*** Boston, MA Fanviews Here 9/2/18 ***

rlafrance63

PorchgirlCO said:

rlafrance63 said:

Great to read the “Sea” review to know what the hell was going on tonight. I agree it wasn’t the band’s best performance and the sound was a bit distorted much of the time, and thru most of Ed’s speaking. It was an off night. And a shorter than usual show. I didn’t even catch that it was an encore break. Sorry! I was sitting in the dugout seats and was surprised it just wasn’t as super fantastic as the 2 Fenway 2016 shows. Many thanks for an excellent version of Porch, Present Tense, and a bit of WMA and Waiting on a Friend. 

Lastly, I noticed lots of folks near us spending more time on their phones/social media than digging the music and the fact that Pearl Jam was in the House. With us!! And yes....Brookline is awesome! 

I really loved last night's show! A lot of my favorites and the first time seeing Tremor Christ and, of course, Out of my Mind!!! We have dugout seats for tomorrow and my husband and I are pretty short 5'4" and 5'6". Do you think that will be an issue with people walking around in front of us? Thanks!

I am vertically challenged also. No, you won’t have that issue. Enjoy the show! My kids are going tomorrow and I’ll stay home with baby grandson. 

Luckytwn1

vedpunk said:

Bruuuuuuuce, doesn’t belong in a PJ forum. Let’s leave him in Jersey. 

Just for the record, i’ve seen Bruce on three continents and in over 50 cities. He is much bigger than Pearl Jam and again I say that as someone who has been a member of the 10C going on 25 straight years, likely before you had any clue as to who Pearl Jam was. Bruce sold out almost 50 shows in Australia and New Zealand alone in 2013-2017. His European audience is eclipsed by only the Stones and U2. I was in the front row the night Ed took the E Street Band for a ride (10/13/04), as he put it, and the joy on his face playing one of his songs with the E Streeters was priceless. 

Luckytwn1

I’ll also add that much of Pearl Jam’s ability to sell out these stadium shows is helped tremendously by the fact they are doing so few shows in the US (and also they have an amazing fan base which is willing to travel to these limited big shows). Pearl Jam has not played a show in Los Angeles since 2013 as one example. Bruce does MUCH bigger tours in the US than Pearl Jam and they would draw far less if they did a full complement of shows, especially if they tried to play stadiums. What they have done incredibly well is create these limited number of events that their core audience is willing to travel for. None of that is criticism of Pearl Jam, it’s just reality. 

jiammm14

Someone said it earlier in this thread- it just seemed off for this show, especially compared to their last set of Fenway shows. Setlist started great, then was a bit meh. Also, they were done right in the area of 1030, and came out to start pretty late, right in the area of 8:00... seemed like they were going through the motions...

G-force

locked said:

Security was checking my digital ticket every ten feet going back to seats from beer line - someone didn’t get the memo - lighten up Francis ! 

100% Agree. These digital wallet tickets are a pain in the ass. Refreshing my phone and show the display every time I get up for a drink or take a piss. It seems trivial but not convenient in a heavy security venue like friendly Fenway Park.   

Give me a hockey arena and hard tickets any day.  thanks.

Merkin Baller

I don’t see them returning to arenas anytime soon, at least in the northeast. They would have had to play almost 4 shows at the TD Garden to have sold as many tickets as they did for the 2 nights at Fenway. I would think NYC or Philly would sell out any of their baseball stadiums too. 

As as long as these stadium shows keep selling out, I think they are the new normal (for certain areas)... unfortunately. 

Get_Right

Like the everyone else I thought the late start was a bit of a bummer. 2.5 hour show, with some real gems.  The start and then the second encore were my highlights. Definitely felt a bit uninspired at times.  Hearing that tremor christ was worth all the effort and cash it took to make that show happen.
Setlist shirts today??? Id love an XL if anyone gets an extra

mkdevo

I've only heard one other show from this year, but was this the first time DTE was played in a lower key? Don't know if that was done to accommodate Ed's voice on this one night or if it's here to stay like that, but I wasn't a fan. 

