CHICAGO • Mick Jagger swaggered back to the stage last Friday in his first concert after undergoing heart surgery in April as the Rolling Stones kicked off a delayed North American tour.

The veteran British band opened its No Filter tour in Chicago to a sell-out crowd at the city's 61,500-seat Soldier Field stadium, after delaying the 17-date tour to allow for Jagger's medical treatment.

Jagger, 75, underwent heart-valve replacement surgery in New York and reassured fans last month that he was back in shape by posting a video on Twitter of him dancing in a studio.

Fans and the music press watching for signs of fatigue left the show reassured that Jagger was as energetic as ever.

"Perhaps seeking to prove that neither time nor a bum ticker can slow him down, the 75-year-old singer was a paragon of unbridled energy and enthusiasm throughout the uncharacteristically chilly Friday night performance," wrote Billboard magazine.

The 1960s band, whose current members Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts are now all in their 70s, have played more than 40 tours, making the quartet some of the most enduring and successful rock musicians of all time.

The North American No Filter concerts will take the band across the United States and Canada before ending in Miami on Aug 31.

REUTERS