Which bootleg are you listening to?

Discuss your favorite shows, tours, concert posters...
Post Reply
User avatar
otisboy2
Banned from the Pit
Posts: 39
Joined: Fri July 05, 2013 5:45 pm

Re: What bootleg are you listening to?

Post by otisboy2 »

Atlanta 4/3/94
dogbelly
Banned from the Pit
Posts: 34
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 10:45 pm

Re: What bootleg are you listening to?

Post by dogbelly »

Washington DC 1/14/95
I won't change direction and I won't change my mind.
User avatar
Hugh Mungus
Yeah Yeah Yeah
Posts: 64
Joined: Sat July 27, 2013 11:23 pm
Location: Riding The Lightning Bolt

Re: What bootleg are you listening to?

Post by Hugh Mungus »

I took a long break from listening to any live PJ and just this week have pulled out a few shows I liked in anticipation of seeing them in Vancouver thi year.

Marseille, France 06
London, Ont. 05
LA, Night 3 09
User avatar
Kevin Davis
tl;dr
Posts: 9312
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 6:06 pm

Re: What bootleg are you listening to?

Post by Kevin Davis »

San Diego, 7/7/06
Spoiler: show
Soon Forget
SET 1
Oceans
Severed Hand
Corduroy
Brain Of J.
World Wide Suicide
Love Boat Captain
Gone
Even Flow
Unemployable
Wasted Reprise
Better Man
Save it for Later
Satan's Bed
Not For You
Modern Girl
You Are
Inside Job
Life Wasted
Rearviewmirror


ENCORE 1
Long Road
Come Back
Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
Crazy Mary
Crown Of Thorns
Alive


ENCORE 2
Last Kiss
Comatose
Leash
Big Wave
Rockin' In The Free World
Yellow Ledbetter
Loving how high Matt's backing vocals are in the mix. How tight the band played on this tour never ceases to amaze me.
User avatar
VinylGuy
jeeeesus relax already
Posts: 42772
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 5:10 pm

Re: What bootleg are you listening to?

Post by VinylGuy »

Kevin Davis wrote:San Diego, 7/7/06
Spoiler: show
Soon Forget
SET 1
Oceans
Severed Hand
Corduroy
Brain Of J.
World Wide Suicide
Love Boat Captain
Gone
Even Flow
Unemployable
Wasted Reprise
Better Man
Save it for Later
Satan's Bed
Not For You
Modern Girl
You Are
Inside Job
Life Wasted
Rearviewmirror


ENCORE 1
Long Road
Come Back
Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
Crazy Mary
Crown Of Thorns
Alive


ENCORE 2
Last Kiss
Comatose
Leash
Big Wave
Rockin' In The Free World
Yellow Ledbetter
Loving how high Matt's backing vocals are in the mix. How tight the band played on this tour never ceases to amaze me.
The 06 is pretty awesome.
BONE FUCKIN´ TOMAHAWK.
User avatar
southp
AnalLog
Posts: 1454
Joined: Tue January 08, 2013 4:22 pm
Location: Montreal

Re: What bootleg are you listening to?

Post by southp »

Pittsburgh 10-11-2013 in HD. Great quality on these HD flacs and Ed's voice does sound beautiful on the more chill songs. I've only been listening to the 2013 shows on shitty PJradio in like 64kbps or whatever the fuck it is, so to hear a new show in full quality is great and the nice mix really comes through.

I really enjoy the slow burn starts to these shows... Pendulum>Of the Girl>Nothingman>Small Town
and only then do you get into LB, MYM, Animal, etc.
User avatar
LooseGroove927
Broken Tamborine
Posts: 254
Joined: Thu January 03, 2013 1:57 am
Location: NEPA

Re: What bootleg are you listening to?

Post by LooseGroove927 »

Just finished Brooklyn 2 official bootleg. This was the only show I went to this tour and it's the first bootleg I purchased from the tour. I had an excellent time at the show and would put it in the top 5 shows I've been to. That being said, I was really excited about getting this. First let me say, it sounds amazing. A lot of people have commented on how good of a job Brett does with the mix. They're right, it sounds beautiful. Huge upgrade over the 2008 - 2010 boots.

