The Rolling Stones
NRG Stadium
April 28, 2024

The Rolling Stones turned NRG Stadium into a gigantic rock and roll dance party on Sunday night with a setlist that felt like a greatest hits record with a few bonus tracks of rarities and new songs thrown in. A classic rock big arena show, it also felt comfortably intimate, like hanging out with some cool friends at a backyard party with one of the greatest bands of all time playing.

The Stones started the opening night first concert of their Hackney Diamonds Tour off appropriately enough with "Start Me Up'' and Mick Jagger came out onstage like he was fired out of a canon, wearing a cool silver jacket. Born to be an entertainer, he moved effortlessly and with confidence.

The band followed up with "Get Off of My Cloud" then "Rocks Off" before playing one of their very early lesser known songs from 1966 called "Out of Time" that Jagger said they had never played in the United States before; it went over great with the audience as did every thing they played.

The Houston crowd made me proud this time; there were no annoying talking people near me to be found; everyone was having a great time dancing and on their feet for the entire concert. There were quite a bit of pictures and videos being taken with cellphones but this time I could understand it because The Stones are among the last of the true rock stars left.

Oee woman yelled out several times that she wanted to have Mick's baby. What can you say? Even at 80, Jagger still has sex appeal.

Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards were just effortlessly cool onstage as well; they along with Jagger changed outfits several times with Wood wearing a cool sparkly red jacket at one point and Richards with a leopard print one. Richards had a big smile on his face when Jagger introduced everyone onstage and his name got the biggest cheer. Richards sang the song "Little T&A' which The Stones last played live in 2016.
Jagger engaged in some fun onstage banter with the crowd throughout the show; he asked if anyone was from San Antonio, then Austin, then Dallas, which garnered more than a few boos; he then asked if anyone was from Cut and Shoot, the small town about six miles east of Conroe and 40 miles north of Houston.

Jagger mentioned that he had visited NASA Space Center while in town and said it was great but he was disappointed that they didn't have any Beaver Nuggets from Buc-ee's for him to snack on. He kept
 the local references going when he held up one of the newly designed Houston Texans jerseys.

There was a lot of cool visual stuff going on behind the band on the giant video screens as they performed. Besides the videos of the band performing, there was some animation, like a red background with a temple and snakes during "Sympathy for the Devil" and some tumbling dice during, you guessed it, "Tumbling Dice."

The stage had a catwalk that went out into the crowd that Jagger frequently ran out on inspiring a whole lot of selfie attempts with him — not to the amusement of security who didn't want the aisles blocked. 

Besides Jagger, Wood, and Richards, The Stones had a fairly large group of folks onstage with them. Standouts included back up singer Chanel Haynes and drummer Steve Jordan, who replaced longtime great Charlie Watts who passed away in 2021. Haynes shared lead vocal duties with Jagger on a few songs.

The almost two hours flew by. Many of us feel the music of The Stones is great but seeing it performed live just took it to another higher level.

SET LIST

Start Me Up
Get Off of My Cloud
Rocks Off
Out of Time
Angry
Beast of Burden
Mess It Up
Tumbling Dice
You Can't Always Get What You Want
Little T&A
Sympathy for the Devil
Gimme Shelter
Honky Tonk Women
Miss You
Paint It Black
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Sweet Sounds of Heaven
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction