Great thread. I have heard from a pretty reliable person that all systems were go at one point on the Philly 4 DVD and they decided to abandon it to focus on the future. Is there any chance we will see that some day, especially with the spectrum in the process of being torn down. The demolition is scheduled to end in April I believe so what better time to release a DVD of it's final show.
Great thread. I have heard from a pretty reliable person that all systems were go at one point on the Philly 4 DVD and they decided to abandon it to focus on the future. Is there any chance we will see that some day, especially with the spectrum in the process of being torn down. The demolition is scheduled to end in April I believe so what better time to release a DVD of it's final show.
These are the type of questions we need to ask.....
The underground version will have to hold us over for now....
Hey, Heavy Hands, how about making the un-answered questions in bold, and the answered questions regular. Might make it easier for a caller to quickly choose questions, and be sure not to confuse answered for unanswered.
ADD 5,200 to the post count you see, thank you.
*NYC 9/28/96 *NYC 9/29/96 *NJ 9/8/98 (front row "may i play drums with you")
*MSG 9/10/98 (backstage) *MSG 9/11/98 (backstage)
*Jones Beach 8/23/00 *Jones Beach 8/24/00 *Jones Beach 8/25/00
*Mansfield 8/29/00 *Mansfield 8/30/00 *Nassau 4/30/03 *Nissan VA 7/1/03
*Borgata 10/1/05 *Camden 5/27/06 *Camden 5/28/06 *DC 5/30/06
*VA Beach 6/17/08 *DC 6/22/08 *MSG 6/24/08 (backstage) *MSG 6/25/08
*EV DC 8/17/08 *EV Baltimore 6/15/09 *Philly 10/31/09
*Bristow VA 5/13/10 *MSG 5/20/10 *MSG 5/21/10
Hey, Heavy Hands, how about making the un-answered questions in bold...
Ask and ye shall receive.
I haven't heard the show yet. Hopefully someone recorded it so I can work on another transcription. Fair warning: I'm on the road for the next few days so posting the transcript might take me some time.
"A lot more people are capable of being big out there that just don't give themselves a chance." -Stone Gossard
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
5. What's the status of the Cameron Crowe film? What is the projected release date?
I'm not sure if this has been revealed elsewhere, but I was lucky enough to bump into and have a real brief exchange with Cameron at Tom Petty's show at the Hollywood Bowl here in LA not too long ago and, right off the bat asked him about this... and he said the Doc was coming along smoothly, and would be out by Christmas next year. I couldn't get much else out of him as he was heading into show.... Wish I could've asked more, but he was in a hurry, and I didn't wanna get all fan boy on him.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
5. What's the status of the Cameron Crowe film? What is the projected release date?
I'm not sure if this has been revealed elsewhere, but I was lucky enough to bump into and have a real brief exchange with Cameron at Tom Petty's show at the Hollywood Bowl here in LA not too long ago and, right off the bat asked him about this... and he said the Doc was coming along smoothly, and would be out by Christmas next year. I couldn't get much else out of him as he was heading into show.... Wish I could've asked more, but he was in a hurry, and I didn't wanna get all fan boy on him.
So, in a year folks. From the horses mouth.
ADD 5,200 to the post count you see, thank you.
*NYC 9/28/96 *NYC 9/29/96 *NJ 9/8/98 (front row "may i play drums with you")
*MSG 9/10/98 (backstage) *MSG 9/11/98 (backstage)
*Jones Beach 8/23/00 *Jones Beach 8/24/00 *Jones Beach 8/25/00
*Mansfield 8/29/00 *Mansfield 8/30/00 *Nassau 4/30/03 *Nissan VA 7/1/03
*Borgata 10/1/05 *Camden 5/27/06 *Camden 5/28/06 *DC 5/30/06
*VA Beach 6/17/08 *DC 6/22/08 *MSG 6/24/08 (backstage) *MSG 6/25/08
*EV DC 8/17/08 *EV Baltimore 6/15/09 *Philly 10/31/09
*Bristow VA 5/13/10 *MSG 5/20/10 *MSG 5/21/10
Hands down the best thread for the real news from the band. Thanks for everything you do HH!
I know the fanbase had gotten to believe that we are "entitled" to accessing the vault shows and that is unfair.
However I want to take a purely technical view at TB comments about how difficult it is to get those shows out.
DMB already has a high quality format in place to release a myriad of vault shows through their live series. Some mastered more heavily than others but the volume of shows they have for their fans is evidence that the technology is readily available so I don't believe the bands excuse is realistic.
And to suggest that they have layers of quality control when it comes to mixing and mastering really bugs me as a fan since the 2010 bootleg series was objectively speaking the worst quality boots they have ever produced, bar far end of story. Someone was asleep at the wheel in quality control to enable this band to go from industry leading quality boots in 2003 to the embarrassingly poor product of 2010.
My two cents as a lifelong fan!
"This here's a REQUEST!"
EV intro to Chloe Dancer / Crown of Thorns
10/25/13 Hartford
Can you detail how certain cities are selected for tour dates?
While the band has played festival shows in the south over the past few years, there hasn't been a full fledged tour through the south since 2003. There are rumours that it's b/c of the South's conservatism, but more reasonable thoughts are album sales and ticket sales are weaker in the South. Can you confirm/deny the rumours and comment on whether a Southern leg of a tour is reasonable in the future or not.
