*** Bonnaroo Fanviews Here 6/14/2008 ***

the highlight of that show (other than being 1 person from the front railing) was hard to imagine as the opener. unbelievable

Pardon me if this is repetetive and lengthy- I just started typing and didn't stop until I was done. Fuck, man, I can't believe I saw this show. What an incredible night in an incredible fucking weekend.

First off, apologies to those who may have been following my Twitter relay (were there even any, or did another source pop up?). It appears Twitter may have been up and down, so some of my relays were put up out of order (Hard To Imagine didn't show up until after the first encore, when 15-16 other songs had already been put through, for example)

So... yeah, Twitter sucks I guess. *sigh* Twas a good ideara at the time.


Anyhow...


I was dumfounded at the end of that show. In my haze of alcohol and other fun things, I just stood there wondering if I had really witnessed what I had just witnessed. My three companions who are fans, but not fans, had enjoyed it, but I had no way of relating to them just what kind of show this was to me. I am not going to anoint this "favorite show ever" quite yet, but I'd be hard pressed to think of coming out of another show with as much excitement, elated bewilderment, and genuine happiness as I did coming from this one. I couldn't have been happier, there was just no way.

The band continues to amaze me with what they are willing to give their fans live. I'd long crossed off Who You Are and WMA from my "want to see live" list just because I didn't figure it a possibility. Ever. Love, Reign O'er Me was a long longshot in my mind. But here today I can cross off all three in one single motion. I've now seen 15 shows, and this band have played all of my favorite songs at some point or another in those 15 shows. From the common Black and Given To Fly down to the rare (at this point) Education, every single song that would inhabit my top 20-25 list I now have seen in concert. That is just fucking amazing to me, and I am so fucking grateful to them. I've also seen 13 unique opening songs in those 15 shows (Release being the only multiple, with 3 times heard (as an opener, anyway- ha!)). It's little things like this that make Pearl Jam concert going fun to be a part of. Pink Floyd is still my all-time favorite band, but I'd never relay a set or track what songs I've heard, because there's never any variety in their sets and there's simply no joy in even doing so. Pearl Jam always, ALWAYS give you the hope that they just might play that song when you see them; always, ALWAYS gives you plenty of new reasons to talk to other fans during and after the shows. I love it.

For the show I positioned myself pretty far back from the stage, about 50 feet behind two field speaker stacks outfit with beer booths- never want to be too far from those, you know?- where I couldn't see much goings-on on the stage (though Stone's hair was clearly bigger), but where the sound is perfect and I have a good view of the screen and crowd. I kind of regret not getting closer now just because no one around me was as into the band and show as I was, but on the other hand I was able to enjoy myself without worrying about other people in close proximity.


Hard To Imagine was so amazing to hear live, and to open even. Nobody around me even knew it, but I sang anyway. Those first few notes were... I dunno. I didn't even see the song because I had my eyes closed the entire time, soaking it all in. Bonnaroo is invariably the highlight of my year every year I go, and having Pearl Jam finally come was a dream come true. For me these first few moments, hearing those opening guitar notes, singing those words... I was moved. It was spiritual, for real. I can't even begin to describe it really... it was just everything I could have ever wanted or imagined. If my life was a painting, this moment was a beautiful sun in the sky... Anyway, another boarder and old friend has seen at least 45 shows and has never heard HTI. Raulie, if you weren't here for this show, I really hope you'll finally get to hear it one day.

Corduroy got the crowd into it. The photo from Sunday's Roo newspaper is Eddie flashing the peace sign during this song.

It took me 30 seconds or so to figure out the third song was All Night, and even then I wasn't positive until the chorus. Guess I need to listen to Lost Dogs again. Surprised to find out this was the debut- I figured this had shown up in the show or two before. I was going to say it wasn't what I'd thought a live All Night would be-didn't seem to have the oomph, I guess?- but if it's its first time out, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt for now. One of the few times all night the band didn't seem sure of themselves.

God I love Why Go. How it stayed off setlists for so long is beyond me, but I'm glad it gets regular playtime these days.

