Crowds of fans thronged the Palace Grounds in the southern Indian city of Bangalore hours before the show, part of the band’s 40 Licks tour.

“As the band began the evening’s performance with their hit number “Brown Sugar,” the crowd went into a screaming frenzy,” Sheena Sharma, a spokeswoman for the band, said over the telephone from Bangalore.

Midway through the show, it began raining but the downpour did not deter the crowds who stayed on till the end of the two-hour show, she said.

The Rolling Stones arrived in Bangalore on Tuesday after canceling what would have been their first-ever concerts in China because of a mystery disease affecting some Asian nations. The flu-like illness has infected more than 1,400 people worldwide, killing at least 75, mostly in Asia.

They had been scheduled to perform Tuesday in Shanghai and April 4 in Beijing, but changed their minds because of travel warnings from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization about severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.

The Rolling Stones are also scheduled to play April 7 in Bombay, India’s financial hub, and April 10 in Bangkok, Thailand.