By mixing up their tour with one stadium show, one arena show and one "club" date in selected cities - with each show boasting its own special staging and song list - the group is saying they're still looking to have fun (and make money), by keeping things interesting for themselves and their fans.

So how did the strategy pay off in Philadelphia this past week?

With decidedly mixed results.

• Veterans Stadium. Whoever determined the order of the Philly Stones dates blew it. While the group used to sell out multiple nights at the Vet in a wink, they faced several thousand "empties" at the ballpark this time round.

Those nasty $300 and $90 admission prices to squeeze in sardine-style were a turnoff, too, especially for seasoned listeners who've endured too many concerts in this concrete salad bowl.

Still, if the instantly sold-out First Union Center and Tower shows had been scheduled first, positive buzz from those events would have driven folks to buy the last of the Vet seats.

The stadium song lineup was definitely designed to feed the masses - constructed almost entirely of hits, from "Brown Sugar," "It's Only Rock and Roll" and "Start Me Up" to "Satisfaction" at the end, replete with fireworks.

It was a perfect set for Stones concert virgins and likewise an easy soundtrack for the beer-bloated boomers to bellow along with (when they weren't falling into the poor souls around them, present company included).

But if you've seen a fair share of Stones concerts before, this one was (how do I say this kindly?), a fairly bloody bore.

Visually, the production was quite nice - with a much more streamlined set (read: less expensive) than those baroque wonders the Stones usually cart about. The closed circuit video show was excellent for the folks in the back, with a lascivious "Honky Tonk Women" giving you something to talk about on the ride home.

Performance-wise, though, this was a fairly soul-less exercise, with ragged playing and a sound mix that buried keyboard, horn and guitar lines. Was the fudging done on purpose to mask a musical mess or to minimize the stadium's reverberation? Often, the only stuff you could discern were vocals, Daryl Jones' bass and Charlie Watts' drums, with everything else reduced to a dull hum.

For a 59-year-old man, Mick Jagger still moves and vocalizes super-energetically and appears incredibly fit. But his rooster strutting and finger pointing looked mechanical, and the rest of the guys' aura of joviality seemed equally forced. Everybody seemed on auto pilot.

Virtually the only musical surprise came in a performance of "Love Train," with Mick paying tribute to the Philly music scene of yore in an oh-so-tasteless white pimp's coat and hat. Their other special "cover," Bob Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone," was the same one they played their last time at the Vet. Vet Grade: C+

• First Union Center. What a difference two nights and a roof make!

Even Mick noticed - "Mmmm, you sound very good tonight," he murmured about seven songs into Friday's show, addressing the band as much as the audience.

The F.U. Center's rumbling acoustics were still problematic but the band could at least hear each other and were determined to fulfil their rep as the "world's greatest rock and roll band."

A more interesting set list also perked their involvement. While there were still plenty of "A-list" smashes sprinkled through the two hour set, they were balanced with some lesser known gems.

The brass section, especially saxophonist Bobby Keys, was much better exploited on "All Down the Line," for Keith Richards' one and only vocal hit "Happy" and on the group's super extended, Santana-esque Latin jam "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'". And Friday's soul-era tribute was a killer - a near letter-perfect homage to Otis Redding's treatment of "I Can't Turn You Loose."

The true epiphany for purists was a four song set from the Stones' 1969 classic, "Let It Bleed" - that most creative return to their dark side blues roots. If "Love in Vain" (with Ron Wood on Delta slide guitar,) the stompin' "Live With Me," Mick's animated "Monkey Man" and the always freaky "Gimme Shelter" (with Lisa Fischer wailing "rape, murder") didn't put a spell on you, nothing would.

The smaller stage also let the players tone down all that playing-to-the-cameras nonsense and simply hang tough together.

(FYI: The Stones' HBO show, to be carried live on Jan. 18, from Madison Square Garden, will probably closely resemble this F.U. Center show.)

F.U. Center Grade: A-

• Tower Theater. We hear some Stones fanatics were ready to pay thousands to see their beloved rockers at this relatively intimate, 3,500 seat venue in Upper Darby. (Tickets sold out in a literal minute at a mere $50 a pop - plus service charges.) But to ensure this "give back to the fans" didn't wind up a scalpers' bonanza, a photo ID and wrist band were needed to enter the hall.

So was the Philly finale worth all the fuss and anticipation? Only if you could get off on the Stones playing like the world's greatest soul-rock revue band in some steamy bar on a Saturday night.

In a word, this night was magic.

Stripped down to their production essence, lacking video frills, ramps for Mick to romp, and even his sometime sexual/vocal foil Lisa Fischer (who was ailing), the Stones put the emphasis back where it belonged, on the music.

"It's gonna be our best one yet," Mick vowed early on. For much of this two hour set, they snubbed the hits in favor of funky second tier catalogue numbers that let the band members stretch out and bounce around. Primo examples included "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love," a cover that goes all the way back to their 1965 third album "Now," the gospely "Hand of Faith" from '75's "Black & Blue" (Wood's band debut) and their brief foray into disco funk "Hot Stuff."

Of the songs they repeated from the earlier Philly "Licks" shows, only last night's good, not great, "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'" didn't shred the hell out of the previous reads.

So how can we convince the guys to just play a month at the Tower their next time around?

Tower grade: A+