Thursday, July 12, 2012

Live At The Tokyo Dome

Perfect timing. This week, today in fact, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the world's greatest rock & roll band (of their very first gig at London's Marquee Club), and apart from the special hardcover photobook [link] to mark the occasion, there are also two new, exciting live releases. The first is a DVD/CD package of Muddy Waters and the Stones live in Chicago, 1981 [link]. I'll cover it at a later date once I get my hands on it. Then there's the fourth show in the awesome ongoing official bootleg series, Tokyo 1990 [link]. Taken from the Steel Wheels tour, which was also the last tour for Bill Wyman, before he left the band. Rumor has it there will be two more shows in this series.

The sound quality is noticeably different from the first three releases. This show took place in a huge stadium, and the sound mix reflects that, though I feel the keyboards are a tad far back. But Bob Clearmountain, as usual, always does a bang-up job with the mixing. Besides the then new Steel Wheels songs, about half the setlist contains songs that have appeared frequently on Brussels '73, LA '75 and Hampton '81, but in the case of the Stones, it's never tiring listening to the same stuff over and over again, especially Midnight Rambler and Gimme Shelter and Sympathy. The band plays differently every time. Besides, this show had added horns and backup singers, including a certain Cindy Mizelle! And there's Bitch and 2000 Light Years too. It's all good, better than the Flashpoint live album. Wow, 50 years. That's just massive.
  1. Start Me Up
  2. Bitch
  3. Sad Sad Sad
  4. Harlem Shuffle
  5. Tumbling Dice
  6. Miss You
  7. Ruby Tuesday
  8. Almost Hear You Sigh
  9. Rock And A Hard Place
  10. Mixed Emotions
  11. Honky Tonk Women
  12. Midnight Rambler
  13. You Can't Always Get What You Want
  14. Can't Be Seen
  15. Happy
  16. Paint It Black
  17. 2000 Light Years From Home
  18. Sympathy For The Devil
  19. Gimme Shelter
  20. Band Introductions
  21. It's Only Rock 'N' Roll (But I Like It)
  22. Brown Sugar
  23. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
  24. Jumping Jack Flash

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE...

P.S. A lengthy review of my first and only Stones show almost ten years ago [link].