can't wait for people to start bashing you for showing up at 7, getting non-10c tix, and then getting up front.
my opinion? i wish i had your balls.
that's why IMO - GA shows suck. i've said it in previous posts. i'm 35yr old now, have a family and work. i can't go to shows at 10am to sit in line for 8hrs so i can be first in and first up front. i'd much rather take my 10C seats which are usually about 10th-20th row depending on the venue and location. sometimes front row for midwest or southeast shows. it totally beats standing like canned meat in a sweaty sea of people trying to enjoy the show. i'll take rocking out and working up a sweat in my seat any day over GA! with that said, all 3 SF shows rocked hard and i was very pleased overall. just rather have seen those shows from my 10C seat instead of upper level balcony.
that's why IMO - GA shows suck. i've said it in previous posts. i'm 35yr old now, have a family and work. i can't go to shows at 10am to sit in line for 8hrs so i can be first in and first up front. i'd much rather take my 10C seats which are usually about 10th-20th row depending on the venue and location. sometimes front row for midwest or southeast shows. it totally beats standing like canned meat in a sweaty sea of people trying to enjoy the show. i'll take rocking out and working up a sweat in my seat any day over GA! with that said, all 3 SF shows rocked hard and i was very pleased overall. just rather have seen those shows from my 10C seat instead of upper level balcony.
Well you didn't have to do any of that in order to get up front. On night two I was floor bound after spending night one up in the balcony section. I got in fanclub line around 6/6:15pm...waaaaaaaaaaay in the back of the line I might ad...and I was able to secure a spot on the floor on Stoney's side no problem. By the time the 3rd or 4th song was played, i was pretty much front row (and that was without pushing or shoving people I might ad). So all those who camped out for endless hours just to get a front row floor seat...could of easily spent the day enjoying what the wonderful city of SF had to offer instead of guarding the Civic Center sidewalks, lol.
Yeah sunday I was in the back of the regular line, went up to the balcony first, then looked at how uncrowded the floor was and went right up towards the front. I drifted around throughout the show as I wanted a few beer and bathroom breaks but you could easily get up front without waiting in line all day
This was my first Pearl Jam show and it ROCKED!! They played so many fast songs! I was on the floor in the middle and couldn't see shit (damn tall men!), so halfway through the show I went up to the balcony. I could see everything perfectly and had a great time. I had to leave my honey down on the floor, he wasn't leaving his spot. I loved when Ed skated on the guitar and fell on his ass. Only he could pull that off! OH! and I wore my _Crazy_Mary_ shirt, so if you saw me...well that was me!
Do yourself a favor, download the bootleg. This was simply one of the all-time greats. I was at the 2nd MSG show in 2003 and I thought that experience would never be topped, but I think it may have happened. Holy cripes.
SF3, the bittersweet end to my run of this summer.
But oh my god, what an ending. (So more "sweet" than "bitter").
Release opens and I know we're in for a hell of a ride. I'm also shocked that by this point, in only a handful of shows I've gotten two Releases and two Oceans...es. Crowd is in full voice, and "I'll ride the wave where it takes me" is nearly deafening.
We get Life Wasted (which was my predicted opener) and Severed Hand, and I'm thinking we've got an Avocado night ahead of us. How very wrong I am -- Hail Hail then tips the scales in a new direction. Awesome energy.
The real surprises start coming with Untitled, which I was shocked to hear. And it seemed like I was the only one in my area who knew what it was at first. Unsurprisingly, Untitled segues into MFC, which is great.
Ed then says "Red Mosquito", and everyone around me goes apeshit. Seriously, it was like the 15-20 people around me (myself included) were dying for Red Mosquito. And how worth it it was. Stellar performance, absolutely nailed it. Set one continues with some great songs -- Light Years, In Hiding (which Ed says he thought would be the singalong, after everyone lost their voices beliting out DTE).
Encore 1 was great, MotH and Crazy Mary were solid. Alive starts and I'm starting to wonder if we were going to get a normal Mamasan. Hey, weirder things have happened. Nope, just an encore that felt kind of short.
Encore 2 starts with Last Exit, which I was dying to hear, especially after God's Dice on night 1. Lighting for Last Exit was awesome -- the backdrop and the band/stage are lit in different colors that alternate with the backbeat. Red band/green backdrop; green band/red backdrop. Seriously awesome effect, this was probably the coolest lighting trick I saw at this point.
