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A First for the Stones—and for China
by Stephen Casale
From Keith Richards's opening guitar riff in "Start Me Up" down to the last of two encores, the Rolling Stones finally got their China concert this spring, and Shanghai got to experience—and brag about—a western rock legend first hand.
The aging but strangely timeless rockers played a sold-out concert at the Shanghai Grand Stage on April 8, and the group's China debut achieved what arena concerts are supposed to do: get everybody all worked up. At 8,000 seats, the venue's relatively intimate scale played to the band's first-rate audio technology and good form. The foursome, aided by back-up musicians and singers, sounded tight and focused. A towering video screen transmitted the Stones in color, sepia, and black and white, complete with an occasional dazzle of computer graphics.
Before the concert, the press, which in the last 15 years has occasionally viewed the Stones as a parody of their earlier selves, focused on the PRC government's attempt to censor the band's play list. But a partly leashed Mick Jagger nonetheless opened the concert by belting out "Start Me Up"—a song with an infamous reference to a dead man that has more shock value than anything in the proscribed "Let's Spend the Night Together" or "Honky Tonk Woman." ("Beast of Burden," "Brown Sugar," and "Rough Justice" were also banned.) And though Jagger may have toned down his flagrant stage antics, the concert was marked late in the evening by the sudden appearance of giant, inflatable honky-tonk dolls on both sides of the stage. Pushing the envelope? Maybe. Unwittingly or not, it was a nod to the fuzzy boundaries of free expression in China.
Their status as parody or musical icons aside, the longevity of the Stones has led many to surmise that they are the only rock-and-roll giants that have become the true bearers of the spirit of their times. In Shanghai, the indefatigable, yoga-taut Jagger rose above his naughty preening and famously fat pout to produce something more nuanced. The Stones transcended whatever jokes were thrown around about them in China, in part because they played as if they still clearly enjoy the show.
The band played a few new tunes and arena standards such as "Wild Horses," sung with Cui Jian, the "Father" of Chinese rock-and-roll and another occasional target of PRC censors, and who, like the Stones, is considered an aging classic. Cui nonetheless seemed star-struck by the Stones, who are reportedly one of his early influences.
In a brilliantly executed "Gimme Shelter," Jagger momentarily let the spotlight shift away from him and onto a backup singer, while classic anthems such as "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and "Sympathy for the Devil" added inflection, allowing the Stones to make good on their long-awaited China appearance. (The Stones were to play Beijing and Shanghai in 2003, but the concerts were canceled because of the SARS outbreak.)
As expected, the audience was largely composed of expatriates. But despite high ticket prices (from ¥300 to ¥1,800 [$37 to $224]) and the fact that the Stones are relatively unknown in China, many Chinese attended—some sitting in expensive seats. At times the concert seemed like a typical China business mixer writ large—just before the Stones took the stage, I overheard a man behind me pointing out my wife's ex-boss to a friend. I turned and introduced myself and my wife to the man, and then we all waved to her ex-boss sitting nearby.
Although the crowd was characterized more by middle-aged girth than unshaven grunge, the presence of fans of all ages reflected the long span of the band's career. Exiting the venue after the concert, I overheard a twenty-something foreign man make a remark to a young Chinese woman about Jagger's impressive bounce: "Dude, that guy is like 50." Uh, try 62.
Though Stones concerts have been a staple of the rock scene for decades in the West, they were part of something new again in China, if only for one night. Keith Richards may have summed it up best when he quipped in his sand-paper rasp: "China. Well, this is a first. It's been a long time since I said that about anything."
Stephen Casale is based in Shanghai, where he manages regional public affairs and communications for EDAW, Inc., a large US urban planning and design firm. The views expressed in this article belong solely to the author.
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