Lightning Bolt reviews in one place/thread?

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Metro

Pearl Jam rocks well into the night in Worcester

Sarah Rodman

Sarah Rodman

By Sarah Rodman Globe Staff

399 words

16 October 2013



The Boston Globe

BSTNGB

B.16

English

© 2013 New York Times Company. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All Rights Reserved.


Music Review

PEARL JAM

At: DCU Center, Worcester, Tuesday; repeats Wednesday

WORCESTER -- Toward the end of an epic show Tuesday night at the DCU Center, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, trusty wine bottle in hand, mused that "for some reason whenever we come to this area we play really long shows."

Indeed, at the time of this writing the Seattle rockers had just finished a scorching version of "Crazy Mary" and had lit into "Alive" and were nearly 2 hours and 45 minutes into a performance that had at least three more songs on the set list.

Perhaps a big part of the reason the band always gives its best effort here is because of the rapturous response of the soldout crowd. Tuesday they numbered 13,286 and sounded like twice as many as they sang along to more than 30 songs, old and new, from anthemic opener "Release," to fevered takes of "Spin the Black Circle" and "Do the Evolution," to the lilting "Better Man," to the jaunty "Last Kiss."

The quintet was also buoyed by the fact that its new album "Lightning Bolt" was released Tuesday and, as Vedder announced, it had already gone to number one on the iTunes charts in 54 countries. The band also happened to score tickets to Sunday's Red Sox game and Vedder joked that its miraculous end had him believing in God, "and his name is David Ortiz."

Whatever the reason, it was another in a long line of top-notch shows that was not only lengthy but infused with a kinetic energy both onstage and off, powered by the mighty groove of Matt Cameron, Mike McCready's stinging leads, and Vedder's full-throated howls.

Vedder and his cohorts bounded around the stage traversing their entire catalog from early hits like the breathless gallop of "Even Flow" to the brand new brooder "Yellow Moon," which was performed during a seated encore, before the band cranked the volume back up.

Throughout the show Vedder -- who was in great spirits and even swung from one of the light fixtures at one point -- made several toasts and gave thanks to the band's faithful community.

The band returns to Worcester Wednesday and tickets remain available.

http://bostonherald.com/entertainment/m ... ing_strong

http://www.antiquiet.com/news/2013/09/p ... ith-sirens

Wave

'Lightning Bolt' shows the two faces of Pearl Jam; The band's 10th album could've been a lot better, and that's its main problem.

Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett; for the News Tribune

1203 words

17 October 2013



Duluth News-Tribune

DNTR

English

Copyright 2013, NewsBank. All Rights Reserved.


Twenty years ago this Saturday, Pearl Jam released their second album, “Vs.,” a tightly coiled burst of rock music that sold more copies in its first week than any other album had in seven days, up to that point. During the same period, singer Eddie Vedder appeared on the cover of Time magazine.

This week, Pearl Jam released “Lightning Bolt,” the band's 10th album and their first since 2009's “Backspacer.” It probably won't sell in total what “Vs.” sold in its opening frame. The band will not appear on the cover of Time. (They'll be lucky if they get Guitar World this time out.)

Brace yourself for a personal admission. This writer once was a Pearl Jam fanatic. I still recall the trip up from Denfeld High School to Best Buy to get the “Vs.” cassette on my lunch break. I remember driving through Piedmont Heights, comparing the album version of “Animal” to the one the band recently had played on the MTV VMAs, which I already had watched on VHS countless times. I remember thinking “Blood” was demented and hardly was related to the band that made “Ten,” their first album. I, too, remember becoming enamored of “Blood” in the days and months that followed as I listened to the album on a daily basis. I remember figuring out the entirety of “rearviewmirror” on guitar, and how it felt like a major accomplishment. I remember learning that song with my band in high school, and how that also felt so empowering.

This is a group I've seen live 12 times. (I went to fricking Toledo, Ohio, to see them once.) I got caught shoplifting a poster of Eddie Vedder from Carlson Book. I joined their fan club so long ago that seniority dictated I got front-row-center seats for many of those shows. Eddie Vedder has handed me his guitar pick on three separate occasions. Should I just straight-up ask you to make fun of me?

Having said all this, I can admit the band's past decade or so has seen the group's power diminish greatly. This really isn't their fault; it happens. Youthful righteous anger cannot sustain itself into one's 40s and 50s. Age, creaky bones, friendships with movie stars, houses in Hawaii, kids. These things dull edges. Such is life. But it used to be that Pearl Jam was best at intensity, and when things become less about intensity and principle and more about playing corporate functions for Target and sound-tracking “Grey's Anatomy,” things get diminished.

The duality of Pearl Jam — their 1990s existence as a great rock band who turned their backs on mega-fame, only to embrace commercialism and lose their mojo in the 2000s — is starkly presented on the dopily named “Lightning Bolt.” Here we have some of the best songs the band has recorded in a decade or more on the same LP with some of the most maudlin, flaccid, overproduced radio rock they've ever done.

“Getaway” comes out of the gate sounding a little generic but also a bit slinky and energetic. Vedder's voice sounds good and crisp, a far cry from the damaged croak he used on the band's self-titled 2006 album. When the chorus hits, it's a revelation. This is the band that has been missing for so long. It recalls the propulsive insistence of “rearviewmirror” or “Insignificance” in such a way that it's almost shocking. Turns out, this band was not gone forever, replaced by the balladeers who made the insipid “Just Breathe.”