But I'm selling the crowd short here. It's going nuts and only gets louder with SOLAT and Leash. And then Ed intros Watchtower and Lee Ranaldo.
And Watchtower was just amazing. It couldn't have been that long but it was one of those moments that feels like it lasted a lifetime. Everyone is just shredding and rocking out and the crowd is loving every second of it. Mike starts tossing his guitar in the air and it plummets into the stage and we go bananas. Ed surfs across the stage on the guitar, guitar breaks, and that's it.
I'm thinking that's it, and then I see Mike get his guitar that he uses for Ledbetter. Ed says something about smashing it, and Mike cradles the guitar protectively.
It's hard to say anything about Yellow Ledbetter -- crowd was into it and it was the expected play-out... but after the amazing energy of Watchtower it just fell flat.
A great show, this seriously came close to San Diego. If you buy any of the SF boots (you should), this is the one.
You know, over the last three years, I have flown all over (Vancouver 2003, Toledo 2004, Camden 1+2 and D.C. 2006) trying to catch one of those truly legendary shows because I thought it would never happen in the Bay Area. Then they go and give me three of them in a row right here in my hometown. I cannot describe accurately how incredible these shows were, and trying to rank them is impossible. The energy from the crowd and band was so intense. The setlists were outstanding, and the band was in absolute top form. As for night 3, hearing In Hiding, Red Mosquito, and Light Years for the first time was definitely a highlight. Untitled was a complete shock, and I loved every second of it. Anytime they open a show with Release, I am happy. My first time hearing Down electric. Crazy Mary. . .just wow. Boom's finest moment as a member of Pearl Jam. He went absolutely nuts. And then All Along the Watchtower. Holy shit. I couldn't believe it when Stone started those first few notes. I thought I was hallucinating. I heard them do it in Toledo, but Neil playing lead just doesn't do it for me. Mike absolutely tore the song up. Seeing him go absolutely nuts and trash his guitar. . .it may be my favorite live Pearl Jam moment ever. And Ed teasing him about breaking his old sunburst Fender. . .that was awesome.
I'll never forget these three shows. They were my girlfriend's first three Pearl Jam shows, and she is now so hooked that she is experiencing post-Pearl Jam concert depression. Hopefully we will see them back here for the Bridge School Benefit in October.
It makes much more sense to live in the present tense.
64 different songs with 17 repeated in 3 nights in SF!
Alive x3
All Along the Watchtower
American In Me
Animal
Army Reserve
Betterman
Big Wave x2
Blood
Bu$hleaguer
Comatose x2
Come Back
Corduroy x2
Crazy Mary
Dead Man Walking
Dissident
Do The Evolution x2
Down
Drifting
Even Flow x3
Footsteps
Fuckin' Up
Garden
Given To Fly
Go
God's Dice
Gone
Hail Hail
I Am Mine
I Got Shit
In Hidding
In My Tree
Indifference
Inside Job
Insignificance
Last Exit
Last Kiss
Leash x2
Life Wasted x3
Light Years
Lukin
Man Of The Hour
Marker In The Sand
Not For You
Of The Girl
Once
Parachutes
Present Tense x2
Rearviewmirror
Red Mosquito
Release
Rockin' In The Free World
Sad x2
Save You
Severed Hand x3
Sometimes
Spin The Black Circle
State of Love and Trust x2
Unemployable x2
Untitled/MFC
Wasted Reprise x3
Whipping
Why Go x2
World Wide Suicide x3
Yellow Ledbetter x3
Wow-that puts it all into perspective. I guess you can't please everyone though
Went to both Sunday and Tuesday's shows, it's already been said but they were truly unbelievable.
A few different observations...
I been to many PJ shows and I have to say that the stage lighting was the best yet. They've always gone for more of the minimalist approach, and I've always especially loved the red and orange backgrounds that accompany the band, but these shows were exceptionally done.
The new album sounds absolutely fantastic live. Every. Song.
Mike looks great and is playing better than the last tour. I was about 8 people deep in front of him on Sun. and you could see he was really feeding off of us. I have countless bootlegs, multiple live versions of every song and I can honestly say that his soloing on both nights was unmatched. He simply ripped it apart on Alive and Evenflow each night. In general, his solos I think, were better on Tuesday.
I was in awe of Stone when he started playing the main riff of Alive. After all these years you can see that he still loves playing that song. I wish I could play it as fluidly the whole way through.
Jeff jumping around the stage reminded me of when I first saw them at Lollapalooza.
