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Inside Bay Area
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Van Tops Stones In Oakland 06-Nov-06
The nearly unthinkable occurred on Monday night at McAfee Coliseum in Oakland.
Van Morrison, one of the least dependable live performers in rock history, topped the Rolling Stones, a band that many believe to be the finest concert act in the business.
Whoa. Who could have seen that coming?
Well, for starters, anybody who attended Morrison’s other shows this year in the Bay Area. The 61-year-old “Belfast Cowboy” was at the top of his game during gigs back in March at the Masonic in San Francisco and in September at the U.C. Greek in Berkeley. His opening set for the Stones on Monday was arguably even more impressive than those two previous outings.
The Stones, for their part, delivered a fine headlining set that was a tad stronger than the one put on at AT&T Park (then called SBC) in San Francisco almost exactly one year prior. Yet, it once again felt a bit mechanical, sterile and cold _ as if a Stones DVD was simply being played on an enormous screen.
It seems odd to knock a band for being overly professional, but the criticism might fit when it comes to the Stones.
The concert was originally scheduled for Sunday, but was knocked back a night after Stones front man Mick Jagger was advised to take four days off from the tour to recover from recent throat problems. Perhaps, the vocalist should have scheduled an even longer recovery time. Something certainly seemed to be bothering the vocalist early in the night. It could have been his throat. Or, maybe, it was just age.
The combined age of the four Stones _ Jagger, drummer Charlie Watts and guitarists Ron Wood and Keith Richards _ is 249. Combine that with a Herculean tour schedule, which up to that point included 110 shows in 20 countries, and even the Stones are bound to wear down.
The concert began at promptly 6:45 p.m. and those who were still fighting the traffic when Morrison took the stage missed some truly inspired music.
Backed by an extraordinary group of players, including three backing vocalists and steel-guitar wiz Cindy Cashdollar, Morrison was in fine voice as he crooned through enticingly warm versions of the old hits “Cleaning Windows” and “Moondance.”
Whereas he’s operated on autopilot while performing many of his best-known works in past years, Morrison embraced his back catalog on this night and gave fans new, yet familiar enough, reasons to get excited about “Wild Night” and “Brown Eyed Girl.” The music was centered in the blues, but the players drew from a wide spectrum of musical shades, including 1940s-era pop and straight-ahead jazz. The result, such as on the traditional number “St. James Infirmary,” was often glorious to behold.
Following a short break, which seemingly all 42,000 fans used to visit the merchandise stands, the Rolling Stones came out rocking with a huge rendition of the classic “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.”
The band worked the same elaborate stage set, dominated by two multi-level towers full of fans, as it did in San Francisco last year. Thankfully, however, the players didn’t work the same set of songs.
For an act of the Stones’ stature _ of which, arguably, there is only one _ it’s impressive to see how much the group changes its setlist. The 19-song set featured 11 numbers that weren’t performed during the show I reviewed last November. The band also pulled out some relative rarities, including “She Was Hot” and “Connection.”
The Glimmer Twins (Jagger and Richards) didn’t shine very brightly on Monday. The always energetic Jagger seemed to be going through the motions, especially early in the show, and Richards limped his way through his leads, most noticeably (and unfortunately) on “Sympathy for the Devil.”
In contrast, Wood and Watts were rock solid on this night. Wood did his best to make up for Richards’ off-night and hit with sparkling leads on “Tumbling Dice” and numerous other songs. Watts did his jazz thing, staying in perfect time and remaining unflappable even when fireworks and other pyrotechnical displays were going off all around him.
Given that the tour is called A Bigger Bang, it’s no surprise that the show is heavy in big-production numbers and special effects.
The grandest spectacle came during “Under My Thumb” as the band members boarded a platform that moved along a track through the crowd, finally resting somewhere near where Oakland A’s shortstop Marco Scutaro would catch a fly ball. The change of location didn’t help matters much, unfortunately, as the Stones played lukewarm renditions of “Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)” and “Start Me Up.”
The band members performed “Honky Tonk Women” while the platform carried them back to the main stage and then they played a version of “Sympathy for the Devil” that didn’t gel in its usual way. The group finished up the set with solid takes on “Paint It Black” and “Brown Sugar” and then returned for an encore of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.”
There was indeed satisfaction to be found at this concert. But one had to get to the show in time to see Van Morrison to find it.
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