In Honor of PJ20 - Past Show Reviews(and some Previews)

samsaidhey

Taking a walk down memory lane... Gonna post local paper reviews (and some previews) of shows that I have been to... so without further ado... here goes...


Hull, Quebec (Ottawa)
Robert Guertin Arena
Aug 17, 1993

Set 1 incomplete
Go
Animal
Rearviewmirror
Once
Even Flow
Alive
Why Go
Black
Jeremy
Porch
Deep
Indifference

This was the very first concert I ever attended..16 years old... It was amazing... I remember being in awe that I was hearing new songs...also got kicked in the head a couple times from body surfers...so had to move from the front to the side so i could actually dance and enjoy the show...what i would give for a bootleg of this... or even a complete set list... there are a few songs that aren't mentioned here... unfortunately I cant recall them... except for Baba O'Riley...and as Bear1970 in the tour section says SOLAT...not a hundred percent but I seem to recall daughter... or maybe it was elderly woman... TEN CLUB please update the setlist with the final correct one...I would love to know...

here is a copy of the review in the local paper... (I remember the sound being just fine...it was frickin hot though)

Fans thrash, bounce to grunge's Pearl Jam; [Final Edition]
Lynn Saxberg. The Ottawa Citizen. Ottawa, Ont.: Aug 18, 1993. pg. B.6

There was electricity in the hot, stale air of the Robert Guertin Arena when Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder bent his tormented howl around the song Alive.

"I-I-I'm still alive, wailed the singer as the stage lights shone on a sellout crowd of 4,500 young people raising their voices with him.

The song has clearly become something of an anthem for Generation X. Now we know what it must have been like when The Who did My Generation in the '60s -- spine-tingling.

In fact, Pearl Jam played The Who's Baba O'Riley for one of the encore songs, proving that the two bands aren't so far apart. Both groups have a similar spirit and energy to their music, although Pearl Jam is part of the modern rock scene and The Who is part of rock history. Pearl Jam is one of the Seattle-based bands that revitalized rock a few years ago with the heavy, raw sound that's become known as grunge.

In concert, these gods of grunge leave the costumes, choreography and glitzy stage set-up for the Rod Stewarts and Tina Turners of the business. Instead, the show centres on the personalities and unique abilities of the band members, particularly Vedder, but also guitarists Mike McCready and Stone Gossard, drummer Dave Krusen and bassist Jeff Ament.

Vedder, whose round face is both cherubic and demonic at the same time, was moving in slow motion compared with the others. He arrived on stage in a monster mask, carrying a bottle of red wine, which ended up in a puddle on the stage after he poured it over a white T-shirt. He rarely strayed from his spot at the front of the stage, throwing all his energy into producing those incredible vocals.

Stage trappings were not only minimal but odd. A stuffed cow rested on one pile of amplifiers, while a line of miniature basketball figurines graced another.

But they didn't need anything more than their instruments and the equipment, along with a few stage lights. The band has the power and the songs to grab an audience, as they showed with such tunes as Jeremy, Even Flow, Why Go and Black -- all from the band's breakthrough album Ten. In the nearly two-hour set, they also played several songs that aren't on the disc, perhaps some new material.

Fans ate it up. The concert had sold out in less than a day, making the show one of the most eagerly anticipated of the year so far. Still, the stands were dotted with empty seats, but only because people left their seats to get closer to the stage in the general admission area.

Down there, it was a zoo. Fans moshed, thrashed and bounced constantly, and a couple of them even got away with stage diving. One woman actually made it far enough that she was able to give Vedder a hug before she was pulled away.

The security guards in front of the stage handled the mayhem coolly and professionally, dumping water on fans as needed and pulling folks out of the chaos when the heat and the flailing bodies were too much for them.

The show opened with a set by Montreal's Doughboys, one of the city's top club acts, recently signed to a major label. The band delivered a full-volume, fast-paced onslaught of grunge/punk tunes from its major-label debut, Crush . It was a strong set, and they undoubtedly won a few fans.

Unfortunately, the sound in the concrete arena is abysmal. Doughboys sounded like mush and the sound for Pearl Jam, though louder, wasn't much better.

[Illustration]
Black & White Photo; Wayne Hiebert, Citizen; Eddie Vedder, lead singer of the Seattle band Pearl Jam, performs Tuesday in Hull

Credit: CITIZEN

samsaidhey

My Second Show

Montreal, Quebec
Molson Centre
Aug 20, 1998

Set 1
Sometimes
Corduroy
Animal
Hail, Hail
Brain Of J.
Red Mosquito
Given To Fly
Even Flow
Not For You
Wishlist
Lukin
Jeremy (Another Brick In The Wall)
Daughter
Present Tense
State Of Love And Trust
Do The Evolution
Encore 1
Hard To Imagine
Better Man (Save it for Later)
Alive
Black
Leaving Here
Baba O'Riley
Encore 2
Yellow Ledbetter

Preview

Pearl Jam: welcome back, Eddie: Eddie Vedder and Co. have given up on their apparent subversive stance against media assistance and are playing the game. That is a good thing.; [Final Edition]
ILANA KRONICK. The Gazette. Montreal, Que.: Aug 20, 1998. pg. D.8.BRE
Copyright Southam Publications Inc. Aug 20, 1998

A friend of mine's older brother saw Led Zeppelin at the Pointe Claire Arena.

Every time I encounter him, I'm tapped on the shoulder with this colossal fact - and its fatuous consequence. Oh, yeah, this guy's been blessed.

I may not have enough years to my name to brandish a similar morsel of romanticized rock history. But, gratefully, my penetrating interest in good music has, in the past decade or so, offered me a few peeks into to the gestating periods of titanic talents.

But there is only one account with which I'm sure to impress someone's younger sibling with.

I saw Pearl Jam in 1991. In Burlington, Vt. With the Smashing Pumpkins. Opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

It's taken years for Pearl Jam to establish legendary status and therefore, I haven't always been aware this concert's fanatic value. There was a time when it promised no more of a rise than would an Alice in Chains before-they-were-famous ticket stub.

But it was in 1996, at a significantly less auspicious event, The Chom
L'Esprit finals, that I was unwittingly struck with Pearl Jamania, and the subsequent realization that the same keen rock- radar that had alerted me to a young, wall-climbing Eddie Vedder years back, had snobbily neglected his band's fascinating denouement. I had absolutely no idea Pearl Jam were so influential.

"Well, yeah...," my co-judge dribbled blithely.

It was insane

It was insane. The contestants who didn't take a Vedder stance, took an Jeff Ament pose. Long haired 16-year-olds hung lean and leery, with distinct Stone Gossard affectation. These were people who only listened to Pearl Jam. (There were people who only listened to Pearl Jam!) Because they were the only current models of popular rock'n'roll that spoke the right emotional language. In 1996, they were the only current models of popular rock.

Had they won out by default? Were they championing a genre or simply salvaging it?

