Photos and Review by HEATHER HARRIS
LOS ANGELES – You got the silver, we get the gold. Every possible consensus-agreed-upon “Best Rock and Roll band in the World” The Rolling Stones again proved their mettle 7.13.24 at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Los Angeles to a sold out crowd of 80,000, happily packed all the way to the nosebleed seats.
Longtime petrology watchers agree that this “Hackney Diamonds” tour (in support of newish, eponymous album release) is one of the Stones’ best shows. They kept everything fun, not reverential, playing live for us all in 2024 what is, alongside the long gone Beatles, the best catalogue in music history.
They may be R & R History incarnate since 1962, but they defied any taint of nostalgia by sounding on fire in the present tense, particularly founders Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Jagger’s muscle memory motivates the best perpetual motion choreography in the business, yet, as the photo shows, he can seamlessly concentrate on his duet with backup singer Chanel Haynes (Broadway’s Tina Turner) in the classic anthem of dread “Gimme Shelter.”
He also showed off his chops as a world class harmonica player, criminally undervalued since the confusion of their earliest harpist being the late Brian Jones a half century ago. Keith proffered his own 3-solo song break in the set, with his works “You Got The Silver,” “Little T & A,” and “Before They Make Me Run.” He looked fit, totally in the flow, played with his usual amazingness and sang better than he has in years: I guess he really did give up smoking!
Irrepressible guitarist Ronnie Wood (a Stone since 1976) remains Mr. Active, while Richards solo cohort drummer Steve Jordan ably took up the torch from the late Charlie Watts. Without Charlie, “Monkey Man” didn’t swing like we’re used to, but it rocked like a mother and the audience lapped it up for its unusualness in their current set lists. And in a world without Nicky Hopkins or Doctor John, at least we have similar keyboard player Chuck Leavell, as do the Stones, who also annointed him their Musical Director since 1982. He helps this classic canon sound fresh and different in our modern audio contexts, flawless but still personal and personable.
The all ages audience came extra alive with certain favorites, like “Honky Tonk Woman,” “Paint It Black” and sterling encore “Satisfaction.” Fans also informed me their approval that the band looked “all silvery and nice” in their shiny silk shirts in assorted colors, with subtle costume changes now being a permanent cool addition to their metier.
SoFi Stadium is a newish venue built seven stories BELOW ground, with a long, well designed ramp (like the Guggenheim Museum) to all levels gradual enough that there was no wheezing whatsoever when those all ages tramped back up. This post-set trek seemed to cement solidarity in the audience, and noticeable were female fans in their 20s who must have studied volumes of 1970s “W” magazines of Women’s Wear Daily to have achieved such perfection in ’70s dress and costuming, all details accurate. Overall, the trekking audiences seemed emergent from reverie, via 50 years of songs of the Rolling Stones. Of highest quality as freshly encountered by the young or glueing older listeners to their memories, these songs made time stand still for two hours. Incredible!
A terrific choice for an opening act, L.A. locals the Linda Lindas were as nonstop energetic as should be expected of genuine teens (the drummer is 13 years old.) Delivering a kickass punk set of originals like their broadcast hit “Racist, Sexist Boy” plus two covers of The GoGos and Talking Heads, it seems a shame to try to limit them by quoting their demographic– all female, Asian-American– since punk was supposed to be all-inclusive since its mid-1970s inception. Fast and fun, they stepped out of the traditional punk hauteur of their few manifestos by admitting, in their onstage banter, “What did we do on our summer break (from school) this year? We opened for the Rolling Stones!”
