I have a potential opportunity to see Pearl Jam this weekend and I want to know if it's worth my $65. Has anyone been to any of the stops on the current tour? I am a huge fan, but I'm wondering if the band still has the energy for good live shows, or if this is just another "pay the bills" tour for them. If anyone's caught a PJ show recently, feel free to share your experience here.

I didn't go personally, but several friends and co-workers did in STL, and said that it was a pretty sweet concert.

One guy said it was definitely better than the first time he saw them. They're his favorite band, so that might make him a little biased.

Another friend said that it was one of the longer PJ concerts that she had been to, and that she was surprised by some of the songs in the show that they usually don't play live. She also mentioned that there were two fairly long encores as opposed to the usual short one.

Hope it helps.

Hmm. Sounds like a winner to me. Thanks much for relaying the stories and opinions.

I have a feeling you would enjoy them still. I haven't seen them this tour, but it's the same lineup as the tour they released all those albums from, and I have the DVD of that tour which shows that they were still great. Matt Cameron is fantastic, and you're still getting the rest of one of the best bands still playing.

I haven't heard the latest record, but I'm sure they still play a lot of old stuff (which is obviously a lot of material to choose from). I think it should be great, and that's why I'm hoping to see them this summer when they come near me.

I haven't heard the latest record

Wow, the new record is great. I was expecting something pretty average, just another record to promote on tour. But I would rank this one in a tie for third on their list, with Ten and vs. being the only two albums I'd place above it.

Give it a listen.

A buddy just left for the albany show tonight, i'll ask him what he thought, and post a response tomorrow if you would like.

Well, based on the comments so far (and my desire to not have to hear about how great the show was when my friends get back) I'm gonna go. I just wanted to hear if anyone had any real bad experiences or anything... But you're more than welcome to share, not just for my benefit but that of anyone else who's reading.

I just wanted to hear if anyone had any real bad experiences

I ate some of the brown acid... Oh wrong show, nevermind.

Well, I ended up going to the show this weekend, and man, if I hadn't gone, I'd probably be hanging myself right about now. They played for 3 HOURS and 22 MINUTES! Around the 2nd hour, Eddie told the crowd that they were going to make it the longest Pearl Jam show ever. Not only was it the longest, but the band's energy was just amazing. In fact, this page ranks it as the best show on the tour so far (from fan votes.)

For those who are interested, here's the setlist:

Release
Save You
Animal
Corduroy
Cropduster
Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town
Even Flow
Grievance
I Am Mine
Improv #1
Rearviewmirror
Nothingman
Daughter
Lukin
Whipping
MFC
Jeremy
Improv #2
Blood
Encore Break #1
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
Gimme Some Truth
Breath
Do the Evolution
Black
Alive
Encore Break #2
Last Exit
Mankind
Down
Better Man
Satan's Bed
Leaving Here
Encore Break #3
Crazy Mary
Porch
Fortunate Son
Rockin' in the Free World
Yellow Ledbetter

Already purchased the bootleg from PJ's site, and downloaded the unmastered MP3's. If anyone else is a PJ fan, you should get this show, too. I'm just curious if they're going to have to cut down the show to make it fit onto 2 CD's, or if they'll do the right thing and release it on 3 CD's. I guess we'll see...

A few quotes from Eddie during the show:

After Encore Break #2...
"You know, this is the last night of the tour, so it's hard to leave and tell you that we have to go somewhere else..... We have to go home......" (pause) "..and they're telling me from the front 'Why Go Home?'"
"If you guys wanna stick around, we're willing to make this the longest Pearl Jam show that ever has been played."

In between songs about 2 hours into the show...
"We hereby open the floor for requests...." (responses from crowd) "Don't know that one..." (more responses) "Used to know that one... put it away." (more responses) "See, this democratic thing can get really, really messy."

After Encore Break #3...
"At this point, we're daring you to leave..." (roar from crowd) "This is the best bottle of wine there's been on tour, we're not going to leave until it's finished."

And, true to Ed's word, they didn't.

Wow. That sounds like it was an awesome show.

I never can see big bands here anymore, as the local venue really sucks, and I refuse to go, despite the fact that it's probably less than a mile from where I work. I had to fight through Pearl Jam traffic just a few weeks ago, as a matter of fact.

Man, that's pretty sweet. I'm definitely jealous.

I'm sure they'll release it on 3 discs. I'm pretty certain that a couple shows on the last tour spanned that many (I'm not saying they were as long, though ).

I the albums for the Washington, D.C. show and the last Seattle show from that tour. They sound great. I hope I get a chance to see the band.

I'm sure they'll release it on 3 discs. I'm pretty certain that a couple shows on the last tour spanned that many (I'm not saying they were as long, though ).

Yeah, I hope so. This show is beginning to achieve legendary status already, so it would seem really wrong of them to cut it down to make it fit.

I wish more bands would follow PJ's lead and start bootlegging their own shows.

I wish more bands would follow PJ's lead and start bootlegging their own shows.

Absolutely! I mean, last time they got that record for most albums on the charts at one time That was great. Plus, most of them sounded really good.

Oh, I also wanted to ask you, how was Matt Cameron?

