Ronnie Wood stops time at Paradiso

The room is already buzzing before Ronnie Wood plays a note. Fans photograph the empty stage, cheer every roadie who plugs in a cable, and pay €206.50 for a ticket to see a Rolling Stone up close in an Amsterdam rock club.

Then Wood storms onto the Paradiso stage like an athlete beginning an Olympic routine. At 79, he claps, grimaces and sends clouds of dust into the air, looking less like a distant figure in a huge arena than a rock star standing within arm’s reach of the crowd.

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It’s Only Rock ’n Roll (But I Like It)

The sold-out hall is packed with gray-haired and balding rock fans. Many buy a €40 shirt bearing Wood’s face and put it on immediately. After the show, they patiently line up for concert posters designed by Amsterdam tattoo artist Henk “Hanky Panky” Schiffmacher. Some fans quietly ask for two, joking that two posters are justified after paying €200 for the evening.

Their enthusiasm is rewarded with more than two hours and over 20 songs. Wood opens with “It’s Only Rock ’n Roll (But I Like It),” the 1974 Rolling Stones classic he recorded in his home studio two years before joining the band. He then moves through Stones songs, The Faces material, and tributes to Bob Dylan and Aretha Franklin, spanning rock, soul, reggae and rhythm and blues. Imelda May and Chanel Haynes provide vocal reinforcement, with Wood admiringly saying of May, “She’s got some pipes.”

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She’s got some pipes