*** Los Angeles I Fanviews 7/9 Here ***

SOLAT319 wrote:

Very similar setlist to the SD show the other night, I have to say, but still we were embraced by their love and high spirit and that is always more than enough. I did LOVE the acoustic PoRCH!! That was the highlight of the show for me. Everytime I hear that version, it is just so special.
I was expecting a bit of No Code and didn't get that. So, I am kind of bummed.
I almost felt a tear in my eye when Crown of Thorns was dedicated to Andy Wood.
Black was just right up there with Crown of Thorns as far as soaring emotions go. I love it when he does the "We Belong Together" tag (I and millions of other fans of course).
At one point, didn't Ed get bothered by the flashing cameras? He said something like "Please stop" or something like that. And people kept going with their flashes. That was kind of in bad taste.
It was a great experience seeing them at the Forum. I'm not from LA, so this was my first show at the Forum and I am so glad I decided to take the trip to LA and do this show.
It wasn't the greatest show I have been to, but still had me jump around like a crazy person and bruise my legs. So, I guess it wasn't too bad of a show either :-P.

brianjd wrote:

Just a little extra added emphasis on getting out of this "f'n town". Subtle dig i thought especially if one understands the long standing contempt the band has for the industry here in L.A. emphasized by Mike's comments about the Roxy and Whisky. Clive Davis must have these guys by the balls for them to be playing a 3 day KROQ stand with secret shows for industry types. It will be interesting to see what they do tonight.

JayStumpf wrote:

Here's some pics I took:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaystumpf/sets/72157594196003234/


-Jay

JayStumpf wrote:

Here's some pics I took:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaystumpf/sets/72157594196003234/


-Jay

Meijin wrote:

Was this near the end of the show, when the house lights were on? I thought I saw this happening, my god, they nearly had to drag her out.

mlman wrote:

And so do I. Thanks again for Sunday and Monday as I am still blown away by the EPIC Shows. I am still in Awe of it all. Thanks for playing for 2:40 minutes to give the fans a real old fashioned music fest.

---

Monday, July 10, 2006
Kings of the New Pantheon
Review: Pearl Jam's Forum opener solidifies its stature among the greatest bands ever.

By BEN WENER
The Orange County Register

There are so many different reviews I could write about Pearl Jam's tremendous performance Sunday night at the Forum, the first of the Seattle band's two sold-out shows this week at the venerable Inglewood haunt.

These days that building seems to remain standing for little reason other than to provide such a rock giant a proper stomping ground. It's definitely Ed Vedder's kind of place – as intimate as arenas get anymore, with no skyboxes and no advertising to be found. A place where no electronic scrawls scream for Budweiser and Carl's Jr. The sign merely reads: "beer, wine and snacks."

"Probably the same way it looked when the Who played here and Zeppelin played here," Vedder noted. This night it wouldn't be the first time he'd reference the first band, or the golden age of hard rock for that matter.

Which is largely what's steering this review toward big comparisons and lofty analogies. I could waste as much space dissecting speculative meanings behind transitions at this show. Why, for instance, did the soft reprise of the new mantra "Life Wasted" and the biting attack of its full-roar version bookend a set-within-the-set that included "Better Man" (its first verse taken from Vedder by the chanting crowd), a torrential "Whipping" and "Not for You," and "Inside Job."

Come to think of it, there are at least two reviews to be culled from that passage alone, one focused on Vedder's thinking-man's persona (posited by Rolling Stone recently as the last of the true American rock rebels) and another focused on what really might be going on underneath his Jesus locks these days.

He is, after all, experiencing a mid-career Renaissance, his popularity (along with the band's) spiking at a rate that would have alarmed the younger, attention-loathing Vedder. But settled into his skin now, and in firm control of how he's presented (if not perceived), he's become a tangible hero to devotees. We can't possibly know him that well, yet his music and his statements lately make us feel as though we do. He's not removed anymore, on a pedestal; he's just Ed.

