Thanks! Seeing Ed on the BBC news site made me sex wee a bit :oops:
Too much info Sian!!
Merely a turn of phrase, don't fret pet
Been to this many PJ shows: Reading 2006 London 2007 Manchester & London 2009 Dublin, Belfast, London, Nijmegen & Berlin 2010 Manchester 1 & Manchester 2 2012...
... and I still think Drive-By Truckers are better.
First and last time I ever get called a lady I agree with everything else you said though It's like a "Who's the biggest Pearl Jam Fan" competition sometimes; you can't enjoy the show unless they play songs only ever released to the ten club, on vinyl only in Japan. Was great to hear Brother, but the crowd didn't seem as fired up for that as they did for Alive/Even Flow et al.[/quote]
First post on here (i tend to sit back and watch the 'who's the biggest/most diehard fan' contests start between the people with 4,967,245,597,564,329,465.001 posts each...)
"It's like a "Who's the biggest Pearl Jam Fan" competition sometimes; you can't enjoy the show unless they play songs only ever released to the ten club, on vinyl only in Japan."
Couldn't agree more with the above...
Anyhow, i'd have to agree with the majority in this thread. It was a truly special night, and an absolute privilege to have been there watching the best band in the world, in a venue they could have sold out 15 times over....
Personal highlights:
The End - absolutely awesome, can only hope that the album version retains the same haunting beauty....
Present Tense - incredible....
I got a few videos from the gig tonight, I figured Got Some would be the one people would want to see (All Along The Watchtower with Ronnie Wood is too big a file for youtube ) I hope it's ok to post it?
It's bit jumpy because I was down at the front but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else!
i gotta say the jam at the end of present tense was insane.
Jeff and Mike were flying at it.
I think I crossed over with that song last night, I loved it before but I think I actually 'get it' now. It was just such a beautiful sing along with the crowd and then it took off and went to another level .....
Betterman into Alive (with no break inbetween) was ten intense minutes and my favourite part of the show. I know that they are not 'rarities' but the whole place was jumping and it was nice to turn around and see hundreds of people hanging over those ornate old balconies in that incredible venue, everyone enjoying themselves entirely at the same moment. Happy days
By the way, Paul, was it worth all the effort in the end?
Sounds like you had a near perfect evening good work
Betterman into Alive (with no break inbetween) was ten intense minutes and my favourite part of the show. I know that they are not 'rarities' but the whole place was jumping and it was nice to turn around and see hundreds of people hanging over those ornate old balconies in that incredible venue, everyone enjoying themselves entirely at the same moment. Happy days
And that is exactly why rarity filled setlists aren't always the best option! Bring on the next show already!
The secret to a happy ending is knowing when to roll the credits
i gotta say the jam at the end of present tense was insane.
Jeff and Mike were flying at it.
I think I crossed over with that song last night, I loved it before but I think I actually 'get it' now. It was just such a beautiful sing along with the crowd and then it took off and went to another level .....
Betterman into Alive (with no break inbetween) was ten intense minutes and my favourite part of the show. I know that they are not 'rarities' but the whole place was jumping and it was nice to turn around and see hundreds of people hanging over those ornate old balconies in that incredible venue, everyone enjoying themselves entirely at the same moment. Happy days
By the way, Paul, was it worth all the effort in the end?
Sounds like you had a near perfect evening good work
yes my friend, it was a stunning evening, one I will not easily forget.
you can keep the rarities for me, thats why they are rare, they are not usually that good. Alive (although not something I'm that bothered about hearing after seeing it so many times before and SOLAT) was incredible.
Finally I am home from work and can lay out my thoughts about last night!!
What a show!! Amazing!
Venue was awesome, managed to get front row infront of Mike near Irish Al, Randall and some other guys from on here. Went with my mate Tim who spent the majority of the time sat on the floor pissing people off before the guys came on only to find himself in the middle of 'the pit' when they started, so much for the bad back mate!
Cant believe the intensity of the gig it just went like a rollercoaster from start to finish! Mike was so interactive, got loads of points and smiles and awesome photos! Best of all a pic in the palm of the hand.
Ed was in glorious form! Loved the banter with the crowd and the concern when during Alive half a dozen fans were pulled over the barrier
Loved the new stuff, the fixer was awesome, the end even more so. Brother was ace and I rocked my arse off to GTF. Ronnie Wood, Simon Townshend; both amazing surprises, as were the two songs.
Thats 1/3 of the PJ experience complete, bring on Manchester!
