LOS ANGELES —There wasn’t a hint of irony Wednesday night at SoFi Stadium when Mick Jagger, still improbably slender and energetic at the age of 80, sang the line “Let the old believe that they’re young” during “Sweet Sounds of Heaven.”
A standout number from the Rolling Stones’ latest album, last year’s spunky, no-nonsense “Hackney Diamonds,” it was the first encore in the remarkably vibrant two-hour concert.
The band, which also performs at SoFi Saturday night, showcased several other potent new selections from “Diamonds” and such timeless classics as “Paint It Black,” “Wild Horses,” “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Beast of Burden” and an especially charged “Midnight Rambler” that included a reverent homage to Delta blues pioneer Robert Johnson, There were also the agreeably deep album cuts “Little T&A” and “Tell Me Straight,” in which the ever-grizzled Richards wistfully sang: “Is my future all in my past?”
Just as impressive was the concert-opening triple-shot of “Start Me Up,” “You Got Me Rockin’ ” and “It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It),” which was recorded in 1973 when Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards were both 29.
It’s safe to say neither the Stones nor the veteran fans of this now-62-year-old band could have predicted such astonishing longevity. But as Wednesday’s life-affirming SoFi concert so memorably demonstrated, aging is an undeniable reality that the Stones simultaneously define and defy, celebrate and cast asunder with a combination of glee, grit and in-your-face sassiness.
Their 20-song set provided a compelling masterclass in the art of performance and showmanship that was expertly paced and calibrated. The concert embraced and spotlighted the depth of musical craft and experience that only come with the passing of time, while achieving the rare feat of making time feel both fluid and firm, imposing and irrelevant, a significant signpost and a mere state of mind.
Jagger sang with impressive power and conviction throughout, leading a band that somehow sounds better and more purposeful today than when the Stones delivered its most recent San Diego concert in 2015 at Petco Park. That was four years before Jagger’s 2019 heart valve surgery — and eight years before drummer Charlie Watts, long the heart and soul of the band, died at the age of 80 after a still-undisclosed illness.
Even so, the perpetually animated Jagger appeared to relish the opportunity to poke fun at his band’s senior-citizen status on a tour whose official corporate sponsor is the AARP.
“We first came (to America) 60 years ago to seek fame and fortune,” Jagger said, following a suitably spirited version of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” the concert’s ninth selection.
“Our first (U.S.) gig was in San Bernardino. And then we did this famous television show (in Los Angeles) called ‘The T.A.M.I. Show.’ That was so long ago some of you probably think we were dug out of the La Brea Tar Pits.”
With a half smile, half smirk, Jagger added: “Let’s hear it for San Diego!” He then gave shout outs to several other Southern California locales, including Orange County, Los Angeles and ”even San Bernardino.”
The San Diego reference was timely in more ways than one.
The Stones’ debut American tour in 1964 included a show at Balboa Park’s Starlight Bowl. This year also marks leading San Diego saxophonist Karl Denson’s 10th anniversary as a touring member of the band.
Moreover, it was four years ago that the Stones announced their 2020 “No Filter Tour” would open in May 2020 at SDCCU Stadium in Mission Valley. That tour was postponed until 2021 by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. The San Diego date fell through altogether after SDCCU Stadium was razed to make way for the much smaller Snapdragon Stadium, which opened last year.
Their pandemic-delayed 2020 tour moving to 2021 notwithstanding, the Stones typically tour the U.S. once every four years or so. It remains to be seen if the London-bred band’s next concert trek on these shores will be in 2028, when Jagger and Richards will be 84.
But if Wednesday’s rousing and inspiring concert at SoFi turns out to be part of the Stones’ final tour in this country, well, it’s difficult to imagine the band going out on a higher note.
Jagger, Richards and guitarist Ronnie Wood, 77, who joined the group in 1976, performed with palpable conviction and focus. Jazz and rock drum dynamo Steve Jordan, who became Watts’ handpicked successor three years ago, vigorously propelled the music but never overpowered it.
Constantly in motion, Jagger moved from one side of the enormous stage to the other with the verve of a man one-third his age. While some of his moves are a tad less hyper than in decades past, he remains an improbably charismatic front man and easily held his own when singing, dancing and cavorting with new Stones’ backing vocalist Chanel Haynes, who is 45 and starred as Tina Turner in the London production of the musical “Tina” pior to her current gig as Jagger’s periodic vocal foil.
So much so that Steve Schankman — a veteran 75-year-old St. Louis concert promoter who spent $2,800 for four tickets for his wife and two of their daughters — gazed at Jagger in awe, and said: “Unreal!” Next to him, one of Schankman’s pre-teen daughters happily sang along to “Wild Horses,” whose 1971 release on record predated her birth by four decades.
Unreal, indeed.
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