The Rolling Stones Start Up Their Hackney Diamonds Tour in Houston

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (r) at NRG Stadium on April 28 (Photos by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Rolling Stones)

Keith Richards wrote “Happy” a half-century ago and more. The Dartford, Kent-born English guitarist, 80, didn’t perform it Sunday night inside Houston’s immense NRG Stadium during the Rolling Stones’ Hackney Diamonds tour launch, choosing instead “Little T&A” from the following decade. Nevertheless, the bandleader’s 1,000-watt grin matched the unbounded joy with which the ground-zero UK big bang act played, for exactly two hours of still-delirious thrills.

In point of fact, Mick Jagger, also 80, now runs the ship, maybe, as demonstrated by his extraordinary event producer mojo throughout the 18-song set. Shouldering bassist Darryl Jones during his bass solo in “Miss You,” throwing a towel at 35-year auxiliary MVP and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” French horn intro Matt Clifford, then finally bowling over the closing show bow by Richards, Ronnie Wood, and himself, Jagger boosted the spirits of his band as thoroughly as he worked an audience filling up most of the 72,000 seater. According to the frontman’s stagefront poll, they swarmed in from across the state – to feed a flame that cannot under the laws of nature burn eternally.

(l-r) Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger

Of course, the Rolling Stones spin between the magnetic poles of Jagger and Richards. Witnessing Paul McCartney whine to John Lennon in Peter Jackson’s dizzying Get Back doc that the bespeckled Beatle always headed the Beatles, even as his songwriting partner acquiesces to Macca’s showrunning acumen, captures the literal star magnitude of music-changing alchemy. When Richards riffed some stardust onto fan vote-in “Beast of Burden,” a song Stones legend once mythologized as his thanks, mate to Jagger for manning the ship during his long heroin addiction, he shot the singer a plaintive look.

A feisty setlist sorely missed McCartney’s Hackney Diamonds bass blowout “Bite My Head Off,” but new classic fare integrated seamlessly. Future chronology essential “Angry” summoned Some Girls as Jagger strapped on an axe and Richard chopped out the solo. Fellow single “Mess It Up” demonstrated the Stones trademark rhythmic signature, a slight lag in the drums following the guitar rather than the traditional reverse, which forever injected swing into their blues.

Keith Richards

“My goodness, I felt that,” remarked Jagger afterward. “It felt good!”

Three-carat Hackney Diamond and first encore “Sweet Sounds of Heaven” missed the LP’s Lady Gaga not at all as Chanel Haynes unleashed feral gospel at Jagger that out-flamed even her earlier showcase on a hair-raising “Gimme Shelter.”

Meanwhile, 1966 recovery “Out of Time,” never played in America, chimed Sixties crucible pop. First bandleader Brian Jones’ marimba part twinkled from somewhere deep inside the keyboard stack of veteran Stones sideman Chuck Leavell, called out by Jagger as the evening’s birthday celerant. The latter’s ancient accent, plus the lyric and cadence, joins the Aftermath track to UK album mate “Under My Thumb.”

“I don’t think you knew it, but you get to know it as it goes along,” acknowledged rock’s most underrated wordsmith, who himself required a teleprompter consult during the sing-along.

The entire second half of any Stones convergence since their groundbreaking 1969 North American tour cascades like a meteor shower: all fireworks. Not every grain of gunpowder ignited, naturally, with “Rocks Off” wobbling early and “Tumbling Dice” rolling slightly less slick than its previous 1,000 iterations. Cartilage between bones shrinks with age.

“This is the first show of our tour,” protested Jagger afterward. “You can’t expect it all to go like clockwork.”

Cue audience choir “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

(l-r) Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards, and drummer Steve Jordan

Or ignite, for that matter, Steve Jordan’s feral war drums on a bangin’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” while also alighting the conflagration video behind the band on a possessed “Sympathy for the Devil.” Last song “Satisfaction” punched out every “I can’t get NO” with ferocity.

Name-dropping a tour of the NASA Space Center, plus Buc-ee’s beaver nuggets and Houston eatery Ninfa’s “tranquilitas,” a cannabis-infused but alcohol-free margarita, the Rolling Stones mouthpiece also alluded to the band’s second ever U.S. date – in San Antonio.

“Nineteen sixty-four was my first rodeo,” noted Jagger toward the last. “We always have a good time in Texas.”

Mick Jagger

Rolling Stones Setlist
NRG Stadium, Houston, April 28, 2024

• “Start Me Up”
• “Get Off of My Cloud”
• “Rock 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”
• ENCORE
• “Sweet Sounds of Heaven”
• “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”