...is probably the peak of his later career playing, in my opinion. I hadn't listened to or watched anything from the tour in quite some time and just recently revisited the St. Louis '97 show. The main thing that sticks out to me is his concentration. The man is focused on his playing. Ronnie was pretty much MIA on this tour and Keith had to cover more ground than he may have otherwise. As a result, we get a certain mixture of lead and rhythm playing that I haven't really heard from him before or since. I love his solo on Satisfaction from this show and during Jumping Jack Flash, he shows that he was still capable of that great rhythm playing. Not only that, but he has a great crunchy tone that's probably my favorite Keith live sound since '78.

I then watched one of the MSG shows from '98 and another thing jumped out at me, which was just the overall fluidity of his playing during this period. We all know he's not a virtuoso. It's just not what he's about. He's not known for his lead playing in general, but the leads he's pulling off here are just played more smoothly than I'm used to hearing from him. I think Gimme Shelter is one of the songs that made me take note of this.

By No Security, he was still pretty capable but I thought the guitar sound was much weaker, which I didn't like. The Licks Tour was when I really started noticing a decline. The sound of the guitar just didn't seem to have any balls a lot of the time and things just didn't seem as together. Watch Keith at the St. Louis '97 show and then watch him at the Stadium show on the Licks Tour. By the Bigger Bang Tour I thought he had a good guitar tone again, he just sadly didn't really have the playing to go with it.

But I'm not here to bash him. I just think that of the "Vegas Years", his playing was at its most focused on the Bridges to Babylon Tour.

Keith was terrific on that tour, mainly because he was playing guitar and carrying Ronnie on his back for a year and a half at the same time.

When Woody mentions in interviews that he's done entire tours that he barely remembers, its probably this one he's talking about. He was pretty much AWOL for most of it. Probably more so on the '99 leg. He did a lot of nice waving and pointing, though.

The last tour where Keith was an absolute monster on guitar. He's had his moments since then, but he was consistently on great form on this one.

I agree with.BTB tour was/is best tour for me since 1981,best modern era tour.
And this was also the last tour when all of the shows were great or exellent.Very rarely off shows,i saw only one off show of the 10 i saw within a year 98-99.
Also last tour when their souls were IN IT.I really like licks tour a lot,but it was too calculated.Without theatre shows on the licks tour,it would not have been worth attending.You should get great bootlegs from 97-99 tour.Gimme shelter in St.louis wasn´t the best version.I think Gimme shelter was BEST on this tour.
And this was the last tour they really liked playing new songs.And dug out some good rarities like,Sister Morphine,memory motel,all about you,grazy mama,the last time,little queenie,19th nervous breakdown,she´s a rainbow.
Out of control is favorite song of this tour,absolutely brilliant.

This is a thread I have been waiting for! I love Keith's playing from 97-99, one can check out Gimme Shelter from Bremen 98, it was Keith's last great tour.

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Gazza
Keith was terrific on that tour, mainly because he was playing guitar and carrying Ronnie on his back for a year and a half at the same time.

When Woody mentions in interviews that he's done entire tours that he barely remembers, its probably this one he's talking about. He was pretty much AWOL for most of it. Probably more so on the '99 leg. He did a lot of nice waving and pointing, though.

The last tour where Keith was an absolute monster on guitar. He's had his moments since then, but he was consistently on great form on this one.

in 1997 bridges tour at giants stadium woodie stood still the whole time the stones were on stage .i remember thinking is he sad is he depressed or was he on some seroius meds .very strange sight of ronnie not moving around and running around and acting like the rocking ronnie wood that we all love so much.his playing by the way was good typical woodie getting it done from where i was sitting tenth row in front of keith(my favorite perch at the glimmer twins concerts)

>lso last tour when their souls were IN IT.And this was the last tour they really liked playing new songs

Absolutely right. The last tour when the Stones WEREN'T a nostalgia act.

It was great to see fans who probably didnt expect much from their new songs being blown away night after night by the 1-2 knockout punch of 'Saint of Me' and (especially) 'Out of Control'.

And deep album cuts being played in stadiums. Remember those? Some people would tell you now thats too big a risk to take. Back then it was absolutely normal.

Too bad,even i saw Tallinn(Estonia),stockholm,Bremen and shepherds bush.I kinda still regret not going to Berlin show,the one which in outside theatre.Waldbuhne....i still had money for it.Funny thing Gazza is that,both us were on the same line at the bush,,,without knowing each other,and i came lurking to rocks off end of the same year.Can´t believe it was 11-12 years ago!

