The Stone Roses at Madison Square Garden (June 30, 2016)

Considering it had been 20 year since the last tame that The Stone Roses played New York City, I just assumed that I’d never get to see them play. But that changed on June 30 when the group made their triumphant live return at Madison Square Garden. It was a big fill for the group, and although it was just a bit shy from being sold out, every single person who was in the audience made up for any of the missing bodies.

They kicked things off with “I Wanna Be Adored,” and played 19-songs including new song “All for One.” They did all of their classic 1989 self-titled debut album, with the songs sounded even larger than I remembered them in The Garden. I had heard rumors about the band not being up to par live these days, which maybe lowered my expectations, but I was rather impressed by how strong they sounded, especially the vocals of frontman Ian Brown.

One moment that will stand out as a memory from this show is that as a crowdsurfer was roughly grabbed and then escorted by security, a less than pleased Brown spit towards security for being so rough for the fan. While the spitting may have been too much, it was pretty damn cool to see a major rock star actually paying attention to the crowd and coming to the defense of his fans.

Who knows if we’ll ever get another shot at seeing The Stone Roses live. I hope so, but if not, I’m glad I got to witness them at this most memorable gig.