Shine a Light

I finally went and saw the Stones/Marty Scorsese concert film "Shine a Light" last night.

The concert was filmed at the Beacon theater here in New York City in October of 2006 as part of former President Bill Clinton's 60th birthday celebration.

The start of the film shows Scorsese and the Stones planning the logistics of the concert. The movie goer also gets a glimpse into a Stones rehearsal for the show and Scorsese and his crew setting up lights and cameras in the Beacon theater. We also see the Stones being introduced to Hillary Clinton's mother Dorothy Rodham and Bill and Hillary's ten year old nephew, plus the thirty VIP's that the Clinton's brought to the show.

Out of those scenes, I really liked seeing the planning and the setting up for this show cause it reminded me of on a whole other level of course, of the planning and setting up of the MEANY Fest special guest shows. The scenes were the band is being introduced to Hillary's mother and nephew and the thirty VIP's felt a little pretentious to me. As did the crowd shots during the performance scenes, there seemed to be some very young beautiful people in the audience that night who looked as if they didn't know who the Stones were and were playing it up for the cameras and it made me wonder if they were actual fans or actors!

The performance scenes sans the crowd shots of the beautiful people are really fantastic, watching the Mick and the boys, makes you realize what a kick ass band the Stones still are after some forty five years and many personnel changes! Jack White of the White Stripes, Christina Aguileria and blues man Buddy Guy are the three special guests that come out and join the Stones for a song. My only other complaint about this film was they gave Christina Aguileria the wrong song to sing! She sings "Live With Me" from "Let It Bleed" and while I like Miss Xtina, I think her voice would have been better suited for "Gimme Shelter". When she sings her bits on "Live With Me" she does that annoying vocal vibrato acrobatics thing were she sings a word and has to sing every note with in that word, it kinda ruins that song and I totally hate that!! Plus she was trying to make her voice sound gritty and rock like and it just wasn't working! I will say Miss Xtina and Mick together on stage was pretty sexy! Buddy Guy, was really great, he sang "Champagne and Reefer" and Jack White did a bang up job on "The Loving Cup". Even though he looks like the undead... Jack White is so freakin' hot!!

One of the things I really loved about watching the performance footage was watching both Keith Richards and Charlie Watts on stage. They both are really great characters of rock and roll and just two of the greatest sidemen ever. The energy, musicianship and stage presence for all the Stones is just amazing to watch!!


"Shine A Light" is further proof that the Rolling Stones are the greatest rock and roll band and Keith Richards is the coolest guy ever! And the performance footage is worth seeing this film on a big screen!! Worth the $11.00 for sure don't wait for it to come on HBO!!