Giants Stadium 1994 (no label)
Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey – August 14th, 1994
Disc 1: Opening, Not Fade Away, Tumbling Dice, You Got Me Rocking, Shattered, Rocks Off, Sparks Will Fly, Satisfaction, Beast Of Burden, Out Of Tears, Wild Horses, All Down The Line, Miss You
Disc 2: Can’t Get Next To You, I Go Wild, band introduction, Honky Tonk Women, Happy, The Worst, S.E., Love Is Strong, Monkey Man, Start Me Up, It’s Only Rock And Roll, Street Fighting Man, Brown Sugar, Jumping Jack Flash
Giants Stadium 1994 contains the complete August 14th, 1994 show from Giants Stadium. This is the most famous show from the entire Voodoo Lounge tour since it was professionally filmed and recorded. This recording has lead to many different unofficial releases throughout the years. Two early releases have only part of the show.
Sparks Will Fly (Kiss The Stone KTS 377) is a one disc title that has only seventeen tracks and World Tour In Concert (Joker/ WTO-34) has sixteen. Bite The Big Apple (Vinyl Gang VGP-069) has the entire show from the soundboard and Welcome To Voodoo Lounge 1994 (Gin Network Gin XX 03) is the only release with the complete very good audience recording. Gin Network include two soundboard tracks from the rehearsals which none of the other titles carry.
This show was filmed and the video of the show minus five songs (“Love Is Strong,” “Beast of Burden,” “I Go Wild,” “Happy,” “Can’t Get Next To You”) was sold at the other concert’s souvenir stands and available through mail order from Brockum, the Stones’ concert souvenir company and was phased out of circulation in the spring of 1995.
It is a very clear and top heavy professional multi-track recording with the audience sounding very far away during the music, but turned up between tracks to produce the appropriate atmosphere. The only cut is five seconds at the beginning of “Love Is Strong” which is filled with the audience tape.
Tickets for the New York metropolitan shows sold out very fast as it was reported in the New York Times at the time: “The Rolling Stones sold out two Giants Stadium shows in just 81 minutes yesterday, with fans snapping up tickets at the rate of more than 1,400 every minute for the coming New York area stops for the ‘Voodoo Lounge’ tour, said a band spokeswoman, Fran Curtis. After selling out shows for Aug. 12 and 14, the Stones added a show for Monday, Aug. 15, Ms. Curtis said. Tickets for the Aug. 15 show are now on sale, according to Ticketmaster, the ticket service. The tickets for the first two shows — with a top price of $50 — went on sale at 9 A.M. and were gone before 10:30 A.M., Ms. Curtis said. They sold out more quickly than in 1989 for the Stones’ ‘Steel Wheels’ tour, which earned the group $65 million. The Stones played at Shea Stadium that year, in their last shows in the metropolitan area. The Stones’ new album, ‘Voodoo Lounge,’ is due out before the tour begins Aug. 1 in Washington. That date is sold out as well.” (“Rolling Stones Add Show After Selling Out,” May 15, 1994)
The Stones were generally praised on this tour for not trading entirely on a nostalgic look at their impressive back catalogue. In a time when grunge was at its height, they based the show upon their new album of groove focused rock and roll (and nothing from three out of their four most recent studio albums Emotional Rescue, Undercover, Dirty Work and Steel Wheels).
Six songs from the new album and a seventh, “Brand New Car,” was played at many of the other stops but not on this evening. After the opening the open with a Buddy Holly cover “Not Fade Away,” a song they played in the early days and resurrected for every show for Voodoo Lounge. “Tumbling Dice,” which is normally played later in the set on other tours is played second before Jagger greets the audience with, “Welcome to the voodoo lounge. I must say we have the luck of the devil with the weather.” The evening was overcast and later on Mick complains about the rain making his mascara run.
“You Got Me Rocking” is the first of the new material to be played and is one of the pace setters in the catalogue. In the ensuing years it will become heavier, but it is still a fun track. “Wild Horses,” which was played for the first time in twenty years several nights before Indianapolis, makes a rare appearance early in the set and is followed by another scarce song for this tour, “All Down The Line.”
Before “Can’t Get Next To You” Mick says, “we’re one of the few stadium acts not to be on strike” (referring to the Major League Baseball strike that summer which began two days before). “We’re gonna do this old Motown song for you, but we do it in an Al Green style.” During the band introduction bassist Darryl Jones, on his first tour replacing Bill Wyman, is “from Miles to Madonna and back,” Ronnie Wood is a “wolf in woman’s clothing,” and Charlie Watts is “the godfather of anti-grunge.” “Honky Tonk Women” is followed by the two song Keith Richard set, the scarcely played “Happy” and the new song “The Worst.”
The “S.E.” listed after is forty seconds of organ music that serves as a prelude to their current hit, the always welcome “Love Is Strong” which is followed a great version of “Monkey Man.” The finale contains the expected run of classics “It’s Only Rock And Roll,” “Street Fighting Man,” “Brown Sugar,” and “Jumping Jack Flash.” Given the sound quality of this recording, this is one of the best to surface from this tour and is recommended.
Giants Stadium 1994 is packaged in a double slimline jewel case with thin paper inserts with shots from the show. It is simple yet effective. The manufacturers produced two hundred copies for distribution. There haven’t been any silver releases from this era to surface the past couple of years making this an intriguing release.