Small Town was the first real crowd sing along. Where I was sitting, you can never hear the crowd that well (they're all yelling in the direction you're facing), but I heard them here.

Even after All Night, Down being played six songs in was the song that got me thinking that this wasn't going to be your "usual" 2006-7 Pearl Jam show, let alone a typical "festival" show. Little did I know the next song would prove that it wasn't even a usual Pearl Jam show.

Who You Are. I still can't fucking believe it. One of the songs I remember really wanting to hear the first time I ever saw the band (in 1998). By 2003 I was a die hard and knew hearing it was as likely as winning the lottery. In 2008, I won that fucking lottery. Fuck. Yeah. I will remember this forever.

Severed Hand is a high favorite off of S/T, and I barely remember it here. I was still on a Who You Are high (or maybe another type).

1/2 Full- Nobody knew it, but I'll take it at any show- they always seem to enjoy playing this and I like the intensity and urgency that isn't on the album version. Ed did the guitar spotlight thing, but I couldn't really tell if it was doing anything from where I was.

Edit: Forgot Animal. Hadn't heard it in awhile. Pleasant surprise at this point.

Even Flow- After the 15th time hearing it, it's hard to pick out things to say about it, so I won't.

Daughter seemed a bit heavier, especially during the end of the tag- I don't even think it faded out. The Blitzkreig tag was brief, and there was also some nice chanting from Ed.

Gone- Meh. Never cared for the song, and it didn't renew any interest in it here. I'd imagine if you liked the song, you'd have liked this though.

Love, Reign O'er Me- Ed intorduced Boom and so I thought we'd be getting LBC or Wasted Reprise. When those first few piano notes hit... man, I was so happy. We were only and hour and change into the show and already I'd been taken to so many emotional highs, this was another one. I think Ed lost parts of his voice after this song. During it, however, he was amazing. Even my friend commented on how powerful his vocals were. If only the rain that showed up the night before started during this song... how cool would that have been?

Do The Evolution- This got anybody still lost in the crowd back into the show. If the band had stuck to hits this show, I think they'd have thought the crowd even more amazing than it already was.

I've come to appreciate Rearviewmirror a lot more over the past 3-4 years or so, especially after hearing it in San Diego '06, which was a blistering version. This one was up there in intensity, and was the most "jamming" they did all night, which I'm sure went over well with a lot of the typical Roo crowd. Really looking forward to hearing this again to see if matches SD or not.

WMA- I couldn't fucking believe it. I didn't believe it until the second verse was sang. I'm smiling just now typing this- I HEARD WMA LIVE. I wanted this more than Who You Are... I put this song on PJ mixes, I listen to it while exercising... I love this song and to finally hear it in person... wow. Another moment I'll never forget. From what I remember, this has been In My Tree-ified, using guitars more to drive the sound, but the trademark bassline and most of the drumming is still there, just not as prominent.

Betterman is notable for Ed being able to see how many people were actually there when the lighters came out. He was right, it was fucking beautiful, even from where I was. I've never seen as many lighters at one show.

I love Black these days for Mike's solos. I just kept my eyes closed while he played. Mike was just awesome tonight, in everything. Ed did some more vocal accompanaiments at the end which were also amazing.

Life Wasted- Dare I say this song sounded grungier? It was definitely more muddy and plodding, but in a good way. I think it fit the song better. Anyone care to back be up, or was I hallucinating? Matt seemed to be more deliberate. Maybe he read the "Matt Cameron plays too goddamn fast live" thread.

Crazy Mary- Awesome, awesome Mike and Boom interaction at the end. I'd soured on this song, and wasn't exactly excited about it when it started, but I was grooving by the end. I'm pretty sure Ed went into the crowd here, or at least down to the barrier, I presume to pass out the wine. Next thing I knew he was crawling back up on the stage and seemed to have trouble doing so! Ed might have been just a bit tipsy by this point.

I don't remember if I've ever heard Porch and RVM in the same show, but if I have, their performances didn't come close to the two here, because both left me blown away. Ed made a decently long, somewhat rambling speech, about making change happen in the middle, but he made it work.