Absolutely! I mean, last time they got that record for most albums on the charts at one time That was great. Plus, most of them sounded really good.

Yeah. Let's see. The cost to produce them is near zero, because you're not going to need to mess with the mix much beyond what was done for the show. Heck, the unmastered MP3's that they release within hours of the end of the shows are higher quality than a lot of albums bands pass off as "Live Albums." I'm listening to the unmastered MP3's from Saturday's show as I write, and they sound great. If you want a copy of them, let me know and I can PM you a link.

Oh, I also wanted to ask you, how was Matt Cameron?

He was a monster. His overall sound was perfect for the night. Some of his fills left me drooling, particularly during some of the extended jams during Porch, Rearviewmirror, and a few others. He didn't try to overdo any of the beats or dominate the sound too much, but when the songs called for it, he had the goods. I just think it was a night where all the planets aligned, and the band and the crowd were all juiced up for a killer show, and they definitely didn't disappoint.

Pics from the show.

He was a monster

Saweet...Matt Cameron is amazing. I was always more of a Soundgarden fan than a Pearl Jam fan (which I still like), and I'm planning on seeing Audioslave at Lollapalooza this summer. It's great to hear that he's still got it. What a great drummer.

*edit*
ps-I just wanted to offer one of my favorite Cameron drum beats: the verses of "Mind Riot" off of Suondgarden's Badmotorfinger. Seriously, check it out and listen to the hi-hat.

Yeah, I saw the show here in San Antonio. It was a great concert, I really enjoyed them.

What I posted on my own message board (somewhat edited)
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I can't believe I saw Pearl Jam.

Seriously. I don't care what you have to say, Pearl Jam are one of the best and biggest bands of all time, and I finally got to see them. We're talking the last big Seattle band still playing, and I got to see them. Oh yeah, and my girlfriend saw them too

Man, it was a great show. The band played great, Mike McCready gets better on guitar every time (now it's all improv, none of the original solos, and they all kicked ass), and Matt Cameron is awesome.

That was the other thing: I got to see Matt Cameron live. He was as good as I thought he would be, although I get the feeling that Pearl Jam's music calls for less complicated drum beats than Soundgarden. Still, he was great, especially when he started messing around on the little break in the middle of Rearviewmirror.

And speaking of Rearviewmirror, that song is AMAZING played live. I'm telling you, after that little quiet break in the song, I was like "oh damn, this is going to be so good", and then they built back up, Eddie sang, and he belted out "REARVIEWMIRROORRRRR" and it was incredible. Oh...my...god.

There were a few downsides to the show.
1) Smoking. WOW! I had no idea there were this many smokers in the world. Adam, I have no problem with you smoking, because I can stand where the smoke doesn't go in my face or whatever. But at this place I estimate that 75% of the people there were smokers, and every single one of them smoked the entire show. Just in our little area (like a 10 foot radius) there had to have been 50 packs of cigarettes smoked. What's worse is only about two of them would blow the smoke upwards. The people behind us would blow it directly into the backs of out heads. It's pretty bad when you smell like smoke after seeing an outdoor concert.

2) There was a single lane of traffic to get in the show. For some reason they only had the road in front of the stadium open from one direction. Dumb.

3) water cost $4 a bottle

4) they took my ground tarp. at least the ground wasn't wet - that would have sucked.


But anyway, they played our favorite songs: "DTE" ("Do The Evolution") for my girlfriend, and "Given to Fly" for me.

So it was a great concert. We were pretty far away, but there were huge screens flanking the stage, so we were easily able to see the action.

It was just incredible. I'm so glad I got to see them.
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So that was my impression. I saw them last night a the Nissan Pavilion in "D.C.", which I put in quotes because it would take about 1.5 hours to drive there from DC. But it was cool because as Eddie said (paraphrased):
"Someone asked us to name our top 20 favorite bands of all time. One was Fugazi, the other is Minor Threat, and they're both from your hometown. The only man to be in two bands on our top 20 list, Ian MacKaye, is here tonight."

It would have been awesome if they could have done something together, but oh well.

Anyway, everyone should go see Pearl Jam if you get the chance (and like their music). The great thing is, they don't play the stuff that wasn't that great from some of their later albums (I don't think there was a single song fron "No Code"). That doesn't matter, though. They have so many songs that they could play all night an only hit the good ones.

This show was shorter than Tony's, but still about 2.5 hours long! That's impressive for any show. I was amazed at how Eddie's voice held up all the way through, though. He's fantastic.

Wonderful, just wonderful...

Well, it looks like they may do the live release thing again, so you may get a good quality recording of the concert, though I suspect it would take more discs than most shows

I'm going back to the venue I saw they at tomorrow to see Lollapalooza. I only like 3 or 4 of the bands, but oh well.

so you may get a good quality recording of the concert

Oh, I already got the State College show on 3 CD's, with excellent quality. They mastered and released CD's of all the shows on the tour... It's just a matter of whether they are sold through traditional outlets. I think the Billboard article there is just saying they're picking a few of the shows and releasing them to record stores the same way they did with the tour a couple years ago... The only difference really is that for this tour, you had to buy from their site, rather than a retailer.