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Pearl Jam: New York, Madison Square Garden, 7/8-9/03Jul 13 '03 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Ben Harper people, that's all I have to say.
Part two of three... There is a certain, shall I say, romance, that exists between Pearl Jam and New York City. It all started in 1996, when the band played what was their longest show ever at the time at Randall's Island. To this day, that show lives on in Pearl Jam lore, not just because of how long it was, but because of the speeches made (namely, Eddie's fierce response to the Rolling Stone "expose" on him). Then, in 1998, Pearl Jam played Madison Square Garden for the first time, and brought the house down on their second night there, blasting Third Eye Blind before covering Baba O'Riley and then closing the night out with Alive, with Eddie swinging his microphone around the lighting rig and climbing up the mic cord. In 2000, they played 3 nights at Jones Beach, but most fans felt that those shows were disappointing, given what had been expected. The band obviously felt this way too, as they chose to go back to the Garden for this tour, and originally, the two Garden shows were to close out the tour (other shows were added, to the chagrin of people who had made specific travel plans to catch the "last" shows of the tour, and to people who romanticized the theory of Madison Square Garden and a huge fan club contingent rocking the house). I travelled to New York this week to see these shows. It was the greatest trip of my life. Here's why: July 8th We rushed into the Garden expecting Ed to do a pre-set song again, but there was none, which annoyed me a little bit since I was rushed through my food to get to the venue for the expected "pre-set." I had no interest in sitting through the overly loud Buzzcocks (karma came back to bite me in the a*s, as Ed, Jeff and Mike joined them for their last song), so me and some friends hung out together in the lobby. Once the Buzzcocks were off the stage and a small amount of time had passed, we headed in and went our separate ways. I was in section 65, in the corner, half side stage, half behind it. What an amazing seat (thanks Sheri!), 3 rows from the stage, with a nice view (although not totally clear) of Mike's tech's setlist for the night. The band finally comes out, and the setlist says "LBC" which can only mean we're in for some love, Love Boat Captain style. I wasn't sure about this song as an opener, especially compared to the "classic" openers like Release or Long Road, but it works pretty well. After a pair of good rockers (Last Exit and Save You), the band went into Green Disease, which sounded very much off. The new version of In My Tree sounded even tighter than it had last week, but then Cropduster killed any momentum. I like Cropduster, but I totally see why people called it a crowd killer. Perhaps the band realized this too, and that's why Even Flow was next on the setlist. To be honest, I thought the main set was somewhat pedestrian. A gorgeous Low Light, in only its second performance of the tour, sounded much better than Black, which is seriously lacking the goods this tour, mostly due to the crappy guitar Stone is using on it. And quite frankly, anytime Wishlist (complete with a bit of the Buzzcocks Why Can't I Touch It at the end) is a set highlight, well...the set wasn't bad, just not much made it stand out from any other set on tour. We were wondering if they were saving it all up for night 2. Boy were we wrong. You Are opened the first encore and had the place dancing, damn that song is funky and bada*s live. But then, here comes the penultimate set killer: Thumbing My Way. Then we move into Daughter, always a crowd pleaser but a song that all depended on how the "tags" went. Ed started singing some lines from Ben Harper's With My Own Two Hands at the end for this "tag," but then amazing moment #1 happened: Ben himself came out to sing it. I couldn't believe my eyes, Pearl Jam, Ben Harper, one stage. After singing a couple lines of his own song, Ben simply stated "this is the greatest band in the world," and from that point forward, Madison Square Garden, night 1, 2003, was on it's way to being one of the two best shows of the 2003 tour. It took me a few seconds to realize what the hell the band was playing next, but then I realized and I just about crapped myself. To steal a line from my friend Mike, "they didn't just play Crown of Thorns, that didn't happen." Oh, but it did happen, the one Mother Love Bone song worth a damn, and only the second performance of it on this entire tour (Steve, you lucky bastard). As if that hadn't whipped the crowd into a frenzy, then they go into Breath, and they f*cking nailed it. This wasn't no 1998/2000 version where they're playing it because a sh*tload of people want them to, they're playing it because they want to. Better Man followed, with the crowd singing the first two verses and the first chorus for Eddie, and then, like a freight train that can't be stopped, here comes Evolution, and the place is just going absolutely apesh*t, I've never heard a crowd so loud in my life. Second encore time, and Ed starts talking about what venue staff was telling him. "We had a scary moment there during that last song, uh, we felt the stage shaking, but it's perfectly ok. In fact it's kind of cool. Uh, I guess it's only shook like that for 3 other artists in the history of Madison Square Garden: The Grateful Dead, Iron Maiden (Mike throws in a bit of the Number of the Beast riff), and Bruce Springsteen." Of course, the mere mention of Bruce's name caused another eruption. With that, Crazy Mary started, and while I still like the song, this, along with Elderly Woman, is by far the overplayed song of the tour. And then Ben Harper came back out, and Indifference started, and a whole lot of people were beside themselves. So many people love this song, so many people who follow the band around to 20-30 shows a tour, and so many don't get it, it's just not played, but EVERY tour kid was there, and to see it with Ben was nothing short of magical. With a dedication to Joe Strummer, the band