FOXBORO -- It's a scary thought, but even this far into the game, the road appears to do The Rolling Stones good.

Last night at Gillette Stadium, in front of a sellout crowd of roughly 43,000, the legendary band was faster and nastier than at Fenway Park last year, the first show in the Bigger Bang tour.

Playing their fifth show in the Boston area in a little more than a year, the Stones went deep into the songbook in the early going. Starting off with "Paint It, Black" seemed an incongruous choice to kick off the party that a Stones concert usually is, but it became clear after a slashing "Live With Me," a jovial "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," and "Sway," a ballad structure with a nasty grind underneath it, that early on at least, this wasn't going to be Greatest Hits night.

In nearly every band, there's a member you can look to to see how the gig is really going. In the case of The Rolling Stones, it's

Keith Richards.

You know frontman Mick Jagger is going to give you the aerobic preen, with the energy of a man a third his age, and get the crowd going (not that they typically need a lot). You know Ron Wood is going to play biting guitar and look like he's having the time of his life. You know drummer Charlie Watts will be impassive and impeccable. But Keef? He's the barometer. When he's smiling, the whole band smiles with him. And last night's set list seemed to make him happy.

Even rent-payers such as "Satisfaction" got a lengthy treatment, but the highlight of the night was the blues-rock tour de force of "Midnight Rambler," which went through its usual three tempos but got an extended harmonica solo from Jagger and a murderous solo from Richards in the breakdown, wringing the crowd nearly dry. Only a stalwart like the subsequent "Tumblin' Dice" could keep up.

Hey, remember that album the Stones put out last year? Yeah, only sort of, right? Same with the Stones: "Streets of Love" (reportedly played live for the first time in North America) and "Rough Justice" were the sole representatives from A Bigger Bang. Live as on record, too many guitars on the former (Jagger joining Wood and Richards) spoiled what could've been a spare, haunting ballad (though lyrics such as "You're awful bright, you're awful smart/ I must admit/ You broke my heart" didn't help). "Rough Justice" fared better, as Jagger stuck to vocals.

Freed from the need to play something from the new album, Richards' vocal spotlight consisted of a sweet "You Got the Silver" and the roaring "Little T & A," from 1981's Tattoo You (with added horns that weren't necessary).

As usual on this tour, late in the show the Stones gathered around a small area in the center of the stage and were slid out into the middle of the crowd mid-song (this time during "Under My Thumb"). On the small stage, they slammed through "Rough Justice," "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Honky Tonk Women."

Sure, these are The Rolling Stones -- they play in stadiums on a five-story stage; they've got the giant inflatable tongue-and-lips business, and shooting flames during "Sympathy for the Devil" -- so huge they warmed the crowd from hundreds of feet away. They're sponsored by mortgage companies and electronics chains. They'll never be as menacing as they seemed in the early '70s. But last night they did the best they could.

Kanye West opened the show, and the multi-platinum rapper showed the energy and chops to fill the Stones' huge stage. He thanked the crowd and the Stones for allowing him to "break down some boundaries," and said later in the show that even he never dreamed of being at such a show.

Backed by a DJ, a strong string section and two singers, West stuck mainly to the hits, starting in a relatively mellow mode with "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" and "The New Workout Plan" before tearing into "Get 'Em High." He lost momentum by letting his singers do Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy," but came back with "Gold Digger" and closed with an energetic "Touch the Sky."

West is the latest in the Stones' string of opening acts hand-picked seemingly to challenge the audience a bit. And it worked -- to an extent. No one seemed to be there for West, but he was well received. Arlene Mulley and Albert Toupin, of Douglas, Mass., weren't familiar with West, but they were impressed by his energy. "The stringed instruments were excellent," Mulley added. Unfortunately, not many felt compelled to catch West: the stadium was less than half-full when he was done.

rmassimo@projo.com / (401) 277-7206