At the time, PJ had three successful records, one of which was a landmark masterpiece whose thunderous momentum carried through to the second. It was after Pearl Jam's sophomoric stage, after its grungy colleagues had either washed out or died out, that the band's longevity, significance and success was to be tested. Instead it was honoured.
The curious cult status started developing around the period of PJ's third outing, Vitology. A reaction to the band's diminished support from the mainstream (already mainlining electronica in large, toxic doses), and its apparent subversive stance against media assistance, it was a call for Pearl Jam's necessary continuance.

No, it didn't matter that by the time 1997's less accessible No Code surreptitiously crept up behind us, Pearl Jam had long sworn off videos, had become decidedly difficult live promotions, had established a routine practice of turning down interviews, had become the type of band that opts for pics of themselves recording in the studio over other art work. They were necessities of rock machinery.

Accused of flagrant careerism and calculated anti-careerism, the band was a frustrating oddity in the pool of rock star traditionalists. Partially because it didn't know how else to be, because adhering to rock`n'roll tradition in the '90s while actually sounding traditionally rock and roll was absurd, uninteresting and embarrassing. Mostly because it could be - with unashamed success.

A Solid Collection

This year Pearl Jam is talking to the press, doing a tour, playing the game, occasioning a story like this. I'm glad. I like Pearl Jam.
Their newest album, Yield, is a solid collection of polyrhythmic temptresses. It's usually good. Vedder, as always, can wail like a banshee and cry like a baby - nobody can sing like this man. We all know, and have always known, that without Ed Vedder, there would be no Pearl Jam.

The sound is accessible - it is generic - but in a welcoming way. Gossard seems to pull the right chords more often than the wrong.
But I don't pretend to fully understand the appeal, just to relay it.

- Pearl Jam plays the Molson Centre tonight. Tickets are $35.

Review

Pearl Jam back - at last; [Final Edition]
MARTIN SIBEROK. The Gazette. Montreal, Que.: Aug 21, 1998. pg. D.7
Copyright Southam Publications Inc. Aug 21, 1998

"Are you ready for Eddie?" the guy behind me was loudly asking all his friends.

Judging by the standing ovation and deafening shrieks emitted by the crowd as Pearl Jam walked on to the stage at the sold-out Molson Centre last night, that was proof enough.

It's been five long years since Pearl Jam played the Verdun Auditorium on a hot summer's night.

Even singer Eddie Vedder admitted that it's been too long, before launching into Present Tense and letting 19,000 Montreal fans know that all that really counted was the here and now.

There's nothing fancy about Pearl Jam. They're just five regular- looking guys standing on a stark stage with five large candle- holders in front a video scene - but boy can they play.

Guitarists Stone Gossard and Mike McCready churned out all the right licks as they alternated between breakneck power chords and softer riffs, while the black-clad Vedder performed vocal acrobatics as he warbled, whispered and screamed his emotionally driven lyrics.

Credit also goes to the superb rhythm section of bassist Jeff Ament and touring drummer Matt Cameron, formerly of Soundgarden.

With such talent it's easy to see why Pearl Jam has been able to establish itself as one the pre-eminent rock bands of the decade. It comes as no surprise to find them on the pantheon of rock greats alongside The Who, Led Zeppelin and U2.

Though they opened on a quiet note with the tasty Sometimes, Pearl Jam immediately picked up the pace with an anguished Corduroy and a full onslaught of Animal.

All the songs off their classic first album Ten that we wanted to hear were delivered: Jeremy, Even Flow, Alive and even Black.

Plus, several recent ones off the outstanding new album Yield, including Given to Fly, Wishlist and Do the Evolution.

There was even a tip of the hat to Vedder's all-time favourite band, The Who, with Baba O'Riley being thrown into the encore.

The funniest moment came when Daughter segued into Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall. As the song finished, Vedder threw in the line: "Mr. President, leave those kids alone."

After witnessing last night's concert, it is understandable why Pearl Jam has such a loyal following. The band delivered everything their fans wanted to hear and didn't disappoint.

The biggest letdown of the evening was opening act Cheap Trick. Boasting all four original members - guitarist Rick Nielsen, singer Robin Zander, bassist Tom Petersson and drummer Bun E. Carlos - the band's set was at first hampered by lousy sound, then by their refusal to play any of their hits, like Surrender or Dream Police. The only one they did was Heaven Tonight.

It seemed Nielsen was more interested in changing his guitar every song than the music itself. Too bad.

samsaidhey

Show Number 3

Barrie, Ontario
Molson Park
Aug 22, 1998

Set 1
Corduroy
Brain Of J.
Hail, Hail
Animal
Dissident
Given To Fly
MFC
Habit
Wishlist
Even Flow
Daughter (Surrender)
In Hiding
Jeremy
State Of Love And Trust
Nothingman
Better Man
Leatherman
Alive
Encore 1
Immortality
Rearviewmirror
Last Exit (Cinnamon Girl)
I Got Id
Black
Do The Evolution
Encore 2
Yellow Ledbetter


Preview

Pearl Jam tries a little less angst and a lot more fun; [1 Edition]
Ben Rayner. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: Aug 20, 1998. pg. 1
Copyright 1998 Toronto Star, All Rights Reserved.

Band returns to the rock game with first major tour in years

POP MUSIC CRITIC

When Jeff Ament says Pearl Jam is in a different "head space" these days, it's hard to doubt him.

Indeed, the evidence is staring you right in the face. After several years of steadfastly refusing to play the rock 'n' roll game - dodging the press, avoiding music videos and engaging in a fierce battle with Ticketmaster that severely scaled back their touring activities - Seattle's favourite sons have done a swift about-face.

They're chatting amiably with reporters (well, moody frontman Eddie Vedder isn't, but the rest of the band seems game). They've conscripted Calgary-born comic-book magnate Todd McFarlane, creator of Spawn, to put together an animated video for their new single, "Do the Evolution." They've released the first Pearl Jam home video, Single Video Theory. And - although they're still sidestepping Ticketmaster wherever they can - they're on their first, full-scale international tour since the early '90s.

That road jaunt brings Pearl Jam to Barrie this Saturday for a sold-out stop in Molson Park.

"We've toured a little bit every record," says Ament. Pearl Jam's bassist is calling from Montana as a John Coltrane record plays in the background. "We just haven't put together a string of, like, 60 dates for, like, three records. And our record (Yield) came out about five months before the summer, so it kind of worked out timing- wise for us to do a comprehensive North American tour, which we hadn't done in a long time . . .

"It's just our head space, too. It got to the point where we were having a good time making the record and we thought, 'You know, maybe it would be fun to go out and play.' We've been doing it for eight years, so we've been doing it long enough to do it with the least amount of stress possible."

A little pre-tour stress did rear its head when drummer Jack Irons announced he wouldn't be joining the band on the road because of an illness (he later intimated to one magazine that he was struggling with manic depression). But Pearl Jam is thrilled to have found a stellar replacement in former Soundgarden skin-basher Matt Cameron, says Ament.

