*** San Francisco II Fanviews 7/16 Here ***

Sexy2aFault wrote:

Ummm Sonic Youth is just noise and you want reserved seating...Stay Home! Stop going to rock shows.... You do not belong at a PJ/Sonic Youth show.

I'm in the Pearl Jam fan club. This doesn't mean I must love every band they decide to tour with. This is a thread for people who were there to post their opinions. Were you there? My opinion is that a band with a terrible secondary singer, and guitarists who spend a good deal of time banging their instruments with various tools and seeing how much feedback they can get from their amps isn't fun to watch. Great PJ show, though.

first show, on the floor - awesome. Eddie fucking up the first song set a great tone for the rest of the night (thankfully he nailed the rest of them though). felt really lucky to see them in such a small place. great singalongs on alive, last kiss, yl, etc. and what a refreshing thing to have a band release all the shows for download - looking forward to that. kinda bummed I won't be there tomorrow night

that's him :-)

Satan's Dice wrote:

Was his name Blake, by any chance?

haha, we missed it too! (eddie forgot the words right from the start)

macci wrote:

I am jealous of that as an opener! I LOVE that song!!!!!!!

I turned to my wife after the opening "Sometimes" mess up and said "We're going to see an awesome show tonight now because of that".

We did, but it took a little while to get there. Rather than being 100% high octane from the outset (like I'm used to) this show built and grew with crazy rare gems like "In My Tree" and "Garden". I’ve been to seven shows now and there were two things that made this show memorable:

The best encores ever. The playlists, the energy and the endurance. People left after the first encore (duh!) and came running back to see not one but six more songs. They kept going. I felt like Eddie and the crew was playing "make up" for the first mess up. They went WELL above and beyond.

Second, I've always thought Mike McCready had THE skills... damn good, one of the best, one of my favorites. But last night that guy's guitar flat out melted my brain. To me, it was his night. Eddie roars with his vocals. This guy roars with his hands. The doubleneck on "Inside Job", the soaring rips on "I've Got Id", "Alive" "Alive" "Alive"... and he punched the powerful exclamation point on the whole night: the Hendrix-like "Star-Spangled Banner" at the end of Yellowleadbedder. (on the heels of Eddie dedicating "Fuckin' Up" to the entire Bush Administration). It went well beyond the awesome intensity we've come to love about this band. Mike McCready is hands down, THE BEST Guitarist of our generation...to think that by 1990 the guy had all but hung it up: “cut his hair, was working in a video store and was reading a book by archconservative Barry Goldwater”
Crazy.
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10560431/five_against_the_world


RANDOM:
*one night, THIRTY songs
*The first song, "Sometimes" was stopped early and abruptly when Eddie said “I can’t remember the fucking words”. Then, reeling then gathering himself while the audience was realizing what exactly had just happened…. he said "I'll beg for your forgiveness the rest of the evening" . Almost before we could blink, but long enough for the audience to applaud hysterically, the guys jumped right into "Severed Hand". Later on he said that he's messed up lyrics before but never in the "first fucking song"
*At one point early on, he toasted the troops with his red wine. "It's great for us to be here enjoying ourselves, let's remember the folks overseas following orders."
*"Insignificance" was the only song played from the Binural (Album #6). No songs from "Riot Act" (Album #7). And... whoa... no songs from Yield (Album #5). Only one song from albums 5, 6 and 7 combined.
*Was fired up to hear “In My Tree” . Liked hearing a different version…but I think the album version is more intense and has a better tempo.
*Seventh PJ show... first time I've heard "Leash". I don't think 3/4 of the audience knew what a rare gem they were getting to hear. They don’t ever play this song, do they? They wouldn’t even play it for a David Letterman audience that begged for it.
*They stretched out "Rearviewmirror" and added some improve similar to how they used to with "Daughter" in earlier tours. Comment/question: on VH1 Eddie said that "Alive" had changed meaning over the years... any chance "Rearviewmirror" has as well? Could it be about history putting the Bush administration in perspective?...?...?
*Eddie took a minute to talk about Carbon reduction plan (see “Carbon Portfolio” on PJ webpage). Asked if there were any Environmentalists in the house and the place got real loud. At least I did. Interestingly enough they got a brief mention of it in either Newsweek or Time (I don’t remember which)… but I was little pissed because the magazine chose to focus on (complete with a feature photo) Coldplay and their contributions even though Stone and Ed were the first to do it. Whatever, as long as good is being done, right? Anyone know what media that interview will appear in or on?
*Eddie Vedder dedicated "Fucking Up" to George Bush, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfield. YES!!!!!
*Spotlight reflecting off guitar to crowd = nice touch. You'll have to see it.

