The Rolling StonesAfter a video featuring some major stars of music and film – Elton John, Iggy Pop, Martin Scorsese and Nick Cave, to name a few – telling us about the first time they heard the Stones and, strangely, which member they'd screw if held at gunpoint, a conga line of drummers, all wearing the gorilla masks as featured on the cover of new collection GRRR, march through the crowd of Newark's Prudential Center. The crowd seems convinced that that when The Rolling Stones do finally appear on stage they're going to launch into Sympathy For The Devil; but when the lights go down and the band are revealed, they smash into Get Off My Cloud.
After watching footage of them from the early days in recent documentary Crossfire Hurricane there almost seems like there's no energy on stage whatsoever. But the songs are truly timeless and we are reminded of this almost constantly through the early part of the set; The Last Time is up second, while, after a quick acknowledgement of the Jersey crowd from Mick Jagger, Keith Richards rips through the opening riff of It's Only Rock'N'Roll (But I Like It), Jagger rips off his sparkly jacket and uses the venue's tongue-shaped runway for the first time in the show.
A nice little acknowledgement for their Australian fans comes from the frontman next, not quite the same as, you know, visiting us and playing a show, but it's something. Following this, the iconic eastern inspired Paint It, Black sounds pretty much spot on.
The cavalcade of stars begins with Lady Gaga coming out, possibly dressed up as a licorice allsort and she completely over-dramatises the fantastic Gimme Shelter; she can hit the notes, sure, but there's no need to try and out-dance Jagger. The band sounds great and the song is still one of the best ever, but Gaga's theatrics kinda spoil the whole thing; there should be rules about what the Stones' guest performers are allowed to do on stage to prevent this kind of bullshit. We're going to need to listen to Let It Bleed quite a few times tonight to wash the memory of her horrid dancing away.
Jagger makes mention of the Connecticut shooting very briefly, offering condolences, before Ronnie Wood and Keith bring in Wild Horses really beautifully. John Mayer and Gary Clark Jr. come out to join the band for a rendition of Freddie King's Goin' Down; Mayer and Ronnie trade solos first, before Clark busts out something a little simpler but a solo that feels a lot more rock'n'roll than the blazing of the two earlier guitarists. Of course this would be all well and good if he wasn't to be followed up by Keith Richards who drops a couple of notes and immediately makes us realise he's the man. Clark joins Jagger to sing the final chorus, a very cool coup for the young artist and a nice touch from the Stones. Jagger grabs an acoustic guitar for the awesome Dead Flowers, a song apparently voted by fans online, and it's an absolute treat, showing the Stones at their rootsy-rockin' best.
The Black Keys are the next special guests in line and Bo Diddley's Who Do You Love? is the selected song for them to perform. Charlie Watts kinda looks like he is ignoring Patrick Carney; can't blame him, who needs more than one drummer when you've got one of the greats already? It's not a bad version of the song, but most importantly it sees Jagger really loosen up and have a great time, for the first time starting to really show signs of his old, far younger, self.
The night's first new song is next, Doom & Gloom one of the surprisingly good new cuts added to GRRRR and they throw in One More Shot, the song this afternoon's special is named after, in next, seemingly to get the new stuff out of the way.
Jagger has a Strat in hand for the 1978 groover Miss You and it's at this point that one must really respect the sheer diversity of this great band's material from throughout the 50 years they've been together. The highlight of this song is definitely the bass solo from Darryl Jones, the lowlight the fan who is a little close to one of the mics and absolutely cannot sing to save themselves. Let's hope someone's recorded it for prosperity, the painful howling is a meme waiting to happen.
Ronnie gets a couple of puffs of a ciggie in before he's required for Honky Tonk Woman, after which Keith ducks to the back of the stage to have one himself. Mick thanks everyone, says he hopes to see us again some time (here's hoping) and introduces the band. He ends with Keith, who gets an enormous response, and takes the lead vocal for Before They Make Me Run and Happy; both songs begging the question, why does he have to sing? The guy's a legend, but he's not a frontman, and he's in the same band as Mick fucking Jagger, for Christ's sake.
Jagger comes back, harp in hand, to run through Midnight Rambler, and the other Mick – former guitarist Mr Taylor – comes out with him to smash through the song's lead guitar breaks with ease. It makes the prospect of seeing him out here for his own tour early next year quite exciting. Today's is a long, bombastic version of the song that, more than anything, proves just how captivating Jagger still is out the front of this great band.
The undeniably catchy Start Me Up is a nice straightforward jolt to the system after that lengthy ramble and gets us well prepared for the appearance of hometown boy Bruce Springsteen who helps the Stones run through Tumbling Dice, both on guitar and vocals, in a really classy, humble way. He looks genuinely thrilled to be sharing the stage with these legends and does little else but perform the song, all the while making sure he's not stepping on the toes on any of the members. It's hardly The Boss' or the Stones' finest moment, but it looks like fun and it does the great song justice.
Brown Sugar has the crowd more involved than ever, Jagger easily convincing them to do the “woo!” in the song's outro, but it turns out to be just a warm up as the crowd finally get their chance to sing along to Sympathy For The Devil. Jagger briefly dons a lovely feathered coat and Charlie dons a big set of headphones in order to keep in time with the presumably pre-recorded percussion. It's a bit of a shame to not see the full box and dice unfolding live on stage, to be honest.
The absence of percussion seems even more strange when first encore kicks off with a full 12-piece choir for the intro of You Can't Always Get What You Want. Mick is back with his umpteenth different shirt for the night – a nice shiny purple number – and it's a suitably epic performance of the song, ending in a big eruption of gospel-infused good times. The lead riff of Jumpin' Jack Flash comes next, this song leading into (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, both of them sounding as fresh as ever and proving a somewhat predictable but damn fantastic end to the mammoth two-and-a-half hour set.
It's hard to believe they can still play so well after 50 years and it's hard to believe these songs still sound as good as they do. Their days are surely numbered, but, for now, The Rolling Stones still rule the world of rock'n'roll.
Review by Dan Condon
One More Shot was shown live in Australia as a pay-per-view broadcast on Main Event. It will be replayed at 6.30pm and 10.30pm tonight with encore screenings on December 19, 21, 22 and 25. More information here.