"It's been great having Matt out," he says. "He definitely injects a lot of excitement into playing and touring in general."

The word "fun" surfaces several times during Ament's conversation, suggesting the members Pearl Jam - long a leading light among the angst set - might actually be enjoying themselves on the road this time out.

Although he never gets too specific about what transpired to drain the fun from playing in the band years ago, Ament does hint that the oft-rumoured troubles said to have plagued Pearl Jam during its prolonged period of isolation are gone.

After 13 or 14 years of playing with Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard in various bands - most of which survived no more than three or four years (Pearl Jam's been together for eight) - Ament says he's noticed a pattern develop when the "third- or fourth-year itch" hits.

"Things always start to get a little bit weird in there," he says, "in terms of egos and just confusion about what your roles are and where you fit in, and wanting to challenge yourself . . .

"It's the way it is in every relationship. It's a power struggle, with people trying to be heard and people trying to articulate their feelings and people trying to listen to and understand each other.

"I think we're a lot better at that than we were three years ago, four years ago. I think at that point a lot of issues had built up, and they're all out now. If somebody needs to take a few months off to chill out or make a record with other people, we're pretty easy on that."

Indeed, Pearl Jam has been a breeding ground for low-profile side projects in recent years. Ament's side trio, Three Fish, toured the U.S. and Canada last year and just did some recording last spring. Gossard has his funk-psychedelia outfit Brad, and second guitarist Mike McCready has released an album with Mad Season.

None of those projects have been subjected to the intense scrutiny that's levelled at Pearl Jam every time it makes a move.

When Yield came out early in 1998, for instance, it was touted as the music industry's saviour after a year in which most superstar albums royally tanked, sales-wise. It was also a rocky "return to form" after the band's rootsier, more experimental turn on 1996's No Code album (which sold about an eighth of what Pearl Jam's mega- million-selling debut, Ten, did).

Hardly a spent commercial force, the band has shipped some three million copies of the defiantly un-Ten-ish Yield (200,000 in Canada). But the disparity with past sales heights still has industry watchers mumbling "disappointment," regardless of the album's obvious artistic achievements.

"I think, for us, as long as we've sat around together and listened to the record and felt like we've made a better record than the previous one, and felt that we've grown, that's success," says Ament. "We do get a little affected by some of the reviews and that sort of stuff, but you just go back to that time in the room together where everybody's smiling and saying 'Yeah, we made a cool record.' That's exciting . . .

"Even with No Code, there were some moments that I felt like we were making huge strides and like we were taking chances. Maybe we weren't making it the way we wanted to, but we were delving into new things and creating new things.

"That's a huge part of being an artist - putting yourself out on a limb."

Even if some Ten-era fans aren't willing to follow Pearl Jam on its ever-evolving musical journey, one can mount a convincing argument against bands rehashing past successes. There's still a large contingent of groups out there - from Seven Mary Three through Creed and Days of the New - doing just that.

"If that's really what they're doing, then I kind of feel bad for them," says Ament, "because, for me, the rush of playing music is creating something with the other four people you play with - creating a sound, taking some chances and feeling good about it."

Still, he admits, being a musical reference point is definitely "flattering."

"I think that's the great thing, too, about having been around for the last eight years: You can kind of see the mountains and the valleys. I think we kind of came through a valley, and now we're heading down a road on flat ground. Nobody really, really hates you, but at the same time you're not the flavour of the month, or the flavour of the year."

After the Yield tour wraps up in Miami on Sept. 23, Pearl Jam will likely take some time off before regrouping early in the new year to start writing a new album, says Ament (in the meantime, fans can seek out "Hard to Imagine," a previously unreleased track dating from the 1993 Vs. sessions, on the sound track to the upcoming movie Chicago Cab). What musical direction that record takes will largely depend on who plays drums for the band, what each individual member has been listening to and ultimately, one supposes, what head space Pearl Jam finds itself in at that time.

"At this point, we've sort of realized so much is out of your control," says Ament. "But I do think we're a really great band."

"When we get together and play and we're all happening, there's times I feel like we're the best band I've ever been in, the only band I'd ever want to be in."

Reviews

Pearl Jam kicks it for 35,000 in Barrie; [1 Edition]
Ben Rayner. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: Aug 23, 1998. pg. 1
Copyright 1998 Toronto Star, All Rights Reserved.

Songs from new
CD handled
impressively
POP MUSIC CRITIC

BARRIE - Ah, yes, the air over the Barrie countryside was rife with metaphoric meaning prior to yesterday's Pearl Jam show at Molson Park.
Kind of fitting that the first words to greet a traffic-addled rock fan staggering out on to the scorched pavement of the parking lot came from Cracker frontman David Lowery's Generation X indictment "I Hate My Generation." They pretty much encapsulate the whole Pearl Jam predicament. No other surviving band (Nirvana no longer counts) better personifies the curiously antagonistic relationship the first wave generation of "alternative rock" superstars has with fame.

Five musicians (recent addition and former Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron included) who came out of a "grunge" scene that became hugely successful - and a soldout crowd of 35,000 definitely nullifies any claims you may have to margin-walker status - precisely because it was so exhilaratingly different from what was successful at the time, constantly twisting themselves into knots in an effort to retain their outsider cred.

The result, of course - amid angsty frontman Eddie Vedder's public hand wringing over the horror of fame and a trio of artistically accomplished records bogged down in overly earnest musical experiments - is what a lot of folks turned on to Ten or Vs. have come to perceive as Pearl Jam "hating its generation" for making it huge.

The thing is, if the boys would get over the need to constantly reaffirm a long-lost "oppositional" stance to the mainstream and just get on with the business of being one of the most consistently vital rock bands on the planet, we'd probably all appreciate them a lot more.

Because Pearl Jam really kicks it live - and, with eight years together under its collective belt, probably harder and more viscerally than ever.

If you believe the reports of renewed inter-band enthusiasm for making music (and there's no reason not to - oft-surly Vedder came across as a downright jolly soul last night), there's ample justification for labelling this a peak performance time for the band.

All it took was a few bars of an incendiary raver like "Brain of J." for Pearl Jam to remind the appreciative throng that it's still a monstrous stage presence.

Catalogue standards like "Animal," the deliciously grinding prom ballad "Dissident," "Daughter," "Jeremy" and an oddly perfunctory "Even Flow" drew the first real mass whoops of the two-hour-plus evening. But it was material from the band's most recent album, Yield - the delicate "Wishlist" (complete with warm-and-fuzzy disco- ball light show), the U2-ish "Given to Fly" or "In Hiding," an intricate, dynamically varied gem that gets better with each listen - that really impressed.

What often sounded strained and slightly unfinished on record came across energized and accomplished last night, the product of a hugely talented band reaching to challenge itself and, more often than not, succeeding.