PS - hope the American Girl who moved in front of me is now feeling better and thanks to the security dude at the front for sorting me out with much needed H20!!
I hope some of the people who have posted negative threads about the show because of setlist issues, sound problems, the beer not been cold enough etc are not going to the 02. Because as much as the 02 will be a fantastic night out, nothing will beat SBE for the majority of us in there last night.
If they can moan about last night then lets all look forward to knives being sharpened on Wednesday morning next week.
Rock on!!!!
Seen Pearl Jam 4 times in London, once in Manchester, as well as an Eddie show at Hammersmith.
Wow, I'm shocked by the mixed reactions here. I'd say it was the best PJ show I've seen since I saw them at the ULU back in 1992(which is my favourite ever), it was that good.
My one gripe is that I saw Yusuf Islam aka Cat Stevens there with his son (Eddie even dedicated a song to him), it would have been amazing if he had come out and sung Trouble with him, but it's a small, tiny disappointment to an otherwise perfect show.
Personally, I thought the band was fully of energy and passion, especially Ed. And as for the buzz? Well, I turned up hours early and was speaking to lots of people in the queue and there was huge excitement and anticipation. I just don't get that comment there was no buzz, everyone around me was so happy and excited. And inside, I was up at the front and the sound was amazing where I was and the crowd were literally jumping at times and often singing along, it was completely joyous.
1992 - London ULU 1993 - London Finsbury Park - Brixton Academy x2 1995 - Reading Festival (with Neil Young) 1996 - London Wembley Arena x2 2000 - London Wembley Arena 2006 - Later With Jools Holland - Reading Festival 2007 - London Wembley Arena 2009 - London Shepherd's Bush Empire - O2 Arena 2010 - London Hyde Park 2012 - London Hammersmith Apollo x2 (EV solo)
Last night I was blind drunk and abandoned in the middle of london, yet I still managed to log on here and say my piece. Personally I doubt I will ever see a show that good again. That was a piece of history, and a perfect performance. It was the stones cementing pj into the fabric of british rock and roll. Who wants a rare set list? pearl jam's core material is beyond anything being played today. You know, whygo may just be a nice tune for some people, but for some of us we've actually fucking lived every one of these words.
The energy coming back at ed from the room was phenonmenal When we were singing 'or you can come to terms and realise you're the only one who cannot forgive yourself' it felt like we were carrying him - we were like a big family in a london living room. it could have been 1965, 1985, or 1995, it was timeless communion. Us brits normally have a horrible singing voice at the concerts. Not last night! They gotta release this boot.
Last night's show was all about PROXIMITY and SOUND. it was a setlist of core material. It was bread, cheese, with a little bit of fixing on it. At times I was almost wanting to fall off the balcony into the band. I could see them so clearly and the music was shaking through me and I was checking the friends strangers around me, and we were all fucking ONE.
That was the most beautiful thing i've ever experienced, and it went on for a number of hours. Every single song choice just kept me there.
These songs are my memories, my being, 20 years of life. I feel like a hurricane just blew through them.
god bless pearl jam
WOW buddy. Well said! This is how I felt about the Vic. Glad to hear an epic show was played there for you.
Er, not if you were standing in a central spot it wasn't. I was right near the mixing desk and it was damn near perfect. The only times I couldn't hear Ed's vocals were when the crowd drowned him out on the choruses. There is no real solution to that, other than to crank the volume of everything up even louder, but then there are issues with safe sound levels and stuff.
It kind of irks me that some people can come out from seeing such a strong performance and still pick faults.
yes i can say it was a great show but not the best ive seen,me thinks the astoria just about edged it.
sound was excellent as usual,atmosphere was ok but what the fuck is going on down the front?yeah you know who you are.all you do is sway side to side like a bunch of kids at a take that show!and talk about how many bits of plastic you caught at the end.you guys might be nice people but you look f@@$**g stoopid!
im all for watching the band and having a groove but please ive seen more life in a morgue!
Obviously there is a massive personal experience element for each of us, tied up with our mood when it starts (I got dropped off about 1 hr before the gig and strolled in so was pretty damn mellow and receptive) what the songs mean to us, or whatever we look to our music to do for us. There are many bands I like just for the overall sound of the thing; pearl jam for me is much more personal, connected with the significant meaning in 90% of the songs, which have helped me enormously in dealing with difficult times.
