Why this might have been the last Rolling Stones concert

At the beginning of what may be their very last appearance this time, they ask themselves the question: Are the Rolling Stones still the Rolling Stones after 60 years? Before they enter the Berlin Waldbühne again, as they did in 1965, 1998 and 2014, they pay tribute to their drummer, who died last year, with a series of photos. The images on the video altar are reminiscent of the stoicism of a musician and a person, without which the band would no longer be a band. According to Keith Richards in his memoirs, Charlie Watts only jumped out of his skin and became violent when Mick Jagger addressed him as “my drummer”.

The surviving three Rolling Stones appear on the videos with their stage band, Mick Jagger wonders what he should have been doing as a poor boy in “Street Fighting Man” if not singing in a band like that, and between “All Down the Line” and “Thumbling Dice” he calls out: “We dedicate this show to Charlie!”

Charlie Watts died in August 2021 during the “No Filter” tour. The concert tour continued with a guest drummer. Steve Jordan also supports the Rolling Stones on the “Sixty” tour. It is said to have been considered to cancel all dates of ongoing and already prepared tours in order to mourn and to rethink the band itself. But the Stones are also a global corporation with a singing and dancing CEO.

Another lovely passage from Keith Richard’s memoir: “From time to time Mick would drop by to have a chat with me about ‘economic restructuring’. Half the time we babbled about tax attorneys. Or about the intricacies of the Dutch tax system.” “It’s Only Rock’n’Roll” is also the title of a “Simpsons” episode in which Mick Jagger and Keith Richards speak themselves. “We have to buy cheaper groats,” says the singer at the calculator, which his guitarist accepts because he couldn’t play the pirate without his accountant.

Such a band needs an economist who drives up the ticket prices, who virtuoso steers supply and demand between stadiums and halls through uncertain markets. But will there be another last tour in 2023 with a very last performance with three skinny eyewitnesses and their songs from the prehistory of pop music? They’ve been asking the question for 30 years. However, so far there has never been so much against it.

In any case, it is not difficult to see the appearance in the Waldbühne as a farewell performance not only for the “Sixty” tour. On stage, in front of Keith Richards and Ron Wood in their old age, Mick Jagger’s presentation always seemed a little overzealous. In Berlin he surpasses himself as a singer, dancer, announcer and master of ceremonies, as if it were, yes, for the last time.

For “Out of Time” he becomes a hit singer who even encourages the Germans to clap along with the meter on the one and three in march time. “Living in a Ghost Town”, the lockdown reggae recorded in 2020, becomes the expressive dance music of a pandemic that has been overcome for this evening. In “Miss You,” after halftime, which Keith Richards fills with two tracks, he appears in a silver disco shirt and an accessory guitar, strutting down the runway, shrieking like it counts and spinning his hips like he should she doesn’t even go to him anymore.

As flawlessly as he has rehearsed his dance class steps in order to continue to refine his bitchy gestures and expand choreographically, he is so well prepared for the evening that he can communicate to those present at the sold-out Waldbühne. In good German or in dialect, as in his Charlie Watts dedication. From “Tach, Berliner!” to “I heard that you guys are great singers!” to “What a great evening! What a midsummer night’s dream!” He is pleased that the Rolling Stones were finally able to land their own plane at Berlin’s major airport, that BER was a “bargain for seven billion euros” and that there was “currywurst and buns”. And “Berliner Luft”, the peppermint liqueur for guests: “After five schnapps my German was perfect!”

It’s been like this for weeks, even away from the stadiums: Mick Jagger tweeted evidence of a business trip that was no longer supposed to be a tour for the Rolling Stones, but an extended trip through Europe. Mick in Vienna with a beer can at a bratwurst stand, Mick on his 79th birthday with Bavarian brass bands, Mick at the Brandenburg Gate. This led to young girls also besieging the hotels in order to film the natural spectacle of apparently world-famous grandfathers for Instagram. Cheered up like in 1962, when they were first allowed on stage at the “Marquee” in London, they were escorted to the stadiums, as could be seen in all media, and improvised through “Midnight Rambler” like the rumbling and rowdy blues band that they were then.

Its 60-year history is also the history of its dissolution. Brian Jones died in 1969 under usual business circumstances at the age of 27. In 1974 Ron Wood took the place of a second first guitarist as the last permanent new member. In 1993, Bill Wyman retired as a bassist. His replacement, Daryl Jones, was never named to Rolling Stone. Steve Jordan will go down in history as the drummer who replaced Charlie Watts.

The real wonder of this band would have been to have been touring under the Rolling Stones name for so long, thanks in part to their benevolent drummer with a bouncy backbeat. And with that, back to “Life,” the 2010 memoir by Keith Richards one last time: “Shit, Charlie and I, we’ve had this ass before our eyes for over forty years!” He meant Mick Jagger or his butt. “Life” was already considered an obituary for the Rolling Stones, the greatest patchwork band in rock music history. But then the next tour dates came again.

Every Rolling Stones concert thrives on the many small rites and one big ritual that hasn’t been celebrated for a year now. As soon as Mick Jagger introduced his drummer, everyone got up, left the strawberry punch and caramel crepes, clapped, stampeded and cheered for minutes, embarrassing Charlie Watts. The two guitarists now share the special applause – and they look like they know what to make of it.

But the rites have also become rigid, even Mick Jagger’s stork step in a frenzied standstill. All the cockroach, lizard, and fossil jokes haven’t been funny for decades. A band is chosen. Concert reviews deal with what isn’t played (“Angie”) and what is played (“Start Me Up”) and how the videos look like. They play “Sympathy for the Devil” in purgatory and with Ukrainian ruins in a moving stage setting, accompanied by the “Huh-huh!” of the 22,000 in the forest stage.

Finally, of course, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” is played. In September 1965 it was one of the eight songs after which the Waldbühne was devastated by the audience because they found the concert too short and the times were like that. The Rolling Stones also performed “Time Is on My Side” and “Last Time” at the time. Not this time, although the classics would fit even better today. Time is only a big issue when so much of it has passed and all the less of it remains.

It is, explains Mick Jagger in Berlin, the 118th concert of the Rolling Stones in Germany. Maybe they actually chose the Waldbühne, which was booked at short notice for the tour, with care, like “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” to say goodbye. “The Rolling Stones before ‘Satisfaction’ were a band. Ever since ‘Satisfaction’, the Rolling Stones have been a monster,” he once said. That evening he lets it disappear again for an uncertain time.