Vedder's breaking-point baritone and the constant go-for-the- throat musical barrage can get a wee bit exhausting over two hours, granted. Over-familiarity and too much aping by other bands have, unfortunately, cut into the rush Pearl Jam once elicited.

That said, though, we'll give the nod to the triumphant crowd- pleaser "Alive," which Vedder and the band seemed to tear into with as much full-throated, raging exuberance as it did eight years ago - as the evening's climax (no small thanks to some mighty fine dual- guitar action from Stone Gossard and Mike McCready). It actually felt like the first time all over again.

Getting back to those airy metaphors: Let's talk Cheap Trick, the former rock kings of Budokan turned independent opening act for a band half their age. It was hard not to flash into the future, when a still beloved but slightly past-expiry-date Pearl Jam may indeed have its own career championed by the latest thing and hits the trail in front of a young and fickle audience.

If you were there the first time, I'm sure it was wonderful to see the Trick tearing into "Dream Police" and "Surrender" with scrappy, joyful aplomb. If you weren't - like most of the largely indifferent throng - you applauded politely for the old guys, nodded approvingly at the songs you recognized and yelled "Eddie" during the down time.

another review

Grunge may be dead but Pearl Jam is still alive Tempestuous singer Eddie Vedder seems to have mellowed out after his wars with concert-ticket conglomerates and the music press.
Leah McLaren. The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Ont.: Aug 24, 1998. pg. C.2

All material copyright Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. or its licensors. All rights reserved.

Grunge may be dead but Pearl Jam is still alive

Tempestuous singer Eddie Vedder seems to have mellowed out after his wars with concert-ticket conglomerates and the music press.

Monday, August 24, 1998

Special to The Globe and Mail,

Barrie, Ont. -- At Molson Park in Barrie Ont.,on Saturday

After playing two or three of its rollicking signature tunes, Pearl Jam paused for breath. From somewhere in the crowd of 35,000, a football spiralled through the air toward the stage. But before it could whack the lead singer flat, he caught it with an expertise that would make most Argo receivers jealous. Then it was the audience's turn to pause.

How would Eddie Vedder, the testy, ultra-earnest guru of grunge respond to this gesture of stadium-rock foolishness? Kick it back in a smooth punt that sailed far past the seething mosh pit in front of him, of course.

Pearl Jam, the legendary standard-bearers of the now-parched Seattle scene, mounted an open-air stage at Molson Park in Barrie, an hour's drive north of Toronto, Saturday night as part of the group's 44-date North American tour. It's the band's first full-scale jaunt since it headlined the multigroup Lollapalooza alternative-rock festival in 1992.

After years of battling Ticketmaster, the U.S.-based ticket-handling giant, over service charges, ignoring music videos and refusing interviews, Pearl Jam finally seems willing to put aside its Garboesque moodiness and play the big-venue gigs again. (On this tour, 30 to 50 per cent of the dates, including the one Saturday night, will be handled by Ticketmaster.) The group has also released Single Video Theory ,its first foray into what it calls "home video," which shows the band in concert, jamming together and giving interviews.

But perhaps the band's most startling change can be observed in the disposition of frontman Eddie Vedder. Notorious for his tortured persona and extreme petulance with the press, the onetime poster boy for misunderstood youth appears to have exchanged his self-pity for a sense of mid-career serenity.

In a recent interview with Spin magazine, Vedder expressed his disillusionment with being such a famously disillusioned guy: "Things have changed. I don't know if it's age, but I'm just getting tired of complaining -- all this energy going completely nowhere."

Luckily, Vedder's energy was going somewhere in Barrie. Completing the day's lineup, which included performances by Cheap Trick and Cracker, Pearl Jam mixed raucous versions of its older punk-edged anthems ( Jeremy , Alive , Evenflow ) with the more subtle, restrained tunes from its latest album, Yield . And despite 11 arrests at the venue throughout the day (a result of an assortment of minor offences, including public intoxication and vending without a permit), the fans received Pearl Jam with ecstatic -- if slightly rowdy -- approval.

Between muscular power-rock sets, Vedder found time to enjoy himself. Looking more like an overgrown skate-boarding punk than a superstar in his goofy shorts and shaggy-dog haircut, Vedder danced, grinned and thanked the crowd repeatedly, but he couldn't resist one minor complaint.

"You guys have handled yourselves in an extreme fashion tonight, but I just don't know about these big venues," he confided. "We'll play three shows next time in a smaller place with the same amount of people."

Vedder then went on to point out that there might not be a next time.

"It's five minutes to midnight on the doomsday clock," he declared, poking fun at his own previously stormy reputation. "You don't know what that means? It means were all gonna die!"

In concert, Pearl Jam also performed the Led Zeppelin-inspired track Given to Fly from Yield , a song that married the band's punk-tinged sound with a mellow groove reminiscent of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant's Going to California (although some others might see it as a shameless rip-off).

Vedder's voice filled the park grounds, moving effortlessly between insinuating whisper and anguished roar, leading the band from melancholy guitar-picking to crunching power chords in a matter of seconds. Matt Cameron (former drummer of Seattle's now-defunct Soundgarden) kept an aggressive beat in place of drummer Jack Irons, who decided not to tour.

As the sun set, the Bic-lighter-flicking crowd was serenaded by the love letter Wishlist ,the most recent evidence that Pearl Jam has indeed mastered the rock ballad. Vedder sang with true tenderness, underlining the vulnerability that has made Pearl Jam such an appealing band for so long.

samsaidhey

Show number 4
(First with who is now my wife!!)


Toronto, Ontario
Air Canada Centre
Oct 05, 2000

Set 1
Sometimes
Breakerfall
Corduroy
Grievance
Brain Of J.
Animal
Dissident
Nothing As it Seems
Given To Fly
Insignificance
Daughter (It's Ok)
Better Man
Mankind
Immortality
Even Flow
Black
Rearviewmirror
Encore 1
Sleight Of Hand
Crazy Mary
Once
Do The Evolution
Wishlist
Leatherman
Baba O'Riley
Encore 2
Indifference

Pearl Jam still worshipped ; Band's best qualities come through in live performance; [Ontario Edition]
Ben Rayner. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: Oct 6, 2000. pg. F.15

Copyright 2000 Toronto Star, All Rights Reserved.

Record sales and critical ambivalence might tell a different story, but most of Pearl Jam's fans have never really lost interest in the band upon which they were once so quick to bestow rock messiah dom.

A significant number of them did, however, lose interest in growing with Pearl Jam.

The era defining Ten and, to a lesser extent, its superior sequels, Vs. and Vitalogy, still provoke a fair amount of reverence among those who've moved on to whatever musical fashions ascended in grunge's greasy wake during the mid '90s. The maddening success of bands like Creed, who've found lucrative employment emulating Pearl Jam's first album, ad nauseum, nevertheless suggests millions of Tower Records shoppers would have been perfectly content to see the Seattle quintet cryogenically frozen at the dawn of its career.

