How the Rolling Stones Seized Desert Trip With a 1962 Throwback, a Beatles Cover and a Fireworks Finale
At Desert Trip in 2016, the Rolling Stones mixed hits, rare revivals and a Beatles cover into one of the weekend's biggest spectacles.
The Rolling Stones did not treat Desert Trip like a nostalgia exercise. At the 2016 Indio festival, they turned a star packed night into a showcase of crowd pleasing hits, long absent songs and one Beatles cover that drew a loud reaction with Paul McCartney watching.
Desert Trip brought 75,000 people to the Empire Polo Fields in Indio, California, the same site known for Coachella and Stagecoach, for the first of three nights built around a classic rock lineup. Bob Dylan opened Friday night, but once the audience filled in, the visual cue was hard to miss: nearly 70 percent of the crowd was wearing the Rolling Stones' tongue logo.
That made the band's status as the main attraction plain before the first song was even over. Mick Jagger came out in a multicolored button down over a Stones logo shirt and, at 73, moved with the kind of shimmying and sliding ease more often associated with a much younger performer. The response from the crowd reflected that. Women screamed as if it were 1971, and Jagger carried the familiar swagger that has long defined the band's live presence.
A setlist that went beyond the expected
The Stones opened with a strong run of staples: "Start Me Up," "You Got Me Rocking" and "Out of Control." But one of the night's most interesting moments came from their decision to tie the show to new music. With Blue & Lonesome announced as the band's first new studio album in more than a decade, they played Jimmy Reed's "Ride 'Em on Down" for the first time since 1962.
The gap alone made it notable, but the performance also fit naturally into the set. It did not feel dusty or ceremonial. Instead, it sat comfortably beside the arena sized rock songs around it.
Jagger even signaled that the band was about to dig into the past without turning it into an age joke. He told the crowd they were going to play a song they had not played in a long time. Many may have expected one surprise, but the reveal was "Mixed Emotions" from Steel Wheels, performed live for the first time since 1990.
That was not the only left turn. Another came with a cover of the Beatles' "Come Together," which drew audible reaction from the audience. Paul McCartney was on hand to see it, while Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood handled the guitar work on the song.
Why the show landed as a spectacle
The set also worked because the Stones leaned into what they still do best. Even if they were no longer trying to prove they were the most dangerous band on the bill, they knew how to make the performance feel big. Songs including "Wild Horses," "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll," "Tumbling Dice," "Honky Tonk Women," "Miss You" and "Gimme Shelter" helped fill out a setlist that balanced crowd favorites with deeper fan bait.
Richards had a featured role all night, and the final stretch underscored it. "Sympathy for the Devil," "Brown Sugar" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash" arrived with force, driven by his guitar. The encore kept the momentum going with "You Can't Always Get What You Want" before "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" closed the show.
By the time fireworks went up during "Satisfaction," the atmosphere had tipped fully into event status. There were still traffic problems connected to the day, but people leaving the dusty venue were smiling and talking about what they had just seen, along with the question hanging over the rest of the weekend: how Neil Young and Paul McCartney could top the first day's finale.
