Rolling Stones - The Biggest Bang (DVD, 2009)

Biggest Bang is essential viewing as a document of the Rolling Stones 2005/2006 world tour. It is a 4 x DVD set, filmed in Texas, South America (Brazil & Argentina) & Far East (Japan & China), I think BEFORE the coconut tree! Speaking of which, Keith Richards is such a character & raconteur, that in one segue in the Far East section of the DVD, Keith says of Shanghai "I hear they have a Chinatown there!" Boom. Boom.

There are plenty of extras/bonus features on each DVD. For instance, DVD 1 has sound-check or rehearsal footage of the Stones playing Muddy Waters' I Can't be Satisfied with Mick Jagger playing along on slide guitar! DVD 4 in the set is given over to a documentary of the whole tour including the Superbowl.

I think the centrepiece of this DVD set is probably the free Brazil concert on Rio's Copacabana beach. It's an amazing scene & atmosphere. The Stones seemed genuinely excited about this concert and it was reflected in their performance. It was captured well on film and you can almost feel the heat of that Rio night.

Biggest Bang has songs featured from their most recent CD release Bigger Bang, as would be expected. But Biggest Bang is overwhelmingly more versions of the same old songs. Take that as a given, that's what the Stones do; and I'm glad they still do. But there are still some interesting song variations to their set. The highlight for me, was the inclusion of Sway from (from Sticky Fingers). I have never heard or seen that song performed live before. It was from their greatest era and whilst I have never thought Ronnie Wood (God love him!) was at the level of the great Mick Taylor on guitar, Ronnie does a very good job on Sway. In fact I think Ronnie generally plays the best I've seen of him in recent years. I believe he was on the wagon for this tour, much to Keef's chagrin. Other highlights for me were the included versions of Bitch and Gimme Shelter from Shanghai, complete with Mick's intro in mandarin, and the humorous segue about censorship in China preventing the Stones from performing certain songs. I also liked their performance of the country music song Bob Wills Is Still The King from Texas (of course!).

DVD packaging & included booklet with Biggest Bang seems cheaper than the Four Flicks DVD set from the 2002/2003 tour, as if the whole project was outsourced & cut down to a price. But this is a minor criticism, and I suppose fair enough, because the more deluxe feeling Four Flicks was very expensive when it first came out, and Biggest Bang isn't bad value for 4 x DVDs. Sound & vision are excellent.

I didn't catch the Stones shows on the 2005/2006 tour and didn't know, until I watched this DVD, what that tour looked like, or sounded like. I think I'd have to say the 2005/2006 tour, notwithstanding some great highlights on Biggest Bang, wasn't as good, for some intangible reason, as the 2002/2003 world tour. But I am not necessarily saying Four Flicks is better than Biggest Bang. They are both different and good in their own ways and Biggest Bang is nevertheless an excellent Rolling Stones DVD set in its own right.

Hey, it's The Stones.