Pearl Jam's latest disc, Binaural, barely registered a blip with the public, but the band could still amble into the Air Canada Centre last night and be greeted as conquering heroes by 20,000 howling worshippers.

A simple grunt into the microphone by Eddie Vedder, whose unending disdain for rock stardom has always made him the quintessential '90s rock star, was enough to generate adulatory noise on a par with anything levelled recently at the Backstreet Boys.

What's plagued Pearl Jam on record, from 1996's No Code on, is that it's lost sight of its best qualities. Eddie Vedder's tremulous, emotive baritone and the sheer racket raised by his bandmates demand anthemic dressing; meandering Crazy Horse worship and those compact punk diatribes that all sound like variations on "Spin The Black Circle" don't let loose the emotional and physical heft that enabled Pearl Jam to connect so firmly with a generation of messed up kids.

Live, fortunately, Pearl Jam remains all about rhythm, propulsion and pure, go for it force. Newer numbers ("Sleight Of Hand," the dirgey grinder "Nothing As It Seems," the Yield epic "Learn To Fly") retained their awkward dynamics and uneven flow, but were suitably strengthened by the sweeping roar the band kicks up on stage to stand favourably beside crowd pleasing chestnuts like "Once," "Animal" and "Dissident."

Meanwhile, a boisterous closing cover of The Who's "Baba O'Riley," offering a dead on Roger Daltrey impersonation by Vedder, commented revealingly on Pearl Jam's sonic ancestry.

There was nevertheless a resoundingly homogeneous quality to most of last night's set. Pearl Jam's an admirably visceral outfit, but when it indulges a little subtlety and pauses to play actual songs more tender entries such as "Daughter," "Betterman," Victoria Williams' "Crazy Mary" and the pretty "Wishlist" it puts that wallop to more satisfying use.

samsaidhey

Show Number 5

Montreal, Quebec
Bell Center
Jun 29, 2003

Set 1
Long Road
Go
Save You
Ghost
Grievance
Present Tense
1/2 Full
Even Flow
Off He Goes
I Am Mine
You Are
Green Disease
Not For You
Wishlist
Habit
Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
Jeremy
Blood
Encore 1
Arc
Down
Black
improv
Rearviewmirror
Encore 2
Soon Forget
Last Kiss
Last Exit
Driven To Tears
Better Man
Alive
Fuckin' Up

this was show number 5 and outstanding as usual - loudest concert ive been to...Montreal has such an amazing atmosphere for events... Actually, I was acting in a play at the Ottawa Fringe Festival during this time... but during rehearsals, i had the director, rehearse as well, just in case the Fringe had scheduled a performance for us on that day...since there was no way I was gonna miss seeing PJ...They didnt.. but we won best in venue, which gave us an encore performance for that Sunday evening of the concert... so while my wife and I were rockin out to PJ in Montreal that night, my Director performed in my place(poor buggers that came to see the show getting the understudy lol)... We also ended up winning Best Show of the festival that year... I actually found out live, as I was on the phone with my friend and castmate as he was giving me directions as i got lost coming back to Ottawa lol...So I was on the phone when it was announced at the festival that night...so technically i was on the stage as the gang accepted the award...

Anyways..here is the Montreal Gazette Review...

The song was Go and the Pearl Jam crowd went for it: Eddie Vedder remains a god; [Final Edition]
MARK LEPAGE. The Gazette. Montreal, Que.: Jun 30, 2003. pg. D.5
(Copyright Montreal Gazette 2003)

Once you recognize the term "classic" rock as derived from Coke Classic, with the same conservative flagship-brand connotations, you will understand everything about Pearl Jam's uneasy alliance with its own business.

If you are Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, you have wrestled with the angel of stardom, and your band has battled the demon Ticketron. You have conducted your career, at times, like a penance. You dedicate your last studio album, Riot Act, to bassists John Entwistle, Dee Dee Ramone and Ray Brown, and invite punk survivors the Buzzcocks (of which more later) to open your umpteenth sellout arena tour.

At times, Pearl Jam have paid for this diligence by sounding like a band trying to rearrange the pieces of something older that was never yours into something newer that has not always sounded like it was yours. Last night, led by their singer, Pearl Jam sounded like a band comfortable in its own volume and standing.

"Thank you for surrounding us this evening," Vedder said to the 360-degree crowd. He and the band had taken the stage with the lights up, eased into the yearning Long Road, a song as simple as it gets - three guitars raggedly strumming, the singer with the most affecting voice of his rock generation (non-Thom Yorke division) emoting for the crowd. Then the lights dropped, Vedder plunged forward and hung off his mic stand, the song was Go, and the crowd did.

So despite or because of the penitential passage, Vedder remains a god.

With Mike McCready on a Flying V, Vedder made humble prayerful gestures in Present Tense. In his cropped hair, he looked more comfortable. After Evenflow set off the leaping in front of the stage, Vedder repaired to stage left to smoke and drink what looked suspiciously like wine while the band jammed.

A cruel deadline meant this reviewer only caught the meditative opening third of the show, but it revealed a singer with a healthy attitude to his stardom, that unhealthiest of superpowers.

As for the Buzzcocks, 25 years after ignition, they made it to rinkdom with harmonies and guitars as tight as a Brit at closing time. Orgasm Addict was offered well before the end of the set. The band's refrain of "There-is-no-love-in-this-world-any-MOOORE" was especially apt, given the crowd was busy putting final touches to its I Love You Eddie signs.

And to paraphrase the Sex Pistols (another '77 crew touring this summer), the Buzzcocks didn't care. A guitar was brutalized with a mic stand, a roadie was given the bum's rush for interfering, and all was unwell with the world.

samsaidhey

Show Number Six (6)

Ottawa, Ontario
Scotiabank Place
Sep 16, 2005

Set 1
Wash
Go
Hail, Hail
Animal
Brain Of J.
Corduroy
Immortality
In Hiding
Don't Gimme No Lip
Even Flow
Green Disease
Insignificance
I Got Id
Jeremy
Black
Better Man (Save it for Later)
Rearviewmirror
Encore 1
Bee Girl
I Believe In Miracles
Sleight Of Hand
Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
Crazy Mary
Alive
Encore 2
Given To Fly
Not For You (Modern Girl)
Daughter
Harvest Moon
Leaving Here
Rockin' In The Free World
Yellow Ledbetter

This is show number 6 for me... What a frickin show it was too... from the rarities...to the length of the concert... to one of the most outstanding Black's ive ever had the pleasure of listening to... (with the most awesome tag)... to hearing Mike and Boom duel on the Stairway solo during Crazy Mary... man... anyways... here is the preview from the Ottawa Citizen, followed by the review...

Preview

Pearl Jam gets its groove back; [Final Edition]
Lynn Saxberg. The Ottawa Citizen. Ottawa, Ont.: Sep 16, 2005. pg. D.1.Fro
(Copyright The Ottawa Citizen 2005)

Looking at Pearl Jam's career over the last decade, even an admiring fan would be tempted to conclude the once mighty rock act had plunged from the god-like status bestowed on them as one of the defining forces of the Seattle grunge scene.

