Moves like Jagger: Mick gives it his best at Auckland's Mt Smart on Saturday. Photo / Michael Craig
Moves like Jagger: Mick gives it his best at Auckland's Mt Smart on Saturday. Photo / Michael Craig
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Who: The Rolling Stones, Hunters and Collectors Where: Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland
In a gap between two songs which had once bookended the Stones' 1970s - the epic blues of Midnight Rambler and the disco-athon of Miss You - Mick Jagger thought it high time contemplate the past.
"We've been coming to New Zealand for almost 50 years, can you believe that?," he pondered out loud to nearly 37,000 at Mt Smart Stadium, who had gathered for the only show of the band's sixth visit. Jagger then said something about touring with Roy Orbison in 1965 and that was pretty much it for non-musical memory lane.
Off to Studio 54 it was with Miss You, and those Puerto Rican girls dy-yy-yy-ing to meet chu. Its extended funky strut the start of a final big-hit barrage leading to a two-song encore which capped a terrific show, one that didn't seem to suffer any ill-effects due to its postponement from March or Saturday night's wind and drizzle - "Very fitting we're ending up in the rain in Auckland," offered Jagger as roadies mopped up the runway in front of him, "Wish I could get the carpet in my kitchen at home done as quick as this."
Yes, it has been almost 50 years since the band came here, but this was really the third tour of the Stonescorp stadium blockbuster era.
Following a solo Jagger foray here in 1988, the Stones played two nights at Western Springs back in 1995. In 2006, they played one night there again to 55,000 as well a show at Wellington's Cake Tin too. This Mt Smart show didn't quite reach its 37,000 capacity.
Image 1 of 14: Four of the Rolling Stones after they arrived in Christchurch. From left: Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Keith Richard and Brian Jones. 30 January 1965
On the face of it, it seems the Stones aren't the drawcard they used to be and thousands who saw them on previous occasions didn't bother this time. Maybe they were put off by the prices or the idea of a septugenerian Stones celebrating a semicentennial. But just as Springsteen worked far better at Mt Smart than he did at the Springs a decade ago, so it was with the Stones. The sound was great and the giant screen visual and video presentation, while occasionally given to old footage and animations, concentrated on taking the audience in alarmingly close to where all that noise was coming from.
One minute you could read the serial number on the back of one of Keith Richards guitars, the next you could lip-read his 20m visage him shouting "Come on you mother******" to no-one in particular as Jumpin' Jack Flash went on, as some of the songs did, a bit too long.
Yes you could see the crinkles and wrinkles in towering high definition. You could certainly see the seams.
Ronnie Wood gives good guitar. Photo / Michael Craig
But with it you could hear the "click" as these antique, battered, but less than rusty parts locked together.
It was a show that certainly gave great guitar - the triple scorch of Midnight Rambler became the best echo of the dangerous young men they used to be with onetime guitarist Mick Taylor returning to parry with Richards and his replacement, Ronnie Wood.
And Jagger didn't just sing while racking up a few kms of aerobic flouncing up that extended catwalk. His harmonica duel with Richards on Out of Control (an "eh?" sort of song from 1997's Bridges to Babylon) and more harp-blowing elsewhere suggested he's an alien with a third lung hidden within that still taut frame of his.
"I nearly got buried here. Good fortune is on my side" - Keith Richards. Photo / Michael Craig
Crinkles and wrinkles in towering high definition: Mick Jagger. Photo / Michael Craig
Though, having cancelled one show across the Tasman, Jagger did sit out a three-song Richards solo spot before which the guitarist referred to his last time in town recovering from brain surgery: "I nearly got buried here. Good fortune is on my side," he grinned with those gleaming gnashers of his.
His ramble through You Got the Silver, Before they Make Me Run, and Happy was a creaky delight. He played while wearing what looked like a gifted t-shirt of which sported his face in a parody of C.F.Goldie's portrait A Good Laugh. So was he.
Though it seemed Richards' solo spot replaced any Jagger ballads in the main set, while many great early Jagger-Richards tunes went unplayed. Fans voted online for the band to play their cover of Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone over the likes of defining songs like Street Fighting Man. So no accounting for taste, either way.
And one or two great Stones songs have long suffered in the translation. Sympathy for the Devil possibly lost its menace many tours ago and it just woo-hooed on past as a party tune. Though Gimme Shelter with its inevitable vocal fireworks by longtime backing singer Lisa Fischer and Jagger delivered on the drama.
All time high: The best Rolling Stones show of their senior years. Photo / Michael Craig
With a high-calorie Brown Sugar dusted off, it was back for the encores, a grand You Can't Always Get What You Want came enhanced by the New Zealand Youth Choir (ancient anthems a speciality clearly).
And a madcap Satisfaction lit the fuse on the fireworks finale.
With it, ended the Stones' best NZ show of their senior years. Yes this could be the last time, but it was a highly satisfactory way to go out.
So it was too for support band, a reunited Hunters and Collectors. The Melbourne rock veterans, who bid farewell to their NZ fans at the Powerstation on Friday night before their Stones opening slot, which reminded just what a ballsy, brassy, distinctive outfit they were.
Though they weren't exactly preaching to the converted, they still won through with the likes of Say Goodbye and Throw Your Arms Around Me.
The Setlist
Start Me Up It's Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It) You Got Me Rocking Tumbling Dice Like a Rolling Stone Doom and Gloom Out of Control Honky Tonk Women You Got the Silver Before They Make Me Run Happy Midnight Rambler Miss You Gimme Shelter Jumpin' Jack Flash Sympathy for the Devil Brown Sugar Encore You Can't Always Get What You Want (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
