Published Thursday October 8, 2009

By John Pitcher
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
http://www.omaha.com/article/20091008/ENTERTAINMENT04/710089824

“Let’s Spend the Night Together” isn’t a proposition. It’s just the name of the first “Symphony Rocks” concert of the 2009-10 season.

The Omaha Symphony performance Saturday night at the Holland Performing Arts Center is a Rolling Stones tribute concert.

Vocalist Robert Wotherspoon and the band Like a Rolling Stone, which also goes by the name Hot Rocks, will perform many of the great Mick Jagger/Keith Richards tunes.

“You’d be amazed how many of these songs sound great with orchestra,” Wotherspoon said in a recent phone interview.

What: “Let’s Spend the Night
Together,” Omaha Symphony tribute concert to the Rolling Stones.
When: 8 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Holland Performing
Arts Center, 1200 Douglas St.
Tickets: $15 to $60.
Call 345-0606.



Wotherspoon got his start playing in Canadian bluegrass and rock bands. It was probably inevitable, though, that he would eventually start a Stones tribute band.

“Everyone kept saying you look and sound exactly like Mick Jagger,” Wotherspoon said.

Wotherspoon has spent years perfecting that sound, studying every nuance of Jagger’s style and inflection.

“Mick’s easy to do,” Wotherspoon said. “He’s got this dragging drawl to him.”

Saturday’s concert will include “Ruby Tuesday” and other songs that will obviously sound appropriate with orchestra.

But it will also feature “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Satisfaction” and tunes that are more often associated with classic rock than a classical symphony.

“Those songs are more hard-driving rock,” Wotherspoon said. “But you can’t have a Stones concert without them.”