Rolling Stones ‘Exhibitionism’ runs in New York through March

It’s only rock ’n’ roll, but we like it. Yes, we do.

The World’s Greatest Rock ’n’ Roll Band gets the curtain pulled back on its half-century-plus of music, mayhem and graduation from youthful, countercultural “anti-Beatles” to mainstream senior citizen musicians still doing it in their seventies at “The Rolling Stones Exhibitionism” at Industria, a studio and staging space in New York’s trendy Meatpacking District, through March 12.

The traveling exhibit, which had a stint in the Stones’ hometown of London earlier this year, is part museum and part true interactive experience, offering audio and video components to go along with the legion of guitars, contracts, wardrobe and handwritten lyric sheets compiled from across the band’s unlikely trajectory — which still sees them filling stadiums long after the typical retirement age.

Visitors can peer into a mockup of a vintage control room, with instruments band members used themselves, with later rooms devoted to the plethora of costumes the Stones have used throughout their rock ’n’ roll journey. Videos play throughout the exhibits, all of which are — thankfully — subtitled for when Keith Richards is on the screen.

Among the more intriguing personal artifacts is Mick Jagger’s application for membership into The Performing Right Society of the U.K., for which he petitioned using his full real name, Michael Phillip Jagger. Models for the ever-bigger and more elaborate stage designs are seen in miniature next to videos and photos of the band rocking out on the end results. There’s also a rare early pressing of the single for “Street Fighting Man” with cover art of riot police knocking down a protester, which was ultimately altered due to a very public backlash.

In another room, visitors are taken on a prerecorded video tour of the Stones’ various ventures into filmdom, and who better to be its guide than Martin Scorsese, whose 2008 concert film “Shine a Light” captured, at New York’s Beacon Theatre, perhaps the most intimate recorded concert the Stones ever gave. Mr. Scorsese waxes on how film and rock ’n’ roll intertwined throughout the band’s long career, from “Gimme Shelter,” which captured the notorious 1969 Altamont concert and its aftermath, right on up to the HBO documentary “Crossfire Hurricane” from 2012.

There’s also official posters from the Stones’ numerous world tours, including prototypes that were ultimately rejected. Plaques tell of how the boys often entreated artists they fancied to craft album cover work, including Andy Warhol, whose crotch-centric result for “Sticky Fingers” from 1971 continues to give an embarrassed chuckle nearly a half-century later. Nearby is a photo of a nude burlesque model from the ’50s that was later used for 1983’s “Under Cover.” (You can see the model and her not-quite-covered album cover rendition side by side.)

And yes, the tongue. Much is made of Mr. Jagger’s desire for a memorable graphic, and the iconic mouth with tongue fully distended has seen more permutations than perhaps any other emblem in rock ’n’ roll history. Tongues a-plenty are here, from hand drawings to posters to neon-flashing 3-D iterations.

And speaking of 3-D, the tour ends as you step from a recreated backstage into a virtual concert where, with provided 3-D glasses, you are magically transported into a live Stones show. Every scream, every riff, every wrinkle and bead of sweat is there in your face as the concert footage leaps out of the screen. It’s a fine way to finish out the exhibit, after which you hand in your glasses and are transported back to the everyday magic of Gotham.

But don’t forget to visit the gift shop on your way out. Mick and the boys would thank you.

“Exhibitionism” runs through March 12 at Industria, located at 775 Washington St., New York, New York, 10014. Tickets are available at StonesExhibitionism.com.