The Aging of Avocado

Tim Simmons said:

Man. I love big wave. Always a highlight when it comes on. Parachutes is my lowlight. I think the melody is awful.

And I love Parachutes - it's my favorite song on the album, especially because of that charming, quirky melody, haha.

Can we also talk about the lack of live love for that Album?

I've been to 4 post Avocado shows and only heard 4 songs live! (Comatose, Army Reserve, Parachutes, Inside Job). Hook a brotha up!

ledvedderman said:

Alright. I'll be the bad guy. This is, next to Backspacer, their weakest effort. WWS, Comatose, Severed Hand, Unemployable, Big Wave, Gone and Inside Job just do absolutely nothing for me. Especially Inside Job...flush. The songs I didn't mention though are really, really fucking good. When the record came out, I enjoyed it very much. Over the last 10 years though...it has not aged well. At all.

There are definitely some rough patches on that record. To me, unemployable, parachutes, inside job, and gone are just so damn boring live. I love Wws, life wasted, marker and severed hand. Big wave, army reserve and comatose are just meh.
Fucking incredible supporting tour, and a good response to their weakest two records. I would give the tour a B+ and the record a C+.

PJfanwillneverleave1 said:

mcgruff10 said:

ledvedderman said:

Alright. I'll be the bad guy. This is, next to Backspacer, their weakest effort. WWS, Comatose, Severed Hand, Unemployable, Big Wave, Gone and Inside Job just do absolutely nothing for me. Especially Inside Job...flush. The songs I didn't mention though are really, really fucking good. When the record came out, I enjoyed it very much. Over the last 10 years though...it has not aged well. At all.

There are definitely some rough patches on that record. To me, unemployable, parachutes, inside job, and gone are just so damn boring live. I love Wws, life wasted, marker and severed hand. Big wave, army reserve and comatose are just meh.
Fucking incredible supporting tour, and a good response to their weakest two records. I would give the tour a B+ and the record a C+.

Now that I have finally stopped laughing from someone saying they like to sing parachutes as loud as they can (It kept me going at work today too. I kept picturing what each person in my office would look and sound like doing that.
Comatose is worth the shreds the Mike delivers - there is some sick guitar going on.
Big Wave - meh I agree but at times it's a break from the others
Army Reserve - The haunting lyrics are very, well it just makes that song sad
This album is just incredible unlike Riot Act.

You are right about mike s playing on comatose, I m just not a fan on how ed sings this song. It s almost annoying lol.

Wrong. Gone is the worst song on the album by far. The studio version is so, so bad. It's not much better live, but that acoustic guitar in the intro is terrible. I think they rushed it so that it would make the cut for the record.

AceCool said:

I'm pretty dumbfounded that so many people say that the whole album is one of their least (if not complete least) favorite PJ albums. I also cannot fathom the dislike for Big Wave. That is a bad ass rock and roll song. I've always been drawn to the loud and fast rockers. In my opinion the Avocado album is a killer rock and roll record. There is little to no experimentation or weirdness but rather it seems like they jsut went in the studio and said "Fuck it! Let's rock!"

Oh, one last thing, anybody who doesn't like Inside Job needs to have their music fan credentials reexamined. That song is EPIC! It is easily one of my favorite PJ songs to see performed live.

porch is epic. go is epic. corduroy is epic. inside job is a bore live. ever look around and watch the crowd during this song? yeah about 95% of the crowd is bored as hell. sorry but this song never translated well live.

mcgruff10 said:

AceCool said:

I'm pretty dumbfounded that so many people say that the whole album is one of their least (if not complete least) favorite PJ albums. I also cannot fathom the dislike for Big Wave. That is a bad ass rock and roll song. I've always been drawn to the loud and fast rockers. In my opinion the Avocado album is a killer rock and roll record. There is little to no experimentation or weirdness but rather it seems like they jsut went in the studio and said "Fuck it! Let's rock!"

Oh, one last thing, anybody who doesn't like Inside Job needs to have their music fan credentials reexamined. That song is EPIC! It is easily one of my favorite PJ songs to see performed live.

porch is epic. go is epic. corduroy is epic. inside job is a bore live. ever look around and watch the crowd during this song? yeah about 95% of the crowd is bored as hell. sorry but this song never translated well live.

Right on, man. I like you. Great examples of what are epic live songs. I'll add Present Tense, Given To Fly and maybe even Life Wasted. Inside Job and Gone....zzzzzzzz. Like you said, Inside Job kills the crowd. Same with Gone. I think Gone is the most frustrating because it actually has potential but it got rushed.

And to the dude who said that credentials should be reexamined if a fan doesn't like Inside Job...very original. Never heard that before. Saying that shortly after defending Big Wave is brilliant. It's like the band was thinking, "We've got this politically charged record, but what it needs is a generic power chord crunchy tune about surfing" while tracking the record together.

I'd probably agree on Inside Job live at a concert unless it was in the encore or as an opener. Awesome album closer the way it builds. It just gets you pumping by the end when Ed belts out those yeahs.

As for Gone, yeah don't care to hear it live, but I like the song. It lacks the emotional depth and feeling that a slow Pearl Jam song needs to be great live.

Sorry, I'm on the Big Wave train. Good album song as a quick rocker to scream along with, but doesn't bring it live.