11/24/2010 Reflections on the Philadelphia Spectrum
Permanent Phone Number: 855-973-2755
Tim Bierman (TB)
The Rob (TR)
Zack Newman (ZN)
Jeff Ament (JA)
Mike McCready (MMC)
TB on the Philly Spectrum:
"You know I was only there for the first two nights. I missed the big Halloween night and Zack's favorite night, the third night. I had to come back to reality."
1.What do you and the band think about the concert poster craze? Could you talk about the process of picking the artists and the reviewing of the poster designs? What is your favorite concert poster of PJ's?
TB: "I have a really strong opinion about part two of that question and that is... Actually part one I guess: 'How do we feel about the concert poster craze?' I've kind of aired my opinion about this on the board, at least one time, but the biggest issue that I have with the whole craze is that people all of a sudden become art critics and arent' afraid to say how they feel about something and I'm always quick to defend the artist in that situation because it's okay if you don't like something because, obviously we can't tell you to like something but if you don't like it... My mom always said 'If you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all.' and that, kind of, should be taken to heart with this.
"When I hear people on the message board say that something is a 'piece of shit' or 'that's so bad' or 'I hate Ames Bros'... you've got to be kidding me. My response to that is: Start your own band, make your own concert posters, and put them up on line and see what people say about them. So, in a nut shell, not to be super negative on this first question, but that's how I feel about it.
*laughter*
"I love the fact that people have found a culture in art and it's expanded way beyond the music and visual arts are being celebrated and I love that part of it. But when it starts to become amateurs critiquing art it's really disheartening to me.
"And as far as my favorite poster goes I'd have to say that there's an Ames Bros poster from '98... Is it '98? Istanbul? No that was before that, right?"
TR: "'96."
TB: "'96 Istanbul poster which is kind of a wood cut poster but, I was at that show before I worked for PJ and it was an incredible night and it was kind of the first time I looked at a poster and went 'Wow! This is kind of a cool thing that they're doing here!' "
2. I just wanted to give you the female perspective (about posters). Typically I don't buy them because they're nothing that, being female, I would want to put on my wall because they're very masculine. You know, when something is running over a person or a monster... Have you ever considered maybe creating some that a woman might want to put up?
TR: "I would recommend Jones Beach 2000. That's very... very flowery."
ZN: "Well even Mother's Day in Cleveland last year. The Mothers' Day poster was very effeminate."
TB: "Yeah. That's a really good point Laurie (caller) and it's one of those things that we kind of take for granted because it's all guys in the band and so far, I think, pretty much all male poster artists. Are you an artist?"
Caller: "No. No, I can appreciate art but I am not an artist."
TB: "Do you know any woman poster artists because I'd love to check some out! If there are any women artists out there that want to submit some ideas we'd definitely be open to getting them in front of the band because that's a really great idea."
Caller: "For the Borgatta one I know that had some pink on it, which was nice!"
TB: *laughter* "But it's a gangster! Right?"
Caller: "Exactly! With a machine gun, considering!"
ZN: "Timothy she was trying to commission a shirtless poster of members of PJ without being so direct about it."
TR: "I like Tim's idea. All you aspiring Georgia O'Vedder's out there get your submissions in."
3. A lot of people have said that the shows were recorded and I wanted to know if there were any plans in the future to possibly have a DVD come out? And my second question is is there a plan to give Vs. and possibly Vitalogy the same treatment as Ten got with the Super Deluxe Box Set?
TB: "And possibly the rest of the catalog as well... But yeah, those things are in the works and without revealing too much we're working on those, kind of right now. Vs. and Vitalogy. And we should be... You know in the next few weeks we should be talking about those things and that's about as much as I can lead on.
"And as far as the DVD of the Philly shows... It's something that we're still looking at. I know that everybody out there knows about this 20th Anniversary film that we're doing with Cameron Crowe and so we have a lot of visual PJ stuff planned for the future so we don't want to get in the way of the plans for that so let's just say that we have some good footage from those shows and one of these days, one of these days baby, one of these days..."
4. Will Live on Ten Legs have any songs from the Philly shows? How does the band decide on which songs to put on Live on Ten Legs? How did they whittle it down and decide which songs to take?
TB: "That's a good question. It's kind of not in my scope here but... the guys in the band decide what those tracks are going to be and the main thought process behind choosing the tracks for this live record were 'Lets make this kind of like Live on Two Legs Part II.' And so we wanted to include songs that weren't on that record. That was kind of the one priority and then we also wanted to capture some songs that the band felt that they'd been playing really well over the last few tours. I think that was kind of the idea. There was a lot of back and forth and a couple of different track listings went around and it got decided, you know?"
Caller: "And as far as which versions of those songs... Is that something that they decide with sound engineers?"
TB: "Yeah. Kind of everybody chimes in on those things. We actually even reached out to The Rob here to get some input on what he thought some of the good versions were. But, to your question, we also are approaching that like Live on Two Legs. We're not going to talk about what versions are from which show so that'll be up to you guys to figure that out once you hear it.
*laughter*
"And just so you know, the track listing for this live album is definitely not meant for the same fans that are going to go buy the Philadelphia boxed set so if you missed the Philly shows and you want to hear those shows you should buy that set. That's for the real fans. This live record is for the fans and hopefully recapturing some of the fans that were into the band before too."
5. Who came up with the idea to play Whip It at Philly 4? Who had the idea to get the costumes?
ZN: "Sounds like a Stone Gossard idea..."
TB: "It was definitely planned out. And the crew was in on it and everything. I just wasn't there to see how it all went down but clearly, if you're going to pay homage to a band like Devo where all the guys in the band are huge fans you've got to bring it. You can't just mail it in. You've gotta go over the top. Stone went so far over the top that I think he kept his hat on for the rest of the show."
