*** Pearl Jam Bourbon & Beyond Fanviews 9/17/22 ***

matt3846

I added some notes to the aerial view to help illustrate my experiences with non-VIP Friday and VIP on Saturday…



We were there just Friday and Saturday, but only had VIP for Saturday. Was worth it, though just before PJ it got far more crowded than I was expecting it to! Earlier in the day we were able to get very close to the stage for DBT, Crowded House, and St Paul.

My only complaint about VIP area was that people seemed to park in the tent ALL DAY. They moved most of the furniture to the edge to get a good view, then made that their spot for the whole day. I don’t think that was the way the VIP tent was supposed to work.
Regardless… was a really fun weekend of amazing live music!

PJammer77

Excellent show, perfect set-list, but disappointed we missed out on Yellow Ledbetter; thanks for the experience gents!

Spoony C

matt3846 said:

I added some notes to the aerial view to help illustrate my experiences with non-VIP Friday and VIP on Saturday…



We were there just Friday and Saturday, but only had VIP for Saturday. Was worth it, though just before PJ it got far more crowded than I was expecting it to! Earlier in the day we were able to get very close to the stage for DBT, Crowded House, and St Paul.

My only complaint about VIP area was that people seemed to park in the tent ALL DAY. They moved most of the furniture to the edge to get a good view, then made that their spot for the whole day. I don’t think that was the way the VIP tent was supposed to work.
Regardless… was a really fun weekend of amazing live music!

I was about where your "Saw Pearl Jam from here" note was, too (I might be the aqua-blue dot at the bottom corner of the arrow tip). Moved up to the VIP pit just after GVF started playing to secure a spot, and the gradual shifting of the crowd had me about 10-15 feet forward of where I'd started by the time all was said and done. Great view, good crowd around me. My wife hung back in the Mint VIP food court area (found a safe spot to sit on the ground near the picnic tables you marked), and had a relaxing time watching on the screens--the fact that we're both okay with my need to be in the middle of it and her preference for chill and comfort is what makes us a great concert couple.

We didn't do the whole festival this year (we're locals, and did the then-3-day fest in 2019, the last time they had it), since I already was sitting on 2020 Nashville tickets I wasn't about to give up. But only being able to go one day (and PJ being in Louisville for the first time since 1994, a show I'd had to miss), it was worth it to me to get the VIP tickets for pit access and nice bathrooms. it was about 4:30 (during Cold War Kids) when we got there and headed to the VIP tent to watch the Finns (and, as I'd hoped, Eddie--I figured if he was onsite early enough, he'd wind up on their stage). Crowd was crazy-large, even in VIP, by afternoon/evening. She waited something like an hour in a food line, and I wound up not getting food before needing to go up and grab my pit spot. (The Asian noodle bowl she got was excellent, though, she was happy to report.) We did a walkthrough of the rest of the festival grounds during St. Vincent, but lines were too long everywhere (including merch) to get or do anything--I'm glad I went ahead and bought a full-tour T-shirt at the Nashville show so I didn't have to line up again for that; I'd already resigned myself to not being able to snag Louisville poster or t-shirt because of how late we were going.

I've told this story elsewhere, including a FB group that has a lot of you in it, but I bought TEN with my first real paycheck, when I was sixteen years old in the summer of 1992. I earned that check working for a parking/security company who contracted with the Kentucky Fair & Expo Center--my first couple of shifts I was stationed right around (not exactly, due to renovations of the property over the years) the Gold Parking Pass lot and the spot where the entrance gates to the festival grounds were located. It's amazing that I finally got a hometown PJ show with the band playing a couple hundred yards from where I earned the money to buy their first music, 30 years and 2 months later. Just a beautiful circle of life.

matt3846

Spoony C said:
I've told this story elsewhere, including a FB group that has a lot of you in it, but I bought TEN with my first real paycheck, when I was sixteen years old in the summer of 1992. I earned that check working for a parking/security company who contracted with the Kentucky Fair & Expo Center--my first couple of shifts I was stationed right around (not exactly, due to renovations of the property over the years) the Gold Parking Pass lot and the spot where the entrance gates to the festival grounds were located. It's amazing that I finally got a hometown PJ show with the band playing a couple hundred yards from where I earned the money to buy their first music, 30 years and 2 months later. Just a beautiful circle of life.

Good story! Funny how things like that happen. Thanks for sharing and thanks for sharing your town with us folks from Atlanta. Been a while since the band has made it down this way.