Fantastic show though. That really was an amazing Black. Mike absolutely killed it. Can't wait for tonight!

opsopcopolis

mkdevo said:

I've only heard one other show from this year, but was this the first time DTE was played in a lower key? Don't know if that was done to accommodate Ed's voice on this one night or if it's here to stay like that, but I wasn't a fan. 

Fantastic show though. That really was an amazing Black. Mike absolutely killed it. Can't wait for tonight!

Looked like it was accident to me. Also hi Dave!

ikiT

Merkin Baller said:

I don’t see them returning to arenas anytime soon, at least in the northeast. They would have had to play almost 4 shows at the TD Garden to have sold as many tickets as they did for the 2 nights at Fenway. I would think NYC or Philly would sell out any of their baseball stadiums too. 

As as long as these stadium shows keep selling out, I think they are the new normal (for certain areas)... unfortunately. 

As much as I love Fenway Park...I hope you are wrong.

nycrats

Merkin Baller said:

I don’t see them returning to arenas anytime soon, at least in the northeast. They would have had to play almost 4 shows at the TD Garden to have sold as many tickets as they did for the 2 nights at Fenway. I would think NYC or Philly would sell out any of their baseball stadiums too. 

As as long as these stadium shows keep selling out, I think they are the new normal (for certain areas)... unfortunately. 

Is it laziness or green disease?

stadiums are starting to water down a lot of people’s opinions of the band a tad. 

opsopcopolis

Was it the Waiting on a Friend tag in Black where Ed was singing about missing a friend and then said "I miss you Chris?"

pjl44

Merkin Baller said:

I don’t see them returning to arenas anytime soon, at least in the northeast. They would have had to play almost 4 shows at the TD Garden to have sold as many tickets as they did for the 2 nights at Fenway. I would think NYC or Philly would sell out any of their baseball stadiums too. 

As as long as these stadium shows keep selling out, I think they are the new normal (for certain areas)... unfortunately. 

It depends. If they play 2 in NY, 1 in Hartford, etc., 2 Garden shows is fine. If they're only playing 2 shows in the entire Eastern time zone, they will need a space bigger than an arena.

dimitrispearljam

I hope they play in night 2 for an 1 and half hour and 18 songs.. And say in the end". Thanks for the Bitching. This is what u get When u are  ungrateful. We are not machines or a jukebox so we play as many songs u feel like and endless time. .. Have a good Goodnight. "

Then some of u will understand is about quality.

U  seeing live the best live  band of all times. And u checking your watch to see how many hours are on stage? My favo show of all times was pj Amsterdam 2-2012. 1 hour and 55 min.. Nothing can top that night. Not the 3 plus hours of Rome for exable. Wasn't even close. 

Pj shows isn't like a man penis, that size matters. Is about how great quality performance u get and how epic they Rockin out. When they stop playing shows u will understand it.. But will be too late then. 

AlaG

dimitrispearljam said:

I hope they play in night 2 for an 1 and half hour and 18 songs.. And say in the end". Thanks for the Bitching. This is what u get When u are  ungrateful. We are not machines or a jukebox so we play as many songs u feel like and endless time. .. Have a good Goodnight. "

Then some of u will understand is about quality.

U  seeing live the best live  band of all times. And u checking your watch to see how many hours are on stage? My favo show of all times was pj Amsterdam 2-2012. 1 hour and 55 min.. Nothing can top that night. Not the 3 plus hours of Rome for exable. Wasn't even close. 

Pj shows isn't like a man penis, that size matters. Is about how great quality performance u get and how epic they Rockin out. When they stop playing shows u will understand it.. But will be too late then. 

They can do that. But I'd stop paying an absurd amount of money to see them. They set the expectations that they play a longer set than your average rock band. That's what I expect when I fork over $100+ a ticket. I'm not one to complain over 20 lost minutes but over an hour shorter than your average PJ set? Fuck that. Yes, they are people. They are also a business and I am their customer. If I buy a double cheeseburger, and the waiter comes back with a single patty on the bun, I send that shit back. I bet you would too.

