Irving Plaza 5/5/06

vedhed1

I have been one of the negative fans over the last couple of years with the dissapating energy levels and lack of cohesiveness (in my opinion), but I glad to say that this band has a renewed energy.

I have been to about 19 performances starting in 1993. Irving Plaza was the best performance I have seen from pearl jam (aside MTV Unplugged).
I was in the front row and was amazed the whole night. Eddie and Mike were INSANE!!


Cant wait for the tour!!!

winged beaver

main set: worldwide suicide, life wasted, severed hand, marker, come back, garden, evenflow, insignificance, given to fly, army reserve, gone, why go, present tense, do the evolution, improv about NYC, comatose

first encore: man of the hour, elderly woman, state of love and trust, porch

second encore: alive, yellow ledbetter

Playing for a little under 2 hours (9:15 - 11:05), Pearl Jam condensed their stadium filling energy into a venue 1/2 the size of your high school gym (~1000 in attendance). While the show was shorter than what we've become accustomed to, it was smartly balanced, crisp, and triumphantly intense. The set list was very well chosen - a blend primarily consisting of rejuvenated ten era songs with standouts from the new album, and a representative from each album in between, save Riot Act.

Five straight songs off the new album initially, and it was great to see the crowd so into them. WWS and Life Wasted rocked, and embraced by fans last night, Marker and Come Back were highlights, played with solid effort and emotion on the bands part, which was reciprocated by the audience.

Garden served as the transition into their vintage material, but sounded like a new song - unrecognizable at the outset with its new intro, building to a rolling singalong chorus that filled the entire building -

I will walk...with my hands bound
I will walk...with my face blood
I will walk...with my shadow flag
Into your garden, garden of stone

Even Flow was again played with a reckless abandon that makes you feel like the band is back with a renewed purpose. Insignificance had my wife, a high school teacher more appreciative of the lighter PJ songs than the hard rockers, bouncing around in front of me. It served as a nice intro to sequence that I'd call the sweet spot of the night, batting leadoff and closed out by my two alternating personal anthems.

Given to Fly sounded more like the Yield studio cut, reaching that zenith with tightness that has been missing in recent tours. They had the the floor shaking (literally, like that place in Portland I always forget the name of) - the audience bounced around in unison, fists victoriously raised in the air, promising to persevere - "and he still gives his love...he just gives it away" with white lights honed on the selfless mass, a reflection of the said soul that has been given to fly. The reworked Gone (much better than either AC or the album version, and the single song I walked away being more into), blended seamlessly into this sweet spot, preceded by Army Reserve on the front end, and Why Go on the back, which was tremendous to hear again live, probably one of the most overlooked songs in their catalog. The lone No Code representative Present Tense closed out the sweet spot, and was a gift very much appreciated by the crowd, which culminated by pushing us into the present tense with its consolidating jam at the end.

No time was wasted as a potential "now what do we do?" lull was forestalled by a rocking DTE (with flying Stone solo), followed up by a improv that I remember as describing a walk around New York City - Ed was showing his love for the best city in the world with this one. Comatose was next, and shined with energy that rivaled last exit live, much better than recent album rockers 'breakherfall', 'gods' dice' or 'save you' (all of which could be shelved). They ended the first set leaving you ravagedly hungry for more.

Coming back for the first encore, Man of the Hour, the lone output of the band in between Riot Act and Pearl Jam (much like in my mind the "Merkinball" duo which sandwiched Vitalogy and No Code), was a crowd pleaser, introduced by Ed as a song about a man who belonged in NYC (or something to that effect). Elderly Woman, very possibly had every single person in that half gymnasium screaming at the top of their lungs. Very high note "Helloooo -my god its been so long, never dreamed you'd re-turn..." My only regret being that the crew failed to shine the lights on the crowd at this point.

Then Eddie asked the crowd, "so this being a democracy, we're going to have a little vote - would you rather hear a campfire version of betterman" (kind of pitched like he didn't want to play it) " or State of Love and Trust". SOLAT won in a landslide. After which they rolled right into an extended intro to Porch, tight jam in the middle, pulling everything back at the end with Eddie in the crowd, propped up by fans in the front, singing the "yeah, hey, hey, hey, yeah, hey hey" vocals towards the end. It was awesome.

After a brief break (not a soul in the place leaving), they came back and rocked an Alive...full with the crowd singing the "hey....hey.....hey" during Mike's solo at the end of the song. The crowd started chanting "thank you" - not the small type of chant, a whole building chant. Ed responded by introducing the final song as appropriately titled "you're welcome"...and Mike proceeded to drop the opening notes of Yellow Ledbetter. Great hand clapping towards the end.