Gern Blansten

matt3846 said:

Spoony C said:
I've told this story elsewhere, including a FB group that has a lot of you in it, but I bought TEN with my first real paycheck, when I was sixteen years old in the summer of 1992. I earned that check working for a parking/security company who contracted with the Kentucky Fair & Expo Center--my first couple of shifts I was stationed right around (not exactly, due to renovations of the property over the years) the Gold Parking Pass lot and the spot where the entrance gates to the festival grounds were located. It's amazing that I finally got a hometown PJ show with the band playing a couple hundred yards from where I earned the money to buy their first music, 30 years and 2 months later. Just a beautiful circle of life.

Good story! Funny how things like that happen. Thanks for sharing and thanks for sharing your town with us folks from Atlanta. Been a while since the band has made it down this way.

good stuff....yeah I'm hoping they make their way back to Indy sometime. It's been 12 years

JH6056

Spoony C said:

I've told this story elsewhere, including a FB group that has a lot of you in it, but I bought TEN with my first real paycheck, when I was sixteen years old in the summer of 1992. I earned that check working for a parking/security company who contracted with the Kentucky Fair & Expo Center--my first couple of shifts I was stationed right around (not exactly, due to renovations of the property over the years) the Gold Parking Pass lot and the spot where the entrance gates to the festival grounds were located. It's amazing that I finally got a hometown PJ show with the band playing a couple hundred yards from where I earned the money to buy their first music, 30 years and 2 months later. Just a beautiful circle of life.

That really is SO amazing! Those "full circle of life" moments are profound & intense. Very cool!

EP234302

One thing to add - When they played Louisville last, 3/24/94, they played Not for You, even though Vitalogy had not yet been released. Eddie even introed the song by asking what the name of the street outside was. Louisville Gardens (venue) was on Muhammad Ali Blvd. 
Saturday, he said "I've always wanted to sing this lyric here".    Man..... 28 years is a lifetime ago.  

bootleg

The whole trip to Louisville was super last minute for me.  Boston Fenway Park 2016 was the last time I had seen PJ.  Before that I had been to multiple shows on every tour since 1998.  I couldn’t make the Home/Away shows work in 2018 and figured I’ll get them next time they go on a larger tour.  If I only knew then what the next 4 years would bring.  Had tix to Baltimore in 2020 and of course that never happened and didn’t get rescheduled.  Louisville was about the closest they were coming near me but I wasn’t sure that I wanted to make the 6 hour drive to see a festival show.  I definitely didn’t want to deal with a crowd that large as I’m still a bit Covid paranoid (still haven’t had it, don’t want it).  But I hadn’t seen PJ in 6 years and haven’t seen a concert of any type in 3 years and I felt like I needed the music.  So Fri morning I was able to secure 2 VIP tix and off we went.  VIP tix were necessary if you wanted to be anywhere close to the stage but I feel like the whole VIP thing was a bit of false advertising.  I was expecting it to be a little more limited and help me not feel like I was in a sea of people but they sold so many VIP tix.  It had to be about 1/3 of the tix and it was still really crowded.  We got there around the end of Cold War Kids and got to see the Finns plus Ed which was a nice treat.  Once I saw the Finns were there I was thinking there would be a colab and I was right so glad I got there in time.  One of the good things the festival did was keep the music going.  The main stages were side by side and there was only ever about 5 minutes between bands.  We made our way close to the left side rail for St Vincent and had a good spot.  It wasn’t too crowded on the side so we were able to carve out a good spot.  St Vincent was really good by the way.  I wasn’t too familiar with her stuff but came away impressed.  She came down to the crowd during one song and leaned on a dude with an Alive shirt.  Said she had the same shirt in 1992.  At the end of the show she thanked PJ and said she would have never picked up a guitar if it weren’t for them.  We decided we didn’t want to leave our spot so we just stayed there during Greta.  I like some of Greta’s music but knew that if we left we were never going to be able to get as close again.  PJ came on and I was glad they kept with the slower seated songs at the beginning.  Was nice to get Low Light and Off He Goes.  I would probably have preferred more Gigaton but out of the 3 they played they were probably the ones I would have wanted to hear the most.  It was definitely a more causal PJ fan crowd around me as I don’t think they were all that familiar with the Gigaton songs and they sure got excited for Evenflow.  But it did seem like the crowd had a positive reaction to Quick Escape and Who Ever Said.  