One of the earliest signs the crown was slipping was their battle with Ticketmaster, a move that cut into their touring for several years. When we'd all but forgotten them, they came out of the blue with a uncharacteristically melodramatic version of the tearjerking oldie Last Kiss. And then they overwhelmed fans by releasing 72 CDs one year, an entire tour's worth of live concert recordings.

Twelve years have gone by since they last played in this area, and they haven't had a new studio disc in three. By now, they must be has-beens. Barely relevant. Right?

Not so quick. As the band makes its way across Canada from Vancouver to Newfoundland, including a stop tonight at the Corel Centre, the shows have been packed and critics have been raving. The rock 'n' roll health of Pearl Jam appears to be excellent, on stage and off.

A chat this week with guitarist Stone Gossard revealed plenty of evidence of activity within the bands. Gossard not only shed light on the status of the band's new record, but also discussed the gamut of such rock-related issues as bootlegs, surcharges and political involvement, as well as the fun of playing places like Thunder Bay on the current tour, which marks the band's first test of a system that offers digital downloads of each concert a couple of hours after the show.

Gossard said they've been recording, off and on for the last eight months, with producer Adam Kasper. They haven't decided on a title but "a lot" of songs have been written and recorded, although none so far have made it into the setlist.

Any new directions? "Yup," says Gossard.

Care to elaborate? Not really.

"Well, me describing what those directions are, I don't know if I can do that or not," he says.

"Being in the band and being very close to the music, I might see nuances and some things that are changing that might not be obvious to everyone else."

Gossard is too close to it. Fair enough. But at least he understands the curiosity over singer Eddie Vedder's lyrics, and is willing to give a quick report. Vedder is known to be media shy. "I think certainly the words that I've read of Ed's so far have been beautiful, and the melodies are amazing. It's well on its way to being a great record, I think."

Personal or political? "The personal and the political, they merge within him at different times," Gossard says. "He really has a great range in his lyric writing, I think as far as his subtlety and his ability to inhabit different characters, his ability to be political, his ability to be personal, his ability to speak from a feminine perspective."

No matter what ends up on the new disc, we aren't likely to see it until next year. In the meantime, Pearl Jam fans have to be content with a never-ending stream of official bootlegs. In 2000, the band tried releasing dozens of them on CD through their label. Now it's a $9.99 U.S. digital download, available within a couple of hours through their website.

"We're certainly not going to do it like we did before," said Gossard. "We ended up selling a lot of bootlegs, but there was a lot left, too. It was an experiment that we're happy that we did but at the same time, I think doing the downloads, it's just going to be less materials, less energy spent in getting the music out there, which is what we want to do."

But, he added, a particularly hot show could always be released later on CD.

An initiative not much more successful than the Great CD Deluge of 2000 was the Great Ticketmaster Battle of 1994, when Pearl Jam accused the company of monopolizing ticket distribution and requested an investigation by the U.S. justice department (the investigation was later dropped).

"I think that Ticketmaster and Pearl Jam both learned something from that exchange," Gossard says. "I think if we had any affect on it at all, I think maybe we gave some people some ideas about the fact that you can look for alternatives, and there is going to be somebody who comes up with an alternative, who is going to offer something that Ticketmaster doesn't."

Their own online fan club, for instance, offers tickets without surcharges, although you have to pay an annual membership fee.

These days, most Pearl Jam concert tickets are available through Ticketmaster. "Obviously, we cut a better deal with Ticketmaster than we did before," Gossard laughs. (Ottawa is one of the few exceptions; tickets to all Corel Centre concerts are available through capitaltickets.ca, the Ottawa Senators' ticket agency.)

To Gossard, these issues aren't about selling out, they're about "empowering people to participate in the processes that are going on in their lives.

"Small ones, which are family and your personal relationships, and the larger political ones," he says. In other words, if you don't take part, nothing will change.

The band's latest demonstration of social responsibility was their participation in last weekend's MTV benefit for the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. They were shown performing the song Given To Fly during their Sept. 7 concert in Saskatoon.

This is not to be confused with a version of the Guess Who's Running Back Through Saskatoon, which Gossard says they pulled out during the encore in Saskatoon, and is available as part of that night's download.

The Canadian tour, and a late-fall excursion to Latin America, are likely to be the last major tours before the new record comes out.

Gossard says the Canadian schedule started with the usual bookings in major cities, then grew to include dates this month in Saskatoon, Thunder Bay, Halifax and St. John's.

In Thunder Bay last Friday, the band delighted 5,000 or so sweaty fans with a jammed-out version of Neil Young's Keep On Rocking in the Free World, joined on stage by members of the opening act, Supersuckers.

"We've always loved coming to Toronto and Montreal and we just haven't explored more because we were always feeling like we wanted to do not that many shows. You want to go out and tour, and make money and place yours songs and stuff, but you want to be able to be home with your family," says Gossard.

"But we sure are happy about just flying over this country and checking it out. It's just gorgeous. We flew into Thunder Bay and it's the most amazing countryside. It feels like we're having a love affair with Canada right now. We went through our reclusive phase. We're in love with you, Canada. We can't stay away any longer. We've been neglecting you."

And what about jamming with Sleater-Kinney, the smart, gritty guitar band that's opening tonight's concert?

"I don't think that we can help ourselves but to do that," Gossard said.

Pearl Jam, with opening act Sleater-Kinney, tonight at the Corel Centre. Tickets & times, 599-3267.

Review

Thousands hail Pearl Jam; [Final Edition]
Lynn Saxberg. The Ottawa Citizen. Ottawa, Ont.: Sep 17, 2005. pg. F.2
(Copyright The Ottawa Citizen 2005)

At first, it looked like Pearl Jam's concert at the Corel Centre last night would be marked by a slow build.

The band chose the acoustic guitar-led Wash to open the show, a song that doesn't exactly prompt fist-pumping throughout an audience.
But after a 12-year absence from the Ottawa area, the mighty Seattle band could play anything and we would have been ecstatic. There was electricity in the air as a near sellout crowd of about 13,000 fans waited for the band to take the stage.

With the shut-up-and-pay-attention opening song out of the way, the band dove headlong into a string of powerful anthems. The speedy pulse of Go sent heartrates soaring, while the groove-driven Hail Hail got fists pumping.

It quickly became apparent this was not going to be a predictable show, which is, of course, part of the appeal of a Pearl Jam concert. The setlist changes each night and you never know what to expect.

In fact, there's a whole subculture out there of fans who attend every show and collect bootleg recordings. All along this tour of Canada, the bootlegs are offered as official downloads, available for $10 through the band's website a couple of hours after the music stops.

