Which bootlegs are you listening to right now?

Berlin 1 '12

karmadefect wrote: »

I was listening to Amsterdam 2014 night II and I noticed something I also heard on Amsterdam 2012 night II. A guy screaming:"Thank you so fucking much". Should he have done so once it would have added to the vibe, but since he does so alot I can't help but get annoyed. He screams it at all the wrong moments. Right at the start of a very cool Footsteps or just as the opening cords of Bugs are hit. I'd like to request that this guy refrains from doing this at the next gig.

He's all over the Euro 2012 boots. It does get annoying!

constructing Ikea furniture listening to Holmdel, NJ 2003 ...... I was there

Your seats were certainly better than mine. It was a terrific set list. I got lawn seats after seeing the 7.9.03 show at MSG in fan club seats. Enjoy the music

Academy 92

Verona 2000

Newark 2010

The concerts immediately surrounding this show - Hartford and Boston before, the two MSG shows after - have provided me with four of my all-time favorite PJ bootlegs. Given that, I’m kind of surprised it’s taken me so long to get around to listening to this one. I mean, there’s no way they’d drop a dud right in the middle of such a great run, would they?

No they would not.

For starters I absolutely love this set list. Many standards were left on the shelf this evening (“Corduroy”, “Better Man”, “Porch”, “RVM” and “YL” are all given the night off) and there’s a fine selection of rarities and “infrequenties” to go with the Backspacer material (“Alone”, “Brother”, “Footsteps” and “Leatherman”, to name a few).

The sound quality on this boot kind of interesting as well. For some reason, after the first couple of songs, Eddie’s vocals become...not “buried” by any means - you can still hear him pretty clearly - but slightly ”distant” in the mix. This has the effect of pushing Mike and Stone’s guitars just a little bit forward for most of the show. It provides a great chance to hear one of the best and (and this is not recognized nearly as often as it should be, in my opinion) one of the most perfectly matched guitar tandems around. These guys really complement one another beautifully - and they were both firing on all cylinders this night, so this boot would be worth hearing for that reason alone.

As for the show itself? Absolutely off the freakin' charts. I almost feel bad even trying to pick out some highlights because 1) there really are too many to mention and I feel like I’m doing a disservice to whichever ones I don’t list, and 2) how many songs can you describe as “great”, “awesome”, “phenomenal” and the like before you start sounding like a vacuous twit? Put it this way: “The Fixer” is a decent enough version but nothing spectacular and show closer “All Along The Watchtower” is a kind of a shambles. Aside from that? Every song - every damn one of them - sounds great to me.

OK, I’ll risk twit-dom and name a few: “Alone”, “Brother”, “Lukin”, “Once” and “Whipping” are all amazingly intense. A furious version of “Go” ends a perfectly constructed first encore. “Insignificance”, “Glorified G” and “Supersonic” are all really hot. “Just Breathe” has a moving introduction and is very well played. “Footsteps” is spectacular. “Inside Job” is one of my favorites, and this might be the best version I have heard yet. (J.H.C., Stone Gossard has got to be the most underrated guitar player in a big time rock band today. I think he only plays about 12 notes during the intro to “Inside Job” and they are just absolutely, devastatingly, heart-meltingly perfect - you simply cannot do it any better than this, just...holy crap, he just leaves me speechless. What an incredible talent this guy is. Damn...Where was I? Onward!) Having noticed “Jersey Girl” on the set list, all this time I assumed it was an Eddie solo performance, so I was surprised to hear the band (minus Stone, I believe) join in on this one. A very nice version. Interesting that Eddie opts to sing Tom Waits’s original lyric about not wanting the “whores on 8th Avenue” in place of the more genteel reference to “the girls out on the avenue” that Bruce Springsteen uses in his version.

All of that said, the biggest highlight in a show chock full of them has to be the absolutely jaw-dropping version of “Immortality” that appears about a third of the way into the main set. You can tell from listening to the boot that it just destroyed the crowd. I wasn’t even there and it destroys me too.

I’ve listened to this boot three times since I finally acquired it about 7 or 8 weeks ago (a birthday gift from my brother - thanks, Kurt!). My reaction the first time I heard it was “Man, Mike just owns this show.” Second time through I was most impressed by the quality of Eddie’s vocals (I think he’s especially great on “Footsteps” and “Alone” but he’s really in top form throughout). I listened to it again yesterday and realized “Holy hell, Matt’s drumming is just insane on this thing!”

