The Rolling Stones, “No Filter NJ1” (Goldplate GP-1903CD1/2)
Disk 1 – Opening / Street Fighting Man / Let’s Spend The Night Together / Tumbling Dice / She’s A Rainbow / You Can’t Always Get What You Want / Sweet Virginia / Dead Flowers / Sympathy For The Devil / Honky Tonk Women / Band Introductions / Slipping Away / Before They Make Me Run
Disk 2 – Miss You / Paint It Black / Midnight Rambler / Start Me Up / Jumpin’ Jack Flash / Brown Sugar / Gimme Shelter / (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
Rolling up to the latest date on their all dancing, singing and breathing ‘No Filter’ tour, the Stones rocked up to New Jersey for two nights. Ostensibly the tour that nearly didn’t tour after Mick had been found with a troublesome quibble on his heart that could have seen the band leaving the stage much earlier, a rapid road to recovery saw Mick back to his former glory in what seemed like next to no time.
With no album in sight just yet (Though if the rumours are to be believed, it could drop this year, a mere 58 years after the first!), there’s plenty of mileage to be made out of being on stage and still thousands of willing punters willing to place hundreds of pounds on the flat price of a ticket.
From the Goldplate label comes a lively little matrix recording from this show (There’s also a second night recording which we’ll review) – Both recordings are incredibly from audience tapes – One from a tape that seems to be right in front of the speaker without any kind of distortion whatsoever and from a lower grade audience recording (Funny how we’ve come so far and then dropped off so far in terms of tech, however, security being what it is nowadays, you can’t just bring your boom box to concerts anymore and try capture the sound, though there are some nifty little mics being produced.)
It’s not a true soundboard listen, obviously – the slightly tinny, broad sound of the lesser audience boosts the bass by a little, the audience are heard talking between themselves on the quieter parts (‘Sweet Virginia’ sounds odd this way), the matrix doesn’t distract from the many instruments that are in the mix, however, it’s a good to very good show which matters the most and the Stones are on form tonight – Sure they’ve introduced a short acoustic section again (Introduced rather than “had to ..”), some of the songs are a slower pitch than the ‘70’s (obviously) but for what could very well be a money raking, casino band now, the Stones stick to their guns and don’t always try to appease. It bears mentioning that the song vote for tonight was ‘She’s a Rainbow’, sure, you’re given a choice but the Stones are kept on their toes.
The covers for this (2 CD) set are really nicely done, stylish and stylised, neat enough to read but not boringly simple either. The silkscreened disks are beautiful too.
A really nice acquisition if you can find a set, not a jewel in the crown of your collection, maybe but a lot stronger than some of the standard audience recordings going around though.
