Customer Reviews

The Rolling Stones: Live at the Max

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was not a Stones fan until I saw this in an Imax theater. Then I went back to see it again, and again. This concert video is simply the most exciting and most well done of all time. You can even hear the roadies in the background in the beginning and between tunes, it's better in Imax, but its on the video too, you just have to turn it way up! And you should turn it way up anyway. This is the Stones at their finest. The crowd, and the band are having a great time and it shows. Buy this video and watch it over and over.

This is indeed an incredible DVD... BUT ONLY THE ORIGINAL THX VERSION. There is an import copy of this being sold by some retailers that's insanely horrible. I don't need to write another review about how great this concert film is but rather don't want anyone else to get burned like I did. Luckily, the retailer let me return it even thought it was opened.

THX audio is very good - in contrary to other reviews. Noise from audiences is at reasonable level and helps create the proper concert ambient. You must have good center speaker as it will be heavily drived at times. The song performances are strong and combined with good camera work. I'm not real familiar with The Rolling Stones but this dvd gives me a very positive impression.

This video transfer from IMAX format is not as good as I expected. I can see some grainy artifacts especially in the low light scenes. Overall it's still pretty good.

Like everyone else with any musical taste I love the Stones, and have been following them since I was fifteen and was hooked by "Satisfaction". That said, there seems to always be a propensity by whoever does the mixing for Stones' movies/DVDs to screw up the sound (maybe the Glimmer Twins themselves?). For instance, I have a number of bootlegs from the 1972 tour (Mick Taylor, decadence, hooray!), most of which are brilliant, full-bodied and powerful, then you get "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones", and it is comparatively anemic (actually awful) - guitars too tinny, the bottom rumble eliminated, Jagger too loud, and instead of sounding powerful, it sounds fragmented not like a real band at all. "At the Max" continues this tradition (?). I have videotape of that tour and, again, it is great, but I can't even watch this DVD, they manage to make the Stones sound boring!! The good news is that on Four Flicks, at last, a really decent job of mixing has been done that actually does sound like a Stones' concert - major regret that they didn't learn to do this before Bill Wyman left the band. At least we have "Gimme Shelter", which in its newest incarnation comes pretty close (ever hear it in a theatre with a good sound system turned up loud? Magic!) But unless you must have everything, I would avoid this one.

This is another great live dvd from a Rolling Stones concert tour. This tour was by far the band's most heavily-designed concert tour. The band fills the show with some new songs, but mostly features oldies.

From the thunderous opening chords of 'Start Me Up' to the crashing final electric strums of 'Satisfaction', this is another fine concert dvd from the greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world. The band has an elaborately designed stage, featuring large blowups of bimbos named Angie and Ruby ('Honky Tonk Women'), and large wild dogs ('Street Fighting Man'). During the latter track, Mick jams the mike stand into the dogs, causing barking barking sounds, before inevitably climbing into one of their mouths. The band also does a bonechilling 'Paint It Black', and a trippy version of '2,000 Light Years Home'. Keith Richards resurrects 'Happy' with a rousing performance. This concert is a must-have.

The five stars are for the blu-ray image which is far beyond what I anticipated for this 20+ year old film. This is a good concert, a nice memento of Bill Wyman's last tour as the Stones' bassist, and it's got most of the old favorites in terms of song selection. But the restoration of the Imax image is really extraordinary, especially since this concert was available for a long time only on a really sub-par, washed-out looking dvd. I actually use this as a demonstration disc for my blu-ray system and hdtv. It blows away even the most recent movie blu-rays in terms of image quality, depth, crispness, and detail. Stones fanatics will get this for sure, but even casual fans might snap up this very affordably priced blu-ray.

Very good but audio does not even come close to DTS Quality

I have the old DVD of this and just received the Blu Ray tonight. I popped it in to check the quality and ended up watching the whole show start to finish, it was so great! The audio on the DVD was so bad I contacted the producers who mentioned they knew about this and were working on a new mix. The audio and video in the Blu Ray version is a HUGE improvement! The band is so energetic, the guitars sound great, the IMAX filming makes you feel like you are on stage with the Stones, and the band sounds tight and rocks hard. I noticed several things that I never saw watching this concert on DVD. The guitars in particular are much more prominent and Keith is so much fun to watch. My only complaints are (1) the audio and video do not appear to be perfectly synced (which I have noticed on almost every concert DVD I own! I think the skill of audio engineering has been lost) and (2) some pixelation between chapters, which I am assuming is a problem with my PowerDVD software and not the disk. But this is a 5 star must have show! Probably my top official stones performance available, and includes Bill Wyman on bass!

What happened to the sound quality? I originally saw the Stones' Live at the Max at an IMAX theater in Vancouver, Canada, and it sounded incredible. The sound literally blew my away. But the sound quality in this DVD is simply mute in comparison. I consider the Stones' Gimme Shelter DVD the greatest rock film ever made (followed closely by Pink Floyd's Live at Pompei and The Wall). Unfortunately, Floyd's Live at Pompei isn't on DVD, and the Stones' Live at the Imax is (it should have been left on VHS, or at least digitally remastered for DVD).

what's with the sound on this dvd. The audience noise is louder than the Stones. The musical quality is compared to an old record which has been ran over by a truck. The crowd's screaming and yelling drowns out 85% of the music.

This concert video is the best argument why stadium concerts are not made for music.