Greatest Concert Reviews (w/o) A PJ NIGHT OF MAGIC!Sep 01 '01 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line A great concert is sometimes measured by not only the show itself but the entire night surrounding it. Sometimes, the entire day! I have been to so many concerts over the years, so when epinions member Twix109 asked me to participate in a ‘write off’ on that very subject, I was wondering if I could ever narrow down to one particular choice. Well, I wasn’t able to. I could be a real annoying son of a gun and write down my top ten, but a good writer has to find a way around such difficult places. I’m going to chose a concert that probably had the biggest impact in my life over the last few years. While I could have chosen the Billy Joel show I went to with my best friend (who has since passed away) many years ago, I’m going to instead pick a show that is much more current. This show happens to be the second of two Pearl Jam shows from October of last year. The show took place at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts. The reason this gets selected numero uno is because of the events leading up to the show and how it turned out in the end. Let me try my best at wrapping this up into one neat little story. Bare with me, this could cause momentary lapses of sanity. 1) A good friend of mine, my uncle my mother and myself were the original intended participants going to this concert. 2) My good friend decided to be not such a good friend and bailed out last second. (NOTE: He goes to Cornell and couldn’t afford to fall behind in his classes. They are really strict at that college.) 3) We needed one other person to accompany us on the trip so we turned to our next door neighbor who I had previously only had one conversation with. He happened to be a professional photographer that had spent the previous twenty or so years photographing such musical acts as The Grateful Dead and Neil Young. 4) The mother of his child had him thrown in jail for something he didn’t do and we wound up leaving four hours later than we had originally planned. (This entire scene was very surreal. You just knew something good was going to happen.) 5) The incredible part of this entire day was that our neighbor had some great shots of Pearl Jam at the Bridge School Benefit from the previous year and also had the cell phone number of the Pearl Jam Publicist. We arrived at the show, meandered our way into several lanes of slowly moving confused traffic and finally made it to a spot. We already missed the opening act Sonic Youth but none of us were complaining in the least. We had come to see Pearl Jam and that’s all we were interested in. My uncle and mother took off to find their seats while my neighbor and I took route to the back of the area to see if we could once again get in contact with the Publicist of Pearl Jam. After spending time playing phone tag between a public phone and her cell phone we finally were able to get a message backstage to her. She eventually met us out back, but by that point we could hear the crowd going nuts and the opening to the big show reverberating over the speakers from inside. My heart was quickly crashing as I suddenly realized that I WAS MISSING THE DAMN SHOW! The Pearl Jam Publicist was kind enough to lead us backstage where I got to see first hand the band’s dressing room and even a set-list that Eddie himself had forgotten to take to stage. I seriously had thoughts of stealing the set list and adding it to my collection of Pearl Jam artifacts but figured it wouldn’t make a very good impression on those important people we were trying to get to know. It was a great experience though. They even led us into the building from backstage, which meant that we came out right next to the stage. THE SHOW ITSELF WAS INCREDIBLE!!! They fit twenty-nine songs into the three sets and did so with very little fanfare from the members of the group. It was like being at a close knit show of a few hundred. There was very little talk between songs, but the electricity was quite evident. Opening up the show with “Release”, Eddie immediately swooned the crowd over onto his side. It was an abbreviated version but a fine one indeed. Jeff Ament’s long drawn out guitar got the crowd instantly moving back and forth and the mood was perfectly set for the remainder of the night. Before we had time to think, the band lashed into ”Animal” with a rampage that left little memory of the previous somberly slow song. The crowds chanted “1,2,3,4, five against one” leading Eddie Vedder instinctively into the song. Eddie and the boys dived right into ”Hail, Hail” and continued the power driven guitar laden tracks will all the anxious enthusiasm of a kid at Disney Land for the first time. ”Corduroy” quickly followed and suddenly the band went mystical on us. ”In My Tree”, and "Given To Fly" gave us that Pink Floydish Pearl Jam sound that symbolized the bands never-ending need to experiment with the music they put out. We finally took to our seats, which weren’t bad, but no where near as good as we wanted. At that moment Pearl Jam delivered three songs off the new album “Binaural.” "Breakherfall", "Grievance" and "Evacuation" delivered all the goods and gave the crowd something new to listen to live. Mike McCready was definitely on his game that night as he seemed to hit every chord just perfectly, even with the newer material. Next was one of the most incredible versions ever of ”Footsteps” I had ever heard. It was so soft and enchanting that the entire crowd of thousands hushed throughout the piece. Going through a rush of older pieces the group had us singing along. I was very surprised and impressed to find one of my favorite older songs off the album “Vitalogy” being played. That song was ”Not For You” which has always been one of my favorites. At this point in time my neighbor and I were standing directly next to the soundboard. If you buy or rent the CD from Mansfield show #2 you can actually hear me screaming as the song opens up. They eventually told us to get away from the soundboard so we moved on to other locations. The cool thing about the show was that we didn’t once stay in our seats. We moved down closer and throughout the building meeting as many people as we could and showing off the Pearl Jam/Neil Young pictures from The Bridge School. Pearl Jam did a mind blowing job on ”Betterman” as two girls I had just met and I were dancing to it in the isle. Unfortunately a bunch of security decided to harass my neighbor and began looking through his camera bag and pictures. I melted in between the two girls (Hey, they were cute!) and did my best to hide from the one security person that was actually looking in my direction. Over all it was a really adventuresome night with a lot of great music and people. Towards the end of the show Eddie Vedder came out alone with his ukulele and went into the band’s quickly popularized piece known as ”Soon Forget.” Unfortunately it didn’t go so well. The crowd completely clapped out of tune and Eddie’s ukulele was out of tune as well. The song was abruptly stopped and Eddie pronounced. ”Course you were clapping out of time, and I was out of tune, so we’re even.” He than tuned the little baby and began to knock on the wood part getting everyone clapping the right way this time. He proceeded to finish up the song to a thunderous ovation from everyone there. Simply an electric moment for a show as big as this and one I will not “Soon Forget.” The show finished off with ”Last Kiss” and an incredibly powerful and vibrant version of Neil Young’s famous ”Rocking In The Free World” which made my neighbor’s night complete. He is a HUGE Neil Young fan and this made it all worth the trip for him. Pearl Jam is simply one of the better live performances you could ever go to. I’m already salivating for another album and tour. This was only the third Pearl Jam show I’ve seen. I saw them in Florida way back in the mid-nineties and then again in the latter nineties up in Augusta, Maine. This show was much more musically intense thanks to the addition of Matt Cameron on drums. He brings such passion and energy to that position. The drums are may favorite part of the new album actually. Make sure you check out reviews from all the other participants in this wonderful write off. THEY ARE (drum roll please...) Twix109 Deaser26 DomMar107 MrReEvolution MzRizz Hoagie303 CarieP Xxxxer SETLIST release animal hail, hail corduroy in my tree given 2 fly breakherfall grievance evacuation footsteps evenflow daughter not 4 u lukin “new song” brain of j insignficance black betterman go do the evolution light years elderly woman behind a counter in a small town leather man nothingman state of love and trust soon forget last kiss rocking in the free world The band is: Eddie Vedder: Vocals/Guitar/Ukulele Stone Gossard: Guitar Mike McCready: Guitar Jeff Ament: Bass Guitar Matt Cameron: Drums  |
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