As I watch Urban Steel's clips on youtube I can't help thinking that B2B was the last time Mick n Keith were switched on....Am I way off base?

PS I did club shows on Licks and RCMH and the beacon on Bang and this is till my opinion.

OLDKR



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2009-03-21 00:20 by oldkr.

The official DVD of the tour (St. Louis) is impressive, the band sounds so great, by far their best sound since 1981.

Keith's most memorable moment on concert in 20+ years can be seen on Wanna Hold You, one of the best Stones performances ever.

IORR swings like hell too.


Shine A Light/Biggest Bang sounds like an amateur band in comparison, no swing, bad playing, can't believe they aged so bad in 8 years.

well - as far as I could tell, they were both switched on in Horsens, 2006 and Copenhagen, 2007 - Keef especially at the last one. I saw him playing from not 1½ metres away and he seemed on the ball

I've always held the Bridges live material in a high place. It's part of the reason I think No Security it so good (it helps that it is mostly previously unreleased live tracks plus the 4 Bridges tunes).

That DVD is not nearly as good as the entire show - why they didn't put the entire show on the DVD I'll never understand - but it IS a good DVD. They were really on fire that tour I think.

Sort of like the Licks MSG show. That was pretty damn good - except for the stupid @#$%& effects.

The quick edits in the Licks MSG show made it hard to watch. It was hard for them to keep a steady shot. Too many cameras used...let the picture breath.

I've loved every Stones show I've seen, but the show I saw in '97 (BT was far and away the best. I never saw them before '89, but they were really energetic and the show was just an amazing experience. Especially Out Of Control. When the highlight of the show is a new tune, you know they're on fire.

Cracker tour. Better than SW and VL and they were both great overall. Possibly the best post Mick Taylor tour imo. A coin toss for this and the 75/76 tour.

Great new songs and the band on most boot dvds I have are cooking...

From what I gather from boots, they're as much on fire on the Bang tour as on B2B. Licks was the same.

JumpingKentFlash

Yes, oldkr and georgelicks...that was the last time...

BtB was the worst tour I've seen, particularly Ronnie's playing and the set lists. The front row bimbos in St. L. were as sad as those at the Beacon. HUMILIATING.

The expectations were high in France. The Stones were at a peak among all across different generations of fans and non-fans. The 2 Paris shows, roughly 150,000 attendance, sod out rapidly. Was this audience 100% satisfied. I would say probably yes. I remember the 2nd show with a heavy rain and storms. The Stones were wet thru. Crazy nights. "Not fade away"as an intro was an all time low. Musically speaking, The Stones were so-so.

My experience watching the B2B tour in barcelona in '98 was a bit of a let down because Voodoo had been so great and when they returned to Spain some of you may remember there had been cancellations due to Mick's throat problems and Keith's broken rib.

So when they finally showed up, I missed some punch in the music. Maybe they were not completely recovered. And Ronnie was totally out of it.

Being said that, the set list was great and the Sant Louis bootlegs and DVD are terrific, so maybe it was a great tour after all but I just picked the wrong show.

When Licks was on I had my doubts (maybe the guys hadn't aged well, see?) but they blew my mind on the two gigs I could attend in Spain. Much better tour for me then.

And Bang was disappointing in 2007 mainly because of Keith's condition, but Ronnie was on fire, and the Saitama DVD proved that the old rascals could still kick some major ass, at least before the palm tree incident.

So it's hard to judge a whole tour by a couple of shows. All I can say it's that I have the impression every tour has ben great, but you know, there's always the risk to catch the band in a bad night...

Phd's got the wrong tour...
RE the 98 Paris show it was pretty lame. Maybe the 5-day gap between two gigs put some rust in the machine... Praha is so MUCH better

In terms of performance, imo, Bridges To Babylon surpasses both Licks and - especially - A Bigger Bang. Don't get me wrong: they still perform to a very high standard, but their age is starting to show - and in the case of Keith, arthritis is becoming more and more of a burden.