My experience last night was on another level from anything I've ever been through, either musically or otherwise. I've had some terribly intense living nightmares, but this was the antithesis, the intense wonderful dream. The symbolism of it, the meaning of the songs was important, but crucially the FLOW of the show for me, where for whatever reason each song connected and hit me deeper and deeper than the one before, until i was almost completely intoxicated (the fact my ex kept delivering me up beer upon beer may also have helped this hehehe!). My memory of alive and betterman has completely gone, and it's not just the beer - it was just too deep - I can't remember any thing, I'm just staring! I'm blank. It opened me up. Ed's t-shirt looked a bit like it might say pearl jam, but when he took of his shirt it just said FEAR didn't it? He looked really fragile to me, enveloped in his own words and sound. What I respect most about ed performing is I don't believe he goes for the 'script' of the song, but rather tries to connect back with the essential feeling or emotion which generated it. So he seemed shaky in parts, but I read this as his taking off his armour as he always does. Hence in general when he fucks up his lines it often suggests to me he is very wrapped up in his own demons, and being true, rather than seeking polish and perfection. Last night I think I only recall one lyrical 'error' actually - a bit of inside job?
For whatever reason, the occasion, the flow of the setlist, the meaning for me, and I guess the rhythm of the whole evening meant that I had a deeply significant experience, which went WAY beyond the other 4 PJ shows I have seen.
This was also helped by
my view from level 2 - I've never seen the band so clearly even when scrabbling round in the pit close to the stage at wembley 2000. Yesterday the position was tremendous and meant my visual connection was completely sustained. Granted, I am not the kind of guy who will fist fight to be in the front row to get the best view, and queue for 5 hours before. The beauty of SBE was once you were in you were sitting pretty.
The sound - in my ears this was easily the fullest, clearest richest sound of any gig I've attended. It was reverberating off the walls for chrissake! The audience singing and band sound seemed to be collecting right around where the front of the pit was, slightly concave focus. I guess it's true that ed's vocals were somewhat under the mix at times, but sometimes this was because he was being drowned out by the fucking shepherd's bush empire completely engulfing him. In the arena shows I've seen, everything seems very 'horizontal' - the band project out their sound; it disperses out into the the venue, some sound comes back from the audience. It's linear.
Last night seemed more like a 'pool', where the band and audience sound was collecting together, purely by virtue of being in a smaller, packed out, curved room. That lies at the heart of what distinguished this gig for me.
EDIT: found this on youtube. This is almost exactly what I saw. Can you feel the communion?
It was aslmost like a theatre play which is 'in the round', with the actors in the middle of the audience. You get a different effect if the walls aren't nearly so close - if you are in the middle of a 'hangar'. (I've no notion of what astoria or vic were like, i've seen no footage or photos, only sound).
Anyway - I'm not an expert in acoustics, I just know what I saw and heard last night.
The shows I've attended before are Wembley 2000 (x2) - good sound, little quiet on night 1
Dublin 2006 - Great atmosphere,setlist, my favourite gig until SBE, but I was too far back to see and hear at the SBE level.
Wembley 2007 - sound ridiculously loud, sometimes distorting, preferred that to 2000 actually, but was almost too much, not really so refined, bass drum shaking my heart around!
The sound I heard last night was similar to listening on my own hi fi - it was 3 dimensional and rich and whole - (I was just off-centre level 2).
Anyway, sorry to go on and on, I know you guys despair at my overly lengthy posts.
This may shock some people, but I am seeing the band both nights in Seattle in September, and I really don't think me seeing PJ next week in London could add to SBE last night taken together with the 2 seattle, but in fact only detract from the specialness. FOr this reason I have decided I won't be using my 2 fanclub tickets to London 02 (18th August). You guys will know better than me, but I believe it is sometimes possible to get the tenclub to transfer these tickets over to other members. I'm not London based and won't be there next week, so I can't help out in person. If anyone wants me to try and transfer my seats to next week's london show to them, then I will gladly do so, if the tenclub can sort it out. I just want to recoup the face value I paid. (The last 2 days in london have cleaned me out! sometimes a £25 taxi ride makes a lot of sense!) I've no idea what demand would be for my tickets, but PM me if you are interested and I'll try and do my bit to sort it out. I don't know how the allocation / transfer thing works or if this is possible, and this would have been the first year I would have benefited from any seniority or no. my tenclub number is 190xxx - is that how you say it? Help me out here guys, I'm not the professional fanclub member!
Anyway. As I implied before my 4 word review of SBE would simply be
'god bless pearl jam!'
