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Topic: HBO sucks big hairy moose balls. Return to archive
01-20-03 08:35 AM
Maxlugar Folks, I had the misfortune of missing out on one of the best concerts I have ever heard the Stones play.

HEARD them play. The visual was complete shit.

I got fucked over on my tickets and had to settle for watching down in the Subterranean Tavern at Casa De Maxy.

What I saw on HBO frequently made my scrotum shrivel into a sun dried tomato-like scrotlette.

They blew it big time with the video.

The sound was great.

The performance was incredible. Really. They were on fire. The first 5 or so songs almost moved me to tears. I think they kind of ran out of steam towards the end but that can most likely be attributed to our familiarity with the war horses. So I'll over look that. And I really can't blame them if they did kind of slow up at the end. The first half was riveting.

Now, the shit.

HBO, like I feared, concentrated almost the whole show on close ups or mid distance shots. I see almost nothing of the crowd interaction with the band. The kind of interaction that gets you pumped like only a Stones show can. All we got all night was shots that were too close. In fact, during the confetti spewing JJF, you could see it flying by the band but there was no gorgeous sweeping view of the crowd. The fist time viewer must have been wondering what the hells was going on.

Then there was the shit ass lame fuck still shots that they felt the need to keep up in between songs. I like to see the band interaction between songs. Or maybe lock on some part of the crowd that is having a blast. No, what we got was some still shots of the previous song that looked like they were quickly doctored up in Photo Shop with some colors swashed about them. Just sickening. This was not done for the entire time in between songs but long enough to not let us see the band interact after each song.

Then there were the cheesy effects they would half-heartedly throw in DURING songs. Like the stupid 60's fish eye effect they tried a few times. CHRIST!

I taped it and have not viewed it again but I'm sure I could find loads more.

I am so pissed HBO fucked up such a take no prisoners show by the boys. I'm sure it was 100 times better for the folks at MSG.

FUCK!!

Maxy!

01-20-03 09:07 AM
mattb Why not tell us what you REALLY think of it?
01-20-03 09:10 AM
scope Maxy, we really missed you at YOTI. Kept hoping that the next time the door opened, you would make your grand entrance.

I just watched part of the show after coming home and see what you mean. I thought they jumped around too much with the camera, and missed alot. Mick was a wild man, dancing and praning around the stage, and HBO missed alot of that. At the start of Monkey Man, Mick is doing his Monkey dance over to the side of the stage while the opeing riff is being played and that was totally missed by the HBO camera. They even praticed filming on Thursday, and with the set list almost the same, they should have been prepared better.
And those still shots...the first one, I said hey, what the hell was that...the next time I said oh, looks cool....after a few more, it was like enough already!
It WAS one hell of a show to see live. Maybe HBO will realize their errors and re-cut the show for a DVD release. Think about it, if they put out a perfect live version for anyone to tape, how could they market and sell the DVD? I can see it now. "Completely remastered" "Camera angles not seen before" "Backstage Access". Coming soon to a store near you.
01-20-03 09:19 AM
Maxlugar Say what you want about Hal Ashby's Let's Spend the Night Together but visually it is a gem.

All those shots of Mick going over to the side of the stage and the crowd getting to their feet as he approaches. The shots from behind Charlie....

Nice stuff.

Shame on HBO.

Yeah I'm sorry I couldn't make it. I still don't know what happened with my ticket guy. I actually am worried about him. This is not like him. I had the chance to get a ticket late in the game but it was much easier to tell the wife that I had a pair and was going with a buddy of mine than to leave her with a two week old because I heard someone was selling one and that I was going to see them alone.

Oh well, Mick said they'll be back. And he should know.

Maxy!
01-20-03 09:25 AM
mattb I thought HBO was much better than the other TV broadcasts, which is the real comparison, not the movies. It was nice to see much more of the whole band and not just two and a half hours of Mick.
01-20-03 09:45 AM
Sir Stonesalot I'm with Maxy on the effects thing. Leave that stupid shit out of it. Instead of doing those dumb photoshop pics they should have been scanning the crowd. Where were all the titty flashes? HBO missed a golden opp. to get some flesh on the tube. It's the "boob tube" after all.

We can blame MTV for all of the rapid fire editing. Pretty standard stuff now-a-days. Doesn't mean it's good, it's just the way that this stuff is done now.

Even all that couldn't bring down that show. The Stones rose above it ALL. The bar has been raised yet again. And there is NO ONE else who can get there...except for the guys who rose it there.
01-20-03 09:51 AM
Maxlugar After If You Can't Rock me, I knew this was going to be a fucking classic.

They rocked the shit out of that one.

Another interesting thing was the high pitched "ow's" with the crowd during Midnight Rambler. I havn't heard that since '76. I am a big fan of that. The Brussels version gives me goose bumps when he does that.

Can we talk about another cheesy moment though? That cell phone thing was stupid as hell. Why Mick, why?

01-20-03 10:13 AM
sandrew Maxy,

I agree about those abstract still shots, or whatever the hell they were. My buddies and I were joking that we half expected the hear the Saturday Night Live announcer when thsoe shots ran. That's what they looked like: the SNL placeholders during commercials.
They were awful, absolutely awful.
01-20-03 10:29 AM
Maxlugar Plus those live effects. They would come on for just a brief time. Almost like it was practice

It's like I could hear the director:

"Ok Jim lets go with a fish eye effect there.... hmmm....nah that's not good. Take it off. Lets go to camera two for a close up of Keith's chin."

01-20-03 10:54 AM
Riffhard Yeah I tend to agree with you Maxy. The show was a killer as far as The Stones were concerned,but HBO kind of dropped the ball on the video. How bout those shots when they chose to actully give Charlie some real screen time. They'd zoom in on him and then the screen just went white! It was if some one shining a light directly into the camera! You would think that HBO would have at least gotten the "blocking" for the cameras right and the lighting issues figured out by Friday. I mean after all what was the practice recording on Wed night for if not do work out these issues?

Having said that I'll still watch the show again and again! The Stones were white hot! I really thought Keith stole the show this time.


Riffhard
01-20-03 10:57 AM
Maxlugar It was indeed a Keith show.

It's about time, really.

Very little bullshit from him.

This show was a gift from them.

01-20-03 11:00 AM
sandrew Did you notice how Keith looked extremely pissed during "When the Whip Comes Down"? I didn't notice anything wrong, but who knows.

I loved the smile Keith gave Ronnie after he missed the break on CYHMK...
01-20-03 11:37 AM
Scottfree No complaints here, other than the usual, Guitars too low in the mix they should have been up 15-20%. Of course the setlist, nothing obscure....

Visits since January 9, 2003 - 10:46 PM EST