As a Rolling Stones fan, I'm obliged to try and report on how the Stones sound and perform on stage on their 40-year anniversary tour, to point out the good along with the bad, as they are in their sixties, and surely a band that has outlasted them all has lost its edge. I'm glad to report that they haven't, however I don't have much of a reference point to compare; the only real footage I've seen of them perform in their prime 60's/70's glory was in the documentary Gimme Shelter (which isn't the best comparison to give, as half of their performances in the film were from the doomed Altamont concert). I suppose compared to the 'old' days as it were, they don't have that sort of fresh look to them, of just coming out into the rock and roll landscape ready to take prisoners as the anti-Beatles. And yet, along with seeing this concert on television, I also was blessed with seeing them live on their tour in 2002, and that like this special doesn't disappoint.
Sure Mick Jagger is not quite the singer he once was, but he puts himself into his performance and presence on stage with a lot more energy than in the performances I've seen from the 'old' days (in fact sometimes he is very funny, maybe unintentionally). Keith is Keith as always, giving the audience two great renditions of "Thru and Thru" and "Happy". Charlie Watts is also, like Jagger, unintentionally funny, as he his job has the least and most amount of energy required in the performance (as Jack Nicholson once said, that right foot of his made them a lot of money). So basically what you'd expect from the hardest working rock and roll band around is what you get, and you get many solid, awesome 'best-of' songs, many my favorites ("Monkey Man", "Midnight Rambler", "Can't You Hear me Knocking", "Jumping Jack Flash"). In fact, over the course of two hours, there is barely a song that they don't play that you haven't heard, and it has a very good variety.
And in case the special doesn't have what you were looking for, it is included (last time I checked) as part of a 4-disc DVD set of concerts, one of the Garden show, one of a stadium show in Britain, and a provocative, mind-blowing theater show in Paris with many rarities (a documentary disc is also included). This, overall, is the best of the three; Sheryl Crow makes a wonderful guest appearance on one of the songs.