That factor is as intrinsic to Pearl Jam's continued success as any of Mike McCready's or Stone Gossard's riffs or the group's determination to make every show something unique. But given the inspiring, two-hour-40-minute set Pearl Jam delivered Sunday night, any deeper analysis runs a distant second to talk of the band's stature among other gods in rock's new pantheon.

When you play every major track off "Ten," virtually all the hits that followed (including the challenging ones, like my personal favorite "Do the Evolution"), toss in Mother Love Bone's "Crown of Thorns," a cameo from Tim Robbins and a house-lights-up finale of "Baba O'Riley" and an impromptu "Yellow Ledbetter" – well, you're asking to be measured against the greatest ever.

And Pearl Jam holds up in any such face-off. As I see it, it's like this: U2 is the new Rolling Stones, Radiohead is the new Beatles and Pearl Jam is the new Who. (There is no new Zep, and probably never will be, though Jack White valiantly tries.)

Yes, U2 is more like the Beatles in terms of global impact, but Radiohead has Bono and the boys beat in terms of groundbreaking yet accessible experimentation nowadays. U2, though more crucial on a sociopolitical level than the Stones could ever be, has nevertheless become the planet's grandest spectacle.

And, yes, we've all heard this Who babble regarding PJ before, since before Vedder became so chummy with Pete Townshend, actually. Yet every time the band returns, it seems more Who-like than before, just as Vedder appears more like a grown-up incarnation of one of Townshend's schizoid antiheroes.

Surely it's deliberate on Pearl Jam's part to evoke the Who, especially when playing the Forum. Why else keep reviving "Baba" (as they did three years ago in Irvine and eight years ago at the Forum)? Why else would Vedder resort to windmilling his guitar like Townshend and whipping his microphone about like Roger Daltrey?

It's on this tour, however, that Pearl Jam not only solidifies that parallel to the past, it also rises to the level of populist appeal that only U2 and maybe Springsteen have held in the past decade-plus.

The last few times Pearl Jam came to town, the (smaller) shows still felt geared toward die-hards, no matter how many overplayed staples were included. This time, the way Vedder and the guys (including bassist Jeff Ament and drummer Matt Cameron) worked the crowd over seemed more calculated. Not phony – especially when there's no Jumbotron screen or curtain of lights in sight. Harking back to the '70s (and early '90s) with every cut, this is just a band at the peak of its powers, well-juiced and stripped of artifice.

But the approach was very much like U2's – heavy on the hits so that the peppering of new ones doesn't bore casual fans or push them to tune out messages. And at that PJ has topped U2, slipping in 10 (!) fresh tracks from its outstanding new self-titled disc, from stirring entry points like "World Wide Suicide" and "Big Wave" to moodier moments like "Come Back" and "Severed Hand."

To top it off, there was a Dylanesque rarity: a duet between Vedder and Robbins on the stinging Phil Ochs song "Here's to the State of Mississippi," rewritten by Robbins to taunt Bush, Cheney, Jerry Falwell and other figures"Here's to the land you've torn the heart out of," they sang in harmony. "(Fill in the blank), find yourself another country to be a part of."

That's just the sort of move that can lead to ridiculous "Robbins and Vedder in '08!" chatter. It's also the sort of thing few other acts would dare. I don't think even the forebears Pearl Jam has come to most resemble were ever so outspoken.

Whether this night's attempt at something monumental is par for the course, however, remains to be seen as I write this. Monday night's gig could be more of the same or radically different and less inviting to radio listeners – just as Wednesday's impossible-to-get-into KROQ-sponsored stop at the Fonda in Hollywood could be another jaw-dropping sight.

That's why, like all great bands, Pearl Jam is worth following night after night.

The only disappointment here was opening act Sonic Youth, a mighty and influential force that nonetheless has trouble connecting with people at an arena level.

The band's sound is simply too fractured and atmospheric for this setting, and adding an unnamed bassist to unleash Kim Gordon to bounce about in silvery short-shorts was just awkward. Sticking almost entirely to material off its latest album, "Rather Ripped," it was as if Sonic Youth had set out to introduce itself to a whole new crowd as a whole new band.

Which is admirable. But also more than a little off-putting to faithful fans.