My review - Beacon 2
Date: November 2, 2006 17:50
1973 had Brussels, 2006 has the Beacon Theater. That how I'm sure many of the lucky fans who scored tickets for both Beacon shows felt after tonight. The band sounded focused. There were great, magic and I'm sure soon-to-be legendary, moments. Some versions of songs we all heard hundreds if not thousands of times, were re-energized and put back to life.
One can only always be amazed by the depth of the Stones' repertoire: I'm Free, such a classic, hadn't been played since 1969, yet they played it with such an amazing energy and freshness you'd thought they've played it their whole life. Or Some Girls, where Mick showed how modern this song still sounds -- even though the racy lyrics were (in part) censored. Too bad he didn't play the harmonica on it. Or Far Away Eyes. She was Hot. As Tears go By. All classics, from different decades, yet with a distinctive Stones' feel.
Champagne and Reefers, a fantastic blues played marvelously on both nights with Buddy Guy was one of the highlights. Funny to see that Buddy Guy changed from the sweatpants during the opening act to the suit/hat combo when playing with the Stones, sort of paying tribute to the Mississipi blues' worshippers that Keith and Mick were when they started. The layers of guitars topped with Mick's screaming harmonica was a sweet wink to the Stones' early beginning, when they were covering bluesmen material. But after tonight, to paraphrase Jon Landau, I saw the future of the Rolling Stones, and it's called the Blues.
I loved the fact that the Stones were by themselves on a few songs (e.g. Jumping Jack Flash or Shattered), only joined by Chuck on the piano. No background vocals, no horns, just bare bones Stones, like their rocking concert at Juilliard.
Keith doing some background vocals was also a refreshing, moving highlight of the night. He did some at last Giants' stadium concert, but it seemed like he made an extra effort tonight to participate more in the singing. That's something that, to me, was missing the past few years: Keith and Mick doing harmonies together. Well, they did it yesterday, sharing a mic, like 20, 30 years ago. Was that for Marty's movie or for the fans, we'll never know, but that was really moving.
Keith's part was another peak of the night, with the now traditional You got the Silver, with Ronnie on the acoustic guitar, and -- surprise! -- Connection, which drew the crowd nuts. The crowd by the way was screaming all night long. Standing in the lower balcony, you could see and feel the warmth of fans of all ages. Despite the apparent mishandling of the sale of the tickets, there were still 100% of fans (among which E Street Band's Steve Van Zandt smiling and appreciative or Benicio del Toro) in the audience, feeding the Stones with enthousiasm and energy.
The guests did their job properly. Beautiful version of Loving Cup, with a very respectful (maybe too much?) Jack White, with special kudos to Chuck on the piano. As for Christina Aguilera, I have to say I was a little puzzled at first when I saw her arriving on Sunday night. "The Stones, with Christina Aguilera?" Well, the girl has a fantastic voice and the version rocked. The surprise was gone on Wednesday, but the song still rocked. Aguilera was less playful than Sunday but I guess more focused and so were Keith and Ronnie to deliver one of the grooviest versions of this Let it Bleed favorite.
Ronnie, let's talk about him. He has been perfect during the past few concerts in New York and raised him game again. His solo on Start Me Up (yes, the warhorse!) was just fantastic. His interaction with Keith was a pleasure to hear and watch all night long. Their intertwined dirty licks on Shattered, All Down the Line or Some Girls made me feel like I was at the Garden in 1972. I never thought I'd say something like that, but the Beacon concerts were in my opinion as good as any of the Stones' live production from the 1972-1975 period, with mean guitars, a smoking rythm section were Darryll and Charlie complement each other like sulfur and fire and Mick's voice maturing just like a good old French wine. As for Charlie, well, he was himself, i.e., perfect from start to finish, with 2 amazing performances on Tumbling Dice and All Down the Line (fan-tas-tic beat breaks!). The Stones don't need to hide behind layers of horns, keyboard or background vocalists and they showed it yesterday.
The finale, with Satisfaction, just proved the point again. How many times have we heard that song? Yet, they managed to play it with Chuck Berry-esques accents and fantastic complicity between Ron, Keith, Mick and Charlie.
The Stones have nothing else to prove. They could stay in their respective mansions and sip cocktails all day long. Yet, after 40+ years, they're willing to take new risk and try new things. It doesn't always works (e.g., first versions of Sway), there sometimes are obstacles down the road (e.g., Coconut trees, sore throats), but when it all comes together, when the sparkle is here, you end up with a legendary night in an intimate venue, surrounded with friends.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-11-02 18:17 by micwer.