For a practice session it was incredibly polished.
From the costume changes to the spot-on perfect lighting sequences and the half-dozen slick musicians backing them up, the Rolling Stones gave 1,000 fans in Toronto an intimate hour they will not soon forget.
The band started with a couple of tunes from their latest release Rough Justice, including the title track, but when they launched into She's So Cold and Mick Jagger tossed his blazer to the stage, the show was well under way.
Many who crowded onto the floor in the Phoenix Concert Theatre on Sherbourne Street in Toronto had waited outside for ages -- some as long as 24 hours -- to get a ticket for the tune-up gig before the Stones hit the road for their latest world tour.
Others, like Justin Orfus, stood outside the downtown venue after the show started and got a chance to slip in for the last six songs when a producer noticed the club wasn't full.
"It was like the gates of heaven opening," Mr. Orfus said. "It was unbelievable. It was the greatest rock and roll band in a room of 1,000 friends," he said.
"Coming in and seeing Keith Richards and Mick Jagger on my right, it was surreal that these gods of rock would descend on such a small venue. People in here need the Stones."
Apparently, the Stones also needed the people.
"I'd like to thank everybody in Toronto for being so welcoming to us," Mr. Jagger told the cheering room.
"The attention boosted up our egos for the tour."
Mr. Jagger managed a couple of costume changes while encouraging audience members to follow his gestures.
Among the songs the band performed -- including Sweet Baby Mine and a rarely heard live performance of Dead Flowers -- the band did a cover of Bob Marley's Get Up, Stand Up, which went over especially well with the crowd. They ended the show with Brown Sugar, then slipped in a lively encore of Jumpin' Jack Flash.
Olga Kobylansky turned 55 waiting in line, telling her husband she had "a date with Mick."
Her husband understood. Ms. Kobylansky said she last saw the band nearly 40 years ago and she's more excited this time.
Ms. Kobylansky was one of more than 1,000 people waiting to attend the unscheduled event.
Many said they had caught wind of the concert while hanging around the band's rehearsal spot in north Toronto, at a school in the Davisville and Mount Pleasant area.
Skippy Shay, 38, a Philadelphia resident who runs the fan site stickyfingersjournal.com, said the rumours of the concert had begun circulating as early as Saturday.
There were cheers as a convoy of vehicles carrying the band arrived and then more jubilation as the doors opened at 8 o'clock.
"They're old dinosaurs but they're still picking it up," said Al Lalli, who's in his mid-40s. "Younger bands take note."
The Nova Scotia group the Trews was scheduled to open last night for the Stones, a coup for the band that has not yet released its second album.
The Stones tour officially begins Aug. 21 in Boston, where Black Eyed Peas will open.