running time: approx 85 min
By now, any Stones fan who lives within driving distance of an IMAX theatre has seen this video - probably multiple times. For anyone who couldn't get to the IMAX, this video is the next best thing. Filmed in July and August 1990 during the final leg of the monumental Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tour, footage is taken from the concerts in Turin, Italy, East Berlin and London's Wembley Stadium.
I still remember the first time I saw this film on the BIG screen. I was out on my first date with a musician named Keith (he played rhythm guitar in a local R&B Quintet - I kid you not). We had gotten together because we both loved the Stones, especially Keith. The night was rainy and the walk way leading to the theatre was slippery. I, being a bit of a klutz, wiped out. I ruined my best pants and cut my knee open. I didn't realize how badly I'd cut it until I was in the theatre and I felt the blood running down my leg. I didn't want to miss any of the film so I sat there. Once I heard the first notes of Continental Drift I forgot all about the pain and the blood. It's funny how the Stones can do that to ya.
Watching the video brought all those memories back (I still have the scars) but it wasn't the same. There's something about watching Mick's lips 3 stories high that a television screen can't compete with. Not that I really expected it to. What I was hoping as a took Live At The Max home was that it wouldn't look too bad on the small screen.
The wonder of this video is that it doesn't look bad. IMAX technology is so clear and crisp that it still looks great in the smaller size. Nothing can beat seeing the boys live, but watching the concert again and again on video can be fun. The boys look and sound great on this video. Charlie dances, Keith smiles, Ronnie yucks it up, Bill moves (a bit - don't blink you'll miss it) and Mick sings and runs his skinny little ass off on the world's largest stage.
I found some things about the Stones' performance rather strange. I'm not sure what the significance of the balloon dogs during "Street Fighting Man" was. Nor do I know why Mick dropped the line 'hear him whip the women just around midnight' from "Brown Sugar" while, in other places, slapping or trying to slap back up singer Sophia Jones on the ass. And why did the girl singers dress like whores? Bernard Fowler didn't look like a whore (or a pimp). Maybe I'm not meant to know these things, but I would like to ask Mick about it someday.
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