You could say it's the raw edge to their music, and the way they mix minimalist musical parts to create a rich, layered and truly gut-wrenching sound.
Or you could talk about the energy they exude onstage, the dancing, the prancing and the nonstop action that had listeners up and moving from the get-go.
You could even mention the use--the judicious use, thank you very much--of the video streams, the color screens and the stage that motored from one end of the stadium to the other.
But what really explains the Stones' appeal, the thing that sets them apart from those who try to ape their stage presence, is the way they mix all of those with just the right amount of those rock show ingredients.
Simply put, and I'm as surprised as anyone to say it, in a world filled with pretenders, they are still the real deal in rock 'n' roll.
Something about the way Jagger cranks it up from the opening chord and never stops, a true natural phenomenon.
Something in the way Richards mixes his gravel-grinding chords and his rock star poses that make him the picture you'll have of guitar star from now on.
And something in the way Ron Wood, Charlie Watts and the other musicians mix their musical melange and send it out to an eagerly awaiting stadium full of fans who ranged from college freshmen to alumni whose memories of freshmen year have long since faded.
When you've got a stadium full of more older fans than young ones--when tickets are far north
You play "Satisfaction," "Brown Sugar," "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Sympathy for the Devil," and most other old hits.
And leave people shaking their heads because its sounds better here, through a tower of amplifiers as tall as the end of the stadium, than it ever did through a home stereo.
But an awful lot like it did when you were 16, and you cranked the stereo up in whatever old car you drove back then.
The best of rock 'n' roll works that way, re-creating the excitement and the raw, edgy sound
That's the feeling a stadium
Unlike an opening act that tried to play louder, faster and with more frenetic arrangements than the ear wanted to hear, the Stones showed just the right bit of musical magic.
Short, staccato bursts of guitar savagery. Vocals with just the right harmonies.
All layered over bass and drum lines that never wavered with Watts & Co. at the helm.
No, the hourlong bomb threat stoppage wasn't much fun, especially to contingents from Fredericksburg who needed to drive home.
But when Jagger cranked up the second half of the show, it was forgotten quicker than you could say "Start Me Up."
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