I guess the overal eighties looking steel wheels tour.
Jaggers haircut !!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-01-02 22:55 by bv.

I'd say Voodoo Lounge. The 60s tours are the roots, they grew to be the best live band ever in the 70s (come on, the 75 tour is great). The 80s were a tough time but neither tour was that bad. There's a lot I don't like about the Tattoo You tour, but they were long shows and finally reached that stadium status. And Steel Wheels was a great comeback.

I say Voodoo Lounge because it didn't really add anything. A good tour, but it was just a continuation of what they would later do. And at least afterwards, they added the Stripped shows, the No Security tour, the Licks greatest hits tour. I just say VL tour was the least remarkable in terms of moving forward or adding anything huge in terms of song choice.

Many of the 2007 shows were mediocre at best, judging from bootlegs and videos - although I was lucky to catch a great 2007 show in Oslo myself.

The SW/UJ tour sure didn't disappoint me. The show I attended was excellent, despite Mick's 1967 part II haircut

The weakest show I've attended has to be the Stockholm Stadium show in 2003. Not bad, but pretty mediocre.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-01-02 14:03 by DandelionPowderman.

The 1986 tour

An easy question. 2007 was their worst tour by far. Keith seemed to be completely out of his brain. it is great that he recovered from his problems.

for me it was 1989 Steel Wheels, I mean the playing of the band was very good in fact they sounded too clean and polished for me, this was the only tour I would call 'Vegas' . I know alot of people will disagree with me and I admit the musicianship was far better than later tours but somehow it sounded bland to my ears.

2006 Tour in Europe since it was cancelled...

2 1 2 0

2007.
Painful.

The werchter concert might be the worst concert they ever did.
And the other dates on the tour weren't much better.

All the Stones gigs i have attended varied from decent to stellar. And the vast majority of them varied from "very good" to "excellent". So, i have not attended a really "dissapointing" Stones gig. If i have to mention some from the "simply decent" category, i say some (not all!) from 2007 tour. In addition, i wasn't enthousiastic with 1989- 1990 tour. Not because of their whole playing, but because of the "thin" guitar sound.

PS: I know that many fans hate the whole ABB tour, but i have some great memories from 2006, even from 2007. And my wife became a Stones fan after having seen them (first time in her life...) in 2006 (Porto) and 2007 (Barcelona)

For Keef it'd be the African Safari Tour from 1995 also often referred to as The Hungover Tour



ROCKMAN

2007 in terms of performance was by far the worst for me.

1989/1990 overall sound, sterile feel (even though the guitar players were on fire)

ABB. Saw several shows. A few good ones, more mediocre ones. Last year's tour was disappointing from the standpoint that they brought Mick Taylor along & only had him play on one song (I'm not counting Satisfaction). Midnight Rambler was by far the highlight of the show I saw & I wanted more of that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-01-02 13:39 by crholmstrom.

This one.

Yes, Midnight Rambler was a highlight of 2012-13 tour, but i think it also had been a highlight ALWAYS. With or without Taylor.

I would say, the tours, which did not happened!

I don't think there is one.

My thumb up, for Ladykiller's and MingSubu's statements!

Saw them on every tour since 1990 with the exception of the 50 anniversary tour. I love them all, really. Urban Jungle was pure magic at times. Probably because it was the first time I saw them. But even in hindsight I think they were brilliant. A truly terrible tour was the ABB tour. They played like shit, especially Keith was a desaster, but even Charlie sucked. Out of the four shows I attended on the ABB tour (Cologne, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, and Düsseldorf) the Frankfurt show was the worst. Damn, they were bad that night.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2014-01-02 16:45 by Glammy.

They have all been bad since 1981.

For me it was No Security. Not on performance of content. Performance has been all over the map for decades - uneven at best. No Security had some interesting set lists, so decent content. But it was the first tour I recall for the Stones where ticket prices went really high....starting a trend with their pricing.

VL was reasonably priced (as I recall) and the band really played with some fire when I saw them in Toronto. They were not the polished guys of Steel Wheels, they had a kind of mean/tough streak in their playing.

I guess I am in the minority here, but, of the nine times I've seen the Stones live, Steel Wheels in Birmingham, Alabama (1989) was the single best concert I have ever attended.

I used to think the 1978 show, in Greensboro, NC, was at the bottom of my list, but recently listening to the bootleg proved to me that it was a much better show than I remembered.

The first of the two Voodoo Lounge shows I saw was very good (again, in Alabama). However, the Atlanta show much later in the tour was sloppy, terrible sound, and just not up to par with the previous show.

With all that in mind, I'd rank my personal shows as:

1. 1989 - Steel Wheels, Birmingham, AL
2. 1975 - Tour of the Americas, Greensboro, NC
3. 1997 - Bridges to Babylon, Atlanta, GA
4. 1989 - Steel Wheels, Atlanta, GA
5. 1994 - Voodoo Lounge, Birmingham, AL
6. 1978 - Some Girls, Greensboro, NC
7. 2006 - A Bigger Bang, Atlanta, GA
8. 2005 - A Bigger Bang, Atlanta, GA
9. 1994 - Voodoo Lounge, Atlanta, GA

Quote
Mongoose
I guess I am in the minority here, but, of the nine times I've seen the Stones live, Steel Wheels in Birmingham, Alabama (1989) was the single best concert I have ever attended.

