Evan Agostini/Invision, via Associated Press From left, John Mayer, Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards at the Prudential Center in Newark on Saturday.NEWARK - The Rolling Stones brought their 50th anniversary tour to a close on Saturday night at the Prudential Center here. In a steamroller show, they were joined by several guests â€" a howling Lady Gaga, a beatific Mick Taylor, a red-faced Bruce Springsteen.
But no moment during the night was more telling than the midshow rendition of Freddie King's “Going Down†with John Mayer and Gary C lark Jr., each of whom had performed with the band earlier on this tour, but never together.
It was, for five minutes, a blues guitar masterclass, several generations of style inheritors trying to outduel one another. Who won? Here's a ranking of solos, in order of swagger and verve.
Keith Richards
Defiant, crass, confident, rude: Mr. Richards has a different rulebook. From the get-go, he was fighting against the song, playing short, brutish phrases that called attention to themselves and away from everyone else. He played last, and fantastically: using his guitar as a weapon, poking at the sky, then turning around to regard his competition, then raising a leg and turning back to the crowd, then staggering around the stage a bit, then sauntering to the back of the scrum, victorious.
John Mayer
While Mr. Jagger was singing, Mr. Mayer was using up a lot of space on stage with propulsive body motion, his right shou lder churning forward on the beat, his playing a steady pulse. In his solo, though, he freed himself from the song for one minute of nasty, quaking phrases, his guitar alternately yowling and groaning. Halfway through, Ronnie Wood started prowling around him, half in brotherhood, half in awe.
Gary Clark Jr.
No one had more character in his playing than Mr. Clark, who shakes unreal, onomatopoeic sounds from his guitar. But his playing foreswore flamboyance for aggressive melody and sturdy riffs, apart from one segment near the end where he lost himself in a swing-heavy sequence. On a stage full of show-offs, he was a staunch literalist.
Ronnie Wood
Mr. Wood started out strong, looking casual as his fingers went into overtime on some quick trills, his body hunched over like he was pouring himself into th e song. But halfway through he lost direction, either because the body couldn't do what the mind was telling it to, or because the mind had given out too.
