Loose Diddley, Wood

Working under the name the Gunslingers, rock genius Bo Diddley and Ron Wood “of the Rollin’ Stones” (as Diddley would introduce him at least 5,283 times this evening), rode riff-shod into The Palace on Friday, shot out the lights for 90-plus minutes, and left the capacity crowd in the dust and empty bottles rolling around the dance floor.

Backed by a competent quartet, Diddley and Wood took turns fronting the show, which ran the gamut from Diddley’s rock standards (including a great, reggae-fied rendition of “Crackin’ Up”) to Stones smashes (including a slow-as-you-can-play-it version of “Honky Tonk Women”) to blues and country chestnuts. As befit such a pair of willfully, good-humored minimalists, ‘twas all about as loose and fulla juice as you could get without people asking for their money back. Who were those masked men?