Bang! Reviewing the reviews: Stones tour opener

Maybe instead of A Bigger Bang, the Rolling Stones should have called it the Not Dead Yet Tour. The consensus among reviewers of last night’s tour opener at Boston’s Fenway Park seems to be amazement that these sexagenarians can still sing and play their instruments for two hours. Or else, that they played at a venerable ballpark not known for its friendliness to arena-rock shows. Few were willing to look beyond the ancient lineages of the Stones, Fenway, and headline clichés to offer an original opinion — except maybe Matt Drudge, whose headline referred to the rockers as the ”Strolling Bones.” Irreverent but funnier than most of these:

• Age before duty:
• Washington Post: Sixty-Something Stones Roll at Fenway
• National Post (Canada): Aging but Irrepressible, Rolling Stones start up A Bigger Bang tour in Boston
• New York Times: Still Rocking, Still Swaggering, Still the Stones
• New York Post: Rock of Aged
• Los Angeles Daily News: Time on Stones’ side as they kick off tour

• Sympathy for the Green Monster:
• New York Daily News: The Rolling Stones Sox it to Beantown
• Boston Globe: Stones hit it out of the park
• Boston Herald: Monster Show: Rolling Stones get Fenway fans rocking

• You make a grown man cry:
• Miami Herald: Stones start it up in Boston
• Long Beach Press Telegram: Stones start up 1 more time
• Daily News Transcript (Needham, Mass.): Fenway happy to start ’em up
• CBC (Canada): Stones start it up in Boston

• Headbangers’ Ball
• Rolling Stone: Stones open with a bang
• MSNBC.com: Rolling Stones kick off tour with a ‘Bang’
• Calgary Sun: Stones explode