The band sounded great throughout and it was just great to be around live music again.  I didn’t realize how bad I needed it.  And it was great to be around PJ fans again too.  I was nervous about being in that large of a crowd again but during the show I didn’t even notice.  With PJ you know your surrounded by good people.  Was glad I made the trip.

tdawe

bootleg said:

The whole trip to Louisville was super last minute for me.  Boston Fenway Park 2016 was the last time I had seen PJ.  Before that I had been to multiple shows on every tour since 1998.  I couldn’t make the Home/Away shows work in 2018 and figured I’ll get them next time they go on a larger tour.  If I only knew then what the next 4 years would bring.  Had tix to Baltimore in 2020 and of course that never happened and didn’t get rescheduled.  Louisville was about the closest they were coming near me but I wasn’t sure that I wanted to make the 6 hour drive to see a festival show.  I definitely didn’t want to deal with a crowd that large as I’m still a bit Covid paranoid (still haven’t had it, don’t want it).  But I hadn’t seen PJ in 6 years and haven’t seen a concert of any type in 3 years and I felt like I needed the music.  So Fri morning I was able to secure 2 VIP tix and off we went.  VIP tix were necessary if you wanted to be anywhere close to the stage but I feel like the whole VIP thing was a bit of false advertising.  I was expecting it to be a little more limited and help me not feel like I was in a sea of people but they sold so many VIP tix.  It had to be about 1/3 of the tix and it was still really crowded.  We got there around the end of Cold War Kids and got to see the Finns plus Ed which was a nice treat.  Once I saw the Finns were there I was thinking there would be a colab and I was right so glad I got there in time.  One of the good things the festival did was keep the music going.  The main stages were side by side and there was only ever about 5 minutes between bands.  We made our way close to the left side rail for St Vincent and had a good spot.  It wasn’t too crowded on the side so we were able to carve out a good spot.  St Vincent was really good by the way.  I wasn’t too familiar with her stuff but came away impressed.  She came down to the crowd during one song and leaned on a dude with an Alive shirt.  Said she had the same shirt in 1992.  At the end of the show she thanked PJ and said she would have never picked up a guitar if it weren’t for them.  We decided we didn’t want to leave our spot so we just stayed there during Greta.  I like some of Greta’s music but knew that if we left we were never going to be able to get as close again.  PJ came on and I was glad they kept with the slower seated songs at the beginning.  Was nice to get Low Light and Off He Goes.  I would probably have preferred more Gigaton but out of the 3 they played they were probably the ones I would have wanted to hear the most.  It was definitely a more causal PJ fan crowd around me as I don’t think they were all that familiar with the Gigaton songs and they sure got excited for Evenflow.  But it did seem like the crowd had a positive reaction to Quick Escape and Who Ever Said.  

The band sounded great throughout and it was just great to be around live music again.  I didn’t realize how bad I needed it.  And it was great to be around PJ fans again too.  I was nervous about being in that large of a crowd again but during the show I didn’t even notice.  With PJ you know your surrounded by good people.  Was glad I made the trip.

Glad you had a good time. I agree on the staging - it was really well set up and managed to keep the music flowing all day. 

Once you’re comfortable going to shows again, I recommend seeing a “real” St. Vincent show. You probably got a little flavor of this on Saturday with the waitress character, but her full stage show is pretty unique and cool (plus she’s got jams). 

cincybearcat

So I've been to Bourbon and Beyond 3 times now.  1st one at the other location when Vedder was solo.  Then the year the Foo Fighters were there with Live, etc.  

First of all in regards to the festival, I love it.  Great drinks available, cool setup. The availability of Porta potties was terrific.  The lines ended up extremely long for food and some of the drink areas.  And of course, while nice that they have it, the location of water refill is so far away.  I really enjoyed the Chair pass this time around (first time for me) as it got us in a quicker line and had a place to chill so I didn't end up leaving just exhausted.

Pearl Jam was amazing of course.  Setlist was pretty damn good for a festival and they sounded great.  Extremely happy I added this in between Nash and StL.

As far as other acts go, of the ones I caught:
1) Elle King was terrific and sounded great
2) Cold War Kids sounded good as well, though I used most of their set to get refreshments
3) Neil and Liam tried pretty hard and loved some of it, but the lack a "bigger noise" didn't seem to play with a lot of the crowd.  For me though they were terrific and capped off by Josh and Eddie joining them was amazing
4) St Vincent I caught some of and was good, but again I needed beverages
5) Greta Van Fleet - oh my god............the band can play, guitarist can play but man I found them to be awful and boring (just loud).  Lead singer has a nice falsetto scream....and that's about it.  And when I saw him with the outfit he stole from Freddie Mercury I was concerned.  Not for me. 

whendricks

Over the last four days, about 130,000 people have made their way through the gates, and Saturday's turnout shattered an all-time record.