It was my g/f's first PJ shows. She caught one of Mike's picks and gave it to me. I just had to play my guitar with it after the show each night. (My neighbors love me)
Tuesday night = Boom. Simply siiiiick.
The only disappointment was that I didn't get to hear Black again. Like I said I've been to countless shows but have only heard Black played twice, both acoustic. I would've loved to hear Eddie screaming "we belong together" and Mike wailing on his wah pedal to a fully electric version, maybe next time. But nevertheless a breathtaking experience.
Life Wasted is a better live song then Even Flow, Severed Hand, and Do the Evolution (which is saying a lot)
Down was great. Made me very happy that they brought it out.
Present Tense and In Hiding were great. You can never get to much of present tense. A very worthy repeat.
I will say though, that I really really wanted to hear Jeremy.
We got Even Flow and Alive 3 times.
Couldn't one of those times be substitued for Black and Jeremy?
And of coarse I didn't get to hear All or None yet. But that just gives me more reason to continue seeing Pearl Jam shows!
all and all... this was a great experience.
Night 2 was very good
Night 1 was very very good
Night 3 was unbelievable and simply amazing
Oh yeah also, forgot, it was way funny when after the guitar destruction-fest, eddie grabbed all his crap and started to walk off the stage, but was intercepted by Mike who had his trademark worn fender, and motioned him to get back on the stage for one more! Eddie said something like "You break the guitar and the shows over, I thought that was how it worked..." Then as previously mentioned, Eddie was like "Can we break your guitar?" And Mike looked FREAKED OUT and shook his head no, and cradled his strat, LOL. Then Ed goes "OK well Mike wants to play you one more." Cue YLB. AWESOME
"I forgot the F***ing song."
- Eddie Vedder, San Francisco 7-16-06, after botching Sometimes, the night's opener
Oh yeah also, forgot, it was way funny when after the guitar destruction-fest, eddie grabbed all his crap and started to walk off the stage, but was intercepted by Mike who had his trademark worn fender, and motioned him to get back on the stage for one more! Eddie said something like "You break the guitar and the shows over, I thought that was how it worked..." Then as previously mentioned, Eddie was like "Can we break your guitar?" And Mike looked FREAKED OUT and shook his head no, and cradled his strat, LOL. Then Ed goes "OK well Mike wants to play you one more." Cue YLB. AWESOME
Well yeah, I'm pretty sure its a 50's strat, and those babies go for easily $20,000-$30,000 so yeah, he ain't going to smash that. Although I have seen him throw it in the air to his guitar tech, so I don't know for sure.
three songs- Crazy Mary Red Mosquito All Along the Watchtower.
My two buddies and I were sitting on the floor arguing about what they would play that and I made the bold prediction of Red Mosquito after some research during my lunch break at work. Needless to say I got a few jeers pointed my way. We will of course come back to this.
I am Mine- WOW, Eddie is amazing.
Release- Some guy said he always wanted to see Release played and not yet. I hope he enjoyed, I had the same feelings a few songs later.
I had also said they would play a lot of Yield and No Code, and Pearl Jam man you came through. Hail Hail, Holy Shit! Untitled, MFC, In Hiding, Do the Evolution, Present Tense, Low Light and of course Red Mosquito!
Red Mosquito- killed, wow. I almost fainted when they started playing this. My friends just looked at me with complete shock. I did not think they could top this moment, HA!
EVEN FLOW, was even better then the nights before.
I was so happy they played Do The Evolution again, it is one of my favorite songs and always remind of this girl so its a perfect jam.
Man of the Hour was a treat for me, it was one of the songs you want them to play but in the jamming set they had I didn't think it was going to happen. But BOOM, thank you Tim Burton, you combined one of my favorite movies with one of my favorite bands.
Crazy Mary, I had a feeling it was going to special. Boom was used the other two days but not to the extent we all knew Boom can be used. I was going to be so dissapointed if they had not played this, instead of playing it they killed it. KUDOS
Last Exit WOW, State of Love and Trust and Leash again WOW WOW
Then the show stopper! Quoting Eddie- We are going to play a song and I believe we are to play the shit of out it. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, that is all I can say. I knew they were going to play a cover but All Along the Watchtower, man oh man. Then the McCready/Eddie antics was even better then the Jim Morrisoon antics of Eddie on Sunday.
Fades to the end of three Pearl Jam concerts in four days and I am really glad they played Yellow Ledbetter one more time. Great way to leave SF.
