Travel a long way for a bad show?

deadendp · April 2015

lolobugg said:

brookelily said:

Lost In Ohio said:

SPEEDY MCCREADY said:
Cincy

Cinci 14? I disagree....what'd I miss there?
Cinci 03? Yeah, I could see that...the show never happened.

Cincy '14 was my 12th show and its probably a top 3 show for me. They had a few technical issues, but it was 3hrs and 10 minutes long, that 1st encore was sublime, I can still see Eddie and Stone laughing and drinking on the side of the stage as Mike finishes out Ledbetter, and that different version of LBC (never a favorite) was really, really cool. Alot of good memories of that show.
^this
been to over 25 shows and this one is moving up my list of favorites.
crowd was insane too.

^^ My first show and I'm glad that those of you who have attended rank it so high. (Not that I didn't want to go to shows earlier. Life happens.)

Caught-A-Bolt-Of-Lightning · April 2015

I think threads like this are a slippery slope. A show I think may have been sub-par may be someone's favorite. I personally have a show on my list that I think fits the bill but I'll keep it to myself as I would never want to rain on someone's parade. But...as has been noted in other threads on this site...An evening at any Pearl Jam concert always beats anything else you could be doing.

BinFrog · April 2015

Caught-A-Bolt-Of-Lightning said:
I think threads like this are a slippery slope. A show I think may have been sub-par may be someone's favorite. I personally have a show on my list that I think fits the bill but I'll keep it to myself as I would never want to rain on someone's parade. But...as has been noted in other threads on this site...An evening at any Pearl Jam concert always beats anything else you could be doing.

Your thoughts about a show should not affect anyone else's thoughts unless they have really thin skin. Say whatever you want. People will deal.

coco butter · April 2015

Caught-A-Bolt-Of-Lightning said:
I think threads like this are a slippery slope. A show I think may have been sub-par may be someone's favorite. I personally have a show on my list that I think fits the bill but I'll keep it to myself as I would never want to rain on someone's parade. But...as has been noted in other threads on this site...An evening at any Pearl Jam concert always beats anything else you could be doing.

I think the one show that definitely has a few fans at odds is Wrigley Field. I personally loved it! A top five show for me and would re-live the day in a heartbeat. But man some people think of it as the worst live experience they ever had with the band. I was covered by the rain and was able to drink beers and Bloody Marys during the break so I thought it was quite fun. But some of the horror stories I've heard or read during the rain delay and how some fans acted when they came back on... YIKES!

GratefulJam · April 2015

It was what it was....

I thought it was awesome particularly the first 5-6 songs, they thinking to myself good luck clearing that GA area.

I was TIRED at the end but worth every minute!!!!

YLed2 said:

evenflow82 said:
Wrigley field 2013. A disaster all around.
Do you smoke crack?

mcgruff10 · April 2015

BinFrog said:

Caught-A-Bolt-Of-Lightning said:
I think threads like this are a slippery slope. A show I think may have been sub-par may be someone's favorite. I personally have a show on my list that I think fits the bill but I'll keep it to myself as I would never want to rain on someone's parade. But...as has been noted in other threads on this site...An evening at any Pearl Jam concert always beats anything else you could be doing.
Your thoughts about a show should not affect anyone else's thoughts unless they have really thin skin. Say whatever you want. People will deal.

totally agree. some of us like certain songs/shows and some of us don't.

deadendp · April 2015

It's been said before. I think that we're a more fortunate lot than a lot of people give credit to be. It's not an hour and a half show. Their shows are hours long. It's not to say, however, that there aren't some performances that are better than others. I agree with mcgruff, though. Some will like some shows and songs where others won't.

I wasn't at Wrigley, but have heard/read stories, basically about merch lines. Was it the horrendous storm? Was it fans who acted horribly? Was it the merch line? Was it the water guy? Do you feel that the bad didn't perform well? Curiosity here.

PJ_Soul · April 2015

deadendp said:
It's been said before. I think that we're a more fortunate lot than a lot of people give credit to be. It's not an hour and a half show. Their shows are hours long. It's not to say, however, that there aren't some performances that are better than others. I agree with mcgruff, though. Some will like some shows and songs where others won't.

I wasn't at Wrigley, but have heard/read stories, basically about merch lines. Was it the horrendous storm? Was it fans who acted horribly? Was it the merch line? Was it the water guy? Do you feel that the bad didn't perform well? Curiosity here.

The band performed really well. Eddie sounded great.
For me the only real issue was a lot of the fans. Many of them got cranky, others just got so tired they literally fell asleep in their seats. I never knew that adults had so much trouble staying up until 2am! So basically, the crowd's stamina wasn't good. I was quite unimpressed. The show itself was fantastic IMO, but when a large portion of the crowd is waning like that, it had an effect on the whole vibe.

ldent42 · April 2015

I had a great time at Wrigley. There was a lot of "problems" with the weather, the merch lines, the lack of water being sold in the field during the rain delay, my personal experience as "innocent bystander" in a shoving match between two full grown men, the debacle with the el getting home, etc. I still don't think I'd consider it as a bad show.

PJ_Soul · April 2015

ldent42 said:
I had a great time at Wrigley. There was a lot of "problems" with the weather, the merch lines, the lack of water being sold in the field during the rain delay, my personal experience as "innocent bystander" in a shoving match between two full grown men, the debacle with the el getting home, etc. I still don't think I'd consider it as a bad show.

