Amazon.com: This 1991 concert film was shot in the IMAX format and was originally presented on enormous IMAX screens, with outstanding visual and audio clarity. The dimensions may have been scaled down for this DVD release, but the show is still huge in energy and talent. Filmed during a European leg of the Rolling Stones' Steel Wheels tour, this production boasts 15 songs and an extraordinary stage set with inflatable floozies (for 'Honky Tonk Woman') and wild dogs (rather cleverly for 'Street Fighting Man'). The Stones' set emphasizes material from the late 1960s and early '70s ('Tumbling Dice,' 'Happy,' 'You Can't Always Get What You Want'), but the band's performance is so furious that the show is far from a pandering oldies act. Highlights include 'Paint It Black,' at once brutal and delicate, as well as a muscular 'Rock and a Hard Place,' a psychedelicized '2,000 Light Years from Home,' and a cheeky 'It's Only Rock 'n' Roll.' Once kings of a gloriously sloppy sound, the Stones prove to be as effective in their artistic maturity with small, breathtaking touches as they are with chunky orchestration. Guitarists Keith Richards and Ron Wood play as if they are of one mind, Richards providing powerful leads while his partner captures some of the texture of the group's original recordings. Bassist Bill Wyman, still in the band at this phase, offers wit and an encyclopedic grasp of rhythm & blues history, while drummer Charlie Watts adds control and swing. Mick Jagger prowls, climbs around the set, and delivers all the charismatic goods for adoring audiences, even touching the forbidden fruit again in a feverish peformance of 'Sympathy for the Devil.' The DVD also includes a full Stones discography. --Tom Keogh
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Average Rating:
Rating: - Yikes, what a joke...
What the hell happened to these guys? I have not bothered to see the Stones since about 81, and watched this out of curiosity. Everyone says they're "better than ever", but... What's with all that junk all over the stage? Why do they need 3 keyboard players and a 5-piece horn section? Why do they need huge inflatable things, 10,000 spinning lights, and flashy pyrotechnics? It all makes the Stones themselves seem utterly ridiculous and unimportant, as if their music alone is not enough entertainment. No wonder their tickets are so expensive.
KR and CW are a great rhythm section, and they should not need ANY of that unimaginitive, hi-tech slick show-biz crap to pull off their tunes live. Why Stones "fans" eat this BS up is beyond me.
Watch Gimmie Shelter or C***s****r Blues or the TAMI Show for the Stones live without - not this silly Hollywood crap.
Rating: - Exellent audio; good video
THX audio is very good - in contrary to other reviews. Noise from audiences is at reasonable level and helps create the proper concert ambient. You must have good center speaker as it will be heavily drived at times. The song performances are strong and combined with good camera work. I'm not real familiar with The Rolling Stones but this dvd gives me a very positive impression.
This video transfer from IMAX format is not as good as I expected. I can see some grainy artifacts especially in the low light scenes. Overall it's still pretty good.
Rating: - I have the THX version and it still sucks!
Like everyone else with any musical taste I love the Stones, and have been following them since I was fifteen and was hooked by "Satisfaction". That said, there seems to always be a propensity by whoever does the mixing for Stones' movies/DVDs to screw up the sound (maybe the Glimmer Twins themselves?). For instance, I have a number of bootlegs from the 1972 tour (Mick Taylor, decadence, hooray!), most of which are brilliant, full-bodied and powerful, then you get "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones", and it is comparatively anemic (actually awful) - guitars too tinny, the bottom rumble eliminated, Jagger too loud, and instead of sounding powerful, it sounds fragmented not like a real band at all. "At the Max" continues this tradition (?). I have videotape of that tour and, again, it is great, but I can't even watch this DVD, they manage to make the Stones sound boring!! The good news is that on Four Flicks, ... Read More
Rating: - horrible sound -
what's with the sound on this dvd. The audience noise is louder than the Stones. The musical quality is compared to an old record which has been ran over by a truck. The crowd's screaming and yelling drowns out 85% of the music.
This concert video is the best argument why stadium concerts are not made for music.
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- Yikes, what a joke...
- Exellent audio; good video
- I have the THX version and it still sucks!
