Essential Live Albums

[VinylGuy]

Pearl Jam - Vault #11: Fox Theater, Atlanta, GA 4/3/94

The first of Pearl Jam shows broadcast for free on the radio in the 90s, this was a very widely circulated bootleg for years, and also much of it released as the b-side to a three part Dissident single. This is also the first time I really heard Pearl Jam play live, recording it on my boombox, and straining next to the tiny speakers and trying to scrawl the song titles on the cassette J card. Z100 only played the main set, so I had no idea for years there was a whole other hour to this show.

In any event, despite the immediate need to flout convention given this show’s hype, this one is actually worth the praise. That main set may legit be the perfect main set and I don’t know that I have in my immediate arsenal of memory a single main set that’s ever topped it. Every song is absolutely incredible, from Release to Rearviewmirror to the massive killer echo on that bass on Jeremy, to Daughter, Go Animal, Why Go, down to set closing Alive and Blood. This is pure fire.

The band gets a little looser for the encores, with WMA in its rare full version with Dug Pinnick on backing vocals, an early yet well delivered Better Man, Rats (I had a new appreciation for the baseline on this performance), Satan’s Bed, a torrid Sonic Reducer and epic Porch. Indifference takes us home, but man alive is this a great show.

The Essential Performance: Jeremy

Up Next: Pearl Jam - Live at the Orpheum Theatre, Boston, MA 4/12/94

yeah, this one is massive. Sounds huge too.

[liebzz]

Pearl Jam - Live at the Orpheum Theatre, Boston, MA 4/12/94

Perhaps in order to fit this on a single disc as part of the Vs./Vitalogy deluxe edition, the band chose to release only part of this show, another of the well regarded treasures among fans. As a result, this one is sort of disjointed feeling, even if it may have been the case with the crew creating the set list. That decision though brings us (on the official release) with live versions of Dirty Frank, early Tremor Christ, Not For You, Immortality, and a cover of Neil Young’s F@ckin Up. This version of Sonic Reducer, with Mark Arm, is pretty definitive. It’s too bad we didn’t get the rest of the show, but what we do get is damn good.

This show, along with the show at the Paramount Theater in NYC almost a week later, seem like the final vestiges of this era of Pearl Jam. Battles with Ticketmaster, cancelled tours and shows, stomach flus, and a very special breakfast with Stone are in the near future, so these are shows to savor, even though what’s to come is just as great in totally different ways.

The Essential Performance: Sonic Reducer

Up Next: Primus - Woodstock ‘94

[i got bugs]

Essential performance of Orpheum is def the alt Immortality

[liebzz]

Essential performance of Orpheum is def the alt Immortality

It’s a fascinating listen, but I feel like what that songs becomes when Jack Irons gets ahold of it is stronger - as is the Benaroya Hall performance. I am not sure Sonic Reducer has sounded much better than this one.

[wease]

Pearl Jam - Live at the Orpheum Theatre, Boston, MA 4/12/94

Perhaps in order to fit this on a single disc as part of the Vs./Vitalogy deluxe edition, the band chose to release only part of this show, another of the well regarded treasures among fans. As a result, this one is sort of disjointed feeling, even if it may have been the case with the crew creating the set list. That decision though brings us (on the official release) with live versions of Dirty Frank, early Tremor Christ, Not For You, Immortality, and a cover of Neil Young’s F@ckin Up. This version of Sonic Reducer, with Mark Arm, is pretty definitive. It’s too bad we didn’t get the rest of the show, but what we do get is damn good.

This show, along with the show at the Paramount Theater in NYC almost a week later, seem like the final vestiges of this era of Pearl Jam. Battles with Ticketmaster, cancelled tours and shows, stomach flus, and a very special breakfast with Stone are in the near future, so these are shows to savor, even though what’s to come is just as great in totally different ways.

The Essential Performance: Sonic Reducer

Up Next: Primus - Woodstock ‘94

I thought we did get the rest of the show as downloadable tracks.

[liebzz]

Wasn’t that for Soldier Field?

[dad]

both Orpheum and Soldier Field came with downloads that were not on the physical releases.

Solider Field downloads were the encore, whereas Orpheum you had to Frankenstein that shit to make the show complete.

[Chris_H_2]

haven't these pearl jam shows been discussed to death?

[warehouse]

haven't these pearl jam shows been discussed to death?

i can talk about atlanta 94 until i die

[oasisfan35]

haven't these pearl jam shows been discussed to death?

Apparently not.

[Chris_H_2]

haven't these pearl jam shows been discussed to death?

Apparently not.

it's a slow death

[liebzz]

Primus is next, so there’s that.

[Farmer John]

How many more until WEEN?

[liebzz]

How many more until WEEN?

Approximately 80.

Rough count of 155 more live albums on the list still.

[Farmer John]

How many more until WEEN?

Approximately 80.

jeezus!

[liebzz]

We have gone through @210 so far.

[oasisfan35]

You should attempt a real low volume effort next, perhaps Buckethead.

[Captain Termite]

What was the point of releasing the Atlanta concert as "b-sides" of a "single?" Why was it done that way? Who would ever pick it up and then listen to the studio version of Dissident that starts it?

[liebzz]

What was the point of releasing the Atlanta concert as "b-sides" of a "single?" Why was it done that way? Who would ever pick it up and then listen to the studio version of Dissident that starts it?

In their defense, it was a 3 disc set, each of which were sold separately, and each of which I hunted a year for every time I went into a music store.

[Captain Termite]

I don't think it was a bad thing that needs a defense. It's just weird. Was it some loophole to release a live album without officially doing so? If it was a workaround, what were they working around?