In short: an embarrassment of riches. Do not miss this one.

mcgruff10 wrote: »

Too bad the crowd was terrible at Newark. You play this set at msg and it s top five of all time.

Yeah, but it was still better then the 2 MSG shows: IMO.

Nice review JF157715 .

JF157715 wrote: »

Newark 2010

The concerts immediately surrounding this show - Hartford and Boston before, the two MSG shows after - have provided me with four of my all-time favorite PJ bootlegs. Given that, I’m kind of surprised it’s taken me so long to get around to listening to this one. I mean, there’s no way they’d drop a dud right in the middle of such a great run, would they?

No they would not.

For starters I absolutely love this set list. Many standards were left on the shelf this evening (“Corduroy”, “Better Man”, “Porch”, “RVM” and “YL” are all given the night off) and there’s a fine selection of rarities and “infrequenties” to go with the Backspacer material (“Alone”, “Brother”, “Footsteps” and “Leatherman”, to name a few).

The sound quality on this boot kind of interesting as well. For some reason, after the first couple of songs, Eddie’s vocals become...not “buried” by any means - you can still hear him pretty clearly - but slightly ”distant” in the mix. This has the effect of pushing Mike and Stone’s guitars just a little bit forward for most of the show. It provides a great chance to hear one of the best and (and this is not recognized nearly as often as it should be, in my opinion) one of the most perfectly matched guitar tandems around. These guys really complement one another beautifully - and they were both firing on all cylinders this night, so this boot would be worth hearing for that reason alone.

As for the show itself? Absolutely off the freakin' charts. I almost feel bad even trying to pick out some highlights because 1) there really are too many to mention and I feel like I’m doing a disservice to whichever ones I don’t list, and 2) how many songs can you describe as “great”, “awesome”, “phenomenal” and the like before you start sounding like a vacuous twit? Put it this way: “The Fixer” is a decent enough version but nothing spectacular and show closer “All Along The Watchtower” is a kind of a shambles. Aside from that? Every song - every damn one of them - sounds great to me.

OK, I’ll risk twit-dom and name a few: “Alone”, “Brother”, “Lukin”, “Once” and “Whipping” are all amazingly intense. A furious version of “Go” ends a perfectly constructed first encore. “Insignificance”, “Glorified G” and “Supersonic” are all really hot. “Just Breathe” has a moving introduction and is very well played. “Footsteps” is spectacular. “Inside Job” is one of my favorites, and this might be the best version I have heard yet. (J.H.C., Stone Gossard has got to be the most underrated guitar player in a big time rock band today. I think he only plays about 12 notes during the intro to “Inside Job” and they are just absolutely, devastatingly, heart-meltingly perfect - you simply cannot do it any better than this, just...holy crap, he just leaves me speechless. What an incredible talent this guy is. Damn...Where was I? Onward!) Having noticed “Jersey Girl” on the set list, all this time I assumed it was an Eddie solo performance, so I was surprised to hear the band (minus Stone, I believe) join in on this one. A very nice version. Interesting that Eddie opts to sing Tom Waits’s original lyric about not wanting the “whores on 8th Avenue” in place of the more genteel reference to “the girls out on the avenue” that Bruce Springsteen uses in his version.

All of that said, the biggest highlight in a show chock full of them has to be the absolutely jaw-dropping version of “Immortality” that appears about a third of the way into the main set. You can tell from listening to the boot that it just destroyed the crowd. I wasn’t even there and it destroys me too.

I’ve listened to this boot three times since I finally acquired it about 7 or 8 weeks ago (a birthday gift from my brother - thanks, Kurt!). My reaction the first time I heard it was “Man, Mike just owns this show.” Second time through I was most impressed by the quality of Eddie’s vocals (I think he’s especially great on “Footsteps” and “Alone” but he’s really in top form throughout). I listened to it again yesterday and realized “Holy hell, Matt’s drumming is just insane on this thing!”

In short: an embarrassment of riches. Do not miss this one.

Excellent review and without doubt one of the best bootlegs of that tour.

Drop In The Park