Options
Review of MSG I in today's NY Daily News
Jwmcc
Posts: 451
Pearl Jam is Vedder than ever
Wednesday, June 25th 2008, 1:09 AM
Eddie Vedder performs at the Garden on Tuesday night. Rothenberg for News
Eddie Vedder performs at the Garden on Tuesday night.
They don't sell one-tenth the records they did at their peak. The scene that boosted them died more than a decade ago. And the sound they helped advance 16 years back has been bastardized in watered-down versions that stoop as low as "American Idols" Daughtry and David Cook.
No matter. Pearl Jam soldiers on, and even thrives it seems, judging by the hit-'em-between-the-eyes performance they gave at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night.
Like many bands in the post-album era, Pearl Jam has refigured itself primarily as a live act, touring constantly and releasing almost every show on CD (a la vintage Grateful Dead). While they haven't turned into a jam band, their shows have a fiery spontaneity in the musicians' rhythmic interplay, not to mention in the constantly changing set lists.
Tuesday night's show - the group's first performance at the Garden in five years and one of the few of late to sell out every seat in the full, round configuration - found singer Eddie Vedder at his growling finest, chewing the notes as often as singing them. Guitarists Mike McCready and Stone Gossard reveled in riffs that have long transcended their grunge roots to rate as classics.
The band caught the wave early in songs like "Why Go Home" and "Corduroy," powering through the latter's descending chords with panache.
The show wasn't all thrust and bluster. They mined a swampy psychedelic mystery in "Who We Are," while an acoustic song like "Elderly Woman Behind a Counter in a Small Town" had a grace equal to the harder songs' bite. The song "Daughter" showed the group's enduring melodic flair, though they expanded its finale with a surprising funk flourish.
The band took other liberties with the songs, adding a long psychedelic jam to "Even Flow," and piling on a three-person, special guest soul chorus on several numbers.
From the band's most recent, self-titled album - their most robust in years - they played "Unemployable," whose theme of economic woe has gained fresh relevance.
Though the set snaked on at great length - more than 2-1/2 hours - the band seldom slackened the pace. They just seemed to keep building the intensity through punk outbursts like the vinyl fetishist's anthem "Spin The Black Circle" and the wryly sarcastic "Do the Evolution," which they dedicated to George Carlin. It's hugely rare to see a band of any age, let alone a middle one, pumping this hard for so long, and seeming to have such fun doing so.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/2008/06/24/2008-06-24_pearl_jam_is_vedder_than_ever_.html
Wednesday, June 25th 2008, 1:09 AM
Eddie Vedder performs at the Garden on Tuesday night. Rothenberg for News
Eddie Vedder performs at the Garden on Tuesday night.
They don't sell one-tenth the records they did at their peak. The scene that boosted them died more than a decade ago. And the sound they helped advance 16 years back has been bastardized in watered-down versions that stoop as low as "American Idols" Daughtry and David Cook.
No matter. Pearl Jam soldiers on, and even thrives it seems, judging by the hit-'em-between-the-eyes performance they gave at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night.
Like many bands in the post-album era, Pearl Jam has refigured itself primarily as a live act, touring constantly and releasing almost every show on CD (a la vintage Grateful Dead). While they haven't turned into a jam band, their shows have a fiery spontaneity in the musicians' rhythmic interplay, not to mention in the constantly changing set lists.
Tuesday night's show - the group's first performance at the Garden in five years and one of the few of late to sell out every seat in the full, round configuration - found singer Eddie Vedder at his growling finest, chewing the notes as often as singing them. Guitarists Mike McCready and Stone Gossard reveled in riffs that have long transcended their grunge roots to rate as classics.
The band caught the wave early in songs like "Why Go Home" and "Corduroy," powering through the latter's descending chords with panache.
The show wasn't all thrust and bluster. They mined a swampy psychedelic mystery in "Who We Are," while an acoustic song like "Elderly Woman Behind a Counter in a Small Town" had a grace equal to the harder songs' bite. The song "Daughter" showed the group's enduring melodic flair, though they expanded its finale with a surprising funk flourish.
The band took other liberties with the songs, adding a long psychedelic jam to "Even Flow," and piling on a three-person, special guest soul chorus on several numbers.
From the band's most recent, self-titled album - their most robust in years - they played "Unemployable," whose theme of economic woe has gained fresh relevance.
Though the set snaked on at great length - more than 2-1/2 hours - the band seldom slackened the pace. They just seemed to keep building the intensity through punk outbursts like the vinyl fetishist's anthem "Spin The Black Circle" and the wryly sarcastic "Do the Evolution," which they dedicated to George Carlin. It's hugely rare to see a band of any age, let alone a middle one, pumping this hard for so long, and seeming to have such fun doing so.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/2008/06/24/2008-06-24_pearl_jam_is_vedder_than_ever_.html
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments