The Rolling Stones / Stevie Wonder

Callaghanmichael Us Feb 19, 2022

The Rolling Stones, considered by many the most exciting rock ‘n’ roll band in the world, whipped 20,000 fans into a frenzy last night at the first of four sold‐out concerts in Madison Square Garden.

Stevie Wonder took the stage shortly after 8 P.M. The blind black singer, dressed in an ankle‐length white robe, got a huge ovation at the end of his hour‐long set.

But the crowd was there to see the Stones, and at 9:30 P.M., when Mick Jagger started strutting across the immense green serpent painting that adorned the floor of the stage, their rhythmic foot‐stomping shook the arena. As the group swung into “Brown Sugar,” a battery of light projectors aligned like cannons behind the speakers on stage beamed intense white and yellow on mylar mirrors suspended above the crowd.

Jagger, a strutting, swaggering Nureyev of a singer, tiptoed up to the edge of the stage and back, suddenly flinging himself into wild leaps and graceful spins as he sang. Although the Stones’ show had an almost impromptu look, every gesture had been carefully rehearsed, and the audience's response seemed equally practiced and carefully engineered. Jagger almost seemed to be manipulating the vast audience as he invited them to pound their hands together high above their heads during “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.”

The lighting, too, seemed carefully geared to elicit frantic blood‐pounding response. As the group ripped through “Midnight Rambler” and into “Bye Bye, Johnnie,” the mylar mirrors started rotating slowly, reflecting images of the bouncing crowd hack to the audience.

Then, the double‐tiered lights were lowered, their filters were removed, and they were moved up into position again, throwing a glittering white light onto the stage. The house lights came on, and the audience screamed in response as if suddenly realizing its numbers.

During the last numbers, including “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Street Fighting Man,” Jagger dipped his hands into bucket held by an aide and showered the front rows with rose petals, blowing kisses at the crowd.

The fans roared for an encore, and they got it. As in some previous concerts, Stevie Wonder and his band, Wonderlove, who had performed before the Stones, returned to the stage with the Stones and together they did a pulsating medley of “Uptight,” a Stevie Wonder hit, and “Satisfaction,” perhaps the Stones’ best‐known song.