The Stones were at their best. Mick Jagger in particular made the viewer’s sense of impermanence disappear ★★★★☆

Where’s Keith? When the guitarist of The Rolling Stones has sung his two songs in the sold-out Johan Cruijff Arena – a fixed block to give singer Mick Jagger a little rest – and the first notes of Miss you sound, the guitarist is gone for a while. Jagger, on the other hand, is back and joins Ron Wood as second guitarist.

We’re halfway through the concert and it’s not the first time that the band has gone without their guitarist, creator of some of the still overwhelming and immortal guitar riffs from pop history, during their Sixty Tour. Earlier in the evening, during sweet virginia, with his worn-out Telecaster, he is as usual close to drummer Steve Jordan, who fills the gap left by Charlie Watts, who died last year.

But Keith hardly ever plays. He sings along a bit in the chorus, with his light blue woolen hat on he visibly enjoys it, ‘oh yeah’, but he mainly leaves the guitar to Ron Wood. With his 75 years, next to Mick Jagger (at the end of this month 79), he has the most energy. He runs with his guitar after Mick on the catwalk and plays in You Can’t Always Get What You Want a fiery guitar solo. Not only does Keith move little, he keeps his game to a minimum and if he tumbling Dice or Start Me Up with one of those indestructible riffs opens, his guitar is so mercilessly loud in the mix it almost hurts the ears.

Keith Richards (78) has become a bit of a concern for the band. Jagger still dances across the stage like he’s 35 and he still sings great even though he looks in Let’s Spend The Night Together how short of breath. But beautiful, that flexibility with which he Midnight Rambler quote some blues classics from Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson, or play harmonica in sweet virginia† He apologizes for canceling the show last month and his comment ‘it’s good that you are here and not with Frans Bauer’ indicates that he has followed the reactions closely. With every visit here (tonight the 43rd, he counted himself) his Dutch vocabulary and pronunciation improve a bit. “We miss him,” he says of Charlie Watts. And whether there are any farmers here, he asks with mock concern about possible obstacles afterwards.

Jagger is in top form. Of course, the band, extended with horns and a choir, provides a good safety net. But what happens at the best Stones concerts, you can feel it again when you look at him: the sense of time or transience disappears completely. No man of nearly 80 is here pretending to be youthful, here is Mick Jagger who gives an entire stadium a sense of timelessness.

And if Wood and Richards really find each other in a bang paint it black, there is that emotion that trembles through the body. Steve Jordan rams away any doubt in 2022 about the right to exist of The Rolling Stones. And thankfully, there’s Keith.