Post edited by tremors on
Cancel my subscription to the Ressurection
Send my credentials to the house of detention
Obviously there is a massive personal experience element for each of us, tied up with our mood when it starts (I got dropped off about 1 hr before the gig and strolled in so was pretty damn mellow and receptive) what the songs mean to us, or whatever we look to our music to do for us. There are many bands I like just for the overall sound of the thing; pearl jam for me is much more personal, connected with the significant meaning in 90% of the songs, which have helped me enormously in dealing with difficult times.
My experience last night was on another level from anything I've ever been through, either musically or otherwise. I've had some terribly intense living nightmares, but this was the antithesis, the intense wonderful dream. The symbolism of it, the meaning of the songs was important, but crucially the FLOW of the show for me, where for whatever reason each song connected and hit me deeper and deeper than the one before, until i was almost completely intoxicated (the fact my ex kept delivering me up beer upon beer may also have helped this hehehe!). My memory of alive and betterman has completely gone, and it's not just the beer - it was just too deep - I can't remember any thing, I'm just staring! I'm blank. It opened me up. Ed's t-shirt looked a bit like it might say pearl jam, but when he took of his shirt it just said FEAR didn't it? He looked really fragile to me, enveloped in his own words and sound. What I respect most about ed performing is I don't believe he goes for the 'script' of the song, but rather tries to connect back with the essential feeling or emotion which generated it. So he seemed shaky in parts, but I read this as his taking off his armour as he always does. Hence in general when he fucks up his lines it often suggests to me he is very wrapped up in his own demons, and being true, rather than seeking polish and perfection. Last night I think I only recall one lyrical 'error' actually - a bit of inside job?
For whatever reason, the occasion, the flow of the setlist, the meaning for me, and I guess the rhythm of the whole evening meant that I had a deeply significant experience, which went WAY beyond the other 4 PJ shows I have seen.
This was also helped by
my view from level 2 - I've never seen the band so clearly even when scrabbling round in the pit close to the stage at wembley 2000. Yesterday the position was tremendous and meant my visual connection was completely sustained. Granted, I am not the kind of guy who will fist fight to be in the front row to get the best view, and queue for 5 hours before. The beauty of SBE was once you were in you were sitting pretty.
The sound - in my ears this was easily the fullest, clearest richest sound of any gig I've attended. It was reverberating off the walls for chrissake! The audience singing and band sound seemed to be collecting right around where the front of the pit was, slightly concave focus. I guess it's true that ed's vocals were somewhat under the mix at times, but sometimes this was because he was being drowned out by the fucking shepherd's bush empire completely engulfing him. In the arena shows I've seen, everything seems very 'horizontal' - the band project out their sound; it disperses out into the the venue, some sound comes back from the audience. It's linear.
Last night seemed more like a 'pool', where the band and audience sound was collecting together, purely by virtue of being in a smaller, packed out, curved room. That lies at the heart of what distinguished this gig for me. It was almost like a theatre play which is 'in the round', with the actors in the middle of the audience. You get a different effect if the walls aren't nearly so close - if you are in the middle of a 'hangar'. (I've no notion of what astoria or vic were like, i've seen no footage or photos, only sound).
Anyway - I'm not an expert in acoustics, I just know what I saw and heard last night.
The shows I've attended before are Wembley 2000 (x2) - good sound, little quiet on night 1
Dublin 2006 - Great atmosphere,setlist, my favourite gig until SBE, but I was too far back to see and hear at the SBE level.
Wembley 2007 - sound ridiculously loud, sometimes distorting, preferred that to 2000 actually, but was almost too much, not really so refined, bass drum shaking my heart around!
The sound I heard last night was similar to listening on my own hi fi - it was 3 dimensional and rich and whole - (I was just off-centre level 2).
Anyway, sorry to go on and on, I know you guys despair at my overly lengthy posts.
This may shock some people, but I am seeing the band both nights in Seattle in September, and I really don't think me seeing PJ next week in London could add to SBE last night taken together with the 2 seattle, but in fact only detract from the specialness. FOr this reason I have decided I won't be using my 2 fanclub tickets to London 02 (18th August). You guys will know better than me, but I believe it is sometimes possible to get the tenclub to transfer these tickets over to other members. I'm not London based and won't be there next week, so I can't help out in person. If anyone wants me to try and transfer my seats to next week's london show to them, then I will gladly do so, if the tenclub can sort it out. I just want to recoup the face value I paid. (The last 2 days in london have cleaned me out! sometimes a £25 taxi ride makes a lot of sense!) I've no idea what demand would be for my tickets, but PM me if you are interested and I'll try and do my bit to sort it out. I don't know how the allocation / transfer thing works or if this is possible, and this would have been the first year I would have benefited from any seniority or no. my tenclub number is 190xxx - is that how you say it? Help me out here guys, I'm not the professional fanclub member!
