But the spirits of the crowd were not dampened by the rain and neither did the Stones treat this fixture lightly. They put out a full strength team and, all told, played eleven top ten hits plus Gimme Shelter, an extended Midnight Rambler, Sympathy For The Devil and You Can't Always Get What You Want. There was plenty for a boisterous crowd to sing along to, and sing along they did.
From the opener Jumping Jack Flash through It's Only Rock'n'Roll, Tumbling Dice, Let's Spend The Night Together, Ruby Tuesday, Paint It Black and Honky Tonk Women, the Stones opened their treasure chest of a back catalogue and rolled out hit after hit.
Only Out Of Control, the fourth song in and (for me) still an inappropriately placed slow song this early on, didn't have the crowd singing along as fervently, but they cheered Mick when he stood toe to toe with Keith and riffed on harmonica.
When Mick introduced the band, the crowd began a chant of 'Rich-ards! Rich-ards!' which was only ended by Keith reminding the audience 'I have a show to do.' He then gave them You Got The Silver and a heartfelt Before They Make Me Run. In the pouring rain I was particularly affected by the line 'only a crowd can make you feel so alone.' Keith, who increasingly seems to relish his fifteen minutes in the spotlight, is all smiles during this spot and throughout the evening.
The 'warhorses' inevitably conclude a Stones set and we get Midnight Rambler, Miss You ('do you feel like singing?'), Gimme Shelter with Sasha Allen escorting Mick to the end of the thrust stage to wail like a banshee and invoke the spirit of Merry Clayton, a pumped Start Me Up and a rousing Sympathy For The Devil. Before the gig there were around one hundred Jehovah's Witnesses outside the stadium. From the mass singalong to Sympathy, with the crowd enthusiastically 'woo wooing' along to the chorus, I doubt there were many in the audience who were going to be walking out of the stadium to sign up for a subscription to Watchtower.
They finished with You Can't Always Get What You Want and (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, but I must admit to missing these numbers. Soaked to the skin and unable to see without my rain splattered specs, I left the stadium to the opening riff from Brown Sugar to grab a cab back to my hotel. Porto Alegreans were still bouncing up and down to Mick Jagger as he led them through the chorus of 'yeah, yeah, yeah - whoo!' as I collapsed into the warm cocoon of my taxi. The Stones first performance in Porto Alegre and one that will stick in the mind - once I've dried out.
