Rough Justice sounds much better live than the studio version.

The audience reaction was great here. And it's a killer rocker. Would work for me.




JumpingKentFlash

I think it's easy to say "no to Rough Justice as opener" just writing here, where we can do our choices and think about the setlist of our dreams. Let's see what happens when (and if) they will play it live. To me, it was a great moment of the 2006 Copacabana show.

NO!

Quote
ab
I wouldn't open a Stones show with Rough Justice or anything else from any album after Tattoo You. With that catalog, a Stones show should always begin with something vintage that nearly everyone in the house has hard-wired into their DNA.

I came to love Let It Rock as the 1978 opener after getting lots of recordings from that tour. But, when I was in the crowd in Philly on that tour, it seemed a bit of puzzler. "What song is this?" should not be the audience reaction during the first song at a Stones show. For a lot of people, Rough Justice would be like that, only way worse because the song just ain't that good.

So you don't appreciate being challeneged with something unfamiliar? They've done quite enough tours where they've opened with something predictable - JJF, HTW and SMU come to mind. Start Me Up for 1989/90 was perfect but it's lost its oomph since then. HTW, at least according to the fantastic version on LYL, made sense for that tour. JJF for the 1969/70 tours was perfect. And I loved how they opened the Licks MSG show that's on Four Flicks with Street Fighting Man - and a killer performance of it as well. Didn't they open the 1971 or 72 tours with Brown Sugar? That's what was nice about the Licks tour, how they changed it, it wasn't just one song. Satisfaction for the Bridges tour - ha ha, got that one out of the way.

I liked Not Fade Away on the Voodoo tour, partially because it wasn't one of their big hits, they changed the pace of it and it was a nice little groove that opened up the show for Tumbling Dice. And Under My Thumb for the 1981/82 tours was good.

Rough Justice doesn't exactly lend itself to being a good opening tune simply because it's not much of a opening riff that they can extend if needed. Aside from that matter, it really would've made sense if they did open the Bang shows with it though. Afterall, it was new and a rocker.

Gimme Shelter would make a nice opener, as would Tumbling Dice, Rocks Off, even Miss You, perhaps quite a few others that they've never played live before, like Emotional Rescue or, what, I dunno, Summer Romance. What would be a cool tune they've never played live before - or even hardly or not much at all - to be a show opener? If You Can't Rock Me? Dance Little Sister? Loving Cup? There's a few songs they could do that with.