The Rolling Stones - Bridges To Babylon
Performance 
Production
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The Rolling Stones - Bridges To Babylon
Performance |
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Bridges To Babylon is an intimate little show featuring the band, accompanied by Darryl Jones on bass performing a stripped down set, on a modest stage, in front of a few thousand......awww, who the hell am I kidding here!! This is "the worlds greatest rock 'n' roll band" we're talking about, and they have once again embarked on an epic tour that is fit only for a band of their legendary status - and has only been rivaled by...oh...THEMSELVES! maybe, on their Voodoo Lounge tour, and possibly by Pink Floyd's last couple of tours. Anybody seen The Division Bell video? Jeeesus! Yeah, these were some frigging massive undertakings, and Bridges was the massivest (huh?) of them all. Now this is certainly not a bad thing, as I like my rock and roll shows big and loud, and The Rolling Stones certainly have the goods to back up the hype. By "the goods", I mean "the songs" of course, and nobody has a more impressive rock and roll song catalog than The Stones. The concert presented on this DVD, from The Rolling Stones 1998 Bridge To Babylon tour, features no less than fourteen of their best known anthems, along with a few new, or more obscure, numbers to fill out the set. The DVD begins with a ominous aerial shot showing the band's limousine motorcade arriving at the stadium, and then switches to a sweeping, wide shot of the massive stage, only moments before the start of the show, as the enveloping black curtain is slowly pulled back to reveal the stage. Moments later, Keith Richards strolls out to the center of the stage while strumming the legendary opening chords to "Satisfaction". The rest of the band soon follows, the light show kicks in, and all hell breaks loose as Mick sings "Ahhh Cayyynt Giyet Nooo...Saayteesfakshone". The sheer immensity of their stage show quickly hits you upside the head, as you soak in the colossal Egyptian pillars that flank the stage, the largest oval shaped video screen I have ever seen, and about a billion watts worth of lights and lasers. I laughed my ass off at Keith strutting around in a full-length, leopard skin coat (not tooo gaudy huh?), as Mick was bouncing around the entire stage with the pent-up energy of a virgin, teenage boy. Keith and Ron still looked kind of asleep at this point, compared to Mick - maybe the coke hadn't quite kicked in yet. Ahhh, just kidding. They looked as healthy as ever....for Return of the Living Dead extras! And they are all married to supermodels! I knew I should have practiced my guitar more. Ever notice how Ron Wood strategically places his cigarette between his ring and middle fingers on his pick hand, while he is playing? That is when it is not dangling effortlessly from his lips. It's only rock and roll, but I like it. The Stones play a few of their newer songs such as "Flip The Switch", "Saint Of Me", and "Out of Control" during the first half of the show, and this keeps the concert from really catching fire too early. After "Out Of Control", Mick brings up the band's website on the giant screen and scrolls through the page they had set up for fans to vote on which songs that they wanted to hear during the tour. After skipping over some great obscure songs that would have been a hoot to see live, he settles on "Waiting For A Friend". Joshua Redman joins the band on this song to play the sax solo. Next up is the Keith Richard's sung "I Wanna Hold You". Jesus H. Christ, Keith's vocals make Bob Dylan sound downright melodic. At least old Mick got a nice little break though. I have never been a big fan of Richards' guitar playing either. Of course, he has written some of the best rock songs and guitar riffs ever, but his playing has never excited me the way a Jimmy Page or Pete Townshend can. Richards always manages to put in a solid live performance, churning out the riffs like a well oiled machine, but he never seems to be able to take the songs to a new level. Rarely are they much better than the album versions. I'd love to see him crank up the overdrive a few notches, occasionally, to give some of the old standards a fresh update. Now we come to the half-way point of the show and the darkened stage is suddenly illuminated by two bright headlights pointing from the rear of the stage, and that appear to be moving out towards the audience. This turns out to be the end of a massive hydraulic bridge that is now expanding out over the audience and eventually connects to a small satellite stage out in the middle of the arena, allowing the band to casually stroll across the bridge to the awaiting stage. This was one of the coolest concert gimmicks I have ever seen. Hell, when I saw those cheap Aerosmith guys do the stage-in-the-center-of-the-arena gimmick, during their Just Push Play tour, they had to run through the crowd to get to their stage. I guess that's why they were always considered the American minor-league version of The Stones. Oh, and speaking of Mr. Dylan, after doing a rather tame version of "It's Only Rock And Roll", Mick and the boys turn in a great performance of "Like A Rolling Stone", which works the crowd into a frenzy. Hey, maybe Keith should have handled the vocals on that one. Rumor has it that Dylan was at the show that night. After this brief two song performance, over the bridge (I'm sure it was longer during the concert), the band strolled back across the bridge to the main stage to finish off the second half of the show. This is where things really got good. As the giant bridge is just about finished retracting, a fantastic extended percussion intro to "Sympathy For The Devil" kicks things off. The song morphed into an excellent jam session that was one of the show's highlights. This was followed by an unparalleled string of classic hits; "Tumbling Dice", "Honky Tonk Woman", "Start Me Up" - you get the point. The old dudes even come back out for two encores, the first being an energetic version of "Jumping Jack Flash", which proved that Mick is still one of the most dynamic front-men in the business, and the final being a smoking version of "Brown Sugar", whose ending triggered a ton of confetti to be unleashed on the audience, and enough fireworks and explosions to make even Kiss blush. For a band who was closing in on their fourth decade together, The Rolling Stones still remain one of the most dynamic and entertaining live acts in the world, and Bridges To Babylon emphatically made this case. However, I think The Stones could do this type of show in their sleep now, and it would be nice to see them push the envelope occasionally, with maybe an acoustic show, or a more stripped down performance of some of their more obscure gems that you will probably never get to see played live. With that said, you certainly can't fault them for playing all of their big hits and playing them damn well. Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - August 2004 |
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Set List |
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Running Time: 120 Minutes |
DVD Release Date - November 1998 |