Rolling Stones treat fans to surprise gig

As secrets go, the Rolling Stones’ surprise gig on Thursday in Paris has to be considered among the worst-kept variety. Word quickly shot around the world on the internet about the show well before the band took the stage at La Trabendo rock club, the group’s first public show in five years. But 600 fans on hand, who paid €15 apiece (a little over Dh70) to attend, may have gotten the classic-rock bargain of the year, given that tickets for the Stones’ upcoming concerts at the Prudential Centre sports arena in New Jersey are going for $95 to $750 (and that’s just at face value).

The Stones’ only scheduled 2012 concerts include November 25 and 29 appearances at London’s O2 Arena, and December 13 and 15 shows at the Prudential Centre. The band is widely expected to tour more extensively in 2013, as a belated 50th anniversary nod to the group’s birth in 1962.

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ron Wood, supplemented by longtime bassist Darryl Jones and keyboardist Chuck Leavell, ran through a dozen songs on Thursday, including their just-released single, Doom and Gloom.

The set began with the Bobby Troup classic Route 66, which drew a straight line back to the Stones’ days of banging out covers in London clubs, as did their take on Muddy Waters’ Champagne and Reefer, which fleshed out a batch of cornerstone numbers from their own catalog.

The performance also included It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll, Shattered, When the Whip Comes Down, Miss You, Tumbling Dice, Start Me Up, and Midnight Rambler. Returning in response for the crowd’s call for an encore, the band threw in Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Brown Sugar.

The Stones’ official Twitter feed, @RollingStones, provided a song-by-song rundown as the set unfolded, and also posted one of Jagger’s comments to the audience: “I can’t believe we’re all still standing up — you’d think by now one or two of us would be sitting down, but we’re not!”