Anyway. As I implied before my 4 word review of SBE would simply be
Just to clarify. I said I felt it was a good gig but not great. I've seen PJ a number of times, here in the UK, in the US and in Europe and I just felt they were a yard or two off the pace. The Astoria ranks as my all time most memorable gig (and I have been to hundreds, since 1978). Last night just didn't scale those heights for me.
As for guest spots, they can be great. I saw Johnny Marr play RITFW with the band at a small theatre show in Portland, Oregon about 3 years ago and that was great. Marr talks about music with a fans affection and love and it shows in his playing. I have never heard Ronnie Wood talk about music with the same passion (plus he is not a very good guitar player really anyway, certainly not a match for Marr, and before anyone asks, I am not a great fan of the Smiths) My point was actually the commercial nature of the Rolling Stones, i,e. to me it seems all about the money.
I'll be in Berlin on Saturday and the O2 next Tuesday. I know they will be good gigs, maybe even great. Here's hoping. Sometimes when bands play they themselves know when it has all come together. I recall PJ saying that they felt Cardiff on 2000 was a real highlight and I was there that night and it was fantastic. I'd seen them in Manchester a couple of days previously and it didn't quite happen for them. I just feel the sense of occasion surrounding the Astoria gig was more intense and I feel the band's performance that night reflected that. It is a pity that many here feel that if we don't pay total homage or if we dare to voice our opinions that somehow makes us lesser fans. I think the opposite is true. Once you lose your objectivity it just becomes blind acceptance (as someone once sang! lol). If anyone wants to debate the pro's and cons over a few beers in Berlin on Friday or Saturday come say hello!
London Wembley Arena - Oct 28, 1996; Manchester Evening News Arena - Jun 04, 2000; ; ; Cardiff Arena - Jun 06, 2000; Seattle Key Arena - Dec 09, 2002; ; London Astoria - Apr 20, 2006; Portland Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall - Jul 20, 2006; Berlin Wuhlheide - Sep 23, 2006; London Wembley Arena - Jun 18, 2007; London Shepherd's Bush Empire - Aug 11, 2009; Berlin Wuhlheide - Aug 15, 2009; London O2 Arena - Aug 18, 2009; London Hyde Park - June 25, 2010; Berlin Wulheide - June 30, 2010; Alpine Valley PJ20 East Troy - Sep 03, 2011; Alpine Valley PJ20 East Troy - Sep 04, 2011; Berlin O2 Arena - July 04, 2012; Barclays Center, Brooklyn - October 18, 2013; Barclays Center, Brooklyn - October 19, 2013; San Siro, Milan - June 20, 2014; Milton Keynes - July 11, 2014; Central Park, New York - September 26, 2015; Maracana, Rio de Janeiro -November 22, 2015
I just feel the sense of occasion surrounding the Astoria gig was more intense and I feel the band's performance that night reflected that. It is a pity that many here feel that if we don't pay total homage or if we dare to voice our opinions that somehow makes us lesser fans. I think the opposite is true. Once you lose your objectivity it just becomes blind acceptance (as someone once sang! lol). If anyone wants to debate the pro's and cons over a few beers in Berlin on Friday or Saturday come say hello!
With respect, I think it's a pity that some people are arrogant enough to believe that their personal experience is somehow fact. I'm not blindly accepting anything. The Astoria gig was great for a number of reasons, not least because they hadn't played here in six years. But, it was a short show, probably a bit too much new material for my liking too. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, but last night's show had a better set list in my opinion. I think the band and audience seemed really into it, there were some truly incredible moments, the sound was great from where I was standing, what's not to like?
I think it's odd that you would talk about blind acceptance and losing objectivity when you are putting forth nothing other than your own experience and opinion.
Comments
Merely a turn of phrase, don't fret pet
... and I still think Drive-By Truckers are better.
quite right!!!
So happy i dropped a small fortune on the tickets!
Better than Astoria??? Well it was close...
