Review: New DVD/CD is only The Rolling Stones – and just great rock 'n' roll

By: Steve Marinucci AXS Contributor Jul 13, 2018

The Rolling Stones' newest entry in their From the Vault series, The Rolling Stones: No Security. San Jose '99, out on the streets July 13, is a back-to-basics concert release that finds the band performing a real stand-out show.

The concert, available in various configurations of video and audio on DVD and 2-CDs and Blu-ray and 2 CDs and audio only on 3 LPs or digital downloads, was part of two shows the Stones did on April 19 and 20, 1999, in San Jose, CA. The shows were originally to have taken place in January, but were pushed back to April because Jagger had the flu, according to a report at the time in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Watching and listening to the performance shows the group was recharged and ready for the postponed dates. The Stones -- minus the usual inflatables and security on the No Security tour– perform as rock solid as you'll ever hear them. The show features an unlikely setlist. It starts off with “Jumpin' Jack Flash,” often used at the end of shows rather than the beginning. It then kicks into “Bitch,” “Respectable” and “Honky Tonk Women.” The reshuffled and somewhat unusual lineup all through the set list really pinpoints the sharpness of the band on this tour. While on some shows, the Stones have just gone through the motions, that's not the case here. Keith Richards and Ron Wood are sharp, as is Jagger, Charlie Watts and the rest of the band.

Although the booklet that comes with the release tries to link the 1999 show with the group's 1966 in the city, there's really little they have in common besides the three original members of the band still on the stage – Jagger, Richards and Watts. But the band does bring out three vintage chestnuts – “Route 66,” “Paint It Black” and “Get Off My Cloud.” The latter song sounds especially good in this lineup.

The band rolls into the show climax with hot versions of “Midnight Rambler,” “Tumblin' Dice,” “It's Only Rock 'n' Roll,” “Start Me Up” and “Brown Sugar.” If there's one song that seems to spoil the rhythm, though, it's the encore, “Sympathy for the Devil,” which closes both the CDs and video.

But there's no mistaking that the stripped-down tour accomplished what it likely set out to do – letting the Stones play as a unit, not as a big stage show. Hey, it's only rock 'n' roll – and that's the way it should be.