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Pearl Jam, finally!
Oct. 20th, 2014 08:15 pmAfter many many years, I finally saw Pearl Jam. I missed them, back in 1992, when they played the Marquette University Union, due to my laziness. And I missed their 1995 Summerfest show at the amphitheater due to my stupidity. So now they're more expensive than they were back then, and it's about as hard to get tickets, but we did it. Our seats were in the back corner, upper level, row R. $66.50 for nosebleed seats. Could have been worse. Cyn and I took her daughter Heather, who had been waiting as long as I had been, and who is a bigger fan than I. And her husband Greg.
The tickets said showtime was 7:30, but I didn't really believe it. Everyone else seemed to know that wasn't true, because the place didn't really fill up until 8:00. And they didn't start until 8:15. But they played until 11:30, with only two five-minute breaks. That pretty much says it all about their show. They just played and played. Thirty-six songs, though many of them are rather short - shorter than most of Eddie Vedder's stories.
Vedder mentioned early on, that this was the second-to-the-last show of the tour, and that such a show is usually the highlight of a tour. I think few doubted him by the end of the show. The band obviously has energy, and stamina to pull off a three hour show, and they were just having a good time all the way to the end. Even after several (?) bottles of wine, Eddie was still out there running around, including in the audience.
The show started with a recorded "Red Bar," which is from Yield. Then the opener was a down-tempo Pendulum, from their latest, Lightning Bolt. From there it picked up. Mind Your Manners hit hard, showing that Pearl Jam is never very far from its punkish roots.
Shortly, they brought out localish surprise special guest, guitarist Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick. He was really excited. Probably more excited that most of the audients were. I don't think Cheap Trick has played a venue this size since the seventies. They played sort of an abbreviated low-rent version of "Baba O'Riley." Lots of fun, but no real substance. Just the riffs and the more memorable parts of the lyrics. They even kinda blew the solo. I couldn't hear it, anyway. It was a bit of a downer, if I thought about it too hard.
After that, they went into "Brain of J.," which was the beginning of Yield. They did the entire album straight through, with the exception of "Red Bar," which they had played at the start of the show. I must say I'm not what you'd call a die hard Pearl Jam fan. Great band, just never gotten deep into them. Listened to several of their albums a handful of times. Their latest album is still kinda new, and Yield, I have only on vinyl, so while I like it, I don't listen to it very often. So between the entire Yield, most of Lightning bolt, and some hits from Ten, I recognized most of the show. But other than Ten, I couldn't quite place most of it. There might have been five songs I'd never heard, but only a dozen that I really knew well.
This show marked only the third time they'd ever done an entire album in a show. Some bands have been touring albums, such as Rush, who took Moving Pictures out for an anniversary, but Pearl Jam just did it this one night. And three nights before, they did a different album. They didn't rehearse it for a tour, they tossed it off for just one night!
My favorite song of the night was "Given to Fly," which was right in the middle of the Yield set. Our section was mostly standing, below us. I could see from my seat, so I opted to stay seated through most of the show, so as not to annoy the sitters behind us. This was not a problem for me, except during "Given to Fly." The guy in front of me decided to video half that song, and had his arms up, holding his phone, and blocking my view. They had a really cool metal sculpture thing over the stage, that slowly "flapped." I wish I could have seen it from the floor.
Vedder told a lot of stories between songs. Some of them were charming. Some of them were drawn out like he was struggling to say the next words. He told of when he and a young friend stole a couple of cans of beer, to see what it was like. Eddie had Old Milwaukee. He didn't believe the audience who said they still made the stuff. Their slogan was Tastes as good as its name. "The thing is, it's not a good name." He talked about meeting Aaron Rodgers before the show, and more than once made football talk (he's a Bears fan). He couldn't put on the cheesehead that someone tossed onstage. He talked about some fundraisers and charity work just before doing "Crazy Mary." He tossed out tambourines to various audients at a couple of different times.
After over 90 minutes, the band took a short break. Vedder returned to do a solo acoustic tune. Part of the band joined him for the next one, then Vedder had the audience join him in singing Happy Birthday to Tom Petty. Then he played "I Won't Back Down." The energy built back up through "Jeremy" to "Lukin" and "Porch" before another break.
The encore was "Crazy Mary", "Black", "Alive","Fuckin' Up" (Neil Young cover) and "Yellow Ledbetter," which was followed by Mike McCready's cover of Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner."
"Crazy Mary" included an extended organ jam by Boom Gaspar. He had an authentic Hammond, complete with spinning leslie speaker. The review in the paper said, "Boom Gaspar, largely in the shadows most of the night, launched into an insane organ jam during "Crazy Mary" as guitarist Stone Gossard tried to keep up." Yep. McCready and Gossard both had some good solos. McReady had some bad ones too. A couple of times he was screechy and out of tune.
