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Pearl Jam, July 2-3, 2003, Mansfield, MA: 2 Shows, 50 Songs, No RepeatsJul 04 '03 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line I told all you f*ckers to go see them...if you didn't listen, it's definitely your loss.
First in a 3 part series... Forget Eddie's politics, this is THE tour to go see them on. If there are tickets available in your market, get them. - What I wrote in an Impertinent thoughts column, 4/12/03. There is nothing worse in my musical world than seeing Boston listed as being towards the end of the second leg of a Pearl Jam tour. Sure, the shows will be great, because the band will be that much more on, but the waiting kills me. This tour has been ridiculous, and by the time this past Wednesday rolled around, I was sick of reading setlists and show notes and reviews, I wanted to see them already. July 2nd We got to the Tweeter Center (aka Great Woods) at about 10:30 AM to wait in line for fan club tickets. I have a pretty low fan club number, which meant I had a good shot at front row. There were already about 125 people in line, but I knew few of those would be in my block of numbers. I met Mariann from Portland, Oregon and her husband. They showed me their Touring Van 2003, which is the coolest van I've ever seen. Waiting in line was a very cool experience, just a bunch of good Pearl Jam people hanging out. At about 2pm, Tweeter staff started to try to line us up based on member number and block number, and all hell broke loose. Everyone charged the box office, so thank God they gave out raffle tickets to make sure the early arrivals didn't get screwed. Waiting in that line was nerve racking, but the 5 hour wait proved to be well worth-while: Section 2, row B, second row, center (I'm not going to get into how other members fared, let's just say that Tweeter sucks). As I got to my seat a few hours later, I saw a chair set up, a dead give away that Ed would be coming out and playing a quick song before the opening band, The Buzzcocks. My bud from Florida, Sheri, was late in arriving back at the venue and missed Ed do a spot on rendition of Dead Man. This led to the Buzzcocks, who were obnoxiously loud, as in louder than AC/DC loud. This sucked since I wanted to check them out, but the noise was just ridiculous. Fast forward to about 8:55, house lights go down, band comes out and the crowd is already eating out of the palm of their hand. "1,2,3,4, hold on...to the thread" announces the opening of Oceans, a song not played very often at all, and immediately it seemed the band was thrilled to be back playing for us. The next song thrilled me to no end: Go began and that was about it for me and Sheri. I could do that song every night with no problem whatsoever. The rockers kept coming with Hail Hail and Save You, which saw lead guitarist Mike McCreedy skip a pick off across the stage into the third row like a stone over water. "We should make you aware of what's happening, we've worked up about 70 songs for this tour, we thought we'd play all of them in the three nights here, never repeating one of them...we've actually worked up about 105 songs, which works out to about 35 songs a night, so I better shut up if we're gonna do this," said Eddie about 5 songs into the set. Obviously there's no way they were gonna do 35 songs a night, but the no repeat rule is looking to be very cool. This night was amazing for me, not just because of the seat I had, but the songs they played. When Dissident started I was shocked, I just wasn't expecting it at all, and it remains, to this day, one of my favorite songs. Then later, Light Years kicked in and my jaw dropped again, another song I just wasn't expecting to hear, at least not at the first show of my mini tour. Some fans would say that any show where Even Flow was a highlight was a real drag of a show. But this Even Flow was sick, just absolutely sick. Mike began his solo, and the band is sounding hot, and Eddie goes over to Stone's side of the stage, has a cigarette, and he's jamming to Mike's solo. After a while, Mike's kind of wondering where he can go, and him and Ed start staring at each other, and it was intense. It was as if Ed was saying "what do you got?" and everytime Mike threw something new in, Ed stared at him more intently, as if to say "come on f*cker!" Finally, Ed relented and the song finished in what can only be described as a rocking finish. After an intense Grievance, Ed and Mike were alone on stage, which made me even more excited as I knew that that meant Present Tense was imminent, yet another of my top ten favorite songs of all time. But Ed got on a rant, draping himself in an American flag, first talking about freedom of speech, and the idea of freedom got him talking about Sony. He said that "Sony makes these machines, like, these little toy robot dogs, and I was just thinking, maybe that's what someone like Celine Dion is, just a robot. Except, you know, they put too much ego chip in." He went on to talk about how he was constantly spitting during the course of the night, and how Celine doesn't spit, she kind of beats her chest with her hand, but she doesn't spit. "That's cause I heard she swallows," and with that line, the Eddie chants came out anew. This led to Present Tense, which had me tearing up. An eight year old counted down 1,2,3,4 and Porch started, bringing the regular set to a close. This led to an amazing site, Eddie climbing a speaker stack on Stone's side of the stage, and leading the crowd in a call and response just before the bridge and final chorus. The first encore was built nicely, starting slow with Thumbing My Way and Elderly Woman. Then I noticed Jeff and Stone changing places and I couldn't believe it when Smile started. Man I love that song, it's so joyous, with it's "I miss you already!" refrain. A ripping State of Love and Trust and a goofy Leaving Here finished things off nicely, and when the second encore came, there was no Baba