Here's my link to Do The Evolution...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q61dOqGzEOs
28/09/04 - Boston, 20/04/06 - London [\\mm//Astoria\\mm//] - 18/06/07 - Wembley Arena, 11/08/09 - London [\\mm//Shepherds Bush Empire\\mm//],18/08/09 - 02 Arena, 25/06/10 - Hyde Park, 26/06/12 - Amsterdam, 27/06/12 - Amsterdam, 08/07/14 - Leeds,11/07/14 - Milton Keynes, 13/06/18 - Amsterdam, 18/06/18 - London 02 Arena, 17/07/18 - London 02 Arena, 08/08/22 - Hyde Park, 9/08/22 - Hyde Park - 25/08/22 - Amsterdam, 29/07/24 - London {*Tottenham Stadium TBC*}
"It's like a "Who's the biggest Pearl Jam Fan" competition sometimes; you can't enjoy the show unless they play songs only ever released to the ten club, on vinyl only in Japan."
Couldn't agree more with the above...
Anyhow, i'd have to agree with the majority in this thread. It was a truly special night, and an absolute privilege to have been there watching the best band in the world, in a venue they could have sold out 15 times over....
Personal highlights:
The End - absolutely awesome, can only hope that the album version retains the same haunting beauty....
Present Tense - incredible....
Jeff and Mike were flying at it.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard- ... d=23371133
That would be this video then:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video ... 3993605635
Folks these days just don't do nothing simple for the love of it
>
...a lover and a fighter.
"I'm at least half a bum" Rocky Balboa
http://www.videosift.com/video/Obamas-Message-To-American-Indians
Edmonton, AB. September 5th, 2005
Vancouver, BC. April 3rd, 2008
Calgary,AB. August 8th, 2009
The few pics I got that even remotely came out!
I think I crossed over with that song last night, I loved it before but I think I actually 'get it' now. It was just such a beautiful sing along with the crowd and then it took off and went to another level .....
Betterman into Alive (with no break inbetween) was ten intense minutes and my favourite part of the show. I know that they are not 'rarities' but the whole place was jumping and it was nice to turn around and see hundreds of people hanging over those ornate old balconies in that incredible venue, everyone enjoying themselves entirely at the same moment. Happy days
By the way, Paul, was it worth all the effort in the end?
Sounds like you had a near perfect evening
And that is exactly why rarity filled setlists aren't always the best option! Bring on the next show already!
Pearl Jam, Shepherd's Bush Empire - review
yes my friend, it was a stunning evening, one I will not easily forget.
you can keep the rarities for me, thats why they are rare, they are not usually that good. Alive (although not something I'm that bothered about hearing after seeing it so many times before and SOLAT) was incredible.
Present Tense is such a cool song to hear live... The jam at the end always rocks
Really glad you got in there and got to meet the band on top of that!
Oh and since when is having guests on stage selling out? Punk bands do it all the time... I guess they're a bunch of sellouts.
I enjoyed the setlist and I finally got to meet EV, Stone and Boom.
Got Stone & Boom to sign my poster. Shook hands with Ed.
Good times!!
Great to meet up with the Pearl Jam crew from here. Looking forward to meeting everyone again on Mon!
In the space of 10mins I had Jeff throw his pick right at me and then Mike so happy days.
Al only got 5 Mike Picks :shock:
He's at home making a necklace now!
Lisbon '06 (x2)
Katowice '07
London '07 '09 (x2), '10
MSG NY '08 (x2)
Manchester '09 '12
Belfast '10
PJ20 Alpine '11 (x2)
Leeds '14
Al.. it was my birthday very recently....
What a show!! Amazing!
Venue was awesome, managed to get front row infront of Mike near Irish Al, Randall and some other guys from on here. Went with my mate Tim who spent the majority of the time sat on the floor pissing people off before the guys came on only to find himself in the middle of 'the pit' when they started, so much for the bad back mate!
Cant believe the intensity of the gig it just went like a rollercoaster from start to finish! Mike was so interactive, got loads of points and smiles and awesome photos! Best of all a pic in the palm of the hand.
Ed was in glorious form! Loved the banter with the crowd and the concern when during Alive half a dozen fans were pulled over the barrier
Loved the new stuff, the fixer was awesome, the end even more so. Brother was ace and I rocked my arse off to GTF. Ronnie Wood, Simon Townshend; both amazing surprises, as were the two songs.
Thats 1/3 of the PJ experience complete, bring on Manchester!
PS - hope the American Girl who moved in front of me is now feeling better and thanks to the security dude at the front for sorting me out with much needed H20!!
If they can moan about last night then lets all look forward to knives being sharpened on Wednesday morning next week.
Seen Pearl Jam 4 times in London, once in Manchester, as well as an Eddie show at Hammersmith.
My one gripe is that I saw Yusuf Islam aka Cat Stevens there with his son (Eddie even dedicated a song to him), it would have been amazing if he had come out and sung Trouble with him, but it's a small, tiny disappointment to an otherwise perfect show.
Personally, I thought the band was fully of energy and passion, especially Ed. And as for the buzz? Well, I turned up hours early and was speaking to lots of people in the queue and there was huge excitement and anticipation. I just don't get that comment there was no buzz, everyone around me was so happy and excited. And inside, I was up at the front and the sound was amazing where I was and the crowd were literally jumping at times and often singing along, it was completely joyous.
1993 - London Finsbury Park - Brixton Academy x2
1995 - Reading Festival (with Neil Young)
1996 - London Wembley Arena x2
2000 - London Wembley Arena
2006 - Later With Jools Holland - Reading Festival
2007 - London Wembley Arena
2009 - London Shepherd's Bush Empire - O2 Arena
2010 - London Hyde Park
2012 - London Hammersmith Apollo x2 (EV solo)
WOW buddy. Well said! This is how I felt about the Vic. Glad to hear an epic show was played there for you.
ROCK ON PJ
Lets hope next week is an awesome gig. Although any gig is gonna have to go some to beat Brixton Academy '93
Er, not if you were standing in a central spot it wasn't. I was right near the mixing desk and it was damn near perfect. The only times I couldn't hear Ed's vocals were when the crowd drowned him out on the choruses. There is no real solution to that, other than to crank the volume of everything up even louder, but then there are issues with safe sound levels and stuff.
It kind of irks me that some people can come out from seeing such a strong performance and still pick faults.
I expect a pint of shandy (coz I'm a lightweight) at manchester or london
Taaaaa
EDIT::::All gone
2007 ░▒▓ London, Dusseldorf, Copenhagen, Nijmegen
2009 ░▒▓ Manchester, London
2010 ░▒▓ Hyde Park
*§* Music is all the juice i'll need *§*
sound was excellent as usual,atmosphere was ok but what the fuck is going on down the front?yeah you know who you are.all you do is sway side to side like a bunch of kids at a take that show!and talk about how many bits of plastic you caught at the end.you guys might be nice people but you look f@@$**g stoopid!
im all for watching the band and having a groove but please ive seen more life in a morgue!
I disagree, the setlist last night was way better than the Astoria show.
My experience last night was on another level from anything I've ever been through, either musically or otherwise. I've had some terribly intense living nightmares, but this was the antithesis, the intense wonderful dream. The symbolism of it, the meaning of the songs was important, but crucially the FLOW of the show for me, where for whatever reason each song connected and hit me deeper and deeper than the one before, until i was almost completely intoxicated (the fact my ex kept delivering me up beer upon beer may also have helped this hehehe!). My memory of alive and betterman has completely gone, and it's not just the beer - it was just too deep - I can't remember any thing, I'm just staring! I'm blank. It opened me up. Ed's t-shirt looked a bit like it might say pearl jam, but when he took of his shirt it just said FEAR didn't it? He looked really fragile to me, enveloped in his own words and sound. What I respect most about ed performing is I don't believe he goes for the 'script' of the song, but rather tries to connect back with the essential feeling or emotion which generated it. So he seemed shaky in parts, but I read this as his taking off his armour as he always does. Hence in general when he fucks up his lines it often suggests to me he is very wrapped up in his own demons, and being true, rather than seeking polish and perfection. Last night I think I only recall one lyrical 'error' actually - a bit of inside job?
For whatever reason, the occasion, the flow of the setlist, the meaning for me, and I guess the rhythm of the whole evening meant that I had a deeply significant experience, which went WAY beyond the other 4 PJ shows I have seen.
This was also helped by
my view from level 2 - I've never seen the band so clearly even when scrabbling round in the pit close to the stage at wembley 2000. Yesterday the position was tremendous and meant my visual connection was completely sustained. Granted, I am not the kind of guy who will fist fight to be in the front row to get the best view, and queue for 5 hours before. The beauty of SBE was once you were in you were sitting pretty.