Caller: "He did. It was hilarious to see even Boom in full regatta (meant regalia -ed) there with the glasses and stuff it was great!"
6. Where did you think that Eddie's friendship with Peter Gammons (sp?) blossomed? I know Eddie is a big sports guy.
TB: "Peter is a fan and Ed's a fan of baseball and Peter is a great baseball guy and an incredible baseball mind, and a super guy too. I think they probably got introduced through Theo Epstein. But that's what happens when you hang out at the same hotels." *laughs*
7. Which of the four nights (of the 2009 Philadelphia spectrum stand) were your favorites and why?
TR: "My personal was the third night."
ZN: "Yeah I'd definitely agree with you."
TR: "I think that was one of the top five PJ shows I've ever seen. It was just, between set list and the quality of the playing and the energy in the room, it was just one of those nights where you walk out going '*exhales* What are you supposed to do now?' "
ZN: "That was my number one for me. That was my all time favorite PJ concert. The next night was right up there too. It was definitely Top five. But that third show... I left there with a very very special feeling in my heart. It was a good time. "
The Rob on the Camden venue:
"I'm all for the indoor Philly shows as opposed to that place they call Camden!"
*laughter*
"We won't go there! Sorry!"
8. For the longest time hanging on the side of the Spectrum there was this PJ poster. We're wondering what happened to it and can we have it?
*laughter*
TR: "They auctioned it on their Spectrum website and there's a guy on the forum who did buy it and he says he's got a farm and he's gonna put it on his barn or something! Somebody did get that. He even talked about rolling it up and sending it up your way Tim."
TB: "Yeah! We've got a space for it!"
ZN: "There were some people in Philly that were planning a little raid to actually just pull it down off the Spectrum but it got taken down before they were able to put their plan in to action."
TR: "That would've been a hijack-able item for sure."
9. In light of the question of the Philly DVD and the question of it coming out I'd just like to know what the band thinks of the fan-made DVD's and if you guys personally do any collecting of things of that nature, be it audio or video stuff?
TB: "It kind of depends for sure, if you're just talking about someone holding a cell phone in the 8th row or something like that... Yeah, it's kind of a cool document but we'd rather that person be enjoying the show. But yeah... What do you think of fan-shot videos? We all kind of have the same opinions: It's cool but I wish it looked better, Sounds okay wish it sounded better, kind of thing... I mean no one's got anything against 'em. I don't know. What kind of answer are you looking for?"
Caller: "I don't know..."
TR: "He want's you to say they're awful and you're going to release the Philly DVD tomorrow."
*laughter*
TB: "I wish it were that easy. For sure."
TR: "But over the years with improvements in technology and the mobility of them it's completely different. Video used to be outlawed at a show and you wouldn't do it and you couldn't really do it. You'd have to put a lot of crazy, sneaky effort into it and now it's the constant barrage of the cell phone cameras...
"I know that someone did put together a DVD of fan-made Philly (footage) of everything off of You Tube, I think, pretty much. The dedication is there. It's a good little document."
ZN: "I've seen them too where they sync up the actual official bootleg audio so the audio isn't even half bad."
TR: "I've also seen one where they are really doing a poor job of that sync, like the Newark DVD that's out there. It's like, you've gotta be kidding. Go back and do your homework."
TB: *laughter*
ZN: "Not that we condone that or anything..."
10. I've been a Fan Club member since 1996. The past two tours I've missed because I've been unable to get tickets in time because, I imagine the server was inundated with people trying to do the same thing I was at the same time. I was wondering if there was any plans to fix that or to revert back to the seniority first-come first-served kind of thing?
TB: "Right. Um,..."
*sarcastic laughter*
TB: "My faaaavorite question of all time! It's a great question!"
TR: "First time you've heard it too!"
TB: "I wish that there was a magic band-aid that we could make everything work out but really, at the end of the day the reality of the situation is, in the areas where you live, especially for Madison Square Garden, for every pair of tickets that we have we have probably 20-100 people trying to get that one pair of tickets and it's just kind of tough to get that going. So my answer is: Sorry. There's no real way to remedy that situation right now. But we're going to keep trying to do our best. We keep trying to do our best. We're going to try to get more tickets for you guys. That would be the best thing for sure."
*Jeff Ament calls in*
11. TR: "It's been a year since the Philly shows at the Spectrum. Those shows were really special for all the fans. How was it for you guys?"
Jeff Ament: "When we talk about our favorite places to play the Philly Spectrum is always one of those places. We had been looking forward to playing those shows for a year or two before they happened. We learned 110 songs or whatever it was for those four shows and it was equal incredible joy and we were really sad to see that place go because there's not a whole lot of great sounding venues out there any more, and that was one of them."
TR: "Did you guys rehearse for a long time and the idea to pull out all the rarities, was that discussed or did you just bust the stuff out that afternoon?"
JA: "We rehearsed for three or four days for those shows which is kind of probably normally more than we would for a group of shows like that. And we also spent an incredible amount of time in our hotel rooms before each show once we were figuring out what songs we were going to be playing that night.
"We were in Philly for five days and I didn't really do anything but play music and woodshead (?) so it was equal parts rehearse and equal parts not-rehearse, as a couple of the songs show. Whip It being one of them. Not the perfect day."
TR: "With Sweet Lew was that somebody nudging you to do that or did you say 'Well if you're gonna do that them I'm gonna blow your mind and bust this out.'?"
