At last. Ladies and gentlemen, following two postponements and a 25-year absence from New Orleans, The Rolling Stones ripped it up on July 15, 2019 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
Four songs into the 19-song, two-hour show, front man Mick Jagger acknowledged the delays. “We’ve been on a bit of a journey to get here tonight,” he said. “I must say that I’m very, very sorry we missed the Jazz Fest,” he added, referring to the Stones’ canceled May 2 appearance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
In March, Jagger’s health forced the Stones to postpone their entire 2019 North American. In early April, the 75-year-old singer underwent a heart valve replacement procedure. Fewer than three months later, the Stones’ rescheduled No Filter tour launched June 21 in Chicago.
The Stones arrived in New Orleans last Wednesday, July 10—just ahead of a tropical disturbance that was brewing in the Gulf of Mexico. Weather forecasters and state and local officials warned of possibly cataclysmic impact from Tropical Storm Barry. The Stones sent their waiting fans a message: “Hang onto your tickets, they will be honored on July 15. We’re here with you—we’ll get through this together.”
Barry thankfully didn’t meet expectations. Even so, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” was the perfect song for the Rolling Stones to open their storm-delayed New Orleans show with. “I was born in a cross-fire hurricane,” Jagger sang at the concert’s 9 p.m. start. “And I howled at the morning driving rain.”
Four songs into Monday’s very well-attended show, Jagger addressed the weather delay. “You know something,” he said. “We’re the only band to have an indoors show rained out.” Jagger also said he expected to sunbathe in the city and dine in great restaurants. “The best food in the United States, right?” he asked. “So, we went out to look for some crawfish, jambalaya and beignets and po-boys. And you know something? Thanks to Barry, I had to eat room service for four days!”
The Stones’ making good on their twice-delayed 2019 date with New Orleans is simply more evidence of their staying power. The three original Stones who continue to perform with the group—Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards, both 75, and drummer Charlie Watts, 78—have been in the rock and roll business since 1962. At 72, guitarist Ron Wood, a member since 1975, is the junior Stone.
Monday at the Superdome, despite his recent heart procedure, the rock-star slim Jagger was his usual moving-like-Jagger self. He dressed in a succession of glittering, shining rock-star apparel. As the evening progressed, Jagger and his longtime bandmates showed they still possess the rowdy, bad-boy rock-and-roll mojo they’ve had since the ’60s.
Proving the point, second song of the night “Let’s Spend the Night Together” is one of the group’s naughtier ’60s hits and most irresistible grooves. The remarkably mobile Jagger gyrated from one end of the vastly wide stage to the other while his life-partner in music, Richards, brandished his signature guitar-chord flourishes.
Moving on to “Tumbling Dice,” song three of the night, the hip-swiveling Jagger gyrated to the edge of the long catwalk and encouraged the crowd to clap along. He didn’t have to insist. The audience was ready to sing, sway and, if space allowed and they weren’t shut down by security, dance.
Even though the Stones’ vast catalog can’t be satisfied by any one concert, Monday’s show was nicely representative. The set include “You Can’t Always Get What You What” (one of the night’s bigger singalongs, it featured a gospel-infused finale); “Sympathy for the Devil” (featuring a stage bathed in red and a Richards solo that was more ripped from his guitar than played); and a suitably jagged “Honky Tonk Woman” (with Jagger again sashaying over the length of the catwalk, trippy animations of colorful ladies on four towering LED screens and corresponding maximum motion and singing along in the audience).
About mid-show, Jagger ceded the spotlight to Richards. “Good evening, New Orleans,” Richards said before singing “Slipping Away,” his unusually sensitive near-ballad. “Finally, we made it. Good to be here. Good to be anywhere.”
When Jagger returned, he mentioned that Monday’s show at the Superdome was the Rolling Stones’ fifth performance there. And before a searing performance of the authentically blues-drenched “Midnight Rambler,” Jagger paid homage to New Orleans’ musical history. “You know, so many amazing musicians come from here,” he said. “We owe them a great debt. We want to thank everyone very much, all those great people. We want to thank you very much for coming back to see us again.”
As 11 p.m. approached, the energy peaked with a two more tempestuous Stones classics, “Start Me Up” and, as the full-tilt Jagger flailed his arms and shook his maracas, “Brown Sugar.” During “Brown Sugar,” maybe more than any other few moments Monday evening, the decades between 2019 and 1971 faded away.
The two-song encore opened with another Jagger-Richards masterpiece, “Gimme Shelter.” Backup vocalist Sasha Allen co-starred alongside Jagger on the catwalk, wailing chilling parts of the song originally recorded by New Orleans native Merry Clayton. A ferocious “Satisfaction,” with Richards and Wood doubling the song’s ultimate rock guitar riff, ended the night that almost never was with widespread satisfaction.
Click here to see photos from the performance.