Thank You Pearl Jam, I am truly blessed for the rest of my life. I am right now listening to SF 1 with a bottle of red wine to honor Eddie so sorry if some shit doesn't make sense.
EV Bridgeschool - October 24, 2004
San Francisco - July 15/16/18, 2006 Bridgeschool - October 21/22, 2006
Lollapalooza - August 5,2007
EV Berkley - April 7/8, 2008 The Who Rock Honors - July 12, 2008
Outside Lands - August 28, 2009 Seattle - September 21/22, 2009 San Diego - October 9, 2009
SOLAT... you KY Fillie! You and Brandtley and Mike's balcony kicked it! What a night of utter euphoria! Great to hook up with you guys and thanks again for time in line before the show...
can you say enough about our PJ community of instantaneous friends?
Peace...
PS --
and here's to a Southern tour including your home state, but also Charlotte, Ft. Lauderdale, Dallas, and Phoenix! And hopefully, all days when I'm traveling there for work!
San Fran III was the end of this tour for me.
I have to say, the level of dedication that this band has to their fans....It is unbelieveable. The level of dedication that the fans have to the band and to each other brings a tear to my eyes.
I have met some pretty awesome people this tour, with whom I hope to keep in touch. (You all ROCK!! You know who you are ;-)
Last night had one of the coolest setlists I have ever watched the band play. I just wish that SMILE had not been scratched out from the list....
Best version of SAD, best version of Evenflow, certainly one of the greatest versions of DOWN. And how can we forget the sweet sweet version of MFC!! As for SOLAT, I don't ever remember hearing a bad version. So, last night's was good enough for me to shred my vocal chords over it.
Now it is time to visit the bootlegtown and have a few drinks with the locals.
Little Note to the band, though I know they won't even know that it was posted:
I know you will do another leg for your fans in the South. I know that those stupid rumors are just that: RUMORS. You are not punishing them for anything. I know that you love them and that you know that they love you. And boy, do they ever LOVE you!!!
So don't forget to come and knock our door next Spring down South. How sweet would it be to give New Orleans a rocking show??
wow what a phenomenal (sp) show!! I don't have time for a full review right now as I gotta get some sleep before my flight to Portland in the morning. I had front row on the rail, on Stoneys side next to my girls Vedhead27 and Yahamita (girl I hope u found and got yer car back ok). We taped our Stone sign on the rail. He gave us all kinds of love. I got a Jeff Smile and some Ed looks too. Vedhead27 was given the setlist out of nowhere after the show too. She'll tell u all about that when she does her review. Stone was loving me off last night. Every time I looked over he was smiling or staring at me. At the end of the show Stone came out and passed a pick to someone on the rail to my left...then started throwing pick after pick out RIGHT AT ME. The bugger was using me for target practice...just laughing his ass off the whole time. I caught 2 picks...the rest of the time I had my arms up protecting my self from the onslaught while laughing and yelling STOP! STOP! haha. After Stone ran out of picks he looked down at me and apologized before walking offstage. That little shit distruber. Wait till I get to the Portland or the Gorge. I'm gonna make him laugh. I wanna get him back for that but not sure how to do it as of yet.
Anyways...great show. Great 3 shows actually. Wow what setlist. I'm sooooo happy my girl Vedhead27 got Light Years....FINALLY!! I'll try to write more when I get back to Toronto.
"Rock and roll is something that can't be quantified, sometimes it's not even something you hear, but FEEL!" - Bob Lefsetz
three songs- Crazy Mary Red Mosquito All Along the Watchtower.
My two buddies and I were sitting on the floor arguing about what they would play that and I made the bold prediction of Red Mosquito after some research during my lunch break at work. Needless to say I got a few jeers pointed my way. We will of course come back to this.
I am Mine- WOW, Eddie is amazing.
Release- Some guy said he always wanted to see Release played and not yet. I hope he enjoyed, I had the same feelings a few songs later.
I had also said they would play a lot of Yield and No Code, and Pearl Jam man you came through. Hail Hail, Holy Shit! Untitled, MFC, In Hiding, Do the Evolution, Present Tense, Low Light and of course Red Mosquito!
Red Mosquito- killed, wow. I almost fainted when they started playing this. My friends just looked at me with complete shock. I did not think they could top this moment, HA!
EVEN FLOW, was even better then the nights before.
I was so happy they played Do The Evolution again, it is one of my favorite songs and always remind of this girl so its a perfect jam.
