The Rolling Stones – Circus Krone 2003 (no label)

Circus Krone 2003
(no label)

Circus Krone, Munich, Germany – June 8th, 2003

Disc 1 (55:08):  Intro., Jumping Jack Flash, Tumbling Dice, All Down The Line, Sweet Virginia, Worried About You, Stray Cat Blues, Everybody Needs Somebody To Love, Dance, That’s How Strong My Love Is, Going To A Go Go

Disc 2 (57:13):  Band Introduction, The Nearness Of You, Before They Make Me Run, It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll, Can’t You Hear Me Knocking, Honky Tonk Women, Start Me Up, Brown Sugar, I Can’t Turn You Loose

DVD (1:51:56):  Intro., Jumping Jack Flash, Tumbling Dice, All Down The Line, Sweet Virginia, Worried About You, Stray Cat Blues, Everybody Needs Somebody To Love, Dance, That’s How Strong My Love Is, Going To A Go Go, Band Introduction, The Nearness Of You, Before They Make Me Run, It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll, Can’t You Hear Me Knocking, Honky Tonk Women, Start Me Up, Brown Sugar, I Can’t Turn You Loose

The Rolling Stones’ Licks tour in 2003 – 2004 was their most logistically ambitious.  Celebrating their fortieth anniversary, they dug deep into their catalog of songs and resurrected some rarely played songs and covers.  And they played stadiums, arenas and smaller venues in every major city to mix things up further still.  It remains one of the most fun tours to collect.  

Munich was actually the first stop in Europe two months after they played in India.  June 4th was the stadium show in the 11,000 capacity Olympiahalle, June 6th the arena show in the 60,000 Olympiastadion, and the club show on June 8th in the 2,500 capacity Cirkus Krone.  

The Cirkus Krone show was recorded from the audience and released in the six disc set The Nearness Of You (Vinyl Gang Product VGP 343) with the other two Munich shows and “I Can’t Turn You Loose” can be found on the officially released Four Flicks DVD, albeit in a different edit.

Circus Krone 2003 features the audio and complete video of the recently surfaced professionally filmed source.  The audio have been remastered by the label.  They moved guitar and vocals from the left channel and equalized the tape to make it sound more lively.  They also edited in the audience tape at the beginning.  

The video picks up right when the band take the stage.  It looks like a rough edit of all the camera angles.  But with many shots lingering on the subject (instead of the contemporary fast cuts), it’s definitely not in it’s final stage.  The video quality is very good but obviously a generation or two away from the master.   

Reviews of this show are generally very positive and enthusiastic.  The Stones love these smaller gigs and pour a lot of energy, charm and charisma into the performance.  After the mc’s introduction Keith runs onstage playing “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” to get the show started.  He hits an awful bum note (but carries on like a trooper) and the rest of the song proceeds without a hitch.  

They follow with three songs from Exiled On Main Street, “Tumbling Dice,” “All Down The Line” and a fantastic performance of “Sweet Virginia.”  Jagger takes the keyboards (backed by Chuck Leavell) for “Worried About You,” one of the highlights of the night.  

“Stray Cat Blues” is another highlight.  Jagger (thankfully) changes the age of the girl to 19 and Daryl Jones gives an interesting little interlude on the bass in the middle.  

Jagger then introduces “Everybody Needs Somebody To Love,” a cover of the Solomon Burke tune, explaining how they probably played it the last time the played in the Cirkus Krone (which was on September 14th, 1965).   They follow with another obscurity, as Jagger calls it, “Dance Part 1” from Emotional Rescue.  Not their best song, but works well in the small venue by creating a nice groove.

They follow with a lush cover of Otis Redding’s “That’s How Strong My Love Is” and “Going To A Go Go,” a staple of their Still Life show in 1981.  Both Jagger and the audience have a great deal of fun during the band introductions.  Even Charlie Watts gets into the act before Keith comes up to do his set.  

Drinking in the audience’s adulation, Richards tells the audience “I wanna lay something on you tonight.  Unless you buy bootlegs you won’t know this one.  Yeah, some of you will” before a surprisingly emotional cover of the Hoagie Carmichael tune “The Nearness Of You.”  

After “Before They Make Me Run” and “It’s Only Rock And Roll” with increased audience participation, the band continue with “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking.”  One of the best additions to the Licks set, the jam section is expanded to include Bobby Keyes’ saxophone solo, Jagger soloing on harp and both Keith and Ron adding their talents.  Leavell’s electric piano and Hammond organ accompaniment adds to the epic dimension of the jamming.  

Lisa Fischer joins Mick on vocals for “Honky Tonk Women.”  Strutting around onstage, she also feels up Jagger as she plays the song’s role.  The show ends with “Start Me Up” and “Brown Sugar.”  The encore is the R&B classic “I Can’t Turn You Loose.”

Circus Krone 2003 is packaged in a standard quad jewel case with very basic artwork emphasizing the show’s venue in an actual circus.  This release stands out from others with the same material.  Not only does it have both complete audio and video on great quality on silver, but their mastering pushes the audio to being close to official quality.