Merkin Baller

Tiki said:

Merkin Baller said:

I don’t see them returning to arenas anytime soon, at least in the northeast. They would have had to play almost 4 shows at the TD Garden to have sold as many tickets as they did for the 2 nights at Fenway. I would think NYC or Philly would sell out any of their baseball stadiums too. 

As as long as these stadium shows keep selling out, I think they are the new normal (for certain areas)... unfortunately. 

As much as I love Fenway Park...I hope you are wrong.

I hope so too.

nycrats said:

Merkin Baller said:

I don’t see them returning to arenas anytime soon, at least in the northeast. They would have had to play almost 4 shows at the TD Garden to have sold as many tickets as they did for the 2 nights at Fenway. I would think NYC or Philly would sell out any of their baseball stadiums too. 

As as long as these stadium shows keep selling out, I think they are the new normal (for certain areas)... unfortunately. 

Is it laziness or green disease?

stadiums are starting to water down a lot of people’s opinions of the band a tad. 

Green disease... practical decision making... call it what you will, it just makes more sense from a business standpoint to sell 74K tickets instead of 38K tickets over two nights.

This fan base has already shown they are willing to travel, and these guys are getting older. It makes sense for them from so many different angles.

I agree it's watering down some people's opinions of the band, but based on what I saw Sunday night, there weren't too many people unhappy with the overall experience. It wasn't a top 5 PJ show for me, but it was still great; I'm going again tonight, and if Fenway is the only venue they play close to home for the rest of my life, then so be it, I'll be there. I won't be getting on a plane to see them play Wrigley again (or any other stadium for that matter), and I'm not sure if I would even make the drive to NYC or Philly for a ballpark show there, it's just not the same experience as an arena.

For as long as these shows sell out though, why would they do any different for the Northeast or Chicago? It makes no sense from a business standpoint, and at the end of the day, that's what this is... a business.

Given2Fly-Fish

oona left said:

PJNB said:

After waking up this morning and reading some posts on Facebook and here saying the show was not "good" I really needed to take a step back and wonder am I a Pearl Jam fanboy that thinks they can do no wrong? I know how I felt last night during the show and nothing would change that but I broke down the set and am still blown away by it. 

Sometimes,Release (amazing version with great crowd support),Low Light(Eddie held that last note forever), Small Town, Corduroy was a phenomenal opening segment and one of the best I have heard. Army Reserve, Amongst the Waves, It's Ok (Still waiting for a crowd to do this tag justice), slow fast Patriot was polished and great. Much better than Chicago's. 

I Won't Back Down had amazing crowd interaction. That second time through on the sing along was LOUD. Present Tense in the first encore was great, Tremor Christ out of nowhere. The first encore was the highlight of the show even with JB in there. Taillights > Draw the Line by a country mile too. 

Out of My Mind. Wanted this song for ever and never thought I would ever hear it. One of the most amazing concert moments of my life. I get people do not like this song and don't get it but it just clicks with me and it has nothing to do with its rarity. Also only 4 covers played which is a step up from 2016. 

Would I have liked them to come on earlier. Yes
Would I have liked more songs. Yes
Was it a great show. Yes

Great post.    

Well said...

bootlegger10

Glad they did not scratch Out of My Mind.   Yes, only 10% of the crowd may have known it, but that is a loyal bunch of fans that care deeply about all of the songs.   

AlaG

The stadium shows likely wouldn't sell half as well as they have been if accompanied by a larger arena tour like they did for Lightning Bolt. People are coming to Fenway from all over the country and world and this band hasn't had much of a growth in popularity since 2013. From my perspective they're becoming less popular. Probably untrue though.

mrussel1

opsopcopolis said:

Was it the Waiting on a Friend tag in Black where Ed was singing about missing a friend and then said "I miss you Chris?"

Yes, they definitely tagged the Stones there.  That was cool.