Tomas Young was supposed to be at Roo to talk about Body Of War, but obviously that didn't happen. Ed made no qualms about being pissed off that Tomas was not able to be there (and the war in general), and urged the audience to sing along. I'm not sure if they did, though, because I couldn't hear them if they were. I know Ed wan't people to get into it, but I don't really know anyone who actually likes the song. He's obviously been inspired by Phil Ochs and Dylan in writing No More, but No More just isn't up to par with those folks' protest songs. Maybe he'll write one one day, but this one isn't it.

Ed started Release by saying it wasn't the usual spot for this song to be played, but that Release was being dedicated to a young man named Luke. He didn't elaborate much on why, that I recall. There were no Dear John references this time. I really thought this might close the show, which would have been really cool, in my opinion. Nonetheless, to hear Release here (after pretty much scratching it from possibility once HTI opened) was another emotional high for me. One of my favorite PJ memories was singing along at Boston I 04- that was amazing. While the people around me at Roo weren't singing like they were in Boston, there is just something about singing "I'll ride the wave where it takes meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" that is so uplifting and wonderful. Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Alive was amazing, as it usually is, though Ed's vocals were getting pretty rough by this point. Being placed after Release was special, too.

Encore 3 was Watchtower, and was a great surprise end to what turned out to be one fantastic fucking show. As I said, when it was done, I was asking myself if I had seen what I had just seen. Pearl Jam once again blew me away like select few bands have done before, let alone on a repeated basis. I really hope they enjoyed playing Roo as much as I enjoy going every year, because it'd be nice to have them there in some capacity every couple years. Can you imagine a PJ late night set with absolutely no boundaries? My dream of PJ playing at Roo has been fulfilled (fulfilled is an understatement of epic proportions, really). Looks like I'll have to dream it all again and hopefully one day I'll be typing up another recap of an amazing, amazing show.


SHOW NOTES
-Set: Hard To Imagine, Corduroy, All Night, Why Go, Small Town, Down, Who You Are, Severed Hand, 1/2 Full, Animal, Even Flow, Daughter/Blitzkrieg Pop/Chanting, Gone, Love Reign O'er Me, Do The Evolution, Rearviemirror

E1: WMA, Betterman/Save It For Later, Black, Life Wasted, Crazy Mary, Porch
E2: No More, Release (dedicated to Luke), Alive
E3: All Along the Watchtower

-Attendance award of the weekend belonged to JJ/PJ. Metallica, Kanye, Widespread- not even close.

-Crowd seated around where I was (about 50' behind the two left-side speaker stacks/beer booths) were not hardcore fans. I saw 2-3 people around that knew some of the semi-obscure stuff, otherwise it was a hits-only knowledge crowd around me. Down in front had plenty of action throughout, but the lesser-known numbers didn't seem to do much for the crowd around me. While we all agree this is a special setlist (at least so far), I'm curious to see what non-fans thought. This was no Lollapalooza set (which, for the record, wasn't bad at all

-I'd heard the Severed Hand intro played over the main stage speakers earlier in the day, so I thought we might get that as an opener since they hadn't been using that at shows recently (that I recall anyway). However, while not an opener, they did use it to start SH in the main set. I don't think Eddie was playing guitar, but I may be wrong.

-Band Intro music was Philip Glass' solo piano tune 'Metamorphosis: Two'. Have they used this at the other two shows so far?

-At some point during the first or second encore break, they showed the encore setlist on the big video screens for 10-15 seconds. I was too far back to actually read it, which I was actually thankful for- I had done a great job of avoiding the first two shows' setlists and wouldn't have been pleased to have the remainder of the night's set show up right in front of me. I heard the crowd down front wildly cheer when it was shown, so that was relieving. Anybody who saw it know if anything was on it that wasn't played and vice-versa?

-The Jack Johnson song Eddie sat in on, according to the Bonnaroo newspaper, was 'Constellations'. It was dedicated to former PJ road crew member who now is on JJ's touring crew.

-They had Roo specific posters and shirts. Got a shirt the first day- looked like the poster was already sold out. Checked again on Sunday and they had a whole stack of posters. Probably over 100. Poster had essentially the same design as the t-shirt. I got a Pearl Jam labeled tote bag with the poster even.

