Rolling Stones rev up tour at L.A. club show
Bill Keveney, USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES -- The Rolling Stones don't need anyone to start them up. They do it themselves.
The legendary British rock & roll band launched – just about in the literal sense – its 2015 North American tour Wednesday with a rollicking 90-minute set in front of about 1,000 fans at Hollywood's Fonda Theatre.
The rumored concert, which sold out immediately when tickets were put on sale earlier in the day, served as a club-sized warm-up to the summer's 15-city Zip Code stadium tour, which starts Sunday at San Diego's Petco Park.
"This is the first show of our tour. Sunday, we're going to San Diego to play for San Diegans," said front man and lead singer Mick Jagger, who was joined by his longtime bandmates, guitarists Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood and drummer Charlie Watts.
The few lucky fans who got tickets for the Fonda, which can hold about 1,200 people, got a free concert, paying roughly $5 per ticket and later being reimbursed for the full amount. Cameras and phones weren't allowed in the concert.
Not surprisingly, the Stones drew their share of celebrities, including Jack Nicholson, Bruce Willis, Harry Styles, Kesha, Andy Garcia, Dave Stewart, Joe Pesci, Ben Harper, Leonard Cohen, Patricia Arquette, Eric Idle, Steven Van Zandt, Don Was, Brian Grazer and Georgia May Jagger.
"It's great to be back in Los Angeles," Jagger said during the show, noting the theater venue is "a bit smaller than Staples Center." The Fonda show was labeled Zip Code 90028, reflecting the Hollywood zip code, and reflects the band's habit of kicking off big tours with a surprise show at a smaller venue.
The Stones, led by an amazingly energetic Jagger, began the concert, fittingly, with Start Me Up, the first of 16 songs that included a tribute to the late B.B. King, Rock Me, Baby ("We loved him as a guy and we love his music," said Jagger, who played harmonica and sang, "Rock Me B.B.") and all 10 songs from the Stones' classic 1971 album, Sticky Fingers, which is being reissued June 9 in North America.
During the show, a lean Jagger, wearing a long-sleeve black t-shirt, strutted authoritatively back and forth on the stage, spinning gracefully and gesturing expressively with his hands and arms. Richards smiled more and more as the show went on, breaking into a broad grin during a raucous Jumpin' Jack Flash late in the show. They seemed to be having fun.
Jagger, 71, who has played with Richards as part of the Stones for more than 50 years, said performing the entire Sticky Fingers album was "something we had never done before." Showing a playful side, he reminded fans of record albums: "We used to make records and they went round and round. They had cardboard covers."
He continued: "We'll be doing (the songs) in the order of the 8-track tape," bringing back memories for much of the audience, which included younger fans mixed in with a healthy helping of baby boomers. "A lot of this is a joke, so don't be too literal."
The band opened the 10-song Sticky Fingers portion of the concert with Sway, with Jagger telling Wood at the end, "Very nice, Ronnie."
Before performing Sister Morphine, Jagger warned the audience: "There may be a lot of '60s drug references in this record, which could puzzle some people. ... It was a great, groovy scene."
The band got such big applause for the Sticky Fingers tracks that Jagger quipped, "Next year, we'll come back and do the whole of Satanic Majesties," a reference to the band's 1967 album, Their Satanic Majesties Request.
The four longtime bandmates were joined on stage by as many as seven other musicians, including Darryl Jones (bass); Chuck Lavell (keyboard); Matt Clifford (keyboards and French horn); Lisa Fischer (vocal); Bernard Fowler (vocal); Karl Denison (saxophone); and Tim Ries (saxophone).
The set list included:
Start Me Up
When the Whip Comes Down
All Down the Line
The next 10 from 1971 album Sticky Fingers
Sway
Dead Flowers
Wild Horses
Sister Morphine
You Gotta Move (with Richards on 12-string guitar)
Bitch
Can't You Hear Me Knocking
I Got the Blues
Moonlight Mile
Brown Sugar
Encore
Rock Me Baby (tribute to the late B.B. King)
Jumpin' Jack Flash
I Can't Turn You Loose
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