“More than 41,000 in attendance,” said Minnick, “A record for this company that has put on 150 concert festivals over a decade, so that's a huge, huge victory for Louisville,” said Minnick.

https://www.wlky.com/amp/article/bourbon-beyond-final-night-pumping-millions-dollars-local-economy/41272924

Gern Blansten

cincybearcat said:

So I've been to Bourbon and Beyond 3 times now.  1st one at the other location when Vedder was solo.  Then the year the Foo Fighters were there with Live, etc.  

First of all in regards to the festival, I love it.  Great drinks available, cool setup. The availability of Porta potties was terrific.  The lines ended up extremely long for food and some of the drink areas.  And of course, while nice that they have it, the location of water refill is so far away.  I really enjoyed the Chair pass this time around (first time for me) as it got us in a quicker line and had a place to chill so I didn't end up leaving just exhausted.

Pearl Jam was amazing of course.  Setlist was pretty damn good for a festival and they sounded great.  Extremely happy I added this in between Nash and StL.

As far as other acts go, of the ones I caught:
1) Elle King was terrific and sounded great
2) Cold War Kids sounded good as well, though I used most of their set to get refreshments
3) Neil and Liam tried pretty hard and loved some of it, but the lack a "bigger noise" didn't seem to play with a lot of the crowd.  For me though they were terrific and capped off by Josh and Eddie joining them was amazing
4) St Vincent I caught some of and was good, but again I needed beverages
5) Greta Van Fleet - oh my god............the band can play, guitarist can play but man I found them to be awful and boring (just loud).  Lead singer has a nice falsetto scream....and that's about it.  And when I saw him with the outfit he stole from Freddie Mercury I was concerned.  Not for me. 

agree on GVF...Not sure what the song was but I was impressed with at least one song because of the kickass riff. 

I was amazed at how they only played about an hour yet they had a drum solo, bass solo, guitar solo, etc. I mean play your songs or something?

It seems like they kind of leveled off already. And wtf was with all the makeup on the drummer? He looked like Tommy Lee circa 1986

Bob Mayo on the keyboards Bob

5) Greta Van Fleet - oh my god............the band can play, guitarist can play but man I found them to be awful and boring (just loud).  Lead singer has a nice falsetto scream....and that's about it.  And when I saw him with the outfit he stole from Freddie Mercury I was concerned.  Not for me. 

You forgot to mention the armadillos in their trousers… agree completely, was on the fence with whether they were good or terrible and decided on the latter. His voice was nails on a chalkboard by the end of the set. 

cblock4life

We met up with friends who didn’t travel with us but only went to B&B because of GVF & PJ.  

Their take was it was not the same band as five years ago the last time they saw them, then here comes PJ…..it was like night and day. 

I agree about the Freddie mercury comment…and they used to be compared to Led Zeppelin and hated that comparison…..Queen and LZ they are not!!!

missed Elle King so bummed about that but glad she sounded good. 

The Camaros Hood

I swore I’d never do another music festival after my last in 2011 but not holding any tickets for this tour I this was my only option. The lineup was enough to sweeten the deal. We did Thursday and Saturday only. Thursday was very low key to start. Enjoyed some early acts. Revivalists got the tempo going. Enjoyed Alanis next; JLP is a great 90s record so i enjoyed her setlist. And of course Jack White melted my face. Hit Churchill Downs on Friday and bet on some ponies. Almost went to the L’ville/FSU game but didn’t want to miss rising early on Saturday to get to the festival grounds early for ya know, a shot at a poster and sticker. Except despite being there an hour after opening, all of them were sold. Someone said they only made 200 prints. That can’t be right? There were 41K there that day? Don’t regular shows get like 1000 prints for a crowd half that size? So disappointing. If someone can explain this to me like I’m 5 I’d appreciate it. Elle King was dope as hell. Glad my wife was a fan and steered me to her set. Seeing EV with the Finn Bros. was also great. First time checking out St. Vincent. I dug them. I’ll need to invest more time in listening to them. GVF was the absolute WORST. They are just terrible and remind me of every punk 20 YO something today. Guitarist had talent but can’t get past the lead singer and lack of…well..talent. Just my opinion. Finally the main event. Did my best with positioning and stood near Mint entrance. Got about 20 feet closer right when PJ came on. I sang my ass off and had the best time I could even though it was a festival set. Loved getting a few new songs and Purple Rain was fun as fuck. Sad for the 2 scratched songs. Fuckin GVF…you bastards played over your limit and cost us. 😡  So happy I got one show this year but still salty about the merch situation. Now I’m gonna have to pay eBay nonsense just to keep my collection perfect. (Only buy posters for gigs I attend). Sunday a Hot Brown at the Brown Hotel and the Ali Center before flying home to Boston. All in all a great weekend and here’s to hoping for more US dates in ‘23! 

