Rolling Stones rock Echo Park

The word got early Saturday that $20 tickets for the Rolling Stones would go on sale at the El Rey — cash only — for a show last night at the Echoplex club on Sunset Boulevard. The line went down Wilshire and way around the block. The Stones are on tour for their 50th year in rock and roll, and play Staples Center on Friday, but this was a chance to see them for twenty bucks in a club that holds about 700. Those who got the wristband saw a pretty memorable show, sounds like. "Pinch-yourself, next-level unbelievable," says the LA Weekly's Lina Lecaro in her review:

We get big bands in small venues around these parts not infrequently. Hell, Depeche Mode just played the Troubadour on Friday. But the Rolling Stones at the Echoplex? That's as good as it gets. ...

Even the celebrities who grooved near us -- including Johnny Depp, Gwen Stefani, and Skrillex, in a roped off VIP area stage left -- seemed in awe, moving un-self-consciously to the night's 14 songs.

Those of us who scrunched up in the floor "pit" areas of the Echoplex -- in front of the two big pillars that flank the room -- were ecstatic, even if drained from an entire day of, well, waiting for Rolling Stones tickets.

The Rolling Stones tweeted the appearance on Twitter:

"Good evening Echo Park, please will you welcome on the first night of their North American tour, the @rollingstones!"

— The Rolling Stones (@RollingStones) April 28, 2013

Admission was very controlled: once you got a wristband at the El Rey, your photo was taken and your name was written on the wristband. There were to be no cameras or phones at the show. Mick Jagger announced from the stage that this was the first stop on the Rolling Stomes' North American tour, said the LA Times' Randall Roberts:

I am a very fortunate Rolling Stones fan, and watched from a peach spot just in front of the sound board as the London band, currently celebrating 50 years as a unit, performed 60 minutes' worth of classic material that focused on their work from the late 1960s through the early ‘80s, including “Love in Vain,” “Street Fighting Man,” “Respectable” and “Miss You.”

They did so on an extended stage that cut the Echoplex’s dance floor by half, so the Stones gig felt even smaller than those who know the venue might expect. When Jagger splashed some of his drinking water into the crowd, I got drenched — and then like any true fan, wiped the water all over my head, licked my lips to get some into my mouth. (This morning I feel like I’ve got some of Jagger’s DNA in my system.)...

The band’s been oiling the machine at a rehearsal space in the Valley, and the set had the feel of a final dress rehearsal for its upcoming tour, which starts Friday at Staples Center — capacity 19,000.

In the same way it’s unfair to critique the soft opening of a restaurant, this Stones gig at the Echoplex isn’t the one to review — that’ll come on Friday — but it is one that needs to be documented. After all, how many more times will the band be playing such a small space?

"You Got Me Rocking"
"Respectable"
"She's So Cold"
"Live With Me"
"Street Fighting Man"
"That's How Strong My Love Is (Otis Redding cover)
"Little Queenie" (Chuck Berry cover)
"Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)" (The Temptations cover)
"Miss You"
"Love in Vain" (Robert Johnson cover, with Mick Taylor)
"Midnight Rambler" (with Mick Taylor)
"Start Me Up"
"Brown Sugar" (encore)
"Jumpin' Jack Flash" (encore)

A band called New Build had its gig at the Echoplex displaced by the unscheduled Rolling Stones show. Oh well: more publicity for them.

Also:
EchoPark-Silver Lake Patch
No tickets for LAT's August Brown

Video: Posted by the Rolling Stones channel on YouTube

Top photo: Video screen grab. Lower photo: Martin Cox at Eastsider LA