The thread about I Got The Blues' odds for being played in Milan got me thinking. The song would probably fail to capture the audiance's attention in a large setting like that. But that is not necessarily due to the fact that the song is not well known.

I have the feeling that incidentely played songs fail to keep the audiance's attention because they are so poorly rehearsed. This leads to a standardised playing with standard (Berry-like) licks, Mick filling with Oh Yeahs and Charlie's loud drumming, while mostly failing to reproduce the significant licks and trades of the originals.

The incidential audiance thus fails to recognise the value of a tune they do not know, which would have been the only way to have them pay attention.

The enthusiasm with which incidential songs were applauded during e.g. the Steel Wheels and Voodoo Lounge Tours (Salt Of The Earth, Sweet Virginia) shows things CAN be different. They were performed well, and the band members were more than usual concentrated on their performance, just BECAUSE it were incidential songs.

If I hear It Won't Take Long from this tour which was played twice I believe, I can imagine they dropped it. The version is boring and completely misses some characterising licks from the original. Sway was launched the same way. Rain Fall Down misses the guitarlicks that start on the last words of Micks "Watching the Rain...Fall down" on the original. Love Is Strong suffered from it too, although I admit that was the case in '94 already.

Although I as well as all of you always hope for a rare tune, I'm at the same time nervous on their behalve about them messing it up. What's the value of an incidentially played tune if it's rehearsed incufficiently and then played poorly? I'd rather have a slammingly nailed Brown Sugar then.

What are your opinions? What quality would you expect when they introduced She Was Hot or She Saw Me Coming next show? Surprise us with more rehearsing I'd say.

"Surprise us with more rehearsing I'd say".

Exactly. Listen to Sway and the way Jagger sings it. Or how he sings Rough Justice for that matter. A little more effort in 'new' songs could make the gigs much, much better.

Surprise, Surprise

good post, limbo. i'm with ya....

The 2005/2006 version of Sway is not even in the same league as the SF version of Sway. I can't bear to listen to the new Sway.

I've never heard the recent rendition of Sway.
Do I need to ?

Depends on which songs they play, I think they do Worried About You very well where as Respectable is a mess.

I think a song like Black Limousine would work very well and they can manage it. What it comes down to is the Stones being lazy and not caring much for their hardcore fans, as long as they play the same big hits and get a nice applause. I can't think of any other band that plays it so safe like the Stones do.

... maybe i could relate better to what you're saying
if it didn't sound quite so much like you go to concerts to hear records.


"What do you want - what?!"
- Keith

very good point.

I agree Rolf... it's often a disappointment. In my opinion Rain Fall Down works mighty fine - but I agree with the other examples you had. They just fell apart on IWTL! Still, they should show some courage - and eventually the rare songs would get better if they play it a couple of times!


Belgrade-Bucharest-Budapest-Brno

I agree that the rarely played songs tend not to sound very good, but also that there's no sense in hoping that when they're finally played they'll sound like the records. At this point I think the band itself is confused about how to approach this "issue," whereas they probably didn't give it much of a thought before. I'm not sure why people get so feverish about the set lists--and when the stones try to respond, the results are iffy on the whole. Maybe rehearsal is the key, as most of the Licks songs were at least convincing. But if the band's not enthusiastic for the "gems,"... do we really want to hear them play them? Though that raises the question: what are they enthusiastic for nowadays?

Sorry guys, but like the recent rendition of "Sway". I consider it as nice and very interesting version.

While I do agree that songs could use more rehearsing, I think they get over analyzed by people listening to bootlegs and not being there to see and hear the songs actually being performed. I was there at the Forum for the only performance this tour of Far Away Eyes, as well as getting Sway and Worried About You. All 3 sounded fantastic to me as I heard them live in the moment.
Perhaps if I heard them again on a bootleg of that show, my enthusiasm would go down.

I almost never listen to bootlegs and as big of a Stones fan as I am, I only own 1-2 Stones live bootlegs. I've seen 27 Stones shows and have never heard a bootleg of any show I have attended, so maybe my impressions of how the Stones sound live are not muted by listening to the performances later.

ah, so you've arranged a situation to put yourself in "planned denial" - excellent plan, halup!

