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Thursday, May 25, 2006

Pearl Jam

As you may know I was one of the 20,000 or so screaming fans that was able to see Pearl Jam last night (5/24/06). You also may know that tonight I once again will be part of 20,000 or so screaming fans elated at hearing songs like Daughter, Yellow Ledbetter, and State of Love and trust. Now I mention those three songs for two reasons, one they are three better known Pearl Jam songs and two they went unplayed at last nights event. Before I get to the concert itself you first must understand the circustances leading up to the concert. Pearl Jam for those of you who don't know are one of the four major grunge bands that dominated early 90's rock radio. Unlike the other three acts (Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and the Melvins (some say Nirvana but the Melvins are better)) Pearl Jam is still making records, playing gigs, and they even still have a living singer. In early May one week before Stadium Arcadium came out Pearls Jam's self titled and tenth album came out to critical aclaim. I however was not a big fan of the album. Since the tour is clearly suport for the album I expected for them to play a number of new songs, but I was not ready for the sheery volume of new songs played.
Now for the concert. Not wanting to wait for Pearl Jam to begin playing I decided that I was going to go to the concert at around 9:30. I arived a bit earlier than that at around 9:20 and I was lucky. As I made my way through the doors of the fleet and up three or four escalators to my balcony seats I heard 'Betterman' being played. As I finally got to my seat 'Betterman' was over. After a venture into the new song 'Unemployable' Pearl Jam came to one of my favorite songs 'Even Flow'. They breased through 2/3 of it and then came an average guitar solo followed by a three minute drum solo by former Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron. The solo was awesome and I love non guitar solos but it sort of interuppted to (even) flow of the song. A few songs latter came another favorite of mine 'Wishlist'. A disco ball floated high above Eddie as he sung. The crowd seemed a bit subdued for a while as Pearl Jam muddled through a few less popular songs. The came Jeremy, the definite high point of the main set. The vibe of the crowd was crazy, it was like everyone there all of a sudden got a huge adrenelin rush. But the rush was gone and whiel Pearl Jam slipped past a song from the new album the crowd again became subdued. Not even fan favorite 'Why go' could pull the crowd out of the funk. Then came the encore. In typical Pearl Jam fashion sevearl cover songs were offered up before the first few notes of 'Alive' were played. Right away the crowd was back up on its feet cheering there head off and pumping there fists. I must say with all the right hands going up in the air together it was like a nazi rally except for one big detail the music rocked. 'Alive' was by far the best perfomence by the band all night. Then came another intermission and mostly old songs. The casual Pearl Jam fan wouldn't even know the songs, they were mostly b- sides and other songs that didn't get much radio play. Crowd was still excited up until the second to last song, another song from the new album. Finally Pearl Jam closed out with a sweat rendition of Neil Young's 'Rockin in the free World'. Midway through the song the lights came on and then two or three minutes after that it ended.
To say the show was bad would be complete garbage, but to say the show was a bit dissapointing would be about right. The band played well it's just that I've been told seeing them live is like a religious expierence. That being said I only had to real problems with the show, one when you are Pearl Jam you don't close with a cover, and more importantly there were too many songs songs from the new album.
Setlist courtesy of pearljam.com:

1 Comments:

At 8:55 AM, Blogger my music is better than your's said...

first off alot of those are typos and second off i offered you a ticket

 

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