Man of the Hour was a treat for me, it was one of the songs you want them to play but in the jamming set they had I didn't think it was going to happen. But BOOM, thank you Tim Burton, you combined one of my favorite movies with one of my favorite bands.
Crazy Mary, I had a feeling it was going to special. Boom was used the other two days but not to the extent we all knew Boom can be used. I was going to be so dissapointed if they had not played this, instead of playing it they killed it. KUDOS
Last Exit WOW, State of Love and Trust and Leash again WOW WOW
Then the show stopper! Quoting Eddie- We are going to play a song and I believe we are to play the shit of out it. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, that is all I can say. I knew they were going to play a cover but All Along the Watchtower, man oh man. Then the McCready/Eddie antics was even better then the Jim Morrisoon antics of Eddie on Sunday.
Fades to the end of three Pearl Jam concerts in four days and I am really glad they played Yellow Ledbetter one more time. Great way to leave SF.
Thank You Pearl Jam, I am truly blessed for the rest of my life. I am right now listening to SF 1 with a bottle of red wine to honor Eddie so sorry if some shit doesn't make sense.
You make great sense man!!!
Man oh man are we on the same page! Check post #24 in this thread, it's pretty much right on with what you said. My top five (5) Release (4) Red Mosquito (3) Watchtower (2) Crazy Mary (1) Evenflow. With a strong honoarble mention to Presentense.
I can't believe more people aren't talking about Tuesday's Evenflow. I think because it was earlier on before some other awesome moments that might cloud the vision...Crazy Mary, Watchtower and the post-watchtower smashing+surfing... but mark my words, when you all hear the bootleg, you're going to be blown away... BECAUSE THE BAND WAS.
Maybe we were standing on the same spot on the floor? Centerstage, two -three bodies back from the little penninsula jetting out into the audience????
also agree with you on Big Fish. One hell of a film.
AND ALSO with you on the bootleg kick. I downloaded the second show last night, and once I hit play I was very hard to leave the room. Is it a bad thing that I was dancing around the room with my four month old to "F'ing Up" ? ? ?
ds
______________________________*
Berkeley Halloween 93
SF GG Park 95
San Diego Sports Arena 95
Oakland Coliseum 97
LA Forum 98
Bridge School 2001
Shoreline 2003
SF Bill Graham 2006 x2
"What chance does Gotham have when the good people do nothing?"
Man oh man are we on the same page! Check post #24 in this thread, it's pretty much right on with what you said. My top five (5) Release (4) Red Mosquito (3) Watchtower (2) Crazy Mary (1) Evenflow. With a strong honoarble mention to Presentense.
I can't believe more people aren't talking about Tuesday's Evenflow. I think because it was earlier on before some other awesome moments that might cloud the vision...Crazy Mary, Watchtower and the post-watchtower smashing+surfing... but mark my words, when you all hear the bootleg, you're going to be blown away... BECAUSE THE BAND WAS.
Maybe we were standing on the same spot on the floor? Centerstage, two -three bodies back from the little penninsula jetting out into the audience????
also agree with you on Big Fish. One hell of a film.
AND ALSO with you on the bootleg kick. I downloaded the second show last night, and once I hit play I was very hard to leave the room. Is it a bad thing that I was dancing around the room with my four month old to "F'ing Up" ? ? ?
I was McCready side, stage right probably 15 people back. I think your kid will love F'ing up when they are older you should be fine and proud. Yeah I feel like my life is complete after my four days of bliss. Monday I went to this bar called Dirty Nellys on 25 and Irving and the bartender lets pour our own drinks. So yeah life is pretty good and bootleg for SF 3 is up now, I can't wait to finish work and drink more wine and jam harder.
EV Bridgeschool - October 24, 2004
San Francisco - July 15/16/18, 2006 Bridgeschool - October 21/22, 2006
Lollapalooza - August 5,2007
EV Berkley - April 7/8, 2008 The Who Rock Honors - July 12, 2008
Outside Lands - August 28, 2009 Seattle - September 21/22, 2009 San Diego - October 9, 2009
just got back from san fran night III. First show ever. I am absolutely stunned. I had fan club tickets and got around 13th row or so, but being that my cousin and I are short we had trouble seeing over the crowd of tall people. We moved to the balcony. Great view and sound. I couldn't have asked for a better setlist. The bad seemed flawless. The drum and extended guitar part in even flow was breathtaking. Hearing Leash was great. All along the watchtower was a real treat. I applaud the ten club. They made the best situation possible, allowing fan club members in early. Very cool. The show was the best concert I have ever seen, and was the best experience of my life. I want to see them next leg, hopefully at the long rumored seattle show late this year or early next year. I was worried about how the band would seem, if I would end up attending show where they were just mediocre, or tired from playing two other nights in san fran. The show was great. Crowd was great. We werent in the main floor crowd but it looked insane down on the floor. Ed and Stone both made mention of taking care of one another. I dont know if they will do another GA show in the future but this was great.