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Gazza
>lso last tour when their souls were IN IT.And this was the last tour they really liked playing new songs

Absolutely right. The last tour when the Stones WEREN'T a nostalgia act.

It was great to see fans who probably didnt expect much from their new songs being blown away night after night by the 1-2 knockout punch of 'Saint of Me' and (especially) 'Out of Control'.

And deep album cuts being played in stadiums. Remember those? Some people would tell you now thats too big a risk to take. Back then it was absolutely normal.

exactly right, saint of me and out of control were outstanding,also flip the switch and they also played that song with the rap in it which in concert(anybody seen my baby)bernard fowler did the rap.you are right about deep album cuts we got sister morphine which i got goosebumps from ,with such lyrics as sister morphine ,cousin cocaine.keith's set was you dont have to mean it,and all about eve which was the first time i heard keith perform this one.i would have to wait until the licks tour hbo show from msg to finally hear keith do thru and thru and as he introduced the song he made the obligatory mention of the sopranos hbo series.

Aside from being a catalogue band for Licks, I though Keith's last brilliant playing was on that tour, especially Monkey Man and Midnight Rambler. But yeah, the Bridges tour with NEW tunes was their last blast at actually being a band moving forward.

It seems that if they were to stay away from the usual tired songs that they'd have more interest in actually playing than just imitating themselves poorly.

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Gazza
He did a lot of nice waving

the ancient art of waving

Keith rocked on this tour. He rips thru the best Chuck Berry riffs on IORR that sent chills down my spine.

Nimrod hits it out of the park about KR and his concentrating on his playing during this tour. I saw it twice in Los Angeles and Keith rocked both nights.

I agree----Keith was great and i loved the bridges tour...I also liked Keith a lot when he started with the Bigger Bang
tour...I saw them in Philly, Hersey, etc and Keith was the best ever---I really can't speak about them after they left the states..

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The Greek

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Gazza
>lso last tour when their souls were IN IT.And this was the last tour they really liked playing new songs

Absolutely right. The last tour when the Stones WEREN'T a nostalgia act.

It was great to see fans who probably didnt expect much from their new songs being blown away night after night by the 1-2 knockout punch of 'Saint of Me' and (especially) 'Out of Control'.

And deep album cuts being played in stadiums. Remember those? Some people would tell you now thats too big a risk to take. Back then it was absolutely normal.

exactly right, saint of me and out of control were outstanding,also flip the switch and they also played that song with the rap in it which in concert(anybody seen my baby)bernard fowler did the rap.you are right about deep album cuts we got sister morphine which i got goosebumps from ,with such lyrics as sister morphine ,cousin cocaine.keith's set was you dont have to mean it,and all about eve which was the first time i heard keith perform this one.i would have to wait until the licks tour hbo show from msg to finally hear keith do thru and thru and as he introduced the song he made the obligatory mention of the sopranos hbo series.

The first night Keith sang Thru & Thru WAS indeed at MSG, but it wasnt the HBO show in Jan'03 but the one in Sept'02. I was there!

keith was good on this tour. the rumor i remember from the bridges tour is that mick and keith wanted to be the stars of the show and demanded to woody he just stand there and not get in the way.

but i also had a funny experience during the 2006 leg of bigger bang. in seattle & oakland i was six seats from the b-stage/keith's side and rail crashed for the four songs, in front of keith's amp. what comes out of keith's amp is NOT what is coming out of the PA. the nuance; the dirty sound; the rock n roll that keith is playing is getting lost between the amp and the PA. he's still got it. at least if you're six feet away standing at his feet.

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sundevil
the rumor i remember from the bridges tour is that mick and keith wanted to be the stars of the show and demanded to woody he just stand there and not get in the way.

As if Ronnie was ever going to upstage Mick or Keith...

Keith was absolutely awesome 1997-1999. I mean the St. Louis show made me like Flip the Switch and yes a highlight for me was Out of Control which absolutely blue me away when I saw them in Foxboro. I was ten feet from Keith on the B stage when they played Crazy Mama and he was just on fire! Other than not varying the set lists very much the B2B tour is my favoirte from the later years.

He spot on in Los Angeles both nights.

I can confirm Keith was in command on this tour. I had front row right in front of him in Portland. Wasn't this the tour where he allegedly started dabbling with the hard stuff again?

Keith did play very well on this tour -- very inspired and very focused. At the time, I thought he was playing too many solos -- maybe ronnie was unable to play rather than just being put in his place.

