CLEVELAND, Ohio – Rolling Stones: “Let’s Spend the Night Together,” CLE?
CLE Fans: “Start Me Up,” Stones!
“This could be the last time,” sings Mick Jagger in the 1965 Rolling Stones classic, “The Last Time.” If Saturday’s festivities surrounding the band’s “Hackney Diamonds” tour stop at Cleveland Browns Stadium was any indication, it’s a day that will live in infamy.
Related: The Rolling Stones perform hit-filled set at Cleveland Browns Stadium
If you’re from around here, you’re more than used to Mother Nature saying, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” But on what promised to be the nicest day of the entire summer to date, fans of the legendary Rock & Roll Hall of Famers thought they just might find they’d get what they need.
“It’s an absolutely perfect day,” said Tony Harris, a longtime Stones fan from Berea who was parked on a camp chair in The Pit on the East Bank of the Flats. “Couldn’t be better.”
He was right. With nary a cloud in the blue skies above, Cleveland’s streets were buzzing with anticipation in the afternoon hours before the big gig. Even with high ticket and merch prices, there was nary an unhappy face in site.
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Fans pre-gamed for an electrifying night slowly filled the Rock Hall’s plaza and the surrounding parking lots, turning them into festive tailgating hubs. With vintage Glimmer Twins tunes (and all manner of other summer smells) wafting on the air in North Coast Harbor, the feeling was decidedly upbeat.
“This will be my fourth show,” said Melinda Coffin of Mount Pleasant, Michigan, who was sunning herself with two friends on the Union Home Mortgage Plaza at the Rock Hall. “We all came from central Michigan to check the show out. We love the Stones and you just never know if they’ll tour again!”
Coffin notes that both Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards are 80 years old and still seemingly going strong. Ron Wood, who has been a fixture in the Stones since 1975, turned 75 recently. She and her friends think the time is growing short.
“[Keith] doesn’t drink, smoke or do blow anymore!” exclaimed one fan who called himself “Ghoulardi” and was lined up at the merch trailer on the southeast side of Browns Stadium. “That’s how he kept going! Who knows how he’s doing it now?”
“This is my first but I hope it’s not my last,” said a more measured Melanie Scott of Grand Rapids, Michigan. “I’ll be glad to hear all the hits and check them off of my bucket list.”
Indeed the concert – which marks the band’s first performance in Cleveland since 2002 – drew fans from far and wide. Fans from as far away as New York, Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, Missouri, Iowa and Washington DC made the trek, calling the show a “bucket list” item.
Intergenerational crowds and families were a huge component of the afternoon.
Folks who traveled from southern Ontario were a big part of the milieu as well.
Keith Michael Rider, named for both Mick and Keith by his superfan father Bob, decided to make the trek to Cleveland from Williamsburg, Virginia. He grabbed good ol’ Dad from West Virginia as a Father’s Day present along the way. The father-son duo were staying in town and lingering on the Rock Hall Plaza.
“[Their longevity] comes down to that massive songbook,” said the elder Rider, who saw the Rolling Stones for the first time at the Baltimore Civic Center in 1969 with B.B. King as an opener.
“They’ve been creating great music ever since they started,” he added. They’ll keep going until they can’t because they’re the Stones!”
Both father and son have been enjoying the band’s new “Hackney Diamonds” album, but like most who were gathering wanted one more chance to hear their favorite songs live.
To wit, fans young and old seemingly agreed that this could be ‘The Last Time.” With fans ranging from 8 to 88 years old gathering up, you were left with that sense – even if you didn’t remember that MTV and Budweiser sponsored the “Steel Wheels” tour in 1989.
This “Hackney Diamonds 2024″ tour? AARP.
At the merch trailer on the southeast side of the stadium, folks were beating the lines for $50 kids’ shirts, tour programs at $60 and a stylized “24-carat Stones” leather-sleeved bomber jacket for a cool five-hundie. Keychains at $10 also seemed to be a popular item.
Downtown traffic was more than a bit snarly on this gorgeous day, with parking oil tycoon-pricey. With other events, including the city’s Juneteenth celebration on Mall C running from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., there was no sign of that bustle alleviating. Downtown just kept getting busier, folks happier.
But talking to fans like Brian Luther and his family – wife Beth, son Sam and daughter Emily – it’s only rock and roll… but (you guessed it) they like it.
“We can’t wait,” said Brian, who brought the family into town from Hubbard, Ohio near Youngstown to be here. “These guys are living legends and while I’m a purist and love me some Mick Taylor, Brian Jones and Bill Wyman, we are all incredibly fortunate as fans of the Stones to get a shot at them.”
He motioned to the tailgate around him. “And, it’s not like the Browns. You just can’t lose with this.”
Gil and Zoe LaChapelle from Burlington, Ontario, who sat nearby in the Burke/Coast Guard lot east of the Rock Hall, wholeheartedly agreed.
“This could be ‘The Last Time,’” said Gil. “But hey, look around. It’s a lot of people’s first time and judging from the day, this could be the best time. Whatever they play or don’t play, everybody wins. Nobody loses. We all win today.”
The Stones played to a mostly full house at Browns Stadium, kicking off the proceedings around 9 p.m., fittingly some might say with their 1981 hit, “Start Me Up.” The core trio of Mick Jagger, guitarist Keith Richards and guitarist Ron Wood is backed by a touring band that includes longtime keyboardist Chuck Leavell, backing vocalist Bernad Fowler, keyboard player Matt Clifford, and bassist Darryl Jones along with newcomers drummer Steve Jordan, saxophonist Tim Ries, saxophonist Karl Denson and backing vocalist Chanele Haynes. Jagger looked healthy and fit, and moved, like, well Jagger. And the rest of the core band looked and sounded good, too, particularly for dudes of of their age on a tour sponsored by AARP.
Malcolm X Aram contributed to this story.
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