The house lights came up for "Alive." People had been filtering out for a while, possibly due to how late it was, but the ones that were left were really enjoying the show. But even with the house lights up, Pearl Jam were still the stars of the show.
( Set list )
The tickets said showtime was 7:30, but I didn't really believe it. Everyone else seemed to know that wasn't true, because the place didn't really fill up until 8:00. And they didn't start until 8:15. But they played until 11:30, with only two five-minute breaks. That pretty much says it all about their show. They just played and played. Thirty-six songs, though many of them are rather short - shorter than most of Eddie Vedder's stories.
Vedder mentioned early on, that this was the second-to-the-last show of the tour, and that such a show is usually the highlight of a tour. I think few doubted him by the end of the show. The band obviously has energy, and stamina to pull off a three hour show, and they were just having a good time all the way to the end. Even after several (?) bottles of wine, Eddie was still out there running around, including in the audience.
The show started with a recorded "Red Bar," which is from Yield. Then the opener was a down-tempo Pendulum, from their latest, Lightning Bolt. From there it picked up. Mind Your Manners hit hard, showing that Pearl Jam is never very far from its punkish roots.
Shortly, they brought out localish surprise special guest, guitarist Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick. He was really excited. Probably more excited that most of the audients were. I don't think Cheap Trick has played a venue this size since the seventies. They played sort of an abbreviated low-rent version of "Baba O'Riley." Lots of fun, but no real substance. Just the riffs and the more memorable parts of the lyrics. They even kinda blew the solo. I couldn't hear it, anyway. It was a bit of a downer, if I thought about it too hard.
After that, they went into "Brain of J.," which was the beginning of Yield. They did the entire album straight through, with the exception of "Red Bar," which they had played at the start of the show. I must say I'm not what you'd call a die hard Pearl Jam fan. Great band, just never gotten deep into them. Listened to several of their albums a handful of times. Their latest album is still kinda new, and Yield, I have only on vinyl, so while I like it, I don't listen to it very often. So between the entire Yield, most of Lightning bolt, and some hits from Ten, I recognized most of the show. But other than Ten, I couldn't quite place most of it. There might have been five songs I'd never heard, but only a dozen that I really knew well.
This show marked only the third time they'd ever done an entire album in a show. Some bands have been touring albums, such as Rush, who took Moving Pictures out for an anniversary, but Pearl Jam just did it this one night. And three nights before, they did a different album. They didn't rehearse it for a tour, they tossed it off for just one night!
My favorite song of the night was "Given to Fly," which was right in the middle of the Yield set. Our section was mostly standing, below us. I could see from my seat, so I opted to stay seated through most of the show, so as not to annoy the sitters behind us. This was not a problem for me, except during "Given to Fly." The guy in front of me decided to video half that song, and had his arms up, holding his phone, and blocking my view. They had a really cool metal sculpture thing over the stage, that slowly "flapped." I wish I could have seen it from the floor.
Vedder told a lot of stories between songs. Some of them were charming. Some of them were drawn out like he was struggling to say the next words. He told of when he and a young friend stole a couple of cans of beer, to see what it was like. Eddie had Old Milwaukee. He didn't believe the audience who said they still made the stuff. Their slogan was Tastes as good as its name. "The thing is, it's not a good name." He talked about meeting Aaron Rodgers before the show, and more than once made football talk (he's a Bears fan). He couldn't put on the cheesehead that someone tossed onstage. He talked about some fundraisers and charity work just before doing "Crazy Mary." He tossed out tambourines to various audients at a couple of different times.
After over 90 minutes, the band took a short break. Vedder returned to do a solo acoustic tune. Part of the band joined him for the next one, then Vedder had the audience join him in singing Happy Birthday to Tom Petty. Then he played "I Won't Back Down." The energy built back up through "Jeremy" to "Lukin" and "Porch" before another break.
The encore was "Crazy Mary", "Black", "Alive","Fuckin' Up" (Neil Young cover) and "Yellow Ledbetter," which was followed by Mike McCready's cover of Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner."
"Crazy Mary" included an extended organ jam by Boom Gaspar. He had an authentic Hammond, complete with spinning leslie speaker. The review in the paper said, "Boom Gaspar, largely in the shadows most of the night, launched into an insane organ jam during "Crazy Mary" as guitarist Stone Gossard tried to keep up." Yep. McCready and Gossard both had some good solos. McReady had some bad ones too. A couple of times he was screechy and out of tune.
The house lights came up for "Alive." People had been filtering out for a while, possibly due to how late it was, but the ones that were left were really enjoying the show. But even with the house lights up, Pearl Jam were still the stars of the show.
( Set list )