brought out the Buzzcocks bassist and did a positively breakneck version of Sonic Reducer, but by then, the fun had just begun. "We'd like to thank the Buzzcocks, this is their last night on the tour, uh, without them, who knows, we might sound like...Good Charlotte or something. Oh come on, they aren't that bad. I mean, they're like having a popsicle shoved up your a*s. Some people are into that. So this one's for John and for Pete." And they break into Baba again, and now I'm completely losing it, two shows in a row with Baba, and this version completely smoked the one in Boston the week before. Crowd just went completely nuts, and Mike and Jeff were chasing each other around in circles, there is nothing better than seeing all of them having fun. After Baba, everyone had left the stage except for Mike and Eddie. Eddie was getting ready to leave but Mike just stood there. He wanted to do Yellow Ledbetter, and that's what he did. What an unbelievable night it was. Unfortunately night 2 couldn't top it... July 9 I watched Sleater-Kinney, and man, do they suck. Those voices of theirs makes me want to pull my hair out and commit mass murder (well, mass murder of Sleater-Kinney anyways). I gave them an honest chance, and to be honest, the music wasn't bad, but that voice, *shiver*. I was fully expecting Release tonight, but they opened with Crazy Mary instead. Blech. Again, most overplayed song of the tour. But the band made up for it, crashing through Save You, Hail Hail and Whipping. I could see my bud Sheri in the front row (yes, the very front row) bouncing up and down like a maniac to Whipping. And then Corduroy started. Corduroy has gotten very stale on recent tours, due to the fact that it's played EVERY night almost. But tonight, Corduroy was f*cking Corduroy, by far the best version of the thing I've heard in a very long time. The f*cked up song of the night was Get Right, which sounded terrible. What didn't sound terrible was Given to Fly, which I finally got to hear again after 3 shows without it. After a rambunctious Even Flow, Eddie called one of the Ramones, so he could hear a Ramones song being played in Madison Square Garden. Unfortunately, Eddie's little plan didn't work out, so he had to leave a message, and the band kicked through I Believe in Miracles. After a gorgeous Present Tense (the most welcome regular setlist comeback song of the tour), the band played a heart breaking rendition of Nothingman, and then closed out the main set with blistering versions of State of Love and Trust and Porch, which featured a huge call and response part between Eddie and the crowd. At this point, I think everyone thought the band had a chance to outdo the night before, that's how good the main set was. But the encores felt rushed, and it all seemed to end rather abruptly. It started with Ed coming out alone with an acoustic guitar. He started talking about the fan club, and the tremendous fan club turnout for these two shows, and then he started talking about letters he gets from people who talk about making friends at shows, and then they go to 5 shows together and become friends and sometimes even lovers. It was so cool to hear him talk about this, because in a way he was talking about me, my friends, and a bunch of the other tour kids. With that he went into You've Got to Hide Your Love Away. Elderly Woman was next, and you could just feel the show kind of dragging to a halt. The band got things going again with Glorified G, but when they sat down to play All Or None, any momentum completely died. All or None is not one of my favorite Riot Act tracks, and I appreciate the fact that I got to hear it not once, but twice (when huge fans of the song never got it at their shows), but it killed this set. Evolution again, and this primed the crowd for what was next, even if it seemed completely abrupt: Alive. At this point, as I said before, the crowd makes or breaks Alive, and this crowd made it. An unbelievable solo by Mike, and what seemed to be a neverending chant of "yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah," it just kept going and going. The band started the second encore with Go, and I thought to myself "yes, maybe they are going to play a ton more." But then the band went into their cover of the Clash's Know Your Rights, a terrible Clash song and an even worse cover of it. It does fit in with the whole point of the Riot Act tour, but Bushleaguer with the mask is a much better statement. After Rights, Rockin in the Free World started, and it was a good version, but it was kind of like "huh? already?" Yellow Ledbetter closed things out, and just like that, it was over. New York was over, my trip was just about over, and it all seemed so fast. I had an amazing time, and even though the first night was better than the second, the second night was still a very good show. But nothing would compare to the third night in Boston...that much was obvious with the news we got in New York: the band was playing an hour "mellow" set. With that news, it was off to Boston 3... Best sign award: "Play Leash you p*ssies!" Setlists for 7/8 and 7/9: 7/8 Set List: Love Boat Captain, Last Exit, Save You, Green Disease, In My Tree, Cropduster, Even Flow, Gimme Some Truth, I Am Mine, Low Light, Faithfull, Wishlist/(Why Can't I Touch It?), Lukin, Grievance, 1/2 Full, Black, Spin The Black Circle, Rearviewmirror; 1st encore: You Are, Thumbing My Way, Daughter/(With My Own Two Hands featuring Ben Harper), Crown Of Thorns, Breath, Better Man, Do The Evolution; 2nd encore: Crazy Mary, Indifference with Ben Harper, Sonic Reducer with Tony from the Buzzcocks, Baba O'Riley, Yellow Ledbetter 7/9 Set List: Crazy Mary, Save You, Hail Hail, Whipping, Corduroy, Red Mosquito, Dissident, I Am Mine, Get Right, Given To Fly, Evacuation, Even Flow, I Believe In Miracles, Untitled/MFC, Deep, Present Tense, Nothingman, State Of Love And Trust, Porch; 1st encore: You've Got To Hide Your Love Away, Small Town, Glorified G, All Or None, Do The Evolution, Alive; 2nd encore: Go, Know Your Rights, Rockin' In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter  |
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