Pop Music Review : Stones Do the ‘Voodoo’ They Do So Well

OK, let’s get all the Rolling Stones jokes out of the way. Let’s call them the Geriatric Stones . . . the grandfathers of rock . . . and what have you.

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Ha ha.

The group--whose core members Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ron Wood are either approaching 50 or past it--are targets because rock ‘n’ roll isn’t supposed to be an old man’s game.

It was designed as an expression of youth and it has generally been at its most captivating when being reinvented by fresh voices, a role the Stones long ago conceded to such younger forces as U2, R.E.M. and Nirvana.

But it was hard to find any derisive laughter among the 55,000 fans at Jack Murphy Stadium on Monday as the Stones kicked off their tour’s Southern California swing.

The crowd was too dazzled.

Against all odds, the Stones are a band that refuses to roll over.

Thirty years after making its U.S. debut just up the road in San Bernardino, the landmark British outfit defied the rules of rock longevity with a show that, on balance, was even stronger than 1989’s triumphant “Steel Wheels” outing.

In some ways those dates seemed a last hurrah, a lavish spectacle in which the band played most of its classic hits with unbending professionalism and skill. What was left? “Steel Wheels II”?

The surprise is that the new “Voodoo Lounge” tour is more inviting on every level--from more alluring staging to a generally more satisfying selection of songs. Most disarming of all: the renewed passion of the band members and the good-natured way they confront the aging issue.

The show opened with the Southern California debut of Seal, the British singer/songwriter whose 1991 hit, “Crazy,” was an inviting calling card. But his melodic blend of funk, pop and rock seemed largely lost in the vast stadium setting. His smaller theater tour later in the year will be a better test of his performing strengths.

Then the Stones took over.

“I’m gonna tell you how it’s gonna be,” Jagger declared teasingly in the first line of “Not Fade Away,” the 1964 hit that opened the two-hour set. The still lean, athletic singer delivered the lyric with such biting authority that he mocked the idea that this is a band living on borrowed time. His words, in effect, were a vow that the Stones can still entertain and excite.

And Jagger said it with the confidence of a man who has learned night after night on this tour, which began in August in Washington, D.C., that he is right.

The audience erupted with applause and cheered even louder when the band followed with one of its classic concert numbers, “Tumbling Dice.” Through the rest of the evening, they touched on a lot of other trademark tunes, from “Start Me Up” and “Sympathy for the Devil” to “Brown Sugar” and “Street Fighting Man.”

If that sounds like too much of a sentimental journey, the band played with a fire and command--bassist Darryl Jones filling in ably for the retired Bill Wyman--reminding us that they are masters of the rock form. The support cast--keyboardist Chuck Leavell, a four-piece brass section and two backup singers--added punctuation that was consistently spicy and precise.

Augmenting the music on this tour: lighting that’s frequently as colorful and disarming as a carnival midway, and equally striking video effects on overhead screens. The latter range from appealing computer animation sequences to clips of old screen darlings (Shirley Temple to Betty Boop) during “Honky Tonk Women.”

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The most captivating moment visually was during “It’s All Over Now,” when the Stones used the video screen to make another wry commentary on the aging issue.

Normally, the stage action is projected in color on the screen so that fans in remote areas of the stadium can better see what is happening on stage. However, for this song, the images were in grainy black and white, giving the impression that we were watching vintage footage from the ‘60s. It was so effective that you had to turn to the live action to make sure the video image actually was reflecting what was happening on stage.

The illusion only worked because the band was playing with such vitality and joy, negating any audience disappointment that it wasn’t really the ‘60s Stones on stage. No small feat.

The band members are more comfortable and relaxed on stage than at any time since the ‘70s. Jagger still struts at times like an overactive marionette, but he seems less the frontman caricature that he was in the ‘80s. Richards, too, jumps at times with such enthusiasm that you’d think he was standing on a trampoline as he played guitar.

The show’s weakness was some of the new material. In their only sign of timidity Monday, the Stones seemed unwilling to take a chance on slowing down the blistering pace.

This caused them to turn to some of the weakest songs in the new “Voodoo Lounge” album, including “You Got Me Rocking” and “I Go Wild”--generic reworkings of traditional Stones rave-ups. The band could use its time more convincingly by turning instead to some of the new album’s softer tunes that have a bit more imagination and charm, such as “Sweethearts Forever,” with its Drifters-like innocence, or “Brand New Car,” with its wry blues sass.

For the most part, however, the band delivered a show filled with more than enough richness and heart to live up to its remarkable legacy. All geriatric joking aside, this group still deserves proudly the name Rolling Stones.

* The Rolling Stones play tonight and Friday with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Buddy Guy at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, 7 p.m. Tonight sold out. Friday, $55 and $39.50. (818) 577-3100.