DanMargarita.com

Sure Keith Richard looks like he became a member of the undead in the mid-seventies, and Jagger and Ron Wood have more wrinkles than your average shar-pei. So what if drummer Charlie Watts resembles the late newscaster David Brinkley (before he died)?

The rock & roll sexagenarians (an appropriate term for the libidinous Jagger) opened their latest tour at Boston’s fabled ballfield, Fenway Park, last evening and for all the hype and hyped-up ticket prices, largely delivered a show that kept the faithful happy.

I was able to acquire seats from a friend who had to leave town and missed the show and wound up sitting in section 20, behind home plate. Those are terrific seats for a game, but the direct opposite of the stage, about as far away from the stage as you can get, however an enormous video screen behind the stage made the distance irrelevant.

For Red Sox fans familiar with buying bottled water or soda at the ballpark, it came as a bit of a surprise that bottled soda had to be poured into cups to be taken away from concession stands. Presumably this was a precaution to see that no drunken fan hurled a bottle at the Rock legends, although if I could have hit someone onstage from where I was sitting, I should be immediately inserted into the Red Sox pitching rotation.

The band opened up with “Start Me Up” from the “Tattoo You” album (or CD as the kids call them today).

Jagger then addressed the crowd noting that Boston is a “city of champions” with the Patriots and Red Sox, which drew predictable cheers. He then introduced “the Governor of California” which drew predictable boos, except from the guy behind me who yelled “He’s a queer! He’s a queer!”

Pretty brave words to say to a former body-building champion in a noisy crowd from 300 feet away.

Regrettably, the first half of the show featured new tunes and songs dating back no further then 1978’s over-rated “Some Girls” album, but the second half of the show kicked into gear with their “Classic Rock” material.

Highlights of the show included a tribute to the late Ray Charles with a great version of Charles’ “Night Time is the Right Time” and two numbers with Keith Richard on lead vocal.

I believe that he also made a reference to the Red Sox of some sort during his pre-song speech. It’s hard to say because the difference between my English and Keith Richard’s English is the difference between Portuguese and Spanish. Enough words are similar that you can understand most of it and get the gist of the conversation, yet they’re two totally different languages.

The band returned for a three-song encore. The first of the trio was “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” which the homophobic, Schwarzenegger-hating guy behind me took pains to let us all know was his favorite song. He then launched into his own off-key rendition, but moving a few feet away returned the stage to Jagger & Co. for me.

Then it was time for the largely baby-boomer crowd to go home and rest up for tomorrow’s day at work.

In the end, it was only rock & roll, but I liked it.

Okay, pretty hackneyed, but you didn’t expect me to end with something else, did you?