I suspect this is going to be a popular download. More than two hours later, it has been an incredible concert, certain to end up as one of the best of the year in Ottawa, just like their last area appearance at the Robert Guertin Arena in Hull was a life-changing experience, and a highlight of that year.

Again, the band created a tightly controlled atmosphere of wild abandon, if that's possible. Singer Eddie Vedder bent his knees as if riding the surf, clung to the microphone for dear life and sang he was retching (a good thing, believe it or not). He had also made a surprise appearance as the evening's first performer, when he played the soap operatic Last Kiss on electric guitar and then introduced Sleater-Kinney.

Back at the main event, Jeremy and Even Flow were as momentous as any Rolling Stones hit, while Don't Gimme No Lip had an urgency that was far more punk than Green Day.

During the multi-part encore, the band reclaimed the jam in Pearl Jam with stretched-out versions of their songs, Vedder swigging wine while his bandmates dug into their instruments.

"It's turned out to be a brilliant decision to cross this country of yours," said Vedder, taking a rare break from singing his lungs out to speak to the audience.

The band is about half way through Vancouver-to-St. John's journey this month that's included stops in Saskatoon and Thunder Bay.

"It's been a real pleasure," he added before fans drowned him out with their screams.

Joining Pearl Jam for tour stops on this side of the country are Sleater-Kinney, the three-woman band from Portland, Oregon. They came out like they were finding their footing on a shaky gangplank, but were soon tearing up the section of stage allocated to them with frenzied guitars and wailing. The set was highlighted by terrific songs from their latest disc and a fierce cover of Danzig's Mother, featuring a guest spot by Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready.

samsaidhey

Show Number 7 (seven)

Toronto, Ontario
Air Canada Centre
May 09, 2006

Set 1
Severed Hand
World Wide Suicide
Life Wasted
Marker In The Sand
Given To Fly
Better Man
Even Flow
Unemployable
Garden
Sad
Corduroy
Present Tense
Daughter
Grievance
Not For You
Inside Job
Why Go
Encore 1
Do The Evolution
Jeremy
Come Back
Alive
Encore 2
Porch
Rockin' In The Free World
Yellow Ledbetter

Awesome Show... Wish I had stayed for night two as well...dammit...

This review is from the Toronto Star

Vedder & Co. the real deal; Old-time thunder from rock's template band Seattle warriors back for ACC encore tonight; [MET Edition]
ben rayner. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: May 10, 2006. pg. E.01
(Copyright (c) 2006 Toronto Star, All Rights Reserved. )

Pearl Jam on the "comeback" trail?

Not really. If we were to gauge the Seattle grunge warriors' popularity over the past 15 years solely by record sales, radio presence and critical notices, then it might appear that the recent surge in attention being paid to the band and its eponymous eighth album mark a renewal of public interest in its work.

For the doting fans who've kept packing arenas and amphitheatres to the tune of around 20,000 ticketholders a night on each tour Pearl Jam has mounted since 1991's classic, 12-million-selling Ten made the group superstars, though, Eddie Vedder and Co. have never gone anywhere.

Let's not forget, too, that while the band's scattered and rather inconsistent output for each album since 1994's Vitalogy has pushed it further and further to the edge of the mainstream radar, there have been plenty of others willing to step in and mimic Pearl Jam's brawny, slightly eccentric breed of classicist stadium rock - not to mention plenty of hirsute singers willing to assume Vedder's signature baritone - to great success. As a friend of mine who heads up a local music-publishing firm once observed while discussing the stubborn popularity of these sham Jams of the Nickelback/Creed persuasion Pearl Jam created its own genre.

The original template is, of course, still the most striking, which explains why Pearl Jam has sold out the Air Canada Centre for two nights this week and, with the exception of Nickelback, most adherents from Days of the New to Staind are now merely unpleasant memories to be dredged up on a Rhino Records compilation at some point in the future.

And, really, Pearl Jam is lucky to have the following it does.

Throughout last night's febrile gig at the ACC - another follows tonight - one was struck by just how much the band's songs demand to be heard in a venue this size and where, at the appropriate moments, Vedder's mighty bellow can be borne aloft on several thousand amateur approximations. Pearl Jam has always been a live band rather than a studio act, but cathartic epics like "Alive" and "Jeremy" were far too big for a club to contain, long before the Lollapalooza era turned them into modern-rock standards.

Last night's show came just three dates into the group's latest tour, which supports the release a couple of weeks ago of Pearl Jam, but there didn't appear to be any cobwebs in need of shaking out.

Obviously, it helps that Pearl Jam has barely taken a break from touring since it formed from the ashes of Mother Love Bone and Green River in 1990. Yet the band is also riding high on its rawest and most rocking album in years, and the go-for-the-throat focus that audibly infused the recording - and that was so sorely lacking on 2000's Binaural and 2002's Riot Act - carried over into hungry attacks on the raging anti-war rant "World Wide Suicide" and "Life Wasted."

Guitarist Mike McCready's "Inside Job" was a little rockier, its patient arrangement not yet carrying the climactic heft of a climactic cousin like "Present Tense," but Vedder excused the flaws by admitting that it was the first time the band had tried it out onstage. The dreary new blues grind "Come Back," however, still came off as clunky and derivative in performance and began emptying seats only three songs into what should have been a completely epic encore.

In testament to the great sway Pearl Jam holds over its crowd, the set list connected without often resorting to easy marks. "Why Go?" was never a single, but it went down as forcefully as a fondly remembered softie like "Daughter" or the grimly majestic version of "Jeremy" that unfurled during the encore. Likewise, Vitalogy's underrated "Not For You" rode McCready and Stone Gossard's slashing Stones/Stooges riffery and the relaxed chug laid down by bassist Jeff Ament and drummer Matt Cameron to a subtly explosive peak.

Who needs albums when they can't do your powers justice, anyway? last night

Credit: Toronto Star

samsaidhey

Show Number Eight (8)

Toronto, Ontario
Molson Amphitheatre
Aug 21, 2009

Set 1
Of The Girl
Corduroy
Severed Hand
Why Go
Brain Of J.
I Am Mine
The Fixer
Given To Fly
Off He Goes
Even Flow
Unemployable
Faithfull
Down
Got Some
1/2 Full
Lukin
Not For You (Modern Girl)
Do The Evolution
Encore 1
Inside Job
Wishlist
Black
Alive
Encore 2
Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
Wasted Reprise
Better Man (Save it for Later)
Porch
Rockin' In The Free World

How wicked was this one folks? Man... not often you watch PJ open for PJ... Energy was insane throughout... though I hate how long it takes to get out of the Molson Amphitheatre... Good God...

here is the Review from The Globe and Mail

Pearl Jam's second act: Vedder's an even better man
Brad Wheeler. The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Ont.: Aug 24, 2009. pg. R.1
2009 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Pearl Jam
At the Molson Amphitheatre
In Toronto on Friday

For a band supposedly so well-versed in the art of career suicide, the men on stage at Molson Amphitheatre seemed very much ... very much...what's the word? "I'm still alive," rumbled the bearded singer in his all-consuming baritone, Yes, "alive," that's it - thank you, Eddie Vedder.

