Start Me Up and then You Got Me Rocking. I have seen You Got Me Rocking as the second song at EVERY single Stones show I have been at. It feels like the perfect one-two punch to me. Both are great energy, but I always wonder why it seems like Keith fucks up the first riff to Start Me Up when they open with it? It only finds its feet when Ronnie doubles the riff (I noticed the same thing at the Superbowl...) In person the band seemed loose and happy and the memory I have of this image probably colours how I hear the bootleg. This isn't a luxury I have with other bootlegs I hear, but I don't mind. I can still see Mick in that ridiculous half-jacket he wore throughout the tour, silver if I remember properly. Songs one and two are flawed but fantastic.
Third spot goes to She's So Cold and I had forgotten they even played it. Of course it sounds great and moves along at a good clip as it should. After this is a great Tumblin' Dice and then Rough Justice and it sounds like it did at the Superbowl - tough and meaty. I wonder why the guitar mix sounds so much better on some songs rather than others? We were too far away to really note the guitar changes, but I assume this has something to do with it. I still like Rough Justice live and wouldn't mind seeing it again next tour, but its hard to say I'd rather this than something else, probably anything else! I guess this is a nice luxury to have for the Stones and the reason that the set-list whiners are never happy!
Here is where the show went off script and some unique picks popped up in relation to the rest of the tour. I remember seeing Mick come to the front with an acoustic guitar and hoping that they were about to bust out the rarities and he didn't disappoint. Ruby Tuesday sounds better than it does on Flashpoint where it was a bit cartoony. Here its not bombastic and feels the size of song it should be. Hearing Keith's vocals backing Mick on this makes the song and its a treat to hear. And then it gets better! Dead Flowers was played at a rollicking pace. The band sounds damn good playing this style of music in their current lineup and Mick totally nails the mid-range vocals. I think Ronnie is doing the majority off the guitar work here with Keith doing the fills. Again, Keith's backups are killer in his "I'm dying, but singing" sort of way. Ditto for the off-key guitar solo.
And then, Bitch! I'm not sure it was played many more times on the tour. Its so damn good, I don't know why they don't play it at every show. Too hard on the horn section? You hear them do this on the 1972 tour and think "it would never work now," but it really does. With the Stones horn section its a crying shame they don't play this more. Mind you, the horns do much of the heavy lifting and here you can only hear the guitars on the solo. But still, this is a gem. I wouldn't trade it for Sway which is what everyone was losing their shit over all tour.
Nighttime is the Right Time is a timely Ray Charles tribute and almost makes up for not hearing Lisa Fischer sing Gimme Shelter. She does an incredible solo here and I remember it being a total show stopper. You hear the Stones do this type of thing and realize they could be the best rock n' roll revival tour of all time if they didn't have 400 hits of their own. Chalk this one up to Mick, Lisa and the horns. This is up there with the 2003 cover of I Can't Turn You Loose as an absolutely classic Stones moment. I know I'm raving a lot about this show, but the evidence is on this recording.
Ok - here is where I'll get critical. I didn't like Keith's set. I like The Worst, but I didn't like it at the show and it doesn't sound good on this recording. Too stretched out, too off-key and really not that interesting in a huge setting like this. Even on CD it feels like a song to go grab another beer. And I'll just leave Infamy alone. I never liked it. And who among Stones fans wants to hear Infamy instead of Happy/Little T&A/Slipping Away? I'll give Keith props for doing what he wants, but that's it.
A standard Miss You takes the show down to the B-stage and then we hit some more road bumps. Oh No Not You Again is in the same category as Infamy for me. I can't get on board with it. Next was Satisfaction, and I have some issues to work out. Although I know nobody is really reading (except for some kind faithful people in Korea and Australia...) I wonder if I might get some feedback on this issue. I'm certain that Mick was lip-syncing Satisfaction. The person I was with noticed it too. He just wasn't singing it, and I can't explain why. The song sounds quite off on the cd too and I still don't know what was going on. If he wasn't singing, what recording was he singing to? It certainly wasn't the studio version, but it didn't sound live and it didn't look live. Was this some sort of issue with the sound at the Rogers Centre? Delay on the b-stage? It was disappointing, but you can't tell as much on the bootleg version. A possibly lip-synced version of Honky Tonk Woman took the stage back home and the rest of the show proceeded without disturbing sound incidents.
Out of Control is the other surprise, though probably not a welcome one for most. I don't really like this song, but I love the version they did at this show. It was creepy, and that was enough.
The rest of the show was standard for the Bigger Bang set list with the exception of Its Only Rock n Roll as the last encore. It sounds great on the cd, much like the Live Licks version but with Mick saying "goodnight" as the song was still going. Brilliant version of Brown Sugar and Jumping Jack Flash help to end the show on a super-hits bang. I don't know how you can argue with the last five songs, even if you do crave the rarities!
Compared to the other Bigger Bang shows I have heard, Toronto stands up despite its weaknesses in the Keith set. Its amazing to have a live album of the last show I was at. Its less of a memory now that I can document every last note!
Setlist
Intro / Start Me Up / You Got Me Rocking / She's So Cold / Tumblin' Dice / Rough Justice / Ruby Tuesday / Dead Flowers / Bitch / Night Time is the Right Time / Band Intros / The Worst / Infamy / Miss You / Oh No Not You Again / Satisfaction / Honky Tonk Woman / Out of Control / Sympathy For the Devil / Brown Sugar / Jumping Jack Flash / You Can't Always Get What You Want / It's Only Rock n' Roll