I don't hear much of a difference from the rare songs to the warhorses other than (obviously) the first couple of times that they play something,the more likely miscues will be.
It Won't Take Long is a perfect example of a song that was pretty rocky the first two times they played it but,if they played it some more and worked at it,I'm sure it would have turned out fine.
Far Away Eyes is an example of a song that went pretty smoothly when it was brought back for the first time in years.
Even in 1981,the first stabs at Let It Bleed were sloppy but,before very long,they got it down pretty well.
Rain Fall Down is not even rare & Miss You,lord knows,doesn't sound like the studio version.JJF doesn't either (nor did it in 1969) but,its great in a different way.
I've heard them nail plenty of rare live songs.They're going to have screw ups but,not just on the rare songs and they will also have their good moments.

The Rolling Stones are great PERFORMERS. Songs like HTW and Satisfaction can be performed.

Songs like Sway and Midnight Rambler need to be PLAYED, they don't sound very good when performed. Salt of The Earth is another example of a song that needs to be played and not performed. Not that we'll ever hear SOTH any time soon.

Raise your glass to the good and the evil.

I heard good versions of Sway but the studio version is miles away.

Yes Limbostone. I did not think much of "Sway" except for the title; and knowing it was the infamous "SWAY"!. But they did not do it much justice. No dynamics. Now there is no way Jagger is going to sing it like on Sticky. But there are zillions of ways one can f*ck with a song, chnage it around and make it work some other way. And this comes through rehearsing it a bunch.
Woriied bout You is reherased. It also happens to be the type song that is easier to pull off. It has that killer falsetto, the buildup, the stops, the "Baby-y-y". Once the tricks are in place it will work. Now something like Sway takes real work and imagination.
The Stones know how to do it if anyone does. They are masters at re-inventing a tune for the live stage. Eevn late in the game, they made OOC and SOm from B2B work really well.

"...no longer shall you trudge 'cross my peaceful mind."

I think it varies from song to song - Faraway Eyes, which was only played once, sounded great. Sway isn't too hot. And a song like Rough Jvstice, which they've played at nearly every show this tour, still sucks.

It's not so much frequency as the song itself.

everyone says RJ live sucks. what sucks about it? I cant realy remember too well, but it sounded all right when I saw them, nothing really stuck out in my mind as exceptionally good or bad, and the Japan version was fine. is it his singing? Mick does use kind of a "minimalist" style on the Japan version, but I think it sounds kind of cool.

with sssoul Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ... maybe i could relate better to what you're
> saying
> if it didn't sound quite so much like you go to
> concerts to hear records.


I absolutely don't!
But they themselve seem not to recognise some characterizing licks, loops and trades that FORMED a tune originally, rendering it to a version with just the lyrics, extra oh yeah's, drums, and some random licks. You don't have to exacly reproduce the studio version to be at least recognisable or interesting.

The point is, if you decide on doing something new, you have to rehearse, rehearse and rehearse, study the effect it may have, adjust, work on an audiovisual tension, rehearse again. If you do something new for an audiance, whether you're in a band or in the elementary school choir, you make sure your performance is planned out and well rehearsed.

You'd be ashamed if it sounded like you were doing a quick rehearsal on stage, rushing it so you can do something you actually care for. People don't pay to watch you rehearse.

Lorenz,

Who's Rolf?



By the way people, I like the latter renditions of Sway a lot better and am actually happy they do it. What if they developed IWTL as well? And had they done that BEFORE taking it to stage, it might even have lasted.

LOL - that's my IORR name for you!

ryanpow Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> everyone says RJ live sucks. what sucks about it?
> I cant realy remember too well, but it sounded all
> right when I saw them, nothing really stuck out in
> my mind as exceptionally good or bad, and the
> Japan version was fine. is it his singing? Mick
> does use kind of a "minimalist" style on the Japan
> version, but I think it sounds kind of cool.



There were reports of Rough Justice falling apart at one of the Buenos Aires shows.(This was after they had already played it around fifty times so,it couldn't have been due to a lack of rehearsals.)I don't know which Japanese version you're talking about but,the one from the first Tokyo show is not my favourite.

It would be great for them to do more rehearsals but,to be fair,they do extensive rehearsals before the tour and then they do more before each leg of the tour plus,they soundcheck songs for a while before introducing them into a show.

. . .and in the case of She Saw Me Coming, they soundcheck them, and then (very unfortunately) never play them . . .

It's hard to figure why Rough Justice often doesn't work. I think my favorite is the LA Forum show.

I agree about Rough Justice. An excellent excellent song, however, Mick sings it weird. I think RJ is the reason the Superbowl show got mixed reviews, well, part of the reason. I think the sound levels were so off tho. I think Keith's guitar needs to be louder in RJ. The part during the chorus isnt' loud enough.