Pearl Jam's past battles with the music industry and its struggles with its own early-nineties fame are well documented. But here they are, revitalized in the second act of their career - a career built on the hearts and minds of a dedicated fan base that's never been abandoned. After 1991's breakthrough grunge-rock debut album Ten , Vedder said he was too soft, that he hadn't a shell to protect himself from the hard realities of fast-lane music-making.

The brooding singer, highly vocal and visible when it came to fights and causes, but reticent when it came to self-promotion, has unturtled in recent years, and, before the Toronto concert, he spoke willingly with local media about Pearl Jam's forthcoming new Backspacer album. The concert itself kicked off a North American tour, with the band at peak level and connecting with its unwavering rooters as it drew from a canon of brash, defiant rock that is singular in its ability to engage crowds.

Pearl Jam stabs with staccato riffs, with the spaces between the stops and starts of Even Flow or Given to Fly filled by the "woos" and "ohs" and "yeahs" of savvy audiences. Then there are the invitations to sing along: Vedder favours elongated syllables ("IIIIII-I, Ohhhhh-oh, I'm still alive") and rolling melodic choruses ("She dreams in colours, she dreams in red," on the poignant Better Man ).

There was a state of excitability all night, right to the bold take on Neil Young's Rockin' in the Free World , which completed the second encore set. New tunes (the lean, catchy single The Fixer and the New Wave-influenced Got Some ) fell in line with memorable works.

Those who arrived early for opening act Ted Leo and the Pharmacists were not disappointed when leader Ted Leo failed to make it out of New York.

A fill-in opening set (featuring solo spots and mix-and-match combos with Pearl Jam members and Pharmacists) began with Vedder's solo acoustic salute to Neil Young. "Surprise, surprise," he said before affecting versions of Sugar Mountain and The Needle and the Damage Done. Surprised? That Vedder would casually walk on stage, giving his supporters a bonus mini-show? No, no astonishment - just another night from one of the strongest rock bands alive.

The goods

The hits Given to Fly had the sold-out crowd a-bouncin' and Why Go seemed like a perfectly reasonable question.

The misses Blood flowed! When Eddie Vedder leaned on a microphone stand (during the anthemic Even Flow ) it gave way, sending the singer tumbling and leaving his elbow bloodied.

The crowd True-believers came from as far away as Ohio. Some paid scalpers' prices for a show that promised to be worth any trip or ticket price involved.

Overheard "We've gone on the ferris wheel together." Filling in for the absent opening act,

Vedder spoke of his relationship with mentor Neil Young and their times together at the CNE, before solo versions of The Needle and the Damage Done and ("It's so noisy at the fair") Sugar Mountain .

In a word Vital.

samsaidhey

And since he is a member of the band... Here is EV Solo Massey Hall.

08/12/08 – Massey Hall, Toronto, ON

set: Walking The Cow, Trouble, Sometimes, I Am Mine, Dead Man, Man Of The Hour, Long May You Run, Setting Forth, No Ceiling, Guaranteed, Far Behind, Rise, Here’s to the State of Mississippi, Picture in a Frame, Brokenhearted, Goodbye, Driftin’, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Last Kiss, Porch

first encore: (Believe You Me)/Wishlist, Society (w/Finn), Parting Ways (w/Finn), Elderly Woman…, The Seeker, No More, Arc

second encore: Hard Sun (w/Finn, Barnes)

08/13/08 – Massey Hall, Toronto, ON

set: Walking the Cow, Trouble, Sometimes, Around the Bend, I Am Mine, Dead Man, Man of the Hour, Long May You Run, Masters of War, Setting Forth, No Ceiling, Guaranteed, Far Behind, Rise, Millworker, You’re Tue, Soon Forget, Lukin, Let My Love Open the Door, Porch

first encore: Wishlist, Helpless, Society (w/Finn), Throw Your Arms Around Me (w/Finn), Elderly Woman…, No More, I Am A Patriot, Arc

second encore: Old Man, Rockin in the Free World (w/Finn,Barnes), Rockin in the Free World Hard Sun (w/Finn, Barnes)

My wife and I saw both nights... 2nd row for the the 2nd night!!!! Right up against the stage for the last portion of the show... Absolutely amazing experience...

Here is the review...(the star i guess only did the one..)

Just Eddie is just fine
GREG QUILL. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: Aug 14, 2008. pg. E.3

Copyright (c) 2008 Toronto Star. All Rights Reserved.

Maybe Eddie Vedder knew what he was in for Tuesday night atMassey Hall - the forbearance of the front man for Seattle grunge rock band Pearl Jam over a relentless barrage of shouted requests and outbreaks of "Ed-die! Ed-die!" was friendly and formidable - but it took the audience, packed to the rafters and Pearl Jam freaks every one, half the show to figure out it had nothing to do with rock 'n' roll.

This performance, the fifth in an eight-city solo tour that began in Boston on Aug. 1, was more like an unplugged concert in an apparent replica of Vedder's home studio. It had a pair of ancient PA monitors upstage, an amplified stomp board and a small suitcase full of lyrics at the seated singer's feet, a desk supporting a lamp and old analogue tape recorder, and an assembly of stringed instruments (electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, ukulele) tended meticulously by a man in a white coat.

While the sensibility was definitely rock-fuelled, with Vedder sometimes lashing and thrashing his guitars with Townshend-inspired fury, the execution and content approached folk territory.

The chatty 90-minute set was remarkable less for the pared-down, rearranged Pearl Jam songs ("Sometimes," "I Am Mine," "Porch," among others) and the movie soundtrack vignettes (from Into the Wild; Body of War; I Am Sam) for which Vedder has earned acclaim and awards in recent years, than for the vintage covers the singer pulled seemingly at random out of thin air.

There was a powerful anti-Bush-oriented version of Phil Ochs' "Here's to the State of Mississippi"; Cat Stevens's "Trouble"; John Lennon's "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away"; Tom Waits' "Picture in a Frame"; James Taylor's "Millworker" and - by way of tribute to Massey Hall, on whose exterior he once unwittingly urinated, he told the audience in one of several hilarious asides - Neil Young's "Long May You Run."

To his credit, Vedder seemed unfazed by the crowd's restlessness for the first half-hour of the show, though it took a full five minutes for him to calm them down after his entrance to a full-throated standing ovation. His banter was intimate and inclusive, devoid of rock-star pretensions, and the musical work - alternating between hearty strumming and elegant picking, with a soupcon of special effects - was earnest and compelling, his voice soulful and passionate.

One-man rock band Liam Finn, with help from singer and percussionist Eliza-Jane Barnes and an astonishing array of special effects and tape loops, was a frenetic and fascinating opener, in tune with the program's DIY aesthetic.

Credit: Toronto Star