The pair sound like true kindred spirits of the fretboard on "Tumbling Dice," spitting notes back and forth to whiplash effect, then meshing lines from across the stage during "Star Star:" it's action much more impressive than that which appeared on Flashpoint (Rolling Stones Records, 1991). Guitarists Richards and Ronnie Wood are little if any less adrenalized. Salty between-song repartee notwithstanding, and having already become the stuff of caricature, Mick Jagger's vocal delivery is nevertheless without undue affectation: no more or less broad regardless of selection(s), the often caricatured but still incisive phrasing here reminds what a great singer he can be (and he's no slouch on harmonica either, judging by "Little Red Rooster," ). Songs on which the group cut its teeth in similarly intimate venues, like "Mannish Boy," are juxtaposed with "Hand of Fate," a cull from the previous year's checkered studio album, Black and Blue (Rolling Stones Records, 1976). So, it's little wonder the setlist spanned the history of the band. The stage was clearly a refuge for the Stones. From the appearance of the ex-wife of the country's prime minister to the drug busts of Keith Richards that threatened the very existence of the group, the prose dramatically but unobtrusively sets the stage for a performance that, beginning with the very cacophonous opening of "Honky Tonk Women" that commenced this fiery second night set (here in its entirety, sounds like the group was playing as if its life depending on it. Instead, Sexton displays a passionate objectivity in a forthright and matter-of-fact presentation that outlines all the various extra-music factors surrounding the Rolling Stones' appearance at the three-hundred seat Canadian venue. To his great credit, the aforementioned journalist doesn't trade on his long-time, inside access to the iconic band. But reversing the pink and blue covers of the twenty-page booklet inside the dual-fold package achieves a greater end than simply altering the simplistic cosmetics its extraction also reveals a Paul Sexton essay with information more than a little pertinent to the music as well as photos of the Toronto appearance that might better have been utilized on the outside covers. The die-cut design of the double-CD cover for the The Rolling Stones' El Mocambo 1977 mitigates at least to some degree the borderline amateurish cover art.
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