The Rolling Stones and their fans spent the night together closer than ever, Sunday at KeyArena.
Not since they played the old Center Arena 40 years ago have the Stones gotten as physically close to their fans here. Ingenious staging, with walkways that almost touched the seating areas, featured a long, wide section that detached itself, moved through the middle of the crowd and landed in the middle of the arena floor. The novel setup brought Mick Jagger and company within touching range of hundreds of concertgoers.
A huge video screen gave everyone a good view of the action onstage.
Opening with "Start Me Up," the timeless rock band played a generous selection of their biggest hits, some surprises and a few songs off the new "A Bigger Bang" album, which paled in comparison to the classics.
The set built slowly, with "Shattered," "She's So Cold," "Tumbling Dice," "Ruby Tuesday," "Bitch" and others, all delivered strongly but straightforwardly.
Then, about an hour into the set, after Jagger did some of his finest singing in "Night Time Is The Right Time," a tribute to Ray Charles, and guitarist Keith Richards sang the deservedly obscure and aptly named "The Worst" and the new, equally weak "Infamy," the show took off.
On the detached stage, they started with "Miss You" and rocked "Get Off of My Cloud" and "Honky Tonk Women."With the satellite stage joined backwith the mainstage, Jagger donned a black coat and hat for a defanged "Sympathy for the Devil" that was more fun than menacing. The "black girl" in "Brown Sugar" — with the audience providing the song's "wooos" — became variously "young man" and "young woman." "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," with Jagger the most animated of the night, was a whip-crack ending to the main set.
The first encore opened with "You Can't Always Get What You Want," which became a giant singalong, followed by a confetti-drenched "Jumpin Jack Flash," which ended the show.
Jagger looked as thin as ever but more muscular. Richards seemed revitalized, less gray and wrinkly than before. Graying Charlie Watts was as perfect on drums, as always. The youngster in the band, Ron Wood, was overshadowed, as always.
They were aided by two additional musicians, four background singers and a four-piece horn section.
Nikki Sixx of Mötley Crüe, known as Frank Ferranno growing up here in Seattle, may have been referring to a 1975 Coliseum concert when he said he couldn't get into a Stones show here when he was young because he had "a pocketful of joints."
"Tonight I got a pocketful of joints, and there ain't nothin' they can do about it!" he gloated.
The bad-boy band of the 1980s opened with a blistering hourlong set marked by pillars of fire — ignited to Tommy Lee's drumbeats — a dwarf in a monster costume and three leggy strippers.
Introduced as "The Masters of Disaster," they blasted off with "Shout At The Devil." Lead singer Vince Neil, in black and white leather, roamed the big stage. Black-clad Mick Mars, in a top hat with a skull and crossbones, long black coat and Frankenstein boots, moved little but was impressive on guitar.
Neil let loose a blue streak of expletives when a motorcycle sound effect malfunctioned during "Girls Girls Girls," but the rest of the set, including extended versions of "Dr. Feelgood" and "Same Ol Situation," went smoothly.