Me neither. But judging from how weak and wimpy some people were being, especially in the line for the train after, it looked like some people didn't have the patience or strength for that marathon of an evening/night; those people probably don't have as good a memory of the whole experience as some of us do! Of course, they were probably all the more casual fans.

Ledbetterman10 · April 2015

There really are no "bad" shows. Like I was at Hershey '03 which is pretty universally regarded as a phoned-in show....and it was still awesome.

Wobbie · April 2015

PJammer4life said:

After PJ20 I told myself I had to see them again. So went to Vancouver. As Eddie likes to say 2nd to last show is always best one, not last show. That said, I saw a high school buddy which made the trip worthwhile. I was hoping for another Vancouver 2005 type crowd and show, but 2011 was even a different venue. Crowd wasn't totally into it too, as evidenced by Eddie going off on Ole.

as is often the case, whoever is not totally into it (the crowd OR the band), the other follows suit and neither can save the other....perhaps, bad crowds have lead to the majority of "bad" shows...another would be vegas '98.

PJ_Soul · April 2015

imalive said:

PJammer4life said:

After PJ20 I told myself I had to see them again. So went to Vancouver. As Eddie likes to say 2nd to last show is always best one, not last show. That said, I saw a high school buddy which made the trip worthwhile. I was hoping for another Vancouver 2005 type crowd and show, but 2011 was even a different venue. Crowd wasn't totally into it too, as evidenced by Eddie going off on Ole.

as is often the case, whoever is not totally into it (the crowd OR the band), the other follows suit and neither can save the other....perhaps, bad crowds have lead to the majority of "bad" shows...another would be vegas '98.

I'm not sure I have ever been to a show that was bad just because the artist was ruining it. Bad shows for me have ALWAYS been because of the crowd (you're right, that directly affects the artist's ability to perform well), or because of the sound, either by fault of the artists' crews or the venue.

Jason P · April 2015

St Paul 2014

It wasn't a bad show, but I drove 12 hours to get there and it ended up being the show sandwiched between the No Code and Yield shows.

mca47 · April 2015

PJ20.
I know a lot of people will grumble about this, but for me it was a HUGE disappointment. I had a blast hanging out and tailgating with everyone but the shows were pretty "meh".
For a show ABOUT Pearl Jam, I was bummed when practically every song had a "guest" musician.
Probably didn't help that my seats sucked too. First night under the pavilion three people from the end...the sound was horrible! It was just loud noise.
Second night (Speedy can attest to this) I was literally 3.5 miles away. I could have easily just stayed in the parking lot and drank far cheaper beer.
That said, I still had fun, but the shows themselves were highly disappointing.

Lost In Ohio · April 2015

mca47 said:
PJ20.
I know a lot of people will grumble about this, but for me it was a HUGE disappointment. I had a blast hanging out and tailgating with everyone but the shows were pretty "meh".
For a show ABOUT Pearl Jam, I was bummed when practically every song had a "guest" musician.
Probably didn't help that my seats sucked too. First night under the pavilion three people from the end...the sound was horrible! It was just loud noise.
Second night (Speedy can attest to this) I was literally 3.5 miles away. I could have easily just stayed in the parking lot and drank far cheaper beer.
That said, I still had fun, but the shows themselves were highly disappointing.

I could certainly agree with PJ20 not living up to the hype. Hours and hours of standing in line for the museum when they could have given away free tickets saying "come back during a certain hour for admission." Free tickets could have allowed for people mingling elsewhere instead of standing in line for such a long time.

And then to have TOTD doing the MLB tribute stuff...with tons of other people on stage?

Throw out stuff like Stardog Champion and were the setlists really all that impressive? What about stuff like Act of Love, Drifting, Song X...heck, what about Just A Girl?

Wobbie · April 2015

"3.5 miles away"..... I know that wasn't meant to be funny, but it is

Jason P · April 2015

mca47 said:

Second night (Speedy can attest to this) I was literally 3.5 miles away. I could have easily just stayed in the parking lot and drank far cheaper beer.

2-feign-reluctance · April 2015

PJ_Soul said:

deadendp said:
It's been said before. I think that we're a more fortunate lot than a lot of people give credit to be. It's not an hour and a half show. Their shows are hours long. It's not to say, however, that there aren't some performances that are better than others. I agree with mcgruff, though. Some will like some shows and songs where others won't.

I wasn't at Wrigley, but have heard/read stories, basically about merch lines. Was it the horrendous storm? Was it fans who acted horribly? Was it the merch line? Was it the water guy? Do you feel that the bad didn't perform well? Curiosity here.
The band performed really well. Eddie sounded great.
For me the only real issue was a lot of the fans. Many of them got cranky, others just got so tired they literally fell asleep in their seats. I never knew that adults had so much trouble staying up until 2am! So basically, the crowd's stamina wasn't good. I was quite unimpressed. The show itself was fantastic IMO, but when a large portion of the crowd is waning like that, it had an effect on the whole vibe.

Those folks were probably passed out drunk or high, not sleeping! Hahaha!!!

bootlegger10 · April 2015

I was not all that enthused about Camden Night II in 2003. I left that show telling a friend that my first year really following the band around was not ending with that show. So I turned around a week later and drove 14 hours to Boston for Night 3 of the Experiment.

Travel a long way for a bad show?

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