The Stones’ arrival onstage was announced by a march-drummed snippet of O Canada that preceded the guitar chords of Street Fighting Man.Fred Thornhill/The Canadian Press
Build it, as they say, and they would come. Pity no one thought about getting them home.
Parking-area grid lock delayed by two hours and more the exit of Rolling Stones fans from Burl’s Creek Event Ground late Saturday night in Oro-Medonte, a bucolic township north of Barrie, Ont. Attendance figures were not released, but concert organizers were expecting about 70,000 people to flock to see the legendary rockers play the lone Canadian gig on the 17-date North American leg of their No Filter tour. Whether stuck in a car or a bus after they’d heard the band play Let’s Spend the Night Together, a fan couldn’t help but think that the song’s prospect was a distinct possibility.
Buses shuttled in people from as close as Barrie and as far away as Hamilton, Kitchener, Ottawa, Oshawa, Niagara Falls and Montreal. But there were too many cars and not enough roads to handle the mass departure.
Veteran power-pop specialists Sloan had played a side-stage set at 4 p.m. Hearing them perform If It Feels Good Do It, it was hard to reconcile that libertine sentiment with a lengthy and literally buzz-killing list of prohibited items. No cash would be accepted by food-and-drink vendors or anyone else – just debit or credits cards were allowed. Clear bags to carry personal items were insisted upon. Umbrellas, iPads, Frisbees, balloons and “legal highs” were specifically mentioned by name as being uncool. When did the Stones (who beat the traffic by arriving via private jet at Lake Simcoe Regional Airport) become The Man?
Still, it was a sunny-day and smiles-all-around success, at least while the music lasted. Opening bands on the main stage were Ontario rock acts the Beaches and the Glorious Sons. It was a big crowd. It was a Stones crowd. Both those support acts refused to be swallowed up in it, though, and the crowd dug the energy.
The Stones’ arrival onstage was announced by a march-drummed snippet of O Canada that preceded the guitar chords of Street Fighting Man. “Hey, said, my name, is called, disturrrr-bance,” sang the sequined top-coated man whose name is, in fact, Michael Philip Jagger. At age 75, the polished showman gleamed and glittered (and winked and swaggered) even when the jacket came off.
A crowd of mixed generations sang along to You Can’t Always Get What You Want. The 1969 piece of advice began with a sombre French horn statement, advertised Jagger’s favourite soda flavour – “cherry red” – and included a spirited Ronnie Wood guitar solo before ending with a Pentecostal gospel-organ upswing.
A catwalk jutted out into the most expensive general-admission area. Jagger used it to strut, preen and put down any thought that a heart-valve procedure this spring had affected his status as a perpetual-motion freak of nature. When Jagger, Woods, drummer Charlie Watts and an often-beaming Keith Richards ambled down the narrow runway together it was a stroll down memory lane. The acoustic set there of Angie and Dead Flowers was a feel-good moment against a twilight sky.
On the banter side of the engagement, Jagger poked fun at Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s vital buck-a-beer policy. He introduced the mischievous Wood possibly as the “cockatoo of cottage country.” Or was it the Cocteau of cottage country? When it was revealed that She’s a Rainbow had won an online fan vote for inclusion into the set list, Jagger fretted aloud about the words to the flowered Summer of Love psychedelia. “How does that one go?" he murmured.
On the banter side of the engagement, Jagger poked fun at Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s vital buck-a-beer policy.Fred Thornhill/The Associated Press
Like this: “Have you seen her dressed in blue? / See the sky in front of you ...” One can forgive the singer for trying to forget such Elizabethan nonsense.
The show’s highlight? For many years now, it always seems to be Midnight Rambler. Where Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Sympathy for the Devil, Paint it Black and Gimme Shelter are no longer able to summon the ominous edge they once did, Rambler, a homicidal blues in B major and a channelling of Jack the Ripper through a Muddy Waters medium, is the excellent, dynamic exception.
It’s a shame a day of music and classic-rock community was marred by the postshow traffic mess. Burl’s Creek Event Grounds, the site of the annual three-day country music festival Boots & Hearts, isn’t built to handle a single-day crowd the size of Saturday’s. The organizers would have known that, but they put the show on anyway, taking in the cash from tickets that started at nearly $200 and went much higher. At times, when the wind shifted, a distinct fertilizer odour from nearby farms could be detected. That’s not all that stank.
Set List:
Street Fighting Man
Let's Spend the Night Together
Tumbling Dice
Sad Sad Sad
She’s a Rainbow
You Can't Always Get What You Want
Angie (on acoustic stage)
Dead Flowers (on acoustic stage)
Sympathy for the Devil
Honky Tonk Women
Slipping Away
Before They Make Me Run
Miss You
Paint It Black
Midnight Rambler
Start Me Up
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Brown Sugar
Encore:
Gimme Shelter
(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
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Brad Wheeler