Southern Bang In El Ejido (SODD-042/043)
Estadio de Santo Domingo, El Ejido, Spain – June 30th, 2007
Disc 1 01. Opening / 02. Start Me Up / 03. You Got Me Rocking / 04. Rough Justice / 05. Bitch / 06. Live With Me / 07. Ruby Tuesday / 08. Midnight Rambler / 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
Released 2 nights after their 6-28-07 Madrid performance, this El Ejido concert is at best a very good audience recording with prominent boomy sounding bass throughout. The Stones followed “Start Me Up” with “You Got Me Rocking” to fire up the crowd and kept pace with “Rough Justice”. “Bitch” was a bland rendition. The set list was altered significantly from the Madrid show. “Live With Me” was a welcome addition but the horns were buried in the mix and any semblance of melody was largely non-evident up to this point. The guitar(s) were hardly audible in “Ruby Tuesday” but the audience was still appreciative. “Midnight Rambler” jammed a bit and sported a rousing finish right before the 12-minute mark. The “I Go Crazy” James Brown cover gave Lisa a chance to extend herself vocally. “Tumbling Dice” provided a nice transition with Band Introductions to follow. Keith’s “You Got The Silver” lightened the mood but the booming bass detracted from the performance. The tempo picked up with “Wanna Hold You” with slight horn spurts to give this track an edge. Richards responded in kind and the guitar(s) were finally more audible in the mix.
The bass was especially heavy sounding in “Miss You” serving to override the other instruments. Keith’s guitar sounded intermittently off key. “It’s Only Rock ‘N Roll” featured Keith out of tune again. Charlie was strong behind the kit leading the charge in “Satisfaction” with Keith off again. There was no melody evident here, just rhythm. Wood came to the rescue and took the lead at the bridge of “Honky Tonk Women”. There was very little spacing between numbers since Band Introductions. A few guitar spurts surfaced in “Sympathy For The Devil’ with Wood again trying to cover for Richards. I found myself wondering what song I was actually listening to several times here. “Paint It Black” must have challenged Jagger as Richards was way off key. This was the weakest rendition of this usually welcome nugget that I have heard in years. Jagger served to save the track with his strong energetic performance. “Jumping Jack Flash” left a bitter taste in my mouth with the chords way off key. Jim’s horn sounded smooth and comforting in “Brown Sugar” to compensate.
The Stones have always been a guitar driven band. Tonight’s performance reflected how lost the band was without Richard’s engine. This was, for the most part, muzak to my ears and is recommended only for the completist and those willing to endure a bitter sounding performance. [Rawlings]
