The Rolling Stones’ latest release will be a special treat for South Florida fans

UPDATE: The Rolling Stones launches its No Filter tour on April 20, 2019, from Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

Never let it be said the Rolling Stones don’t give fans what they always wanted.

You just have to take it in Rolling Stones’ time.

On Nov. 16, rock’s longest-running band will release “Voodoo Lounge Uncut” on CD, vinyl, digital and Blu-ray featuring nearly the entire concert the band staged at Joe Robbie Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens on Nov. 25, 1994.

We say “nearly” because, if memory serves, we recall the Stones played “Love is Strong,” the first single from the “Voodoo Lounge” album the band was promoting at the time, in Miami. That tune is not featured among the 28 tracks on the coming album and video.

But everything else from the South Florida concert is intact, including actress and now “The View” cohost Whoopi Goldberg’s enthusiastic band introduction, which, she said, marked her first return to Miami since the Hurricane Andrew relief concert that had been held at the football stadium two years earlier following the devastating August 1992 storm.

Cameos from Sheryl Crow (“Live With Me”) and Bo Diddley (“Who Do You Love?”) and Robert Cray (“Stop Breakin’ Down Blues”) are also here. The video version, which was originally broadcast on pay-per-view in 1995, adds footage from the Giants Stadium concert in New Jersey that includes five songs the Stones didn’t perform in Miami — including the British group’s scathing look at 1970s New York on “Shattered.”

The music, and video, has been restored and remastered. A bundle version includes the music on red vinyl LP and a “Voodoo Lounge Uncut” T-shirt in case, like most of us who were there, you can’t fit into the tour shirt you bought at the Joe Robbie concession stand.

Here is the original Miami Herald review of that Voodoo Lounge concert at Joe Robbie, written by former Herald pop music critic Fernando Gonzalez, and published on Nov. 26, 1994:

It was quite a lounge act.

The Rolling Stones opened the Voodoo Lounge for business at Joe Robbie Stadium Friday night and offered an improbably gritty grand spectacle.

It may still be only rock ‘n’ roll but now it comes with a massive stage — all aluminum and steel — a giant screen, fireworks, inflatable figures and dazzling light shows. And yet the Stones can still bring out the visceral passion and urgency of true rock.

The show, broadcasted live on pay per view, started in grand style — a tongue of fire from the cobra-like structure arching over center stage, fireworks, red roman candles set out high on the seats behind the stage — all while African drumming was played on the speakers. This turned seamlessly into the opening of “Not Fade Away,” which the band first recorded 30 years ago, as Mick Jagger pranced out to take his place behind the microphone.

The band — Jagger, Keith Richards and Ron Wood on guitars, Charlie Watts on drums and Darryl Jones on bass, augmented by two backup singers, a keyboardist and a four-piece horn section — launched into “Tumbling Dice,” “You Got Me Rocking” and the muscular “Rocks Off.”

“Sparks Will Fly, a serviceable rocker from the recently released “Voodoo Lounge,” was illustrated by animation, variations of the Stones’ hanging tongue logo.

Then, as singer Sheryl Crow joined them on stage, the group reached far down into its repertoire for a version of “Live With Me.” Here, and much posturing notwithstanding, sparks did not fly. Crow, an up and coming singer, here simply sounded and looked superfluous, trading lines with Jagger.

The best of the (announced) surprises was a short, but effective acoustic segment performed on a small side stage. With a ragged sound and as the band looked crowded on the small space, it suggested a club set. Here the group revisited “Angie,” perhaps the Stones’ most affecting ballad, “Dead Flowers” and “Sweet Virginia.”

The theme of time, raised by many as the middle-age Jagger, Richards and Watts embarked on this tour, was smartly played out on “It’s All Over Now” as the work of the band on stage was shown on the screen — but in black and white, complete with scratches and imperfections as if watching old newsreel footage.

Bluesman Robert Cray joined the band in a Robert Johnson blues, with Jagger doing a very creditable job, and was followed by “Who Do You Love,” a solid rocker featuring master rocker Bo Diddley.

Jagger, who played gracious host throughout the evening, then asked for all to join in the chorus of the disco-ish “Miss You.”

Richards took the spotlight for a brief set that included “The Worst.”

Staging, history, attitude and plain old rock ‘n’ roll came together best on the classic “Honky Tonk Women” and “Sympathy for the Devil.”

The former — illustrated on the screen by a funny, sometimes mildly bawdy montage that included both icons such as Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield and shots of some members of the audience — retains its kick.

The latter, featuring Jagger on his Mephistophelian getup and with inflatable figures peering down from behind the screen center stage, still sounds at once sinister and sensual, a warning and an invitation.

This is a band that can still rock hard, and why not, any group featuring Watts — a rock solid drummer with an implacable swing — and Richards — the original devil-may-care rock guitarist — can summon passion and attitude almost at will.

And Jagger, at 51, is still the prototype rock front man, exuding confidence and sensuality. The band closed with an encore of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and a fireworks display.

It was, in a way, redundant.

This story was originally published November 2, 2018 at 9:53 AM.