JA: "I certainly got nudged into doing that I had no... I think if I was going to do a song of mine I would probably want to do something a little less, ahhh... wierd and ... You know that song doesn't really show the talent. My true talents!"
*laughter*
ZN: "Two bass' on stage you're not playing either one of them."
JA: "That was the best part. The fact that there was three bass'. Yeah, that was sort of our Big Bottom."
*laughter*
TR: "Was Ed doing the basketball moves for that song during rehearsal as well?"
JA: "I don't think so. I think we were still trying to find a basketball at that point... Ed's got some moves... It was a lot of fun though. It was a lot better than the second time we did that song. It was better than the MSG version."
*Thanks to Jeff for calling in. Jeff hangs up*
*Mike McCready calls in*
12. TR:"There's a Danny Clinch photo of you from the Halloween show where during Rockin in the Free World with your hands up in the air. There's confetti everywhere coming down, and to me that moment encapsulates the entire whole experience of that Spectrum run. It was just amazing."
MMC: "Yeah, that was kind of in the midst of everything right at the end and the explosions and I've never seen so much confetti in my life and I felt I was in the middle of if I were at a KISS concert when I was a kid, and I felt like I was living it-in the middle of it, and it was a big important evening. Everything was coming to an end and it was the wonderful snow storm of love, and excitement, and explosions... I had a blast, you know? It was one of the funnest shows I've ever been part of. And certainly I didn't have any idea that there was going to be that much confetti. And that was rad! I'm glad we don't have to clean that up now!"
*laughter*
TR: "They just left it all laying there, I'm sure!"
TR: "And then a balloon drop on top of that!"
ZN: "It was like a new years thing."
TR: "It was. It was like you guys don't play on new years eve? I'm getting my PJ show right now! This is it!"
MMC: "Yeah! I think the last time we played on New Year's was in '92 opening for Kieth Richards back in '92 or '92? It was a while ago... But yeah, those shows were fantastic. The crowd was, once again, just so there with us, and we did a diverse set and I, once again, had a blast."
TB: "Before we go I just want to say a couple of things. First of all a big thanks to Jeff and Mike for calling in. That means a lot to us and I'm sure it means a lot to the fans out there. I also want to wish all the fans around the world, and the rest of the guys in the band, and everybody that works here, and you guys Rob and Zack a Happy Thanksgiving!..."
Post edited by HeavyHands on
"A lot more people are capable of being big out there that just don't give themselves a chance." -Stone Gossard
"And as far as the DVD of the Philly shows... It's something that we're still looking at. I know that everybody out there knows about this 20th Anniversary film that we're doing with Cameron Crowe and so we have a lot of visual PJ stuff planned for the future so we don't want to get in the way of the plans for that so let's just say that we have some good footage from those shows and one of these days, one of these days baby, one of these days..."
...I want to take a purely technical view at TB comments about how difficult it is to get those shows out.
DMB already has a high quality format in place to release a myriad of vault shows through their live series. Some mastered more heavily than others but the volume of shows they have for their fans is evidence that the technology is readily available so I don't believe the bands excuse is realistic.
And to suggest that they have layers of quality control when it comes to mixing and mastering really bugs me as a fan since the 2010 bootleg series was objectively speaking the worst quality boots they have ever produced, bar far end of story. Someone was asleep at the wheel in quality control to enable this band to go from industry leading quality boots in 2003 to the embarrassingly poor product of 2010.
My two cents as a lifelong fan!
Hi locked. Thanks for the complement and your perspective on the Vault issue. I don't think we necessarily agree on your opinion that the 2010 boots are particularly substandard. Admittedly, I haven't heard enough of the earlier tours (besides the 2000 tour) to have much of what you would consider an informed opinion on the matter of 2010 sounding "worse" than 2003. I also don't really listen to the live music of many other bands so my ability to meaningfully compare PJ's boots to, say, DMB's boots is pretty much nonexistent. What I can definitely tell you is that I really enjoy listening to the few 2010 boots I do have!
That said, I think it is important to hilight something that Tim Bierman alluded to during his description of the boot "making" process. It seems that with PJ you have five band members who I suspect all have equal input and veto power when it comes to selecting the "proper" mix for a particular boot or series of boots. I also suspect that they illicit the opinions of others close to them for their opinions about the sound. What I'm getting to is that coordinating the tastes and opinions of multiple people with any degree of consistency is an exceptionally difficult thing to do. Let alone, to do it over time (say from 2000 to 2010) with any degree of consistency as things such as recording/mixing technology change, the acoustic properties of each venue differ from night to night, as does the audible range of hearing of five guys who stand in front of speaker stacks night after night.
I don't know how DMB does it. Maybe they have a more authoritarian model where Matthews (being the namesake of the band) exerts control over the process thus streamlining the decision making process. Maybe that's completely wrong and they defer to an in-house sound engineer. I truthfully don't know. But based on your description they have a pretty effective model in place for dealing with exactly the type of unique situation a band like PJ is in.
PJ is a different band though and they have different priorities. I think we can nearly all agree that archiving their music is a strong point of theirs, but maybe motivating themselves to organize the recordings isn't. I suspect that with them still being so active as recording artists and touring musicians they must make concessions with respect to what they spend their time each day doing. Based on a few things Tim said, making time for the past isn't as important as the future for them. C'est la vie. Hopefully someday it will be.
I'm not offering up excuses mind you. Just the idea that we as fans of PJ's music tend to overlook the complexities of an organization which we are not a part of and have no visibility on.
I really appreciate your thoughts and, quite frankly, completely agree that it just shouldn't be that hard to put out good sounding music when it's already recorded and just sitting around!
"A lot more people are capable of being big out there that just don't give themselves a chance." -Stone Gossard
How does Kufala Recordings, a company based in California, ship out Pearl Jam Official Bootleg CD's to residents all over the world in record shipping time of only 5-7 business day's to any city in the world, while a CD bought @ the 10club store takes 6-8 plus weeks to ship just across the border @ the same postage/shipping cost? Could you test new delivery methods out for the new year?
"A lot more people are capable of being big out there that just don't give themselves a chance." -Stone Gossard
Comments
These are the type of questions we need to ask.....
The underground version will have to hold us over for now....
2010: 5/20 NY, 5/21 NY ... 2011: 6/21 EV NY, 9/3 WI, 9/4 WI ... 2012: 9/2 PA, 9/22 GA ... 2013: 10/18 NY, 10/19 NY, 10/21 PA, 10/22 PA, 10/27 MD
2015: 9/23 NY, 9/26 NY ... 2016: 4/28 PA, 4/29 PA, 5/1 NY, 5/2 NY, 6/11 TN, 8/7 MA, 11/4 TOTD PA, 11/5 TOTD PA ... 2018: 8/10 WA
2022: 9/14 NJ ... 2024: 5/28 WA, 9/7 PA, 9/9 PA ---- http://imgur.com/a/nk0s7
...who called with that one?
*NYC 9/28/96 *NYC 9/29/96 *NJ 9/8/98 (front row "may i play drums with you")
*MSG 9/10/98 (backstage) *MSG 9/11/98 (backstage)
*Jones Beach 8/23/00 *Jones Beach 8/24/00 *Jones Beach 8/25/00
*Mansfield 8/29/00 *Mansfield 8/30/00 *Nassau 4/30/03 *Nissan VA 7/1/03
*Borgata 10/1/05 *Camden 5/27/06 *Camden 5/28/06 *DC 5/30/06
*VA Beach 6/17/08 *DC 6/22/08 *MSG 6/24/08 (backstage) *MSG 6/25/08
*EV DC 8/17/08 *EV Baltimore 6/15/09 *Philly 10/31/09
*Bristow VA 5/13/10 *MSG 5/20/10 *MSG 5/21/10
*NYC 9/28/96 *NYC 9/29/96 *NJ 9/8/98 (front row "may i play drums with you")
*MSG 9/10/98 (backstage) *MSG 9/11/98 (backstage)
*Jones Beach 8/23/00 *Jones Beach 8/24/00 *Jones Beach 8/25/00
*Mansfield 8/29/00 *Mansfield 8/30/00 *Nassau 4/30/03 *Nissan VA 7/1/03
*Borgata 10/1/05 *Camden 5/27/06 *Camden 5/28/06 *DC 5/30/06
*VA Beach 6/17/08 *DC 6/22/08 *MSG 6/24/08 (backstage) *MSG 6/25/08
*EV DC 8/17/08 *EV Baltimore 6/15/09 *Philly 10/31/09
*Bristow VA 5/13/10 *MSG 5/20/10 *MSG 5/21/10
Ask and ye shall receive.
I haven't heard the show yet. Hopefully someone recorded it so I can work on another transcription. Fair warning: I'm on the road for the next few days so posting the transcript might take me some time.
I'm not sure if this has been revealed elsewhere, but I was lucky enough to bump into and have a real brief exchange with Cameron at Tom Petty's show at the Hollywood Bowl here in LA not too long ago and, right off the bat asked him about this... and he said the Doc was coming along smoothly, and would be out by Christmas next year. I couldn't get much else out of him as he was heading into show.... Wish I could've asked more, but he was in a hurry, and I didn't wanna get all fan boy on him.
So, in a year folks. From the horses mouth.
<img src="http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/tremors25/thrillafixterorange.gif" align="left">
<img src="http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/tremors25/thrillafixterblack.gif" align="left">
<img src="http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/tremors25/thrillafixterwhite.gif" align="left
<img src="http://i740.photobucket.com/albums/xx46/tremors25/thefixerthrilla1.gif" align="left">
*NYC 9/28/96 *NYC 9/29/96 *NJ 9/8/98 (front row "may i play drums with you")
*MSG 9/10/98 (backstage) *MSG 9/11/98 (backstage)
*Jones Beach 8/23/00 *Jones Beach 8/24/00 *Jones Beach 8/25/00
*Mansfield 8/29/00 *Mansfield 8/30/00 *Nassau 4/30/03 *Nissan VA 7/1/03
*Borgata 10/1/05 *Camden 5/27/06 *Camden 5/28/06 *DC 5/30/06
*VA Beach 6/17/08 *DC 6/22/08 *MSG 6/24/08 (backstage) *MSG 6/25/08
*EV DC 8/17/08 *EV Baltimore 6/15/09 *Philly 10/31/09
*Bristow VA 5/13/10 *MSG 5/20/10 *MSG 5/21/10
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IS that the new one? When I go to it the date is 11/17, which I've already done.
I know the fanbase had gotten to believe that we are "entitled" to accessing the vault shows and that is unfair.
However I want to take a purely technical view at TB comments about how difficult it is to get those shows out.
DMB already has a high quality format in place to release a myriad of vault shows through their live series. Some mastered more heavily than others but the volume of shows they have for their fans is evidence that the technology is readily available so I don't believe the bands excuse is realistic.
And to suggest that they have layers of quality control when it comes to mixing and mastering really bugs me as a fan since the 2010 bootleg series was objectively speaking the worst quality boots they have ever produced, bar far end of story. Someone was asleep at the wheel in quality control to enable this band to go from industry leading quality boots in 2003 to the embarrassingly poor product of 2010.
My two cents as a lifelong fan!
EV intro to Chloe Dancer / Crown of Thorns
10/25/13 Hartford
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana; 2025: Pitt1, Pitt2
While the band has played festival shows in the south over the past few years, there hasn't been a full fledged tour through the south since 2003. There are rumours that it's b/c of the South's conservatism, but more reasonable thoughts are album sales and ticket sales are weaker in the South. Can you confirm/deny the rumours and comment on whether a Southern leg of a tour is reasonable in the future or not.
Permanent Phone Number: 855-973-2755
Tim Bierman (TB)
The Rob (TR)
Zack Newman (ZN)
Jeff Ament (JA)
Mike McCready (MMC)
TB on the Philly Spectrum:
"You know I was only there for the first two nights. I missed the big Halloween night and Zack's favorite night, the third night. I had to come back to reality."
1.What do you and the band think about the concert poster craze? Could you talk about the process of picking the artists and the reviewing of the poster designs? What is your favorite concert poster of PJ's?
TB: "I have a really strong opinion about part two of that question and that is... Actually part one I guess: 'How do we feel about the concert poster craze?' I've kind of aired my opinion about this on the board, at least one time, but the biggest issue that I have with the whole craze is that people all of a sudden become art critics and arent' afraid to say how they feel about something and I'm always quick to defend the artist in that situation because it's okay if you don't like something because, obviously we can't tell you to like something but if you don't like it... My mom always said 'If you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all.' and that, kind of, should be taken to heart with this.
"When I hear people on the message board say that something is a 'piece of shit' or 'that's so bad' or 'I hate Ames Bros'... you've got to be kidding me. My response to that is: Start your own band, make your own concert posters, and put them up on line and see what people say about them. So, in a nut shell, not to be super negative on this first question, but that's how I feel about it.
*laughter*
"I love the fact that people have found a culture in art and it's expanded way beyond the music and visual arts are being celebrated and I love that part of it. But when it starts to become amateurs critiquing art it's really disheartening to me.
"And as far as my favorite poster goes I'd have to say that there's an Ames Bros poster from '98... Is it '98? Istanbul? No that was before that, right?"
TR: "'96."
TB: "'96 Istanbul poster which is kind of a wood cut poster but, I was at that show before I worked for PJ and it was an incredible night and it was kind of the first time I looked at a poster and went 'Wow! This is kind of a cool thing that they're doing here!' "
2. I just wanted to give you the female perspective (about posters). Typically I don't buy them because they're nothing that, being female, I would want to put on my wall because they're very masculine. You know, when something is running over a person or a monster... Have you ever considered maybe creating some that a woman might want to put up?
TR: "I would recommend Jones Beach 2000. That's very... very flowery."
ZN: "Well even Mother's Day in Cleveland last year. The Mothers' Day poster was very effeminate."
TB: "Yeah. That's a really good point Laurie (caller) and it's one of those things that we kind of take for granted because it's all guys in the band and so far, I think, pretty much all male poster artists. Are you an artist?"
Caller: "No. No, I can appreciate art but I am not an artist."
TB: "Do you know any woman poster artists because I'd love to check some out! If there are any women artists out there that want to submit some ideas we'd definitely be open to getting them in front of the band because that's a really great idea."
Caller: "For the Borgatta one I know that had some pink on it, which was nice!"
TB: *laughter* "But it's a gangster! Right?"
Caller: "Exactly! With a machine gun, considering!"
ZN: "Timothy she was trying to commission a shirtless poster of members of PJ without being so direct about it."
TR: "I like Tim's idea. All you aspiring Georgia O'Vedder's out there get your submissions in."
3. A lot of people have said that the shows were recorded and I wanted to know if there were any plans in the future to possibly have a DVD come out? And my second question is is there a plan to give Vs. and possibly Vitalogy the same treatment as Ten got with the Super Deluxe Box Set?
TB: "And possibly the rest of the catalog as well... But yeah, those things are in the works and without revealing too much we're working on those, kind of right now. Vs. and Vitalogy. And we should be... You know in the next few weeks we should be talking about those things and that's about as much as I can lead on.
"And as far as the DVD of the Philly shows... It's something that we're still looking at. I know that everybody out there knows about this 20th Anniversary film that we're doing with Cameron Crowe and so we have a lot of visual PJ stuff planned for the future so we don't want to get in the way of the plans for that so let's just say that we have some good footage from those shows and one of these days, one of these days baby, one of these days..."
4. Will Live on Ten Legs have any songs from the Philly shows? How does the band decide on which songs to put on Live on Ten Legs? How did they whittle it down and decide which songs to take?
TB: "That's a good question. It's kind of not in my scope here but... the guys in the band decide what those tracks are going to be and the main thought process behind choosing the tracks for this live record were 'Lets make this kind of like Live on Two Legs Part II.' And so we wanted to include songs that weren't on that record. That was kind of the one priority and then we also wanted to capture some songs that the band felt that they'd been playing really well over the last few tours. I think that was kind of the idea. There was a lot of back and forth and a couple of different track listings went around and it got decided, you know?"
Caller: "And as far as which versions of those songs... Is that something that they decide with sound engineers?"
TB: "Yeah. Kind of everybody chimes in on those things. We actually even reached out to The Rob here to get some input on what he thought some of the good versions were. But, to your question, we also are approaching that like Live on Two Legs. We're not going to talk about what versions are from which show so that'll be up to you guys to figure that out once you hear it.
*laughter*
"And just so you know, the track listing for this live album is definitely not meant for the same fans that are going to go buy the Philadelphia boxed set so if you missed the Philly shows and you want to hear those shows you should buy that set. That's for the real fans. This live record is for the fans and hopefully recapturing some of the fans that were into the band before too."
5. Who came up with the idea to play Whip It at Philly 4? Who had the idea to get the costumes?
ZN: "Sounds like a Stone Gossard idea..."
TB: "It was definitely planned out. And the crew was in on it and everything. I just wasn't there to see how it all went down but clearly, if you're going to pay homage to a band like Devo where all the guys in the band are huge fans you've got to bring it. You can't just mail it in. You've gotta go over the top. Stone went so far over the top that I think he kept his hat on for the rest of the show."
Caller: "He did. It was hilarious to see even Boom in full regatta (meant regalia -ed) there with the glasses and stuff it was great!"
6. Where did you think that Eddie's friendship with Peter Gammons (sp?) blossomed? I know Eddie is a big sports guy.
TB: "Peter is a fan and Ed's a fan of baseball and Peter is a great baseball guy and an incredible baseball mind, and a super guy too. I think they probably got introduced through Theo Epstein. But that's what happens when you hang out at the same hotels." *laughs*
7. Which of the four nights (of the 2009 Philadelphia spectrum stand) were your favorites and why?
TR: "My personal was the third night."
ZN: "Yeah I'd definitely agree with you."
TR: "I think that was one of the top five PJ shows I've ever seen. It was just, between set list and the quality of the playing and the energy in the room, it was just one of those nights where you walk out going '*exhales* What are you supposed to do now?' "
ZN: "That was my number one for me. That was my all time favorite PJ concert. The next night was right up there too. It was definitely Top five. But that third show... I left there with a very very special feeling in my heart. It was a good time. "
The Rob on the Camden venue:
"I'm all for the indoor Philly shows as opposed to that place they call Camden!"
*laughter*
"We won't go there! Sorry!"
8. For the longest time hanging on the side of the Spectrum there was this PJ poster. We're wondering what happened to it and can we have it?
*laughter*
TR: "They auctioned it on their Spectrum website and there's a guy on the forum who did buy it and he says he's got a farm and he's gonna put it on his barn or something! Somebody did get that. He even talked about rolling it up and sending it up your way Tim."
TB: "Yeah! We've got a space for it!"
ZN: "There were some people in Philly that were planning a little raid to actually just pull it down off the Spectrum but it got taken down before they were able to put their plan in to action."
TR: "That would've been a hijack-able item for sure."
9. In light of the question of the Philly DVD and the question of it coming out I'd just like to know what the band thinks of the fan-made DVD's and if you guys personally do any collecting of things of that nature, be it audio or video stuff?
TB: "It kind of depends for sure, if you're just talking about someone holding a cell phone in the 8th row or something like that... Yeah, it's kind of a cool document but we'd rather that person be enjoying the show. But yeah... What do you think of fan-shot videos? We all kind of have the same opinions: It's cool but I wish it looked better, Sounds okay wish it sounded better, kind of thing... I mean no one's got anything against 'em. I don't know. What kind of answer are you looking for?"
Caller: "I don't know..."
TR: "He want's you to say they're awful and you're going to release the Philly DVD tomorrow."
*laughter*
TB: "I wish it were that easy. For sure."
TR: "But over the years with improvements in technology and the mobility of them it's completely different. Video used to be outlawed at a show and you wouldn't do it and you couldn't really do it. You'd have to put a lot of crazy, sneaky effort into it and now it's the constant barrage of the cell phone cameras...
"I know that someone did put together a DVD of fan-made Philly (footage) of everything off of You Tube, I think, pretty much. The dedication is there. It's a good little document."
ZN: "I've seen them too where they sync up the actual official bootleg audio so the audio isn't even half bad."
TR: "I've also seen one where they are really doing a poor job of that sync, like the Newark DVD that's out there. It's like, you've gotta be kidding. Go back and do your homework."
TB: *laughter*
ZN: "Not that we condone that or anything..."
10. I've been a Fan Club member since 1996. The past two tours I've missed because I've been unable to get tickets in time because, I imagine the server was inundated with people trying to do the same thing I was at the same time. I was wondering if there was any plans to fix that or to revert back to the seniority first-come first-served kind of thing?
TB: "Right. Um,..."
*sarcastic laughter*
TB: "My faaaavorite question of all time! It's a great question!"
TR: "First time you've heard it too!"
TB: "I wish that there was a magic band-aid that we could make everything work out but really, at the end of the day the reality of the situation is, in the areas where you live, especially for Madison Square Garden, for every pair of tickets that we have we have probably 20-100 people trying to get that one pair of tickets and it's just kind of tough to get that going. So my answer is: Sorry. There's no real way to remedy that situation right now. But we're going to keep trying to do our best. We keep trying to do our best. We're going to try to get more tickets for you guys. That would be the best thing for sure."
*Jeff Ament calls in*
11. TR: "It's been a year since the Philly shows at the Spectrum. Those shows were really special for all the fans. How was it for you guys?"
Jeff Ament: "When we talk about our favorite places to play the Philly Spectrum is always one of those places. We had been looking forward to playing those shows for a year or two before they happened. We learned 110 songs or whatever it was for those four shows and it was equal incredible joy and we were really sad to see that place go because there's not a whole lot of great sounding venues out there any more, and that was one of them."
TR: "Did you guys rehearse for a long time and the idea to pull out all the rarities, was that discussed or did you just bust the stuff out that afternoon?"
JA: "We rehearsed for three or four days for those shows which is kind of probably normally more than we would for a group of shows like that. And we also spent an incredible amount of time in our hotel rooms before each show once we were figuring out what songs we were going to be playing that night.
"We were in Philly for five days and I didn't really do anything but play music and woodshead (?) so it was equal parts rehearse and equal parts not-rehearse, as a couple of the songs show. Whip It being one of them. Not the perfect day."
TR: "With Sweet Lew was that somebody nudging you to do that or did you say 'Well if you're gonna do that them I'm gonna blow your mind and bust this out.'?"
JA: "I certainly got nudged into doing that I had no... I think if I was going to do a song of mine I would probably want to do something a little less, ahhh... wierd and ... You know that song doesn't really show the talent. My true talents!"
*laughter*
ZN: "Two bass' on stage you're not playing either one of them."
JA: "That was the best part. The fact that there was three bass'. Yeah, that was sort of our Big Bottom."
*laughter*
TR: "Was Ed doing the basketball moves for that song during rehearsal as well?"
JA: "I don't think so. I think we were still trying to find a basketball at that point... Ed's got some moves... It was a lot of fun though. It was a lot better than the second time we did that song. It was better than the MSG version."
*Thanks to Jeff for calling in. Jeff hangs up*
*Mike McCready calls in*
12. TR:"There's a Danny Clinch photo of you from the Halloween show where during Rockin in the Free World with your hands up in the air. There's confetti everywhere coming down, and to me that moment encapsulates the entire whole experience of that Spectrum run. It was just amazing."
MMC: "Yeah, that was kind of in the midst of everything right at the end and the explosions and I've never seen so much confetti in my life and I felt I was in the middle of if I were at a KISS concert when I was a kid, and I felt like I was living it-in the middle of it, and it was a big important evening. Everything was coming to an end and it was the wonderful snow storm of love, and excitement, and explosions... I had a blast, you know? It was one of the funnest shows I've ever been part of. And certainly I didn't have any idea that there was going to be that much confetti. And that was rad! I'm glad we don't have to clean that up now!"
*laughter*
TR: "They just left it all laying there, I'm sure!"
TR: "And then a balloon drop on top of that!"
ZN: "It was like a new years thing."
TR: "It was. It was like you guys don't play on new years eve? I'm getting my PJ show right now! This is it!"
MMC: "Yeah! I think the last time we played on New Year's was in '92 opening for Kieth Richards back in '92 or '92? It was a while ago... But yeah, those shows were fantastic. The crowd was, once again, just so there with us, and we did a diverse set and I, once again, had a blast."
TB: "Before we go I just want to say a couple of things. First of all a big thanks to Jeff and Mike for calling in. That means a lot to us and I'm sure it means a lot to the fans out there. I also want to wish all the fans around the world, and the rest of the guys in the band, and everybody that works here, and you guys Rob and Zack a Happy Thanksgiving!..."
Nice!
Hi locked. Thanks for the complement and your perspective on the Vault issue. I don't think we necessarily agree on your opinion that the 2010 boots are particularly substandard. Admittedly, I haven't heard enough of the earlier tours (besides the 2000 tour) to have much of what you would consider an informed opinion on the matter of 2010 sounding "worse" than 2003. I also don't really listen to the live music of many other bands so my ability to meaningfully compare PJ's boots to, say, DMB's boots is pretty much nonexistent. What I can definitely tell you is that I really enjoy listening to the few 2010 boots I do have!
That said, I think it is important to hilight something that Tim Bierman alluded to during his description of the boot "making" process. It seems that with PJ you have five band members who I suspect all have equal input and veto power when it comes to selecting the "proper" mix for a particular boot or series of boots. I also suspect that they illicit the opinions of others close to them for their opinions about the sound. What I'm getting to is that coordinating the tastes and opinions of multiple people with any degree of consistency is an exceptionally difficult thing to do. Let alone, to do it over time (say from 2000 to 2010) with any degree of consistency as things such as recording/mixing technology change, the acoustic properties of each venue differ from night to night, as does the audible range of hearing of five guys who stand in front of speaker stacks night after night.
I don't know how DMB does it. Maybe they have a more authoritarian model where Matthews (being the namesake of the band) exerts control over the process thus streamlining the decision making process. Maybe that's completely wrong and they defer to an in-house sound engineer. I truthfully don't know. But based on your description they have a pretty effective model in place for dealing with exactly the type of unique situation a band like PJ is in.
PJ is a different band though and they have different priorities. I think we can nearly all agree that archiving their music is a strong point of theirs, but maybe motivating themselves to organize the recordings isn't. I suspect that with them still being so active as recording artists and touring musicians they must make concessions with respect to what they spend their time each day doing. Based on a few things Tim said, making time for the past isn't as important as the future for them. C'est la vie. Hopefully someday it will be.
I'm not offering up excuses mind you. Just the idea that we as fans of PJ's music tend to overlook the complexities of an organization which we are not a part of and have no visibility on.
I really appreciate your thoughts and, quite frankly, completely agree that it just shouldn't be that hard to put out good sounding music when it's already recorded and just sitting around!
I'd like to continue doing this. Hopefully some of the kind people out there will continue making recordings of the shows available.
Demetrios:
I'm going to start in a bit. Glad you're interested!
Call in!
Don't be shy!
Interested?!?! This is an unbelievable thread!!!! Keep up the great work!!!