Review of Shine a Light (2008) by Stu A — 23 Apr 2008

Beautifully shot with some great mostly ironic archival footage. Some rare tunes with the standard megahits thrown in. The film is odd in that up front it's like they filled the place with the illegitimate daughters of the Stones from the Steel Wheels tour, up top in the balcony are the now very affluent 60 something fans of the band who managed to suck enough ass to get an invite from Bill Clinton to this birthday party/fundraiser.

I think that musically the Stones are still pretty solid, although on many tracks there is the "Wall of sound", background vocalists, keyboards, horns and a session musician bassist accompany the foursome on stage so it is quite difficult to tell how good the Stones are musically.

Mick is almot a caricature of himself, prancing around as usual, making weird almost self-mocking "woot, woot" sounds on Sympathy for the Devil. The best moments are when the musical guests join them on stage.

Jack White doing Loving Cup and Buddy Guy's performance of a muddy Watters track "Champagne and Reefer" are definite high points. Personally I would have preferred more of the darker stuff from Sticky Fingers or Exile on Main Street, I believe there were 3 tracks from Some Girls and not Beast of Burden or Emotional Rescue, some odd choices.

With such a huge selection hard to choose. I really did like the bits with Scorsesee, perhaps he's too modest to insert himself into more of the film, but I'd have loved to see more of him and the process leading up to the concert.