I still love them, however and I'll never not enjoy a Rolling Stones concert.

B2B, to me, was much better than Licks or ABB. Some shows on these latter tours were brilliant but the consistency just wasn't there. I loved them all the same. The two Twickenham ABB shows and the O2 one I went to were absolutely great. But they would have been even better if they'd have played as well as they did back in B2B and especially the VL tour. I didn't go to Urban Jungle so can't really comment.

Re No Security. I don't like that album at all. It just sounds dead to me. I think it might be the mixing or mastering but it is difficult to tell. The performances were great so, in my opinion, it was let down by the post production.

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Steven
BtB was the worst tour I've seen, particularly Ronnie's playing and the set lists. The front row bimbos in St. L. were as sad as those at the Beacon. HUMILIATING.

The audience in a particular show isn't an argument for or against a tour.
I think, St.Louis 1997 is the best live-recording, the Stones ever published. It's just amazing!!!

Their best version of IORR, SWING AND ROLL BABY:







Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-03-21 17:28 by georgelicks.

"St.Louis 1997 is the best live-recording"
Me I love the moment when RW for some reason jumps down in the security pit and manages to climb back on stage as Keith plays the intro to JJF... that isright when the pyros at the front of the stage are set off...
Poor Ron almost got his bum toasted. Cracks me up every time!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2009-03-21 18:51 by dcba.

Is that on youtube?

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skipstone
Is that on youtube?

Have a look at your DVD...

It won't work on my player. I've got to get a US version of it.

Ah ok...well I couldn't find it here on youtube.

When I run across the Bridges DVD US edition I'll grab it.

A great, great tour. Even with Ronnie sometimes out of it, the fold was tight and considerably more muscular than on the entertaining-but-too-showey VL tour. Keith has not sounded this good since. While I do think Mick's singing was a little better and often more passionate on the Licks and ABB tours (not to mention Charlie played like he really had something to prove on those tours), I feel overall B2B was the last tour where we were reminded why it wasn't just the songs that made us love the band, but it was their performance as well.

Their best Vegas' era performance?
Take a look at 3:10 - 3:53...

Quote
theimposter
A great, great tour. Even with Ronnie sometimes out of it, the fold was tight and considerably more muscular than on the entertaining-but-too-showey VL tour. Keith has not sounded this good since. While I do think Mick's singing was a little better and often more passionate on the Licks and ABB tours (not to mention Charlie played like he really had something to prove on those tours), I feel overall B2B was the last tour where we were reminded why it wasn't just the songs that made us love the band, but it was their performance as well.

generally would agree, except that i think keith might have even peaked on the ensuing NS run...his spiral downward after that was almost shocking...sadly.

I would say that Keith was really on on the B2B tour. However, I have seen the boys on all susequent tours and they were still very good every time I saw them.

T&A, I actually DO agree that Keith had his last great stretch on the NS tour. Since it was in the middle of the 1st and final legs of the B2B tour, I suppose I sometimes count it in as the same run.

I was surprised to hear him when I saw my 1st Licks show. After having caught them on B2B and NS, with Keith being lightening-hot at both shows, I saw and heard something different. The ABB tour was no improvement really.

But anyway, this thread isn't about those later tours, it's about how great they were on the Babylon tour I guess. I'll never forget how excited I was on opening night. Though I couldn't be there (I was a poor college student), VH1 showed the opening 2 songs from Chicago (Satisfaction and IORR) and I was overjoyed at how hot they sounded.

To me, there is no true "best" tour from the Stones Mach 2 (what I call post-wyman band), but I wouldn't argue with somebody that referred to this tour as it.

Out of the modern day stones tours BTB is by far the best. They were sharp and they swung... Out of Control was awesome.

for those who think this was the best "recent" tour and that mick and/or keith were especially on for it--any theory as to why? Why would this tour have fared so much better, when the basic model was the same as for Steel Wheels onward?