JH6056

Bob Mayo on the keyboards Bob said:

5) Greta Van Fleet - oh my god............the band can play, guitarist can play but man I found them to be awful and boring (just loud).  Lead singer has a nice falsetto scream....and that's about it.  And when I saw him with the outfit he stole from Freddie Mercury I was concerned.  Not for me. 

You forgot to mention the armadillos in their trousers… agree completely, was on the fence with whether they were good or terrible and decided on the latter. His voice was nails on a chalkboard by the end of the set. 

So what I take away from this is: Greta Van Fleet hate is all about armadillo-envy...

cincybearcat

JH6056 said:

Bob Mayo on the keyboards Bob said:

5) Greta Van Fleet - oh my god............the band can play, guitarist can play but man I found them to be awful and boring (just loud).  Lead singer has a nice falsetto scream....and that's about it.  And when I saw him with the outfit he stole from Freddie Mercury I was concerned.  Not for me. 

You forgot to mention the armadillos in their trousers… agree completely, was on the fence with whether they were good or terrible and decided on the latter. His voice was nails on a chalkboard by the end of the set. 

So what I take away from this is: Greta Van Fleet hate is all about armadillo-envy...

Nah, for me it started when I saw the hobbit with a porn stache posing as a 70's rock icon and it went down hill once they started playing music and singing.

Gern Blansten

The Camaros Hood said:

I swore I’d never do another music festival after my last in 2011 but not holding any tickets for this tour I this was my only option. The lineup was enough to sweeten the deal. We did Thursday and Saturday only. Thursday was very low key to start. Enjoyed some early acts. Revivalists got the tempo going. Enjoyed Alanis next; JLP is a great 90s record so i enjoyed her setlist. And of course Jack White melted my face. Hit Churchill Downs on Friday and bet on some ponies. Almost went to the L’ville/FSU game but didn’t want to not rise early on Saturday to get to the festival grounds early for ya know, a shot at a poster and sticker. Except despite being there an hour after opening, all of them were sold. Someone said they only made 200 prints. That can’t be right? There were 41K there that day? Don’t regular shoes get like 1000 prints for a crowd half that size? So disappointing. If someone can explain this to me like I’m 5 I’d appreciate it. Elle King was dope as hell. Glad my wife was a fan and steered me to that. Seeing EV with the Finn Bros. was also great. First time checking out St. Vincent. I dug them. I’ll need to invest more time in listening to them. GVF was the absolute WORST. They are just terrible and remind me of every punk 20 something today. Guitarist had talent but can’t get past the lead singer and lack of…well..talent. Just my opinion. Finally the main event. Did my best with positioning and stood near Mint entrance was. Got about 20 feet closer right when PJ came on. I sang my ass off and had the best time I could even though it was a festival set. Loved getting a few new songs and Purple Rain was fun as fuck. Sad for the 2 scratched songs. Fuckin GVF…you bastards played over your limit and cost us. 😡  So happy I got one show this year but still salty about the merch situation. Now I’m gonna have to pay eBay nonsense just to keep my collection perfect. (Only buy posters for gigs I attend). Sunday a Hot Brown at the Brown Hotel and the Ali Center before flying home to Boston. All in all a great weekend and here’s to hoping for more US dates in ‘23! 

We actually stayed at the Brown and had a Hot Brown as soon as we arrived on Saturday....fucking delicious

If you've never had one at the Brown....do it

Years ago there was a Bluegrass Brewing location just down the street across from the Louisville Palace that served a great Hot Brown. They moved that location and it isn't the same for some reason.

pearlgirl52

I agree with all the comments about how many people were there... not sure the actual number, but I was definitely shoulder to shoulder with people.  Normally I'd be disappointed by Jeremy/Alive as the encore, but as a festival show and my first show since the pandemic, I have no complaints.  Guys sounded great and the energy in the crowd was roaring for the whole set. Highlights for me were Not For You and the Gigaton features. Purple Rain to close was unexpected, not terribly disappointed that yellow Ledbetter was cut... but damn those GVF guys for going long in their set!!!