Dave Matthews Band Video:

		List Price: $19.98		Label: Warner Home Video Salesrank: 9092 Released: November 17, 1998
		Our Price: $9.59
		Used Price: $5.96
		MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
A video/audio spectacular capturing the 1997/98 tour of the rolling stones in all its grandeur and glory. Scorching performances of 19 great stones tunes from satisfaction to gimme shelter to you cant always get what you want. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 06/28/2005 Run time: 120 minutes Rating: Nr

Description of The Rolling Stones - Bridges to Babylon:
Like any good brand, the Rolling Stones know to preserve the formula even when updating the package, and this long-form concert video underscores that market strategy. As with each of their tours since the early '80s, the quartet, augmented by a discreet auxiliary of backup musicians, gives the fans new eye candy while dishing up a familiar set list spiked with Mick Jagger's lip-smacking vocals and Keith Richards's signature guitar riffs. The visual twists are at once spectacular and conservative: a cyclopean main stage design with massive pillars (presumably the Babylonian connection), a vast oval video screen (shades of Big Brother), and a hydraulic bridge enabling a midconcert sortie into the audience, with the Stones playing a more stripped-down, intimate set on a small satellite stage.

That huge physical setting doubtless made the live shows eye-filling rock spectacles, but the video crew necessarily accepts the limitations of the small screen, focusing more on close-ups of the band, rapid cuts, and racing, hand-held tracking shots to convey excitement while keeping the viewer close to the action. The evening's repertoire sticks to the band's most familiar hits, and if the Glimmer Twins occasionally slip their masks to let the routine show, the real wonder is how effectively they keep the playing focused. During the first half of the program, the band's newest songs (especially "Saint of Me" and "Out of Control") elicit conspicuously higher energy from the band, if not the audience. But just as the show seems doomed to a certain anomie, the escape onto the smaller, no-frills stage pumps up players and crowd alike, particularly when they launch into "Like a Rolling Stone," a cover that winds up sounding like a great idea too long deferred. --Sam Sutherland

The Rolling Stones - Bridges to Babylon Reviews:
Disappointing Audio
2008-12-02 - The AUDIO SUCKS. Zero star rating. Sounds like a mediocre audience bootleg that was done in the rear of the venue. The performances and videography are 5 star which averages out to 3 stars. It's so sad considering the effort that went into the production that the sound was not commensurate with everything else. I'm sure glad I didn't pay good money to buy the DVD (rented from Netflix--writing this review to warn potential buyers). Still worth watching so long as you imagine yourself in last row of the nose-bleed section farthest from the stage.

The Rolling Stones - Bridges to Babylon
2008-10-31 - I am a rolling stones fan, as such it would have to be really bad for me not to like it. It is really good though/

Not the Worst Nor the Best as Stones Shows Go
2008-04-23 - I love the Stones but this show doesn't excite me as much as other Stones' shows have.

I think there are basically three reasons for this:

1)The show is over-conceptualized. This is a Stones show with a theme, ie Babylon (don't ask for an explanantion on the exact connection between the Stones & Babylon, there isn't one, and would it matter if there were?). I love Pink Floyd and I love the Rolling Stones and I love the approach that each band takes to music. Pink Floyd's approach to music making and performance is conceptual but the Stones have always been appealing because they keep things simple. Pink Floyd's music is about alienation and living in a universe hostile to artistic production and authentic being and their conceptual shows convey these themes very well but Stones-style down and dirty rhythm & blues do not need anything but players and listeners. The Pink Floyd theatrics employed on the Bridges to Babylon tour just seem out of place at a Stones show. Unfortunatley, the Bridges to Babylon tour is full of stage theatrics and gimmickry. Authentic rhythm & blues do not need a specially built theatre w/ mobile bridges and video feeds, but thats what you get with this show. The bit where Mick stops performing in order to scroll a web page of fan favorites was not a good idea. Web surfing does not add excitement to a live Stones show. These kind of misjudgements hamper this entire set. Scrolling the web page where Stones fans choose what the next song will be is supposed to create a sense of spontaneity, and the bridge that leads to an island in the audience where the band plays two numbers is supposed to create a sense of intimacy. Neither gimmick achieves the desired effect. Few bands have ever appeared so disconnected from their audience and each other as this band at this St. Louis engagement. Bridges to Babylon is the least attractive album both graphically and sonically of the entire Stones catalogue (with the exception of Dirty Work). It makes sense that this album and tour were the beginning of another dry spell.

2)The band looks way too vegas. I respect the fact that some of them (Keith) do not try to hide their gray hair. The fact that some of them do obviously dye their bristled mops is not a big deal but the fashion is way too vegas and showy and it distracts from the music. All the guys except Charlie look a bit Queeny in this show. Thats fine for Mick & Woody who have always been a bit foppish anyway. But with Keith I don't want vegas. Even though I have ceased taking Mick seriously as a singer/songwriter/talent (I do still like him as a charismatic performer) I still buy Stones albums for the Keith songs: Slipping Away (Steel Wheels), The Worst, Thru & Thru (Voodoo Longe), Thief in the Night (Bridge to Babylon)....but, c'mon, Keith looks best in his old street clothes, and here he looks as if he has been dressed by a stylist.

3) Musically, too much flash and not enough grit. Even when they play a crowd and critic pleaser like Gimme Shelter the focus is on the outfits and how they look in motion. Same goes for Sympathy, in that song Mick's painted overcoat seems to be doing the performing and not Mick (who seems like his main interest is in fashion these days and not in music).

These complaints lodged, its still the Stones. But I would go elsewhere (especially the recent Shine a Light DVD) for better glimpses of this band.

Burned Bridges
2007-12-07 - "Bridges to Babylon" was not what I expected. That's my fault. The guys are old now and they seemed to be trying to enjoy what they were doing for this taped concert; but you could see the hum drum in their performance. I couldn't appreciate it for that reason and passed it on to someone else who might enjoy it.

Great concert.
2007-07-16 - I finally got to see the Rolling Stones twice in 3 nights and was blown away by the whole experience. I now am trying to get as much concert material as I can so that I can relive the experience over and over again and this DVD did not disappoint. If you are a Stones fan or even a new fan you will enjoy this DVD.