Posted by Mr. Ventilator on September 13, 2000 at 14:12:41:
In Reply to: The way they play songs live... posted by Staffan on September 13, 2000 at 14:01:02:
:
: Has there been any major difference in how they play their songs live in your opinion, from, say 81 to 99?
: The big thing I don't like with the later tours is that they're afraid if letting the guitars dominate... and that is stupid.
: They have to dist they guitars a bit :-) , and dare a bit more... it's rather stiff live nowadays, too arranged...
: Remember this is only my humble opinion....
And right you are! There is definitely a lot less guitar in the mix than there was in '81 (the last US tour where guitars were the dominant force in the mix). Recent ('89 and later) tours have been dominated by bass and keyboards (and sometimes horns and backup singers), often with only token contributions from K and R.
I've been whining about this ever since I started posting on this board. So it's great to get a chance to whine some more!
Thank God for pre-'89 boots. I have listened to Handsome Girls ('78) more or less continuously for the past year. Plus Brussels, Ft. Worth '72..the usual suspects. These show how these songs SHOULD be played. The Stones are a guitar-based band. They need K to dominate and R to fill in around the edges. Now K fills in, and R doesn't play much at all. Sad, sad, sad. With all the bass/keyboard/horns/backups, they're beginning to sound like Janet Jackson's backup band. Every so often I put on Flashpoint to remind myself how far they'd fallen by '89. Unfortunately, they've fallen even further since then..IMO.