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PRECIOUS STONES
I was at The Rolling Stones’ May 2 performance at New Orleans Jazz Fest, and your reviewer hit the nail on the head. I’ve seen the Stones well over a dozen times since 1969 in small and large venues, and they sounded and moved as well as I’ve ever seen them. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and tears of joy streamed down my face as they launched into “Start Me Up”, “Get Off Of My Cloud” and above all “Out Of Time”, as I love hearing rarely played chestnuts. Having them bring out Irma Thomas was the icing on the cake, and at her Sunday Fest performance she thanked Mick and the boys. By the way, she made the dress she wore out of material that goes into the shirts, skirts, aprons etc that are sold there, and she makes one every year for her performances there.
A little more background. The Stones were supposed to play Jazz Fest in 2019, but cancelled owing to Mick Jagger’s heart surgery, and again in 2020 when the entire Fest was first postponed and then cancelled because of Covid-19 safety precautions. Normally, there are a bunch of stages running simultaneous performances – on the concluding Sunday there were at least seven artists I would have been happy hearing, all playing at the same time. But for the Stones it was just them; ticket sales, which often reach 100,000 for each day, were limited to 40,000 or so, mostly as part of a four-day weekend wristband, so the crowd size remained manageable.