The Rolling Stones: Juntos esta noche

Let's Spend the Night Together (1983)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The Rolling Stones 1981 "Tattoo You" tour was captured by the infamous Hal Ashby but the end results are certainly mixed at best. Filmed from shows in Tempe, AZ and East Rutherford, NJ the setlist is as followed:

Under My Thumb / Let's Spend the Night Together / Shattered / Neighbours / Black Limousine / Just My Imagination / Twenty Flight Rock / Let Me Go / Time Is On My Side / Beast of Burden / Waiting on a Friend / Going To A Go Go / You Can't Always Get What You Want / Little T&A / Tumbling Dice / She's So Cold / All Down the Line / Hang Fire / Miss You / Let It Bleed / Start Me Up / Honkey Tonk Women / Brown Sugar / Jumpin' Jack Flash / Satisfaction

Having seen countless official concerts by the Stones as well as seeing them in person I must admit that I wasn't totally blown away by the performances here. The biggest problem however is the direction by Ashby, which really seems all over the place. To me it seems like he showed up with a film crew, without any thought, and just pointed the camera at various things. There really doesn't seem to be too much thought about what was getting filmed or the visual look that would appear on screen. As far as The Stones performance it too is a mixed bag. "Twenty Flight Rock" comes off fairly poor does a few other tracks including "All Down the Line" and "Going to A Go Go". Even some of their classics like "You Can't Always Get What You Want" comes off bland as does "Let It Bleed" and "Time Is On My Side". There are a few good moments with the best one being "Start Me Up", which was still a new release at the time yet the crowd ate up the performance. Other new songs from the album include a nice version of "Little T&A" as well as a great, slowed down version of "Waiting On a Friend". The closing tune "Satisfaction" doesn't really pack the punch it should have. In the end I think fans of The Stones will enjoy what's here but at the same time they'll be saying that the film should have been a lot more.