The Night the Stones Opened with 'Sympathy for the Devil': Rio 2006 Setlist Rethink

The Rolling Stones’ February 18, 2006 show on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro was already historic for its scale—an estimated 1.5 million people packed the sand. But the real head-turner was the setlist. For the first time in their career, the band opened a concert with “Sympathy for the Devil.” That decision alone flipped the typical stadium-show script: instead of a singalong like “Start Me Up” or “Brown Sugar,” they greeted the crowd with Mick Jagger’s slinky, menacing taunt. It set a darker, theatrical tone that carried through the night.

The tour, supporting the A Bigger Bang album, also cemented two other tracks as nightly regulars. “You Got Me Rocking,” originally from 1994’s Voodoo Lounge, had been sitting in the vault and suddenly became a dependable second-song punch. And “Rough Justice,” the lead single from A Bigger Bang, gave the set a shot of new energy—a reminder that the Stones weren’t just a nostalgia act. The Rio setlist was a deliberate experiment: rearrange the classics, force the audience to lean in from the first chord, and trust that the new songs could hold their own. It worked, and the band kept opening with