I used to think the 1978 show, in Greensboro, NC, was at the bottom of my list, but recently listening to the bootleg proved to me that it was a much better show than I remembered.

The first of the two Voodoo Lounge shows I saw was very good (again, in Alabama). However, the Atlanta show much later in the tour was sloppy, terrible sound, and just not up to par with the previous show.

With all that in mind, I'd rank my personal shows as:

1. 1989 - Steel Wheels, Birmingham, AL
2. 1975 - Tour of the Americas, Greensboro, NC
3. 1997 - Bridges to Babylon, Atlanta, GA
4. 1989 - Steel Wheels, Atlanta, GA
5. 1994 - Voodoo Lounge, Birmingham, AL
6. 1978 - Some Girls, Greensboro, NC
7. 2006 - A Bigger Bang, Atlanta, GA
8. 2005 - A Bigger Bang, Atlanta, GA
9. 1994 - Voodoo Lounge, Atlanta, GA

This list clearly shows why there should be no need for generalising the Stones tours. Some shows are excellent, and some not so good on every tour

I agree.

A lot of it also has to do with what your mood was like during the concert, who you were with, the behavior of the fans around you, seat location, and on and on.

I saw Frank Zappa in Boston in 1977, and left the show sort of disappointed. Hearing the bootleg of the show years later made me realize that it was actually an excellent concert, but my concert going experience was ruined by a large number of 16 year olds in the crowd (I guess Zappa had suddenly gotten "cool" with the younger set!), ripped out of their minds, yelling at each other as loud as possible, one guy three rows over just simply screaming "ZAPPA!!! ZAPPA!!! ZAPPA!!!" in a maniacal way the whole show. It wasn't a matter of simply shutting him up. It seemed like the entire crowd was like that, just bonkers.

Any tour I didn't get to see.

The 1982 tour did nothing to me. The 1976 tour was enjoyable. The 1973 tour was fantastic. I'm talking now about the gigs I attended.

Performance-wise, only the post-head injury performances of 2007. Keith was most definitely 'off', but understandably so.

The 50 and Counting Tour.
The prices were a completely unjustifiable slap in the face to all fans, and even made me retroactively admit the hate I'd been supressing since around 2002.
This last tour when I finally said "#$%& You Stones, no more."

[thepowergoats.com]

Quote
DandelionPowderman
there should be no need for generalising the Stones tours. Some shows are excellent, and some not so good on every tour

EXACTLY. On ABB I went to a ton of shows. The tickets were expensive but not offensively priced ($750... phffffff). However, on A Bigger Bang the performance and PA sound were so drastically different every show it was difficult to gauge performances!!! Examples..

Chicago - 9/10/05 - Decent performance, guitars were low in the mix. During the encore, a blazing and lengthy version of IORR, Blondie's acoustic guitar was louder than the entire band. I was furious. Couldn't hear Ronnie and Keith behind the BACKUP SINGER'S GUITAR. Someone punch the sound guy from this tour.

Columbus - 9/25/05 - Better sound, fantastic setlist, fun show... When they got to the b-stage, we could not longer hear Ronnie at all. This makes songs like Oh No Not You Again sound horrid. Ronnie was playing great, they just wont put him loud in the mix for some reason.

Memphis - 12/3/05 - By far my least favorite Stones show that I have ever attended. The softest guitar mix I have ever heard at any concert in my entire life!! When you are straining to hear Keith, and Ronnie is absent in the mix, you know it is a bad show. The crowd was not very responsive either. Mr. Pitiful was the lone exception that night. They did a great version of that track but otherwise they were just coasting. However, the reviews (link) put me in the minority. Then again, I recorded it so I have some evidence to backup my complaints. Perfect sound on the recording but I can't fix the PA mix through EQ.

Atlanta - 2/8/06 - My favorite Stones show of all time!!! For once they finally put Ronnie and Keith up in the mix TOGETHER. They were all ON FIRE!!!!! One really fun moment, for me, was when something happened to the mix and we lost Keith completely on Get Off My Cloud and Honkey Tonk Women. It was fun to hear Ronnie's parts on GOMC and Honkey Tonk without Keith is very... interesting. Comic relief for sure. I still go back to listen to this show every once in a while. Wish I had edited out more of the crowd around me but such an amazing gig.

Based on bootlegs, since I wasn't around for it, Steel Wheels is the only tour I NEVER revisit. Sad Sad Sad should have burned down stadiums in raw guitar power. Instead it is indicative of what went wrong on that tour...

Quote
Rockman
For Keef it'd be the African Safari Tour from 1995 also often referred to as The Hungover Tour

- yeah, African Safari tour was the worst...and Dirty Work tour was terrible, they didnt even play a gigs..

Most Dissapointing Stones-tour?? For me the 1973 european Tour and the 1976 european tour. Well, I have to say that I saw only 2 gigs 1973 In munich "Olympiahall) and Essen (grugahalle). 1976 in frankfurt, Dortmund, Münster--.
BTW-- first time I saw A rolling stones "Concert" was in berlin 1965, the last one Hannover 2006.