Culture

The Rolling Stones Tour Beast of Near-Septuagenarians Is Back

Honey, don't stop — touring, that is. Yes, the Stones announced today that, after shows in New York and London last year, the world's oldest biggest rock band is going back on the road in 2013.

By Esther Zuckerman
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This article is from the archive of our partner .

Honey, don't stop—touring, that is. Yes, the Rolling Stones announced today that, after shows in New York and London last year, the world's oldest biggest rock band is going back on the road in 2013. The upcoming leg of the "50 & Counting" tour—which we assume will go on until they hit their 75th anniversary or at least their 60th—starts in a month and will take Mick, Keith, and the gang to Los Angeles, Oakland, San Jose, Las Vegas, Anaheim, Toronto, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia this Spring. So, sorry, New York, but London, you're in luck. The guys are also playing Hyde Park in July after their stop at the Glastonbury Festival, which, unlike the much rumored Coachella date that never materialized, had been confirmed earlier.

So why are they keeping going, exactly? Well, first of all, there's the money. Reviewing a concert at the Barclays Center last year for the New York Times Ben Ratliff wrote as an aside: "Obviously the tour is an opportunity to move product: never will you see such a lavish assortment of tour T-shirts for one band at one concert." In November Duncan Bartlett wrote at the BBC that "the Stones operate like a corporation, with a complex financial operation that handles hundreds of millions of dollars." 

But despite the obvious desire to continue to rake in cash, they've still got it. In reviewing their recent mega-show at the O2 in London Alex Petridis of The Guardian wrote: "In fact, the evening is liberally flecked with moments where the Rolling Stones' live show seems to be about more than mere nostalgia, where the band seems to suddenly hit its stride, when well-worn material comes alive." And anyone who has seen them live—or even on television, and even of late—can attest to the fact that Jagger continues to prance around the stage like he wasn't coming up on his 70th birthday. If you are seated far enough away you can almost picture him 50 years younger, when those cheekbones weren't surrounded by wrinkles.

Watch the band announce the new concerts here: 

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.