I had no idea their were so many fan club members. The lines for fan club members at the show was insane. But somehow it all worked out.
I have to see them again. This show was transcendent.
well this capped out the 4 shows i went to this tour (san diego and all 3 sf shows). this was the third tour i have been a fan club member but the first time ive actually been able to get fanclub tickets. i had been looking forward to all these shows for obvious reasons but at the end of june i had a variety of very negative and BIG things happen to me and these shows all ended up being very positive releases and pick me ups that have brought my spirits back up. this was the best crowd of the 3 sf shows. hard to pick what sf show was best, because they were all specially in their own way. finally getting to hear untitled and red mosquito were highlights. this was definitley a good way to end my viewing of this tour. thank you to all those who attended, although i didnt officially meet anyone through the 4 shows these were the best live crowds i have ever been a part of. and ofcourse a thank you to the band for continuing to be a source of happiness and inspiration. there is no one better. if someone were to write a guideline to be an ideal band/live act...all they would need to write is two words...
pearl jam.
i remember you...i was gonna vote for you one time...but voting isn't cool so i stayed home and got trashed on listerine.
Comments
Agreed. The big guy with the ponytail and the Misfits hat: awesome.
that's why IMO - GA shows suck. i've said it in previous posts. i'm 35yr old now, have a family and work. i can't go to shows at 10am to sit in line for 8hrs so i can be first in and first up front. i'd much rather take my 10C seats which are usually about 10th-20th row depending on the venue and location. sometimes front row for midwest or southeast shows. it totally beats standing like canned meat in a sweaty sea of people trying to enjoy the show. i'll take rocking out and working up a sweat in my seat any day over GA! with that said, all 3 SF shows rocked hard and i was very pleased overall. just rather have seen those shows from my 10C seat instead of upper level balcony.
Well you didn't have to do any of that in order to get up front. On night two I was floor bound after spending night one up in the balcony section. I got in fanclub line around 6/6:15pm...waaaaaaaaaaay in the back of the line I might ad...and I was able to secure a spot on the floor on Stoney's side no problem. By the time the 3rd or 4th song was played, i was pretty much front row (and that was without pushing or shoving people I might ad). So all those who camped out for endless hours just to get a front row floor seat...could of easily spent the day enjoying what the wonderful city of SF had to offer instead of guarding the Civic Center sidewalks, lol.
...and I'm an old grasshoppa like yourself! ;-)
Peace,
RM
Peace,
RM
MFC
RED MOSQUITO
ALL
ALONG
THE MOTHER
FREAKING
WATCHTOWER (with the guy from Sonic Youth!!!!!)
Do yourself a favor, download the bootleg. This was simply one of the all-time greats. I was at the 2nd MSG show in 2003 and I thought that experience would never be topped, but I think it may have happened. Holy cripes.
all hail the avacado indeed!
thanks to utamu for the link...
But oh my god, what an ending. (So more "sweet" than "bitter").
Release opens and I know we're in for a hell of a ride. I'm also shocked that by this point, in only a handful of shows I've gotten two Releases and two Oceans...es. Crowd is in full voice, and "I'll ride the wave where it takes me" is nearly deafening.
We get Life Wasted (which was my predicted opener) and Severed Hand, and I'm thinking we've got an Avocado night ahead of us. How very wrong I am -- Hail Hail then tips the scales in a new direction. Awesome energy.
The real surprises start coming with Untitled, which I was shocked to hear. And it seemed like I was the only one in my area who knew what it was at first. Unsurprisingly, Untitled segues into MFC, which is great.
Ed then says "Red Mosquito", and everyone around me goes apeshit. Seriously, it was like the 15-20 people around me (myself included) were dying for Red Mosquito. And how worth it it was. Stellar performance, absolutely nailed it. Set one continues with some great songs -- Light Years, In Hiding (which Ed says he thought would be the singalong, after everyone lost their voices beliting out DTE).
