The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

SBC Center, San Antonio, November 23

On paper, green paper, it's totally fucked up. Touring in support of four new songs, in a depressed economy, with the highest ticket prices since a shuttle to the moon. The worst seat in the house, behind the stage: $95. Triple that for a decent one. Corporate sponsorship is designed to keep astronomical costs down for all involved -- artist, consumer, venue -- so what's e-trade underwriting if a pair of tickets to experience the Rolling Stones at San Antonio's new SBC Center almost equals last month's rent? And let's be honest: You wanna get your rocks off at a venue built in part by your involuntary monthly bloodletting (you need a tax attorney to explain SBC's mysterious fees) to a company whose incessant telemarketing has the stalker party vote for a congressional restraining order?! Seems the Stones learned a lucrative lesson on 1999's No Security tour; that in-joke about shilling a live album recorded during the 97/98 Bridges to Babylon trek was no joke to the tune of millions. (The two tours combined grossed $390 million.) The current Licks juggernaut, named for the latest in an endless series of hits compilations, the mishmash of eras Forty Licks, marks the group's fortieth anniversary. There's also the remastered rollout of the band's early catalog --22 new titles to replace the old ones at $16-$25 each. With much being made about Jagger and Richards turning 60 next year (Charlie Watts is 61), Stephen Davis' recent retelling of Stones' mythology crystallizes the current Zeitgeist surrounding this rock & roll institution on its title alone: Old Gods Almost Dead. Almost. When the sixpiece, augmented by honorary deity/keyboardist Chuck Leavell and bassist Daryl Jones, ripped into "If You Can't Rock Me" three songs in, Watts pounding his kit like the 1812 Overture while Keith Richards and Ron Wood simulated a knife fight with their guitars, the whip came down. First lash. A track from It's Only Rock & Roll, retired after the 75/76 tour, the song received polite response from the sell-out crowd of yuppified fatcats. Who else can afford the ticket except middle-aged businessmen who know "Start Me Up" from the Windows TV campaign? Plus, on a tour touted for its set lists, this one sounded very much part and parcel of every tour since 1989's Steel Wheels. Looks like the 3,000-seaters being played on this tour of theatres, arenas, and coliseums are getting Motown covers and Exile's "Torn and Frayed," while 16,000-seaters like SBC get "Like a Rolling Stone," which was a marginal idea two tours ago. Not that new lick "Don't Stop" didn't fill out live in contrast to its tepid radio version. "You Got Me Rocking" remains a Richards' tear-all, but his delicate Chet Atkins coloring on "Dead Flowers" demonstrated finesse not always associated with ol' Scratch. "Can't You Hear Me Knocking," the only true surprise in the two-hour, no-frills stage show, never collapsed, but neither did it evince the Caribbean sex wax of the original. It was Richards' two-song interlude that turned the tide for good. Croaking his way through Steel Wheels sunset ballad "Slipping Away," then taking a trip along the Twilight Zone on "Before They Make Me Run," Richards' craggy face on the big screen illustrated a stark contrast to the skull 'n' bones countenance of his youth: a deeply soulful humility. "Thank you Texas," he said through a grin, but from his expression, you almost expected a tear. Out went the lights and in the darkness as the band made adjustments, Mick's harp meant only one song, "Midnight Rambler," which started slow and finished with welts across your back. After that, the stinging never stopped. Jagger's prowling, yowling, rippled abs dominance onstage never sagged for one split second, and on set-ender "Brown Sugar," the spirit of every blues man, soul man, and stripper he ever emulated shone like the thousands of little red 'n' blue flashing tongues people had pinned to their shirts. "Jumping Jack Flash" ("JJ Flash" to friends) ended the night like the apocalypse. Old Gods Almost Dead, but not yet. See you in Houston, Jan. 25, 2003.

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The Set List

"Street Fighting Man"

"It's Only Rock & Roll"

"If You Can't Rock Me"

"Don't Stop"

"You Got Me Rocking"

"Wild Horses"

"Dead Flowers"

"Bitch"

"Can't You Hear Me Knocking"

"Tumbling Dice"

"Slipping Away"

"Before They Make Me Run"

"Midnight Rambler"

"Start Me Up"

"Gimme Shelter"

"Honky Tonk Women"

"Satisfaction"

on the satellite stage>

"Mannish Boy"

"Like A Rolling Stone"

"Brown Sugar"

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"Jumping Jack Flash"