Great live rock shows are amazing experiences (and quite rare if you live in a country where this summer's shows where made of Deep Purple and Paul McCartney, in their before the grave tours...).
You do your best to try and saver the energy and atmosphere of the show.
Well Pearl Jam fans don't have this problem as for the last few years the band releases CDs of all their live shows !
"The Official Bootleg program" its called. Funny - official and bootleg usually don't go together, its like health and McDonald's (but that also seems to work for some people).
Pearl Jam are still one of the top bands in my opinion (they say what you listen to when you're in high school sticks for ever).
Although their last albums aren't as good as their earlier ones , when they go live they are number one!
I just got the CDs of the two shows I saw at the Madison square Garden this June and I have to say it takes you back to those amazing experiences...
First show , June 24. I get to the Garden and I have to scalp one ticket, a few minutes of fear (where everyone looks like an undercover NYPD cop) and I sell it for face value ( so no bad karma).
Waiting for the show to start I talk to some guys who came from Italy for the shows (though for them it's not their first PJ show) . After taunting them on Italy's football (soccer for you Americans) team poor performance in the Euro the ushers kick us to our real seats...
The show starts with "Hard to imagine" as PJ prefer quite starters as though to ease the crowd (and maybe themselves) into the show.
The show continues with "save you" ,"why go" and "all night" where Eddie calls up a backup vocals trio to help, which gives the song an even more rock'n'rollish fill. They will come back for couple of more songs during the shows.
The energy in the Garden is amazing and for those of you who saw PJ's live in NY DVD from a couple of years ago you might remember Eddie saying they felt the stage rocking and it scared the hell out them. well it moved again... and again (I felt it the most in the second show where I set right behind the stage), its an amazing feeling when you feel the whole building move as you jump around.
Madison square garden proves it self again as a great venue and the atmosphere is great, I never thought such a big place can be filled with "pot" smoke but apparently it can! it even got to the guys on stage as Eddie changed a line in "given to fly" from "had a smoke under a tree" to "had a joint under a tree".
Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready continue to wow the crowd, Ed with his amazing vocals and Mike with his amazing guitar solo (In the first show he plays the whole "even flow" solo with the guitar behind his head!) .
PJ's set lists are amazing and the band puts a lot of thought into each set list.
Its astonishing how much the set lists vary in each show, they played around 30+ songs in each of those two shows and you can match only about 10 songs between them!
The shows go on with old, new, fast, slow, classics, b-sides and covers (The shows also feature CJ Ramone on the Ramone's "I believe in miracles" and Ace Frehley of Kiss on "Black Diamond").
I read some people complain on the bootlegs sound, well it isn't as good as "live at the Gorge".
But I have no complaints, I could finally understand all of Eddie Vedder's mumbling between the songs (and boy does he talk a lot!).
All in all kick ass shows! and the bootlegs take me back to them each time I listen to them.
MSG June 25th, performing "last kiss" for the backstage guys (where I sat at that show) and then going into "why go":
You do your best to try and saver the energy and atmosphere of the show.
But the memory fades as time goes. Not much you can do about that, right?
Well Pearl Jam fans don't have this problem as for the last few years the band releases CDs of all their live shows !
"The Official Bootleg program" its called. Funny - official and bootleg usually don't go together, its like health and McDonald's (but that also seems to work for some people).
Pearl Jam are still one of the top bands in my opinion (they say what you listen to when you're in high school sticks for ever).
Although their last albums aren't as good as their earlier ones , when they go live they are number one!
I just got the CDs of the two shows I saw at the Madison square Garden this June and I have to say it takes you back to those amazing experiences...
First show , June 24. I get to the Garden and I have to scalp one ticket, a few minutes of fear (where everyone looks like an undercover NYPD cop) and I sell it for face value ( so no bad karma).
Waiting for the show to start I talk to some guys who came from Italy for the shows (though for them it's not their first PJ show) . After taunting them on Italy's football (soccer for you Americans) team poor performance in the Euro the ushers kick us to our real seats...
The show starts with "Hard to imagine" as PJ prefer quite starters as though to ease the crowd (and maybe themselves) into the show.
The show continues with "save you" ,"why go" and "all night" where Eddie calls up a backup vocals trio to help, which gives the song an even more rock'n'rollish fill. They will come back for couple of more songs during the shows.
The energy in the Garden is amazing and for those of you who saw PJ's live in NY DVD from a couple of years ago you might remember Eddie saying they felt the stage rocking and it scared the hell out them. well it moved again... and again (I felt it the most in the second show where I set right behind the stage), its an amazing feeling when you feel the whole building move as you jump around.
Madison square garden proves it self again as a great venue and the atmosphere is great, I never thought such a big place can be filled with "pot" smoke but apparently it can! it even got to the guys on stage as Eddie changed a line in "given to fly" from "had a smoke under a tree" to "had a joint under a tree".
Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready continue to wow the crowd, Ed with his amazing vocals and Mike with his amazing guitar solo (In the first show he plays the whole "even flow" solo with the guitar behind his head!) .
PJ's set lists are amazing and the band puts a lot of thought into each set list.
Its astonishing how much the set lists vary in each show, they played around 30+ songs in each of those two shows and you can match only about 10 songs between them!
The shows go on with old, new, fast, slow, classics, b-sides and covers (The shows also feature CJ Ramone on the Ramone's "I believe in miracles" and Ace Frehley of Kiss on "Black Diamond").
I read some people complain on the bootlegs sound, well it isn't as good as "live at the Gorge".
But I have no complaints, I could finally understand all of Eddie Vedder's mumbling between the songs (and boy does he talk a lot!).
All in all kick ass shows! and the bootlegs take me back to them each time I listen to them.
MSG June 25th, performing "last kiss" for the backstage guys (where I sat at that show) and then going into "why go":
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