Rolling Stones/Italy 2017

The long-awaited 1960s BBC radio recordings have been officially released, and the “NO FILTER” European tour is still underway. The Stones are fully switched on in the fall of 2017. As you can probably tell from the latest tour releases so far, it is true that it took time for the Stones to turn on their band switch as a band, facing the reality that they are approaching old age. In such a situation, last week’s “ZURICH 2017” captured the band finally turning on its engines. This time, we will release the appearance at Summer Festival in Lucca, Italy, which took place after the Zurich performance (September 20th). After the great performance in Zurich (September 23rd), we can’t help but have such expectations for the Stones. However, the Lucca stage had an unexpected development in the first half of the live, with a series of mistakes. The first half was the usual “NO FILTER” pattern, and they played two blues covers and got into the groove. The next requested song featured on the stage that day was “Let’s Spend The Night Together”. Although it was their first appearance on this tour, it is a repertoire that the Stones have been familiar with in recent years, and the performance itself was good. However, Keith made a huge mistake in the back chorus, which reminded me of the old Ed Sullivan Show. This is still a laughable mistake, so in a sense it could be said to be a preview of what was to come. Today, since it was a live performance in Italy, there was a special development where they sang “As Tears Go By” in the “Con le mie lacrime” version. In addition, the connection of the 60’s repertoire following “Let’s Spend~” is also good. However, Keith starts playing the intro, but immediately stops and starts over. This is better than the problem, and the problem is the second half of the performance where the lyrics return to the original song and are sung. Before the humming towards the end of the song, Mick mistook it for the ending and repeated the line “I sit and watch as tears go by” twice. This caused Mick and the band to not mesh at all, and he tried to sing something to settle the situation, but his agitation seemed to show and even the pitch became questionable. It was a disappointing result for the Italian special repertoire. Keith also redid the intro to “Honky Tonk Women”, but rather than that, it seems that the problem was that “Slipping Away”, which he sings himself, was played so slowly that it seemed like it was about to stop. Since it is originally a quiet and slow-tempo song, it is so scary to listen to. Even the next song “Miss You” (the performance position was changed from this day) was strangely played sluggishly, even though it was probably not influenced by the sluggish performance of this song. The slow tempo here is all the more worrisome, especially since the song showed a great performance in Zurich. What should I do? Will the show continue to the end with such mistakes and a lack of sharpness? I was worried, but fortunately, the next song, “Midnight Rambler,” picked me up. I heard some pretty great performances in Zurich, but it was even better here. Here is a performance that wiped out all the mistakes and sluggishness that had happened up until then. Ronnie and Keith were playing with a lot of energy, and Mick even hummed a passage from Robert Johnson’s “Come On In My Kitchen” for the first time in a while, as if he was in top form and redeeming the stigma of the first half of the show. Also worth mentioning is “Street Fighting Man.” It was the repertoire that seemed to show the reality of being the most advanced in this “NO FILTER” tour, and even in Zurich, the song had not yet been fully revived. However, a great performance was finally shown here. This is also surprising considering the unstable performance in the first half of the show. Only in the second half of the show, Keith made a mistake in the song composition after the interlude of “Brown Sugar”, but this seems to be the result of Keith’s momentum getting too much. In this way, the performance of the Stones was completely different in the first and second half of the show, and not only Keith but also Mick made a big mistake in the first half, so it was interesting to see that they didn’t gradually improve their condition from there, but rather they suddenly got their spirit from “Midnight Rambler”. And the audience recording that captured the stage in Lucca to be released this time boasts the highest quality, and it is also interesting that you can clearly hear the sudden change in the Stones’ performance during the night show. Two types of audience recordings of the sound source of this day appeared on the Internet, but the sound source of the taper Andrea82, which boasted overwhelming high sound quality, was adopted. If you compare its exceptional quality to that of Hamburg on the first day, you will understand how high the quality is. And yet there were no problems with the recording, even though they were weak, that were present in the Hamburg recording, and this was finally an excellent recording that can be recommended to everyone. The clarity, which has a different appeal to Hamburg, is truly amazing. For the release, although the original sound quality was high, the midrange was thick and the low range was thin, so in order to eliminate the floating impression, the center of gravity was moved and equalization was applied to eliminate the floating feeling. This has led to further improvements in clarity, and the original excellent sound quality can now be heard with an impeccable finish. Live at Ex Campo Balilla, Mura di Lucca, Lucca, Italy 23rd September 2017 Disc 1 (68:32) 1. Intro 2. Sympathy for the Devil 3. It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll 4. Tumbling Dice 5. Just Your Fool 6. Ride ‘Em on Down 7. Let’s Spend the Night Together 8. Con le mie lacrime (As Tears Go By) 9. You Can’t Always Get What You Want 10. Paint It Black 11. Honky Tonk Women 12. Band Introductions 13. Happy 14. Slipping Away Disc 2 (63:14) 1. Miss You 2. Midnight Rambler 3. Street Fighting Man 4. Start Me Up 5. Brown Sugar 6. Satisfaction 7. Gimme Shelter 8. Jumping Jack Flash