Encore 1 was great, MotH and Crazy Mary were solid. Alive starts and I'm starting to wonder if we were going to get a normal Mamasan. Hey, weirder things have happened. Nope, just an encore that felt kind of short.
Encore 2 starts with Last Exit, which I was dying to hear, especially after God's Dice on night 1. Lighting for Last Exit was awesome -- the backdrop and the band/stage are lit in different colors that alternate with the backbeat. Red band/green backdrop; green band/red backdrop. Seriously awesome effect, this was probably the coolest lighting trick I saw at this point.
But I'm selling the crowd short here. It's going nuts and only gets louder with SOLAT and Leash. And then Ed intros Watchtower and Lee Ranaldo.
And Watchtower was just amazing. It couldn't have been that long but it was one of those moments that feels like it lasted a lifetime. Everyone is just shredding and rocking out and the crowd is loving every second of it. Mike starts tossing his guitar in the air and it plummets into the stage and we go bananas. Ed surfs across the stage on the guitar, guitar breaks, and that's it.
I'm thinking that's it, and then I see Mike get his guitar that he uses for Ledbetter. Ed says something about smashing it, and Mike cradles the guitar protectively.
It's hard to say anything about Yellow Ledbetter -- crowd was into it and it was the expected play-out... but after the amazing energy of Watchtower it just fell flat.
A great show, this seriously came close to San Diego. If you buy any of the SF boots (you should), this is the one.
I'll never forget these three shows. They were my girlfriend's first three Pearl Jam shows, and she is now so hooked that she is experiencing post-Pearl Jam concert depression. Hopefully we will see them back here for the Bridge School Benefit in October.
1)Vitalogy
2)VS
3)No Code
4)Avocado
5)Yield
6)Ten
7)Binaural
8)Riot Act
Alive
All Along The Watchtower
Yellow Ledbetter
More Yellow Ledbetter
A few different observations...
I been to many PJ shows and I have to say that the stage lighting was the best yet. They've always gone for more of the minimalist approach, and I've always especially loved the red and orange backgrounds that accompany the band, but these shows were exceptionally done.
The new album sounds absolutely fantastic live. Every. Song.
Mike looks great and is playing better than the last tour. I was about 8 people deep in front of him on Sun. and you could see he was really feeding off of us. I have countless bootlegs, multiple live versions of every song and I can honestly say that his soloing on both nights was unmatched. He simply ripped it apart on Alive and Evenflow each night. In general, his solos I think, were better on Tuesday.
I was in awe of Stone when he started playing the main riff of Alive. After all these years you can see that he still loves playing that song. I wish I could play it as fluidly the whole way through.
Jeff jumping around the stage reminded me of when I first saw them at Lollapalooza.
It was my g/f's first PJ shows. She caught one of Mike's picks and gave it to me. I just had to play my guitar with it after the show each night. (My neighbors love me)
Tuesday night = Boom. Simply siiiiick.
The only disappointment was that I didn't get to hear Black again. Like I said I've been to countless shows but have only heard Black played twice, both acoustic. I would've loved to hear Eddie screaming "we belong together" and Mike wailing on his wah pedal to a fully electric version, maybe next time. But nevertheless a breathtaking experience.
I'm off to download the shows now...
Life Wasted is a better live song then Even Flow, Severed Hand, and Do the Evolution (which is saying a lot)
Down was great. Made me very happy that they brought it out.
Present Tense and In Hiding were great. You can never get to much of present tense. A very worthy repeat.
I will say though, that I really really wanted to hear Jeremy.
We got Even Flow and Alive 3 times.
Couldn't one of those times be substitued for Black and Jeremy?
And of coarse I didn't get to hear All or None yet. But that just gives me more reason to continue seeing Pearl Jam shows!
all and all... this was a great experience.
Night 2 was very good
Night 1 was very very good
Night 3 was unbelievable and simply amazing
- Eddie Vedder, San Francisco 7-16-06, after botching Sometimes, the night's opener
http://people.ucsc.edu/~mquery/pics/pujolsFTW.JPG
Well yeah, I'm pretty sure its a 50's strat, and those babies go for easily $20,000-$30,000 so yeah, he ain't going to smash that. Although I have seen him throw it in the air to his guitar tech, so I don't know for sure.
i gave some to a tall guy w/ (i guess) redish hair was that you?
My two buddies and I were sitting on the floor arguing about what they would play that and I made the bold prediction of Red Mosquito after some research during my lunch break at work. Needless to say I got a few jeers pointed my way. We will of course come back to this.