to be found for me (more on my Pearl Jam Baba O'Riley obsession can be found here). There was however, an excellent Bushleaguer, complete with Bush mask and jacket, and a stupid little dance to boot. Ed sang to the mask, and then french kissed it before throwing it into the crowd. A rousing Fu*kin Up closed things out on an unbelieveable first night. July 3rd Ed came out once again before the Buzzcocks, and did You've Got to Hide Your Love Away with his acoustic and harmonica. Once again, the Buzzcocks were too loud, even though I was much farther back this time around, so I had to get up and walk around for a bit. 8:45, house lights go down, and the stage is swathed in purple light. I immediately thought Release, my f*cking song, and the most classic of PJ concert openers, and when the first notes hit, I screamed in pure joy. And this was not going to be no shortened, 3 and a half minute bulls*it version like I got in 2000, no, this was 5 plus minutes of pure Release ecstasy. Animal and Gods Dice followed, but it was Do the Evolution that rocked hardest in the opening salvo. And then, something truly, truly magical happened. "Alright, we're gonna play one we haven't done for a while, it's called Low Light." Haven't done for a while? They had only played it once in a live setting, 2 years ago, and it's a song from the 1998 Yield album. Speaking of said album, Ed actually had the booklet from that album, literally singing the lyrics as he looked at the booklet. It was a gorgeous rendition, they actually nailed it pretty well considering. This was followed by Rival, which made my bud Sheri immensely happy. The most interesting song on Riot Act is definitely You Are, and in a live setting, it works really well, especially with the light show the band gives it. Actually, the band's light show has come a long way in recent years, and while it's nothing over the top or spectacular, it adds so much to some songs (I'll never forget what they did for Nothingman in 2000, the bright red light straight up the middle of the audience for the "into the sun, burn burn" part, that was magical). The reworked version of I Am A Patriot seemed to work better than I remember when I first heard it, and Once sounded absolutely earth shaking. Once was a song I was "eh" on hearing this tour, and you know you're at a good show where even the songs you aren't wild about knock you flat on your a*s. The band lost some steam on the first encore, beginning with Driven to Tears, a Police song originally. They gained it back with Crazy Mary, which was possibly the best performance of both nights. Keyboardist Boom Gaspar and Mike played off each other for what seemed forever, to the point where the rest of the band was just trying to keep up and were just being awed by what Mike and Boom were doing. It was an amazing moment, and the crowd loved it. They lost the crowd again with Soldier of Love, the sister to Last Kiss, but gained them back with the familiar opening to Alive. At this point, the crowd makes or breaks Alive at any given show. The song was put off from setlists for a while due to Roskilde, and the band doesn't rip into it the way they used to. The crowd, as they did the entire time almost for these two shows, floored the band. This led to another extended solo by Mike as the crowd pumped their fists, just chanting "yeah, yeah yeah!" as Mikey just kept going and going. With Alive came the end of the first encore, and the band didn't take long to come back out for the second encore. Eddie stepped up to the mic: "So we'd like to thank all the people who make this show possible, the crew, the sound guys, the lighting guys, the guys who have to take all this sh*t down and do it all over again in Boston next week. We'd also like to thank the Buzzcocks, we're gonna dedicate this next song to them, we're gonna dedicate to it to Joe Strummer, and to Pete Townsend as well." Eddie looks at Mike, and fu*cking Baba O'Riley starts and I'm just going ape-sh*t. 9 years of shows I've been chasing this song, nine years. My friend Mike tried to grab me to hug me but it was too late, I was already bouncing up and down like a 4 year old who just had 10 pixie stix. I shouted out every f*cking line, and it is by far the most unforgettable and happy moment of my concert going life. I'm about 14 hours removed from it as I write this and the smile still has yet to leave my face. Yellow Ledbetter closed things out, but all I kept hearing in my head was "we're all wasted!!!" It took me a while to find Sheri after the show, but we finally did, and the smile on her face was another thing I'll never forget. The pure joy on her face for me was awesome, it reminded me of why I'm doing five shows this tour and traveling to New York next week. 2 shows down, 3 to go. Madison Square Garden, then back home to Boston for a third show, with a promise of no repeats. If you are in the Boston area, go to ticketmaster now and get tickets (they are still available for the July 11th show). Hell, if it sells out, become the guy Eddie is singing about in Not For You, beg borrow steal to get in. It will be worth it... Lastly, have I mentioned lately that I love this f*cking band? July 2nd setlist: preset: Dead Man (Ed solo) set: Oceans, Go, Hail Hail, Save You, Deep, Get Right, Dissident, I Am Mine, Even Flow, Help Help, Immortality, In My Tree, Light Years, Evacuation, Whipping, Grievance, Present Tense, Porch enc 1: Thumbing My Way, Elderly Woman, Smile, State Of Love And Trust, Leaving Here enc 2: Soon Forget, Bushleaguer, F*ckin' Up July 3rd setlist: set: Release, Animal, Gods' Dice, Do The Evolution, Insignificance, Love Boat Captain, I Got Sh*t, Low Light, Rival, Lukin, Not For You, Daughter/(WMA)/(I've Been Tired), You Are, In Hiding, I Am A Patriot, Once, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Driven To Tears, Corduroy, Soldier Of Love, Crazy Mary, Alive enc 2: Baba O'Riley, Yellow Ledbetter  |
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