[David]

Originally Posted by bombaysaffires

forgive my musicianship ignorance, but why do they need a backup drummer? is it just that Mick gets fatigued and someone else is carrying the actual physical load of banging away on certain songs?

In that particular case—performing Tusk on the 1979–80 tour—I think it was a matter of beefing up the drum beat. When a second person is playing, even a simple beat like Tusk, there is a slight but audible delay effect created by the two drummers playing the same thing. It creates a broader, more expansive “chorus” effect that can sound like Armageddon. It also looks really cool and eerie to silhouette the second drummer behind a screen and throw different colors up on the screen. So I think show business was the reason.

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

For me, Mirage was their peak, live. The peak of their voices, their looks, and their energy.

I loved the way they played most of the set that year, especially Second Hand News, The Chain, Dreams, Rhiannon, Brown Eyes, Eyes of the World, Hold Me, Sara, and Sisters of the Moon. But I still regard the final month of the 1980 tour as the all-time peak for both performance and stage engineering. Those gargantuan jams—The Chain, What Makes You Think You're the One?, Not That Funny, World Turning, Go Your Own Way—were like fireworks going off one minute and daffy sojourns into insanity the next.