CLEVELAND, Ohio – OK, let’s get this out of the way.
The core trio of The Rolling Stones are old, pretty darn old. Even if 80 is the new 70, The Glimmer Twins — Mick Jagger and Keith Richards — plus Ronnie Wood, the youngest of the trio who celebrated his 77th year on June 1, are definitely veteran senior citizens. And, in a wry bit of (presumably lucrative) self-realization with a dash of irony, the band’s current Hackney Diamonds Tour, which stopped at Cleveland Browns Stadium on Saturday, is sponsored by the American Association of Retired Persons.
Of course, the Stones are not retired. In fact, they are on the road once again and they (finally) returned to Cleveland on Saturday for only the second time this century.
COVID derailed their scheduled 2020 tour stop, so many area fans have waited 22 years for another chance to get their ya-ya’s out in their own backyard. On Saturday night, the Stones gave fans a musical trip into their past and present with a 19-song, 2-plus hour set of hits from the ‘60s through ’80s, skipping the ’90s and the aughts but bringing it on into the 21st century with a few new tunes.
Before the show, fans milled about in a wide variety of vintage (or at least reproductions of vintage) t-shirts, and as always, hardcore fans commiserated about the number of Stones shows they have attended across the decades.
Unfortunately, as many of those fans were attempting to settle in for the show, they could be heard grousing about the difficulty of getting to their seats. Note to stadiums hosting concerts: please tell concert-goers about any wristband requirements in your online communications prior to the show to streamline the seating process and so they don’t end up venting their frustrations at your innocent, hard-working employees.
