Maybe Mick Jagger “can’t get no satisfaction,” but if it’s live Rolling Stones albums you’re after, you certainly can. The group has released a ton of them, including A Bigger Bang Live at Copacabana Beach, Bridges to Bremen, Bridges to Buenos Aires, El Mocambo 1977, Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out, Got Live If You Want It, Grr Live!, Licked Live in NYC, Love You Live, On Air, Rock and Roll Circus, Steel Wheels Live, Sticky Fingers Live at the Fonda Theatre, Still Life and Sweet Summer Sun: Hyde Park Live. Especially since the programs on these albums contain lots of duplication, it’s reasonable to ask whether even serious fans need yet another live set.
For some, the answer may well be no. Still, the new Live at the Wiltern—which embraces audio and video versions of a 2002 Los Angeles concert—offers several reasons to open your wallet. For starters, while its wide-ranging 20-song program features such often-played numbers as “Honky Tonk Women,” “Start Me Up,” “Brown Sugar” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” it also includes a couple that don’t appear on any of the aforementioned LPs: “Dance Part 1,” which is drawn from 1980’s Emotional Rescue; and “That’s How Strong My Love Is,” which the Stones first featured on the classic 1965 studio album Out of Our Heads.
The set was released March 8, 2024, via Universal Music and Mercury Studios on 2-CDs + Blu-ray [U.S.], 2-CDs + DVD [U.S.], 2-CDs [U.S. and U.K.], 3-LPs on black vinyl [U.S. and U.K.], and an Amazon exclusive of 3-LPs on bronze-and-black swirl vinyl [also available in the U.K.].
Listen to “Live With Me” from Live at the Wiltern
Second, the highlights here include a guest spot by the late, great Solomon Burke (whose own hour-long set preceded the Stones’ performance). On Live at the Wiltern, he takes the stage to sing along with Jagger on his 1964 gem, “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love.”
Third, while most of the Stones’ live albums preserve shows performed for huge audiences, this one (like El Mocambo 1977) finds the band in the sort of intimate (relatively speaking, at least) setting that seems to bring out the best in them. Their Wiltern club audience included only around 2,500 people, among them such musical luminaries as Neil Young, Tom Petty, Stephen Stills and Sheryl Crow. As Jagger says in the album’s liner notes, “You get an intensity [in a small club]…that you can’t get in a stadium.”
The band—backed by such regular sidekicks as keyboardist Chuck Leavell, saxophonist Bobby Keys and percussionist Jim Keltner—is in fine form throughout. Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood are all on fire, and the drum work by the late Charlie Watts will remind you of how much he added to the mix.
The Stones at the Wiltern
Finally, while many of the group’s other live albums are either audio-only or come with standard-definition Blu-rays, this one packs in a widescreen Blu-ray with DTS-HD Master surround sound.
A top editor at leading consumer and trade magazines for more than 40 years, Jeff has interviewed dozens of musical luminaries, including Bruce Springsteen, Steve Van Zandt, Roger McGuinn, John Sebastian, Wolfman Jack, Tommy James, Tom Waits, the Righteous Brothers, and the members of Steely Dan.
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