I am Mine- WOW, Eddie is amazing.
Release- Some guy said he always wanted to see Release played and not yet. I hope he enjoyed, I had the same feelings a few songs later.
I had also said they would play a lot of Yield and No Code, and Pearl Jam man you came through. Hail Hail, Holy Shit! Untitled, MFC, In Hiding, Do the Evolution, Present Tense, Low Light and of course Red Mosquito!
Red Mosquito- killed, wow. I almost fainted when they started playing this. My friends just looked at me with complete shock. I did not think they could top this moment, HA!
EVEN FLOW, was even better then the nights before.
I was so happy they played Do The Evolution again, it is one of my favorite songs and always remind of this girl so its a perfect jam.
Man of the Hour was a treat for me, it was one of the songs you want them to play but in the jamming set they had I didn't think it was going to happen. But BOOM, thank you Tim Burton, you combined one of my favorite movies with one of my favorite bands.
Crazy Mary, I had a feeling it was going to special. Boom was used the other two days but not to the extent we all knew Boom can be used. I was going to be so dissapointed if they had not played this, instead of playing it they killed it. KUDOS
Last Exit WOW, State of Love and Trust and Leash again WOW WOW
Then the show stopper! Quoting Eddie- We are going to play a song and I believe we are to play the shit of out it. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, that is all I can say. I knew they were going to play a cover but All Along the Watchtower, man oh man. Then the McCready/Eddie antics was even better then the Jim Morrisoon antics of Eddie on Sunday.
Fades to the end of three Pearl Jam concerts in four days and I am really glad they played Yellow Ledbetter one more time. Great way to leave SF.
Thank You Pearl Jam, I am truly blessed for the rest of my life. I am right now listening to SF 1 with a bottle of red wine to honor Eddie so sorry if some shit doesn't make sense.
San Francisco - July 15/16/18, 2006 Bridgeschool - October 21/22, 2006
Lollapalooza - August 5,2007
EV Berkley - April 7/8, 2008 The Who Rock Honors - July 12, 2008
Outside Lands - August 28, 2009 Seattle - September 21/22, 2009 San Diego - October 9, 2009
um no
i am a girl with dark hair.
nevermind then
can you say enough about our PJ community of instantaneous friends?
Peace...
PS --
and here's to a Southern tour including your home state, but also Charlotte, Ft. Lauderdale, Dallas, and Phoenix! And hopefully, all days when I'm traveling there for work!
still on the road headed to the gorge but when i finally get home next week ill post the high res videos if they came out well...
Anyways...great show. Great 3 shows actually. Wow what setlist. I'm sooooo happy my girl Vedhead27 got Light Years....FINALLY!! I'll try to write more when I get back to Toronto.
You make great sense man!!!
Man oh man are we on the same page! Check post #24 in this thread, it's pretty much right on with what you said. My top five (5) Release (4) Red Mosquito (3) Watchtower (2) Crazy Mary (1) Evenflow. With a strong honoarble mention to Presentense.
I can't believe more people aren't talking about Tuesday's Evenflow. I think because it was earlier on before some other awesome moments that might cloud the vision...Crazy Mary, Watchtower and the post-watchtower smashing+surfing... but mark my words, when you all hear the bootleg, you're going to be blown away... BECAUSE THE BAND WAS.
Maybe we were standing on the same spot on the floor? Centerstage, two -three bodies back from the little penninsula jetting out into the audience????
also agree with you on Big Fish. One hell of a film.
AND ALSO with you on the bootleg kick. I downloaded the second show last night, and once I hit play I was very hard to leave the room. Is it a bad thing that I was dancing around the room with my four month old to "F'ing Up" ? ? ?
ds
______________________________*
Berkeley Halloween 93
SF GG Park 95
San Diego Sports Arena 95
Oakland Coliseum 97
LA Forum 98
Bridge School 2001
Shoreline 2003
SF Bill Graham 2006 x2
Thanks to Ample Jar. She posted this on another thread. I may have some more from friends in a little bit here...
San Francisco - July 15/16/18, 2006 Bridgeschool - October 21/22, 2006
Lollapalooza - August 5,2007
EV Berkley - April 7/8, 2008 The Who Rock Honors - July 12, 2008
Outside Lands - August 28, 2009 Seattle - September 21/22, 2009 San Diego - October 9, 2009
I had no idea their were so many fan club members. The lines for fan club members at the show was insane. But somehow it all worked out.
I have to see them again. This show was transcendent.
pearl jam.