02 Arena 2007 / Last Night (SODD 050/51)
Grand Finale Of Bigger Bang Tour 2007 !!
Live At The 02 Arena, London, Great Britain – August 26th, 2007
Excellent Audience Recording !
DISC 1 / 01. Opening / 02. Start Me Up / 03. You Got Me Rocking / 04. Rough Justice / 05. Ain’t Too Proud To Beg / 06. She Was Hot / 07. You Can’t Always Get What You Want / 08. Can’t You Hear Me Knocking / 09. I’ll Go Crazy / 10. Tumbling Dice / 11. Band Introductions / 12. You Got The Silver / 13. Wanna Hold You
DISC 2 / 01. Miss You / 02. It’s Only Rock ‘N Roll / 03. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction / 04. Honky Tonk Women / 05. Sympathy For The Devil / 06. Paint It Black / 07. Jumping Jack Flash / 08. Brown Sugar
This is the last night’s performance of the Rolling Stones 2005 A Bigger Bang World Tour at the 02 Arena in London. And, as with the 2 shows preceding it, SODD delivers another excellence audience. The track list was modified once again + kicked off with a punchy invigorated “Start Me Up” followed by “You Got Me Rocking” with nice guitar interplay that fed off of the crowd. Jagger introduced: “Hello London…I’m feeling good”. The only new track played was “Rough Justice” with “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg” surfacing for the occasion. Jagger remarked: “Here’s one we don’t do very much as we know you’re very enthusiastic + forgiving”. What followed was “She Was Hot” with Chuck nailing the keyboards. It ended too early as the Stones could have kept jamming + the audience gave them a rousing ovation. Jagger responded: “I know you guys can be so loud + vociferous” as the band lead into “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”. It was obvious that the Stones could maintain their ever steady rhythm section but had trouble sustaining the melodic groove from beginning to end of this track. A nice transition gave way, however, to “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” delivering solid energy right from the get go. The jazzy transition by their reliable horn section was indicative of a different sounding band and had the crowd buzzing in the backround. The mellow + intoxicating keyboards + soft steady percussion gave way to Jagger’s harmonica that weaved in + out with the guitars slowly entering the fray. The track fell apart at the end as they couldn’t close it out to match the original. Lisa literally exploded with her contribution on “I’ll Go Crazy”. Jagger gave special mention to the band’s crew members + Charlie, once again, lead a frantic set of drum beats ending with Keith’s introduction. Keith remarked: “Thank you guys…On with the show”. Ronnie has become the slide magician with “You Got The Silver” + Keith continued to deliver his much improved solo vocal performance here + on “Wanna Hold You”. Keith stated afterwards: “Thank you very much. I’ll see you again”.
It was comforting to hear the Stones warm up to “Miss You” prior to their strong + serious rendition of it. This excellent audience recording improved with “It’s Only Rock ‘N Roll” right through to the closing of the show. This track featured a strong rhythm backing + richer guitar feeds. “Satisfaction” was woefully off key but still jammed up to its 6 + minute end. “Honky Tonk Women” was played at a measured pace. “Sympathy For The Devil was a disappointment as the guitars sounded much too buried. This number was never intended to carry a melody without the weight + balance of the guitars. “Paint It Black” offered a nice guitar intro but also suffered, to a lesser degree, from guitars not fueling this track. “Jumping Jack Flash” was intense and “Brown Sugar” was the only encore played.
Hard to believe that this 2 + year tour closed out on 8-26-07. I took a liking to the above show above the 8-21-07 concert with the 8-23-07 performance following. All 3 set lists were changed and there were some stellar performances for each of these shows. It would have been nice to eliminate the war horses entirely but there were, still, a few welcome additions such as “She Was Hot” +, in particular, the 8-21-07 magnificent + enchanting performance of “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”. This solid offering from the SODD label comes recommended. [Rawlings]