“Mind Your Manners” and “My Father's Son” are two more near-classic PJ tunes. The first is a Bad Religion-aping punk song, the fastest the band has ever played; the second is a dark number that gives Vedder a chance to wail and scream and swear about his dead dad just like old times over a heavy bass riff. Listening to these first three tunes, it's almost like years are being erased.

And then “Sirens” comes in. Idiotically slotted as the fourth track following three barnburners, it's the closest thing to a loathsome power ballad the group ever has created, and would be that very thing were it not for Vedder's thoughtful lyrics, which paint a picture of a man lying in bed while his wife sleeps, the sound of sirens wailing in the night outside his window. It's a song about the awareness of mortality and the fragility of life. The snapshot is powerful and true, but the music is “The Flame” by Cheap Trick. Producer Brendan O'Brien fails the band miserably by pushing this song into radio-schlock territory, and they fail themselves by going along with it.

Side two of the album starts off nicely with some moody atmosphere (“Pendulum”) and earth-papa acoustic rock (“Swallowed Whole”) and then crash-lands into the insipid generic bar-blues-meets-sitcom-theme “Let the Records Play,” which is like watching your formerly cool greaser uncle develop a taste for sandals with socks and jam shorts. Every song doesn't need to be “Leash” or “Do the Evolution,” guys, but writing friendly sports-bar rock like this and then producing it like Aerosmith is a sin.

“Sleeping by Myself” is a Vedder ukulele tune turned into a decent roots-pop song, and “Yellow Moon” is a passable B-side that boarded the album without a ticket. But it's “Future Days” that really seals the album's fate. The band that once played thoughtful, reserved acoustic songs like “Around the Bend” now is closing albums with lovey-dovey schmaltz like this, and it's a real shame. It's not a bad composition, but it's cut from the same cloth as “Just Breathe,” and that cloth should've been burned and buried after that abomination.

“Lightning Bolt” could've been a lot better, and that's its main problem. Some of the tracks on the first side are stronger than much of the by-numbers rock they've been churning out for the past few records, and several rescue Vedder from his recent-years transmogrification into The Dude from “The Big Lebowski.” But others reveal him as having developed even worse tendencies — pat rhymes, reliance on clichés, bald-faced sentimentalism.

Perhaps next time Pearl Jam can make something that recalls more accurately the power of “Vs.” while also allowing for the fact that they are men reaching the shore of their 50s. A handful of songs on this album show that they still have the ability to make music that contains the same emotional and lyrical resonance they had as young men, but they probably need a new sonic collaborator to help them do so. Hopefully it doesn't take another four years before they try again.

"Mind Your Manners" — Pearl Jam

Get this!

Pearl Jam rocks on, even after all these years

Jason Cirone

Jason Cirone;

527 words

17 October 2013



The Courier-Tribune

ASHCT

English

Copyright 2013 The Courier-Tribune, Stephens Media, LLC, d/b/a The Courier-Tribune, All Rights Reserved. Distributed by NewsBank, inc.


Pearl Jam is considered by many to be rock royalty. The group came on strong in the early '90s, rocking it out through the grunge movement. Carrying fame for the past 20 years, Pearl Jam has met success at every turn, proving it's here to stay. Just this week, with the release of its 10th album, Lightning Bolt, Pearl Jam is ready to rock the world again. Which means now is a good time to take a look at the group's origin.

The beginnings can be traced back to a pioneering grunge band called Green River. Amongst its members were Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament. Green River toured and recorded to moderate success, but disbanded in 1987. Later that year, Gossard and Ament began playing with vocalist Andrew Wood, eventually organizing the band Mother Love Bone. The new band's debut album, Apple, was released in July 1990, four months after Wood died of a heroin overdose, resulting in Mother Love Band's demise. Devastated by Wood's death, Gossard started to write harder and edgier music. Playing with Seattle guitarist Mike McCready, Gossard was encouraged to reconnect with Ament. After practicing and becoming more of a group, the trio sent a demo tape out, trying to find a drummer and singer. Eventually, the demo landed in the hands of Eddie Vedder and it inspired the vocalist. Vedder returned a tape of his vocals and flew to Seattle to audition. In no time, he joined the band. Soon after ,Dave Krusen joined as drummer, completing the original lineup for the band, initially called Mookie Blaylock after a basketball player, but changed to Pearl Jam after the group signed with Epic Records. Pearl Jam's debut album Ten was released on Aug. 27, 1991, and contained 11 tracks about dark subjects like depression, loneliness and suicide. It carried a sound with classic rock influences and a wide range of harmonic vocabulary. The album was slow to sell, but by the second half of 1992, it became a breakthrough success, producing the hit singles "Alive," "Even Flow" and "Jeremy." Ten stayed on the Billboard charts for more than two years, and has gone on to become one of the highest-selling rock records ever, going platinum 13 times. Because of the success, Pearl Jam became an important component in the grunge explosion that came out of Seattle in the early '90s. But not everyone liked Pearl Jam in the beginning. Nirvana's Kurt Cobain angrily attacked Pearl Jam, claiming the band was a commercial sellout, and argued Ten was not a true alternative album because it had so many prominent guitar leads. Cobain later reconciled with Vedder, and they reportedly were on amicable terms before Cobain's death in 1994. Pearl Jam has built a legacy that lines the halls of rock and roll. It have been cited as the inspiration for many bands such as Silverchair, The Strokes and Puddle of Mudd. Pearl Jam has become modern rock's most influential stylist, which continues in their legacy even today.