Caught the last of Pearl Jam’s four L.A. shows yesterday, and, in the wake of the two and a half gigs I witnessed during their stand at the Gibson, I wish to heartily endorse this tour for any of you who may still be on the fence. (This is an admittedly unlikely scenario.) The band is tight, energized, and finding freedom in a set list full of set pieces: We now know to expect a visit from the string section after the first encore break, but their contributions on “Just Breathe,” “The End,” and the bow-shredding fury of “Lukin” are most welcome; we know Ben Harper will emerge shortly thereafter for “Red Mosquito,” and his lap-slide will buzz perfectly throughout the song’s swing. We know “Fixer” and the other Backspacer tracks will mesh with older material like they’ve been there for years, and ”Alive” and/or “Yellow Ledbetter” will probably take us home. But amidst the expected, there’s always a flash of giddy surprise, and for those of us who’ve attended entirely too many Pearl Jam shows over the years, it’s those flashes that keep us coming back.
The guys seemed a bit antic last night — during “Porch,” Eddie Vedder bummed a drink off some dude in the front row, then climbed into the crowd on a security guard’s shoulders; Mike McCready and Jeff Ament played tag during “Spin the Back Circle”; I think Matt Cameron was using light-up drum sticks on “Why Go” — and they also delivered three absolute gems that I shall file away with the other PJ concert highlights I revisit from time to time, thanks to the band’s comprehensive bootlegging policies. First, a slow-building, hypnotic “Present Tense,” preserved here in all its YouTube glory:
The other standouts were an atomic-sized “Love Reign o’er Me” and “Crown of Thorns,” the old Mother Love Bone single made that much more resonant thanks to Tuesday’s brief Temple of the Dog reunion. By the time Jerry Cantrell showed up again on MC5′s “Kick Out the Jams,” it felt damn near anti-climactic.
What about you, Mixers? I know we’ve got some PJ loyalists out there — what are your highlights from this band’s tremendous live oeuvre, either on this tour or tours past? I’m pretty sure my all-time favorite moments have happened at the Gorge, and I’m pretty sure they’re hard to top… but maybe you can convince me otherwise in the comments!
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I have seen them at the Gorge, too, but those are not my faves. One would be “Drop in the Park” a free show in ’92. Those and the 3 nights at the Seattle Arena about a year later. Lately I have like the shows, but unless they are somewhere more than one night the shows seem to be less spontaneous.
My favorite all time live show has to be the Acoustic fundraiser at Benaroya Hall in Seattle. Best sound I have ever heard in my life. I dont think you could duplicate that night ever. Truely magical. I just saw PJ in Salt Lake week! 2nd row 10club seats. I am dying for my next show. This will turn into one of PJ’s best tours…..Just wait for more dates to be announced. Cheers!
alomost forgot…..they played “Marker in The Sand” in SLC Sept 28th. Been dying to see that live for a few years!!!!! What other great memories are out there?
I have a top three PJ concert memories, in reverse order:
3. Trenton, NJ, 1998 – the first tour after the TicketMaster debacle. Overwhelming sense of reunion. Eddie: “It’s real easy to stand up here and yell “F you!” but that’s wrong, we love you. We’re so glad to be here with you.”
2. Boston, when they played every song they had rehearsed for the entire tour – a feat that involved played a pre-opener acoustic set (Lukin acoustic? Yes!) and several noise-curfew violations.
and last but not least:
1. Lollapalooza, Saratoga Springs, NY, 1992. Played their set in the middle of a huge thunderstorm. Rain water gushing over my ankles in my converse high tops. Incredible, mind-altering, best concert experience of my life.
The best PJ show I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen them 8 times, was just this August 23 in Chicago. Michael Richter, a friend of Jeff’s and whom Backspacer is dedicated too, was just killed in an accident. Eddie came out and said they has alot of emotion to get through and they went into a very moving Long Road. As I said, seeing them so many times before, there were many songs they have played to death that had just seemed like they were going through the motions – Cordurouy and Even Flow come to mind. But that night, these songs and every song they played were played were played with emotion, energy, and a renewed urgency. And when Mike closed the night with a Star Spangled Banner outro to Yellow Ledbetter, they cemented the fact that they are the best rock and roll band in the land.
I’ve seen them three times, which I know pales in comparison to the die-hards. But, I was lucky enough to be front row when they closed Lollapalooza a couple years ago. Amazing.
“Hellooo Tom! Come down Tom!”
Salt Lake City a few weeks ago (9/28) was my first Pearl Jam concert. They hadn’t been to SLC since 1998, and I missed that show because I was busy getting married (priorities, huh?). So after an 11-year wait, the entire SLC ’09 show was a highlight to me. But I especially enjoyed “Spin the Black Circle” with Mike McCready running laps around the stage. Prior to that night, I wouldn’t have even counted that song among my favorite PJ songs, but for some reason, on the drive to the venue I got it in my head that I really wanted to hear that song. I figured it was a long shot (hadn’t looked at any previous setlists; I like to be surprised), so when I heard the first notes of that song, I went crazy!
I’ve seen a lot of concerts and live performances, and Pearl Jam absolutely rank at the top!
1) Seeing PJ in Athens, GA for $3 (you read correctly) on their very first tour. One of the most amazing shows I’ve ever seen.
2) Eddie Vedder wearing a truly glam silver jacket to sing Elvis Presley’s “Little Sister” at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas 3 years ago; also starting off the same show with “Man of the Hour” prior to opening act Sonic Youth.
3) PJ playing Atlanta launching into “Crazy Mary” on the 2000 tour for Binaural. And I have that concert on CD to enjoy again and again.
Definitely Cincinnati ’06 they were amazing all night but about halfway through the first encore they played ‘Leash’. It was amazing, the crowd just went insane. The balcony shook beneath me, and I could barely hear the band for the crowd singing along.
Mexico 1, 2003! lighters turning on and off during wishlist.. eddie crying: “f***ing beautiful”… it WAS f***ing beautiful…
rod, the lighters in Mexico City rank pretty much at the top of mine, too. “Not For You”/”Daughter,” 2005. Also, the lighters at Bonnaroo last summer. Wow.
Turin 2006: they played the entire Avocado with the record tracklist. Only after a couple of days I realized I witnessed a particular and unique night…
madison square garden, 1998. the “breath” show, where they finally caved to the fan movement and played “breath” to open the first encore. plus, baba to close the first encore, and then a rousing rendition of “alive” that saw a throw-back eddie scale the rigging during the guitar solo. the building itself was quivering. best. show. ever.
That was the tour stop after Trenton – wanted to go so badly, but I couldn’t scrape up the $$ for another ticket!
Andrews Amphitheatre( Under the stars about 2,000 people) in Honolulu just before Ten hit the charts . Being from Seattle I knew about them before they broke .. Brought 8 tickets for my friends.. Eddie dove into the crowd from the scaffolding in such a memorable performance that locals still talk about today .
Also won a trip on KROQ in LA during Riot Act period to Orlando to see them play at the House of Blues .. Very Memorable ! Eddie read a note on stage that a girl threw to him saying she had to do sexual favors with the doorman to get in.. He was like ” Oh Nice!”
Many more as well.. Blind Melon and Neil Young at the Gorge was way up there ! .. Driving to San Diego for Tonights show !!
What did you think of the SD concert, Chris? I LOVED it, but as it was my first PJ show, I don’t have other performances to compare it to. Having their instructors and Eddie’s old boss there….well, those were a couple of Kleenex moments!
I just saw them on 9/30/09, and I think the best moment of the show for me was the Tremor Christ/Force Of Nature (for the first time live) combo. Either that or the funky improv intro for Porch.
Or, you know, it could have been the seats in the pit. Granted, I was in a wheelchair in the back row, but they were DAMN good seats, and I enjoyed the hell out of ‘em.
I like when Pearl Jam sanged with Neil young Keep on Rockin in the free world.Back in the 90s.I like that.I dont care for Pearl Jams New songs.