Again, the set was shorter...but better in my view. I was at the garden shows last tour (great wishlist tag), jones beach (daughter tag). This show was definitely the best I have ever seen. Maybe they could have played wishlist with the tag, a betterman, and/or in my tree. But all in all, an incredible effort.

bluemonkey

my brother was there,5th row.he got a mccready pick.

i'm so jealous.

winged beaver

haven't heard anything negative yet

Lsk6453

winged beaver wrote:

main set: worldwide suicide, life wasted, severed hand, marker, come back, garden, evenflow, insignificance, given to fly, army reserve, gone, why go, present tense, do the evolution, improv about NYC, comatose

first encore: man of the hour, elderly woman, state of love and trust, porch

second encore: alive, yellow ledbetter

Playing for a little under 2 hours (9:15 - 11:05), Pearl Jam condensed their stadium filling energy into a venue 1/2 the size of your high school gym (~1000 in attendance). While the show was shorter than what we've become accustomed to, it was smartly balanced, crisp, and triumphantly intense. The set list was very well chosen - a blend primarily consisting of rejuvenated ten era songs with standouts from the new album, and a representative from each album in between, save Riot Act.

Five straight songs off the new album initially, and it was great to see the crowd so into them. WWS and Life Wasted rocked, and embraced by fans last night, Marker and Come Back were highlights, played with solid effort and emotion on the bands part, which was reciprocated by the audience.

Garden served as the transition into their vintage material, but sounded like a new song - unrecognizable at the outset with its new intro, building to a rolling singalong chorus that filled the entire building -

I will walk...with my hands bound
I will walk...with my face blood
I will walk...with my shadow flag
Into your garden, garden of stone

Even Flow was again played with a reckless abandon that makes you feel like the band is back with a renewed purpose. Insignificance had my wife, a high school teacher more appreciative of the lighter PJ songs than the hard rockers, bouncing around in front of me. It served as a nice intro to sequence that I'd call the sweet spot of the night, batting leadoff and closed out by my two alternating personal anthems.

Given to Fly sounded more like the Yield studio cut, reaching that zenith with tightness that has been missing in recent tours. They had the the floor shaking (literally, like that place in Portland I always forget the name of) - the audience bounced around in unison, fists victoriously raised in the air, promising to persevere - "and he still gives his love...he just gives it away" with white lights honed on the selfless mass, a reflection of the said soul that has been given to fly. The reworked Gone (much better than either AC or the album version, and the single song I walked away being more into), blended seamlessly into this sweet spot, preceded by Army Reserve on the front end, and Why Go on the back, which was tremendous to hear again live, probably one of the most overlooked songs in their catalog. The lone No Code representative Present Tense closed out the sweet spot, and was a gift very much appreciated by the crowd, which culminated by pushing us into the present tense with its consolidating jam at the end.

No time was wasted as a potential "now what do we do?" lull was forestalled by a rocking DTE (with flying Stone solo), followed up by a improv that I remember as describing a walk around New York City - Ed was showing his love for the best city in the world with this one. Comatose was next, and shined with energy that rivaled last exit live, much better than recent album rockers 'breakherfall', 'gods' dice' or 'save you' (all of which could be shelved). They ended the first set leaving you ravagedly hungry for more.

Coming back for the first encore, Man of the Hour, the lone output of the band in between Riot Act and Pearl Jam (much like in my mind the "Merkinball" duo which sandwiched Vitalogy and No Code), was a crowd pleaser, introduced by Ed as a song about a man who belonged in NYC (or something to that effect). Elderly Woman, very possibly had every single person in that half gymnasium screaming at the top of their lungs. Very high note "Helloooo -my god its been so long, never dreamed you'd re-turn..." My only regret being that the crew failed to shine the lights on the crowd at this point.

Then Eddie asked the crowd, "so this being a democracy, we're going to have a little vote - would you rather hear a campfire version of betterman" (kind of pitched like he didn't want to play it) " or State of Love and Trust". SOLAT won in a landslide. After which they rolled right into an extended intro to Porch, tight jam in the middle, pulling everything back at the end with Eddie in the crowd, propped up by fans in the front, singing the "yeah, hey, hey, hey, yeah, hey hey" vocals towards the end. It was awesome.

After a brief break (not a soul in the place leaving), they came back and rocked an Alive...full with the crowd singing the "hey....hey.....hey" during Mike's solo at the end of the song. The crowd started chanting "thank you" - not the small type of chant, a whole building chant. Ed responded by introducing the final song as appropriately titled "you're welcome"...and Mike proceeded to drop the opening notes of Yellow Ledbetter. Great hand clapping towards the end.

Again, the set was shorter...but better in my view. I was at the garden shows last tour (great wishlist tag), jones beach (daughter tag). This show was definitely the best I have ever seen. Maybe they could have played wishlist with the tag, a betterman, and/or in my tree. But all in all, an incredible effort.

As a person who was in the crowd, I could not agree with this review at all. This hits the nail on the head!

winged beaver

Lsk6453 wrote:

As a person who was in the crowd, I could not agree with this review at all. This hits the nail on the head!

could not disagree?

InquisitiveOne

This show was amazing, i was 6-7 people from the stage, still in disbelief i was there!


inquis

kostek

InquisitiveOne wrote:

This show was freaking redicutardedlous..... hah! so amazing... I was 5-8 people back from the stage, on the floor. Had my lighter going and a peace sign with my fingers for most of Man of the Hour....


I'm still in disbelief i was there! just amazing beyond anything ever!



~inquis

ha. i remember the lighter