The hip swinger and the Schrat: Mick Jagger and Keith Richards still play their roles very well on a hot summer evening in Berlin.
Image: EPA
The Waldbühne stayed intact this time, but 57 years after the notorious riot concert there, the Rolling Stones gave everything they had to defend their reputation as the biggest rock band in the world.
So the event was announced on posters: “It doesn’t get any hotter: Bravo brings the sensation. The heaviest band in the world.” It was the legendary Waldbühne concert in September 1965, which confirmed the Stones’ bad-boy image, entry 6 marks above, 8 marks below. The performance had to be stopped after twenty minutes; the forest stage was dismantled in hours of rioting.
57 years later it was said again on Wednesday: It hardly gets any hotter. However, with evening temperatures around thirty degrees, the Stones played two hours longer than in 1965. And with a great concert, they once again reinforced a reputation that they will defend to the end: to be the biggest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world. There is no doubt that they were that wonderful summer night at the Waldbühne, from the very first moment images of the late drummer Charlie Watts appeared on the video screens and two minutes later Keith Richards’ first cutting riff sounded: “Street Fighting Man”. Richard’s Telecaster, which he alternates with a Les Paul Junior, sounds fantastic and dominates the opulent sound mix.