One parting thought:
I heard on the radio that Led Zeppelin was a band for 12 years. Pearl Jam has been a band for over 15.

See you Tuesday.

First off, another incredible show with incredible energy from the band and most of the crowd. Mike was really, really on tonight. Inside Job was much tighter than when I saw it back east. I was ecstatic when they played In My Tree, as that's one of my top five favorite PJ songs, and I hadn't heard it in any of my first 11 shows. This was probably my favorite version of Evenflow out of the seven or eight times I have heard it. Both Mike and Matt's solos were outstanding.

As for the bad, I didn't have fan club seats for the show (unlike Sat. night), so I ended up in a different section of seats. For those of you looking around, we were the massive section facing the stage that was sitting down all night. I tried to stand, and some asshole behind me threatened to kick my ass if I didn't sit down. No one in front of me was standing, so I couldn't use that. I showed him everyone else standing up, and he proceeded to make fun of the fact that I wore earplugs. I didn't want to get into a fight and be thrown out, so I just sat down. It was awful, and I seriously hope the guy dies in a car fire.

I just did the best I could to make the most of it anyway, and the show was still outstanding. These two SF shows have been far and away the best Pearl Jam shows I have ever seen. It is great watching Ed's face light up in reaction to the crowd. He continues to commend the crowd and talk about how they don't get crowds like these every night. Clearly, the band is feeding off of that energy. It will be interesting to see what gets thrown into the set on Tuesday.

thumbing wrote:

Eddie did actually start singing 'Somtimes' before he flopped, going silent and noticeably trying his darndest to find the lyrics from deep within before abandoning the song all together with a laugh.

"I forgot the fuckin' song."

I love that. Although I wish he hadn't, because I love Sometimes.

And later when he apologized ... "Through the advent of bootlegs and technology, uh, you guys know, uh, that the guy talking to you right now has been known to, uh, fuck up a song every now and then. But never the first fuckin' song."

classic.

markpregen wrote:

has anyone had luck meeting the band in SF so far? what time did you see them if you were hanging around by the tour buses? I saw a long line of buses on the side of the venue, and then one lone bus behind the venue.. but the security guard wouldn't say if they would be coming out either exit (of course) and i didn't feel like waiting around all night.. strangely, i saw no fans waiting either.

We saw Boom at a Denny's at about 3 o'clock in the morning. I am not making this up.

• Loved Ed's pre-set choice: Drifting. Just Ed, a guitar and harmonica, and a chair.
• Liked Sonic Youth overall....especially their first two songs: Incinerate and Reena. They played just long enough.
• Ed messing up Sometimes was priceless.
• Band's energy seemed really, really high (despite a show the night before). Crowd was loud and into it from the start. Band definitely fed off the noise.
• A few pinheads in the crowd up front (I was about ten rows back on Stone's side), but pretty considerate overall. Not an unbearable amount of pushing and shoving.
• Great setlist, but I'm really hoping to hear Black tomorrow night.

Peace.

Hey, met you guys last night.

Eric/Jill -- I was sitting next to you before the show started (we were talking about our kids, PJ, etc...) before the pre-set and the crowd surged forward. You two ended up about four or five rows ahead... and in the danger zone for sure. Want to make sure you guys are ok; I didn't see you again after the group of 8 or so twenty something drunk dudes and gal with the lip ring plowed through and squatted in the front.


Jeff/Carin from Sacremento -- if you see this, missed you after the show. I wanted to hear about how Carin's first show experience -- hopefully you had a great time. Great to talk with you at the CCFA fundraiser and before the concert. You two are great, and I hope you can work out that trip to Italy...

: )