The songs are so familiar that it’s easy to glaze over when reading a Rolling Stones setlist, wondering how much longer the band will keep playing those same tunes.
But experiencing a Rolling Stones set is something else altogether — more like a punch to the face.
And so the Stones snarled, kicked and punched their way through a two-hour, 18-song set to a packed house Friday night at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. From the first, familiar chord change of the go-to opener “Start Me Up,” it was clear this show wasn’t going to sound like your granddaddy’s Rolling Stones record.
The guitars screamed with teeth bared, chunky, distorted and blaring. All the while still retaining the famous melodic churn that Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood have been playing off one another for nearly 50 years, since Wood joined the band in 1975. Not too tight; just sloppy enough.
And that’s not to say the set didn’t hold surprises.
The fan vote song was “Sweet Virginia,” the beautiful 16-bar country blues tune off “Exile On Main Street.” Mick Jagger, strapping on an acoustic guitar for the first time of the night and introducing it as the fan’s choice, didn’t miss a chance to riff on some recent Georgia history before launching in.
“We wanted to play `Wild Horses,’” Jagger said. “All we needed was 11,000 more votes. There’s a more important vote coming up in November. Don’t forget to vote in that one.”
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
From there, the next few songs took on the quality of an excellent mixed-tape — played loudly.
The band rolled right into another country favorite — “Dead Flowers,” from “Sticky Fingers.” Then seamlessly into the driving groove of “Tumbling Dice” and an amped-up “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” during which Wood’s Les Paul again bared its teeth on an excellent, extended solo.
“Maybe put your phones down for one number,” Jagger teased the crowd.
Friday’s show marked the fifth time the Stones have come to Atlanta this century, including an appearance at Mercedes-Benz in November 2021 that served as a tribute to late drummer Charlie Watts.
Steve Jordan, who played for Richards in the X-Pensive Winos, continued to fill in flawlessly for the late, great drummer. On “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll,” the second song of the night, Jordan even flashed Watts’ signature move of holding his right stick straight up and off the high-hat while hitting the snare on the down beat.
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
Band introductions were particularly memorable Friday. The crowd roared when Twiggs County resident and former Allman Brothers member Chuck Leavell was introduced. Leavell has been a Stones touring member for many years, also serving as its musical director. He particularly shined on the barroom piano solo in “Honky Tonk Women.”
The last band member introduced was Richards, his cue to grab the spotlight behind a microphone. For the first time this tour, Richards sang three songs instead of the standard two. The mini-set started with “Tell Me Straight,” off the new “Hackney Diamonds” album. He then went into “Little T&A,” a song from a different era that, if released today, might cause a lot more trouble than it did in 1981.
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
Credit: Ryan Fleisher
“Due to intense pressure from the band, I’m forced to sing `Happy,’” Richards then said, referring to his hit off the Exile On Main Street album. “Blame the guys.”
It was the first time the band played that song on this tour. Wood again did the heavy lifting here, playing all the rocked-up slid parts with a pedal steel guitar.
The back half of the set was also familiar, but in unfamiliar ways. And it featured a handful of the Stones’ darkest songs.
“Sympathy For The Devil” (”I rode a tank, held a general’s rank/when the Blitzkrieg raged and the bodies stank”); “Midnight Rambler” (”He’ll stick his knife right down your throat”); “Gimme Shelter” (”Oh, a storm is threatening/my very life today”); “Paint It Black” (”I look inside myself/and I see my heart is black”).
The string was broken only by a rousing, previously mentioned “Honky Tonk Women.” That, and Wood’s sitar playing on “Paint It Black” also provided some light during the stretch.
The night ended with a single encore, the shout-along “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” with almost no one in a nearly sold-out stadium sitting down.
A consequence of the band including “Happy” in the set is that the excellent new ballad “Sweet Sounds Of Heaven” was left off. That song, which could seamlessly find a home on “Exile” or “Sticky Fingers,” has been the first encore played at nearly every show on this tour. Until Friday.
Oh, well. Maybe next time.
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