For the second of their two nights at the ACC — part of their monumental 50th anniversary tour — The Rolling Stones again succeeded in bringing an epic feel to the proceedings.
The band ensured that its larger-than-life aura would be well represented right off the bat, coming out to a raucous ovation on the iconic red lips-shaped stage. The four band members (well, five, if you count Mick Taylor) held true to their image as rock gods with the help of a massive background screen that portrayed them as giants, which in a sense was true. As they jumped right into their standard show-opener, “Get Off Of My Cloud,” the crowd showed that it would do its part in creating the night’s electric atmosphere.
Even without a special guest appearance a-la Carrie Underwood, the ACC faithful were in a forgiving mood. Most of those in attendance stood throughout the nearly two and a half hour show, upping the volume for Stones staples such as “Honky Tonk Woman,” “Start Me Up” and “Brown Sugar.” By the time the band kicked things into a final high gear during a three-song encore (“You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Satisfaction”), the crowd was in a fully bombastic mode.
It could be said that the only problem with the Stones’ Thursday night follow-up set was the band itself.
Many music reviewers (myself included) can be too liberal in lauding graying performers as “ageless,” as if to suggest that they are still at the peak of their abilities. Mick Jagger and co. are certainly remarkable for their endurance and their ability to still rock along the way to 70 (or, in the case of drummer Charlie Watts, past 70), but to suggest that they haven’t lost a step is to diminish what was an iconic heyday.
Yes, the lead singer still “moves like Jagger,” but his once-stunning vocals no longer have the power to force listeners to take notice. Only when joined onstage by talented vocalist Lisa Fischer did the master of charisma raise his game. His backup musicians didn’t fare much better, with both Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood appearing to take off large chunks of songs and looking the part of musicians who were feeling the fatigue of a worldwide tour. Richards came to life during his feature performance on “Before They Make Me Run,” but the best musical performances of the night were still saved for Fischer and the students of the Cawthra Park Secondary School Chamber Choir, who offered a spine-tingling interlude to “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”
The sole responsibility of a live performer is to entertain, and The Rolling Stones did that in spades on Thursday night. But for an iconic band that has seemed immortal for so long, the night also offered indications that they might be mortal after all.