-I really hope the boot is as good as I remember. I can see myself listening to this show again and again and again, just to relive those amazing emotional moments I had all over again.

I loved how the crowd kept singing the chorus to Alive after the song ended. I hope they have that on the bootleg!!

Yellow Bedwetter wrote:

Only show note you missed was an AMAZING Animal > Even Flow with the behind-the-head guitar solo by Sir Mike. Best Animal I've ever heard performed..sounded like Even Flow and then to be played right after was really special for me.

Oh, I must've accidentally deleted it- I just copied and pasted.

Yeah, Animal was great. I hadn't heard it a while.

AndySlash wrote:

-At some point during the first or second encore break, they showed the encore setlist on the big video screens for 10-15 seconds. I was too far back to actually read it, which I was actually thankful for- I had done a great job of avoiding the first two shows' setlists and wouldn't have been pleased to have the remainder of the night's set show up right in front of me. I heard the crowd down front wildly cheer when it was shown, so that was relieving. Anybody who saw it know if anything was on it that wasn't played and vice-versa?

THe only change to the set list that I remember was that it had Ledbetter/Indiffer. as the closer and didn't have Watchtower on it at all.

Awesome show

Greatest. Band. Ever.

It was a beautiful night.

Who You Are was perfect.

Please come back to Canada!! It was a long fucking drive, but I would do it again in a second for a show like that!!

I just got back to San Franciscofrom 4 days in roo. That show was reilgious. I took 3 fans, but not fans like me. We were all so emotionally touched by that show. I can't quite capture it. I was about 50 people back from Mike. We had room to dance and rock out to our hearts desire. Something about that sunset JJ show, into a PJ night show put you in a place that was indescridable (not to mention recouping from the PJ show on a blanket under the stars listening to Phil Lesh & Friends). Rereading the setlist, it was such a blur of emotion that I had forgotten about all those tunes. My heart is still a flutter and I am looking forward to the next stage of that kind of experience. The winding down, the longing for it again, and then the listening of the boot to take you back to that special place.

I wish I could give more detail, but I am completely spent from 4 days and all that travel. That was a trip I will always remember and a show that... ya....

Alright guy's I believe that was my 17th time seeing the boys and they were at top form. the crowd was a good mix of fans and just music lovers in general. I think PJ made those into believers. I have not seen Jeff & Stone that active in a while. For everyone who thought this was just going to be another festival show then you have never been to the Roo.

If there is one thing I would like to say is. If your going to bring a flag to a concert please do not out it on a pole and have it waiving the whole f-ing time. I don't know what country the flag was from but it was blocking veiws of the stage the whole night for some. I finally moved after 2 songs (into a lot better spot) because it was blocking out Ed.

Other than that I loved the Roooo it is a very fun and happy place. I did not see one fight for over 70,000 people.

This was my fourth show and after the birth of my children, one of the best experiences of my life. There are hardly words to describe that show. I wish that a DVD would be commerically put out for this show. "Hard to Imagine", "WMA" and "Who You Are" along with "Watchtower" were highlights for me. The entire day/night of BB King, Jack Johnson and the anticipation for Pearl Jam was crazy.
I had never attended a festival before, but when PJ was announced for Bonnaroo, I knew that this was the time. I couldn't have been happier with the way the festival was run and the way that things went. They have left me wanting more! Kanye sucks!

Brian From KY
_______________
Cincinnati 2000
Indianapolis 2003
Cincinnati 2006
Bonnaroo 2008

brianfromky wrote:

I wish that a DVD would be commerically put out for this show.

I second this! Not too much I can say that hasn't been said already. It was epic. Left us all quite spechless & in disbelief. But there was enough cameras to get some good shots, particularly from behind the band, showing the crowd. I imagine they'll have a few PJ songs on the Roo DVD, but I'd love the whole 2 hours & 45 min (not quite tje 3 hours everyone says it was) on DVD as well as the (already ordered) CD.

I must also say that I was more happy to see Down than All Night, although like some people have said, All Night was much better live than the recorded version.