Is there any consensus formed around any "epic" outdoor stadium concerts the Stones have done?

In all the recounting of their best shows - of all time or on a given tour - the indoor ones bubble up to the very top. Maybe only Cleveland 1975 is ever mentioned as possibly the best show on its respective tour.

Altamont and Hyde Park in 1969 were epic, but for non-musical reasons (although a lot of the Altamont music was great, but no one would call that a "feel-good" performance by the band).

To state more clearly, I'm wondering which of the Stones outdoor shows in their history would make it onto a short list of best concerts they've ever done.

I guess the complete lack of responses gives you your answer - on bootleg, at least, the arena shows always sounded better than the larger venues. It's understandable, given the fact that (especially in the early days), Jagger was busy running around and making exaggerated gestures, trying to be entertaining to 70,000 people (with no screens). Also, in the early stadium shows, they would often be quite far from each other, which doesn't help - and of course, the B-Stage is located much farther from the main stage in a stadium, creating all kinds of havoc with timing (because of the slight delay in sound from the main speakers reaching the B-Stage.

Their best stadium shows may very well be post-2013. They don't wander around as much, and the monitor speakers are probably much better.

If you were there. Rich Stadium 8-8-75 was pretty damn epic. Others disagree with me, and I can hear on the bootleg how the d***s start wearing off during Wild Horses and Fingerprint File. Still...if youd seen it, you'd have had a good one.

Heyy you gots to wait more than three hours before declaring a "complete lack of response"!
I just woke up. The Australia '73 shows. Prague 1990. Berlin 2005. Pass the caffeine.

I don't think the fact that a show is indoor or outdoor has anything to do with the quality of the show, or if it might be epic. I.e. roof or not. The Dallas 2015 show had a roof (even if it was open on the very top), but it was still one of the best shows of the tour. United Center Chicago has god terrible acoustics, same with Amsterdam Arena, so to me a large venue with a roof is often bad but not Dallas.

The Wembley Stadium shows were amazing. And I still remember walking out of the Giants Stadium show in 2002 and saying this is the way to see the Stones, what a great performance! Mind you two days before they took down MSG, and two days later Roseland, three unforgettable shows in five days. I think it is more about timing than type of venue.

Bjornulf

Agree with Bjornulf that it is more about timing than venue.. and sometimes several other factors.

Personally, I found the Quebec City show with 100k plus perhaps the best show of the last tour.. partly because of the size of the crowd, partly because of the beautiful setting, but mostly because the band was so tight by the end of the tour and the sound was excellent in the cold air off the river in QC. Epic.

Akron Rubber Bowl 1972, Soldier Field 1978, E. Lansing 1994. All epic by my standards. Out of 36 Stones concerts in all, those 3 are all in my top 4 (along with Pittsburgh Civic Center 1999).

I was at that Cleveland 1975 show, but my seats were so bad that I don't know if it was a good show or not. Had a great locale on the field, but the heat was getting to my friend and we moved to the upper deck under the roof. Should have let him go sit by himself and stayed on the field. Regretted it ever since.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2015-08-10 18:49 by josepi.

Washington 1972

How about the Copacabana concert?

Yup Andrews27, I agree and NO ONE can convince me ( us) otherwise....8/8/75 was a KILLER SHOW! Yes, EPIC with all of the drama that went on before the show too!

I appreciate everyone's comments.

Is there a ready source (even youtube) of much from the 8-8-75 Buffalo show? I'd love to listen to it.

Incidentally the irony is not lost on me that this year's tour was basically all outdoor shows - although a few were smaller-venue than the 50-80,000 seat mega stadiums.