The sound - in my ears this was easily the fullest, clearest richest sound of any gig I've attended. It was reverberating off the walls for chrissake! The audience singing and band sound seemed to be collecting right around where the front of the pit was, slightly concave focus. I guess it's true that ed's vocals were somewhat under the mix at times, but sometimes this was because he was being drowned out by the fucking shepherd's bush empire completely engulfing him. In the arena shows I've seen, everything seems very 'horizontal' - the band project out their sound; it disperses out into the the venue, some sound comes back from the audience. It's linear.
Last night seemed more like a 'pool', where the band and audience sound was collecting together, purely by virtue of being in a smaller, packed out, curved room. That lies at the heart of what distinguished this gig for me.
EDIT: found this on youtube. This is almost exactly what I saw. Can you feel the communion?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04HX-TFR5Ls
It was aslmost like a theatre play which is 'in the round', with the actors in the middle of the audience. You get a different effect if the walls aren't nearly so close - if you are in the middle of a 'hangar'. (I've no notion of what astoria or vic were like, i've seen no footage or photos, only sound).
Anyway - I'm not an expert in acoustics, I just know what I saw and heard last night.
The shows I've attended before are Wembley 2000 (x2) - good sound, little quiet on night 1
Dublin 2006 - Great atmosphere,setlist, my favourite gig until SBE, but I was too far back to see and hear at the SBE level.
Wembley 2007 - sound ridiculously loud, sometimes distorting, preferred that to 2000 actually, but was almost too much, not really so refined, bass drum shaking my heart around!
The sound I heard last night was similar to listening on my own hi fi - it was 3 dimensional and rich and whole - (I was just off-centre level 2).
Anyway, sorry to go on and on, I know you guys despair at my overly lengthy posts.
This may shock some people, but I am seeing the band both nights in Seattle in September, and I really don't think me seeing PJ next week in London could add to SBE last night taken together with the 2 seattle, but in fact only detract from the specialness. FOr this reason I have decided I won't be using my 2 fanclub tickets to London 02 (18th August). You guys will know better than me, but I believe it is sometimes possible to get the tenclub to transfer these tickets over to other members. I'm not London based and won't be there next week, so I can't help out in person. If anyone wants me to try and transfer my seats to next week's london show to them, then I will gladly do so, if the tenclub can sort it out. I just want to recoup the face value I paid. (The last 2 days in london have cleaned me out! sometimes a £25 taxi ride makes a lot of sense!) I've no idea what demand would be for my tickets, but PM me if you are interested and I'll try and do my bit to sort it out. I don't know how the allocation / transfer thing works or if this is possible, and this would have been the first year I would have benefited from any seniority or no. my tenclub number is 190xxx - is that how you say it? Help me out here guys, I'm not the professional fanclub member!
Anyway. As I implied before my 4 word review of SBE would simply be
'god bless pearl jam!'
Send my credentials to the house of detention
Top that, awesome post!
As for guest spots, they can be great. I saw Johnny Marr play RITFW with the band at a small theatre show in Portland, Oregon about 3 years ago and that was great. Marr talks about music with a fans affection and love and it shows in his playing. I have never heard Ronnie Wood talk about music with the same passion (plus he is not a very good guitar player really anyway, certainly not a match for Marr, and before anyone asks, I am not a great fan of the Smiths) My point was actually the commercial nature of the Rolling Stones, i,e. to me it seems all about the money.
I'll be in Berlin on Saturday and the O2 next Tuesday. I know they will be good gigs, maybe even great. Here's hoping. Sometimes when bands play they themselves know when it has all come together. I recall PJ saying that they felt Cardiff on 2000 was a real highlight and I was there that night and it was fantastic. I'd seen them in Manchester a couple of days previously and it didn't quite happen for them. I just feel the sense of occasion surrounding the Astoria gig was more intense and I feel the band's performance that night reflected that. It is a pity that many here feel that if we don't pay total homage or if we dare to voice our opinions that somehow makes us lesser fans. I think the opposite is true. Once you lose your objectivity it just becomes blind acceptance (as someone once sang! lol). If anyone wants to debate the pro's and cons over a few beers in Berlin on Friday or Saturday come say hello!
With respect, I think it's a pity that some people are arrogant enough to believe that their personal experience is somehow fact. I'm not blindly accepting anything. The Astoria gig was great for a number of reasons, not least because they hadn't played here in six years. But, it was a short show, probably a bit too much new material for my liking too. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, but last night's show had a better set list in my opinion. I think the band and audience seemed really into it, there were some truly incredible moments, the sound was great from where I was standing, what's not to like?
I think it's odd that you would talk about blind acceptance and losing objectivity when you are putting forth nothing other than your own experience and opinion.