The Stones Rolling again

The Rolling Stones kicked off their A Bigger Bang world tour at Fenway Park in Boston on Sunday, August 21st, and they thrilled the audience with a two-hour mixture of classics and recent material. Fans in the sold-out ballpark were treated to a 22-song setlist that ranged from '60s material like "Satisfaction" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want," to a Mick Jagger-Lisa Fischer duet on the Ray Charles standard "Night Time Is The Right Time," all the way up to the new album A Bigger Bang, which was represented by four songs - "Rough Justice," "Back Of My Hand" - which featured Jagger and Ronnie Wood trading slide guitar licks - "Oh No, Not You Again," and the Keith Richards-sung "Infamy."

The Stones are the third act to ever play Fenway -- after Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band in 2003 and Jimmy Buffett last year -- and the feeling in the stands was that this was the best-sounding concert there, and some even thought it was the best-sounding Stones gig in the greater Boston area in years.

One surprise was the B-stage, where the Stones played in the middle of the audience. Instead of having a second performance area set up away from the main stage, like on recent tours, the front of the main stage began extending into the crowd during "Miss You," and it stayed that way for four songs, before pulling back to the main stage during "Honky Tonk Women."

Another surprise, although maybe not really that much of a shock in this age of file-sharing, was the crowd's reaction to the new songs from A Bigger Bang. Even though the album doesn't come out until September 6th, the new material was well received, and a large number of fans knew all the words and sang along as if they'd been listening for years.

Perhaps the final shock of the night wasn't really part of the show. Someone from the audience actually made it onto the stage - nearest to Keith Richards, though not really close to any of the musicians. The guy danced around a bit before he was taken down. A spokesperson for the Boston Police Department had no information as to whether he was arrested.

The Stones will play their second and final Fenway date on Tuesday, August 23rd. They're expected to be on the road for just about a year.

The setlist from the opening night show of the Rolling Stones A Bigger Bang world tour was as follows:

1 Start Me Up
2 You Got Me Rocking
3 Shattered
4 Tumbling Dice
5 Rough Justice
6 Back Of My Hand
7 Beast Of Burden
8 She's So Cold
9 Heartbreaker
10 Night Time
11 The Worst (Keith)
12 Infamy (Keith)
13 Miss You (to B-stage)
14 Oh No, Not You Again (B-stage)
15 Satisfaction (B-stage)
16 Honky Tonk Women (from B-stage)
17 Out Of Control
18 Sympathy For The Devil
19 Jumping Jack Flash
20 Brown Sugar

ENCORE:

21 You Can't Always Get What You Want
22 It's Only Rock'n Roll
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