Cover of the Moment: Comfortably Numb

[VinylGuy]

Not my favorite song from PF. The cover is ok i guess, but im fine with them not playing it again.

I prefer this kind of songs than that horrible horrible Imagine shit anyway.

[EJ]

List of upcoming covers:
Mustang Sally
Wonderful Tonight
Take It Easy
Margaritaville

[bodysnatcher]

this cover doesn't bother me at all. BUT, like ruddo pointed out, we don't need 5-6 per show. but as a standalone cover, it's fine.

i remember seeking out specific shows that had particular covers back when i was trading tapes. like the covers were something special, something you want to hear how pearl jam covered it. now, it's like, "fucking hell, this again?" maybe it was cooler when we were younger. i think they've just played so many covers that they've just kinda lost their pizzazz, or their curiosity. it's not like covers are a new phenomenon with this band – they've been doing it since day one.

i still love it when they randomly break out a new one. "Missing", or "We Are Going To Be Friends". Cool, new covers! But, like expressed earlier, they are 1 of five or six in a night. kinda odd. maybe they find more pleasure covering songs than playing their own? I dunno. It probably is a lot of fun from the band's POV.

i do know that when they broke into Comfortably Numb in Seattle, my wife loved it. i loved it. i loved that she loved it. so, what can i say but "olé!"

[bodysnatcher]

i also think that well-known covers are an easy way to unite 20,000 to 30,000 people. once you start playing a few deeper cuts, and half the crowd is enjoying it (or, standing with their arms crossed judging it), you need to get the other half of the crowd back. sure, you can play Alive or something, but a well-known cover is something everyone can relate to. and to a lot of people who don't follow the band and their setlists like we do, they probably think it's unique and super cool.

i know if i went to, say, a National show, and they busted out "Comfortably Numb"... i'd be like, "holy shit this is cool". and i might have no idea that they've done it 40 times before and people are tired of it

[Hatfield]

Is this just an excuse for Eddie to do his creepy old man voice? I hate that voice.

I don't mind covers, but I want ones that highlight Ed's range. CN just doesn't cut it.

[Kevin Davis]

I think it's safe to say that 95% of these gripes are due to overexposure, obsessive setlist watching, etc. But from a performance standpoint I do think they've gotten a lot more "karaoke-ish" in their covers -- much less imagination in the arrangements, no individuality, etc. Think of how some of their earlier covers were built -- "Baba," "Leaving Here," "Last Kiss," even some more obscure things like "Dock of the Bay" and "Let My Love Open the Door" -- it's not like they were radical reinterpretations or anything, but they weren't replicas. The band made the songs work for them, not the other way around. Not so anymore. "Love Reign O'er Me" literally sounds like Eddie singing over a wordless mix of Quadrophenia. The covers now sound like high-budget bar band fare, not like a band with an identity incorporating its influences into its own body of work.

[bodysnatcher]

yeah i get that for sure.

i also like how they used to pick covers that were related to the place they were playing:

Dock of the Bay in Memphis
Can't Help Falling In Love in Memphis/Vegas
Everyday in Lubbock

there was something cool, sweet and of-the-moment about that

[Strat]

I think it's safe to say that 95% of these gripes are due to overexposure, obsessive setlist watching, etc. But from a performance standpoint I do think they've gotten a lot more "karaoke-ish" in their covers -- much less imagination in the arrangements, no individuality, etc. Think of how some of their earlier covers were built -- "Baba," "Leaving Here," "Last Kiss," even some more obscure things like "Dock of the Bay" and "Let My Love Open the Door" -- it's not like they were radical reinterpretations or anything, but they weren't replicas. The band made the songs work for them, not the other way around. Not so anymore. "Love Reign O'er Me" literally sounds like Eddie singing over a wordless mix of Quadrophenia. The covers now sound like high-budget bar band fare, not like a band with an identity incorporating its influences into its own body of work.

I dont know. I feel like any cover that was once interesting had more to do with pearl jam not actually knowing how the song goes. RITFW, Fucking Up, ive got a feeling... come to immediate mind

[VinylGuy]

I think it's safe to say that 95% of these gripes are due to overexposure, obsessive setlist watching, etc. But from a performance standpoint I do think they've gotten a lot more "karaoke-ish" in their covers -- much less imagination in the arrangements, no individuality, etc. Think of how some of their earlier covers were built -- "Baba," "Leaving Here," "Last Kiss," even some more obscure things like "Dock of the Bay" and "Let My Love Open the Door" -- it's not like they were radical reinterpretations or anything, but they weren't replicas. The band made the songs work for them, not the other way around. Not so anymore. "Love Reign O'er Me" literally sounds like Eddie singing over a wordless mix of Quadrophenia. The covers now sound like high-budget bar band fare, not like a band with an identity incorporating its influences into its own body of work.

I kinda agree with this. But there are still amazing new ones, Missing for example.

[digster]

Missing really knocked me out; I was really excited at first as I wasn't familiar with the song, and thought it was a new track.

When it comes to this type and the amount of covers, I think a lot of it has to do with how they're placed in the show and the purpose they serve. I feel like 2000 and especially 2003 had ALOT of covers, and often they were significantly different than the original versions, but I felt they tended to be relegated towards the end of the night in the first and usually second encore. It helped split the show up into different feels; the shows would start darker, moodier and punkier, and things would loosen up as they went on to the point where the night took on more of a celebratory feel where a few garage rock stabs at some standards made sense. It's a little odder when something like Comfortably Numb, which is this extremely famous song, shows up in the middle of the gig.

[Strat]

Considering they dont touch enough of no code, binaural, or riot act...

At this point im over covers.

[Strat]

Without looking at set lists, i feel as if the last 75 setlists have been a variation on the following:

pendulum
corduroy
mym
lightning bolt
given to fly
cover
why go
dte
even flow
daughter
jeremy
rvm
cover
cover
sweet lew
cover
betterman
daughter
cover
fatal
better man again
alive
rocking in the free world
ledbetter

[Strat]

god i hate pearl jam

[Norah]

Hate this cover. Just play Nothing as it Seems instead.

[bodysnatcher]

Just play Nothing as it Seems instead.

can't argue that

[shakescky]

It was fun to hear this one at Fenway given I will never have a chance to see Pink Floyd live nowadays. I have no problem with this one going away now. It's kind of like "Draw The Line," it was fun to hear one night, and I really wish they did it one time with Tom Hamilton instead of hearing it twice between both nights.

[stompbox]

Harvest Moon with Slater Kinney in Philadelphia was pretty sweet as was the Elvis cover. Off the cuff and unexpected.

[PHATJ]

I like this cover. Fuck you.

[AndySlash]

i’m a floyd fan before i’m a pearl jam fan. if it weren’t for the band incorporating ‘another brick in the wall’ into daughter tags in the early days, i may not have become a pearl jam fan. ‘comfortably numb’ is my favorite song, period. getting to hear them play it at bonnaroo, my favorite place on this earth, a couple years ago is about as great a personal concert moment i could have experienced.

in other words, i hope it sticks around. it means a lot to me.

[numbers]

I like the covers most of the time. I think sometimes we forget that the purpose of the shows is not the bootleg but the experience for the people in attendance. I’d say a majority of the crowd in the building would rather hear C Numb than any PJ deep cuts.