Ronnie seemed really out of it in 97-99

Keith's playing on B2B tour was excellent, no doubt and I am more than sad I didn't see ANY concert on this tour, so I only know it from CDs, DVDs. But when I listen and watch all the numerous bootlegs, it seems to me that Keith's playing was even better and more focussed during the Voodo Lounge tour. I like B2B more as a tour, but when it comes only to Keith, I would say that he was magnifficent on B2B and on Voodoo he was even better. What about those who attended both tours - will they aggree, disaggree?

The Voodoo tour seemed to pick up steam as it progressed. I was not really thrilled with the shows that I saw in Foxboro MA but by the time that they got to Japan they seemed to be firing on all cylinders. I thought B2B he played better.

Voodoo had a level of sludgery to it that was in line with 75/76 and 81/82.

Bridges was more in line with Let It Bleed/Sticky Fingers/Exile/Soup as far as the seriousness of playing.

The '94 shows that I saw seemed hollow in comparison to the '97-99 shows I attended. They were certainly competent in '94, but seemed to be going through the motions by comparison to the '97-99 shows.

I attended both the '94-'95 Voodoo Lounge Tour and the '97-'99 B2B Tour in both the U.S. and Europe (and - in the best show of the tour for me - in London in '99) and quite frankly, though I preferred the B2B Tour and thought the set lists were darker and the band more focused, I thought that Woody was totally useless on several of the Voodoo Shows I saw and quite OK in the B2B shows I caught.

Keef was very strong on both tours...but I have to agree...he was damned impressive on the B2B tour.

I remember one Voodoo Lounge Show in Germany (Hockenheim, I think) where Woody literally didn't do a thing but mug and wave and act the fool. The crowd loved it but those there for serious Stones music certainly couldn't have been too pleased. I know I wasn't. Then again, I can recall numerous shows were Mr. Woody was along for the ride and I felt cheated by his trivializing and clownish schtick...but that's for another thread...

To me 97-99 tour equals with my other favorite tour
1973 australia
1975 us tour
1981-82


As BTB tour was and is the best modern era tour.And so were those i listed,best of those eras.Through,,,ronnie was better in 94-95.

Fantastic tour but I do not agree about keith's playing.. it was better on No Security, and much better on Licks. ABB was both good and bad.

From what I have witnessed most probably the BRIDGES tour was the best in musicalwise of 'modern era' to use Marko's word (I have a different word but let us not to use it always...). Keith's guitar things sound almost incredible compared to his offerings in the 00's.

Personally I skipped the whole tour because I had seen the band during VOODOO LOUNGE tour and have come to a conclusion that I've seen my old heroes already live and that's enough because I thought that the nature of the band or what they have to offer hadn't really changed since the last time (I didn't even buy BRIDGES TO BABYLON album...). It took me till LICKS TOUR that I came to terms with the Vegas nature of the band and accepted the nature of it as a nostalgy act it is. Maybe the rise of boards like ours had an effect in rediscovering a Rolling Stones fan in me - one, which wants to celebrate the band by going to their gigs and meet fellow fans.

- Doxa

I didn't like the B2B album much but the tour was OUTSTANDING.

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Nimrod
Ronnie was pretty much MIA on this tour and Keith had to cover more ground than he may have otherwise.

Please help me: What does MIA mean? Missing in action? I agree then. Ron hid behind everyone.

I like the first half of the St. Louis concert very much. Keith nailed the solo in Satisfaction and he was the riff master in Flip The Switch. Awesome. Wanna Hold You sounds fresh and joyful. Unfortunately, the big hits of the show's end are played a bit to slowly, I think. I prefer Miami's Voodoo Lounge concert in that case.

Another brillant show was the HBO concert in 2003 and that's why I can't say, the BTB days were the last good days of Keith. And in Stuttgart 2006 he was really strong. Sure, his fingers got problems, but that didn't stop him. He's still the riff master, really. To play single notes in solos isn't easy to do for him anymore, especially in Sympathy For The Devil. But riff smashing is still his strength. And I appreciate the guitar sound of the last two tours, the guitars were more prominent in the mix than in 1997-99.

In 2007 he had serious problems. Why? Maybe new medicine, maybe weed, the loss of his mother and the illness of his wife. But Ronnie was in fine form and he was shining in Nijmegen.

I'm convinced that Keith (as well as Ron and Mick and Charlie) will be fine, if the Stones would decide to tour again. His TV appearence for Stones in Exile was clear and happy and well-balanced. The main problem in my eyes is the gigantic dimension of every Stones project. I mean, the Bigger Bang period was three years long (in 2004 they began to write the album, in 2007 they finished the tour). They could start to think a bit smaller.

So... Keith was good on the BTB tour. Keith was good on every tour (except the last leg).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010-10-11 01:47 by Pokalheld.