The bootleg was a bit of an uneven listen though. I was really excited to hear Pendulum live. But on the bootleg it was missing something. It didn't have the excitement of an opening song at a Pearl Jam concert that you get from being there. And Matt's backing vocals during the "ah ah ah ah" part really detracted from the song. Wash and Nothingman were both excellent. I've only heard 3 recordings of Lightning Bolt live so far (Wrigley, Fallon, Brooklyn) and I've yet to hear one that I've really enjoyed. The extended outro is nice, but Ed struggles with singing it. MYM is the same, and those backing vocals from Matt are starting to get on my nerves. Last Exit, Hail,Hail, and In Hiding were all ok. Nothing really positive or negative to say about any of these versions. Down sounds really good. That was a song that surprised me at the show and it came across well on the boot. Sirens sounds flat and those backing vocals are really hurting this song too. Ed also has a hard time hitting the notes. He just doesn't sound good on this one. Another typical version of Even Flow. Band sounds really tight and Mike does his thing on the solo. Ed sounds very breathy. Infallible is another song I was looking forward to hearing live. This also sounds very flat. It sounds like the band is playing in an empty room. Ed's vocals seem to be echoing and bouncing. Did not get that impression at all at the show. There's those backing vocals again that do not help. Present Tense does a good job of bringing the crowd back into it. During parts of the song Ed's vocals still sound a bit off. While Rats isn't my favorite song, Ed sounds pretty good here compared to the Sirens through Infallible run. Unthought Known has a typical lyrical flub by Ed and one of the guitars (I'm guessing Ed's) sounds really bad here. Immortality is excellent. Ed sounds good and remembers all of the lyrics. Mike has a very good solo and the band really nails the ending. State of Love and Trust started out like a bomb going off. Mike and the band hold up their end throughout the song, but Ed has more lyric flubs and sounds defeated going into Mike's first solo, but recovers a little by the end. Once and Given to Fly both sound ok, I guess. Better Man with the extended tag / call and response is always nice. This one does not dissapoint and ends the first set on a high point. Footsteps and Yellow Moon are both solid. All Those Yesterdays sounds better on the boot than I remember it. Was a nice surprise. Boom sausage fingered the hell out of the intro to Future Days. I remember him looking annoyed when he was playing it. I can't even put into words how awful that intro sounded. Ed and the band sound good on Evolution, aside from the South America thing. Go is solid and then we're into an excellent version of Porch which ends the second set. Ed does a surprisingly good job on both Whipping and Blood. Leaving Here is a nice treat and sounds great. I think Jeff and Matt took all the solos. Black, Alive, and RITFW were all excellent and had some very extended solos. Yellow Ledbetter with the Star Spangled Banner closed the show on a nice high note.

Overall, this was an uneven listen. The slow start of the first 3 songs was nice. But the Lightning Bolt songs really did not come across well on the boot, and they were the ones I was most excited about hearing. There was a long stretch of songs through the first set that were pretty rough. By the end of the first set they started to get it together, and aside from a few mis-steps, both encores were pretty tight. Since I went to this show, I'm sure I'll listen to it a few more times. If I wasn't there, I doubt I'd give it another listen.
User avatar
numbers
Mind Your Tanners
Posts: 9200
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 6:44 pm
Location: Franklin, MA

Re: What bootleg are you listening to?

Post by numbers »

Worcester I and II '13

I really like Lightning Bolt after hearing these live versions a few time over. Eddie is a mess in the encore of I, but whatever it was still a really good show. It's funny how I dont remember him totally fucking up the first verse of Indifference at all, but on tape it's so egregious. The energy of the first show really comes across in the bootleg, which makes me happy.
User avatar
VinylGuy
jeeeesus relax already
Posts: 42772
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 5:10 pm

Re: What bootleg are you listening to?

Post by VinylGuy »

Brooklyn 2013 1

Really good show/boot...Oceans/Yellow Moon is a perfect match.
BONE FUCKIN´ TOMAHAWK.
chinofstone
A Return To Form
Posts: 108
Joined: Wed January 02, 2013 10:07 pm

Re: What bootleg are you listening to?

Post by chinofstone »

Boston (Mansfield) 2, 2000.

there'a great to start:
Release
Animal
Hail, Hail
Corduroy
In My Tree
Given to Fly
Breakerfall
Grievance
Evacuation
Footsteps
User avatar
Simple Torture
I Have A Third Nipple
Posts: 21560
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 7:41 am
Location: Cumberland, RI

Re: What bootleg are you listening to?

Post by Simple Torture »

VinylGuy wrote:Brooklyn 2013 1

Really good show/boot...Oceans/Yellow Moon is a perfect match.
Also on this boot now. Some good stuff here...but I'm getting pretty bored by some of the overlap between the shows on this tour. I think Porch was way overplayed this tour...I can understand Alive at every show (sort of), and you've gotta play new songs to support the new album...but for some reason I think Porch loses its teeth with too many plays. Probably partly my fault for listening to every show as it comes out, too.
McParadigm wrote:lol
User avatar
numbers
Mind Your Tanners
Posts: 9200
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 6:44 pm
Location: Franklin, MA

Re: What bootleg are you listening to?

Post by numbers »

Simple Torture wrote:
VinylGuy wrote:Brooklyn 2013 1

Really good show/boot...Oceans/Yellow Moon is a perfect match.
Also on this boot now. Some good stuff here...but I'm getting pretty bored by some of the overlap between the shows on this tour. I think Porch was way overplayed this tour...I can understand Alive at every show (sort of), and you've gotta play new songs to support the new album...but for some reason I think Porch loses its teeth with too many plays. Probably partly my fault for listening to every show as it comes out, too.
I was pretty much shocked when they played it the 2nd night in a row in Worcester. The only thing in that setlist that was crazier was Even Flow late in the encore.
User avatar
numbers
Mind Your Tanners
Posts: 9200
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 6:44 pm
Location: Franklin, MA

Re: What bootleg are you listening to?

Post by numbers »

The only Crazy Mary I've heard from this tour is the one from Worcester, but, it's gotta be the best version I've heard since probably the 05 tour. Mike and Boom were on fire.
User avatar
matt reeder
AnalLog
Posts: 1509
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 5:34 pm

Re: What bootleg are you listening to?

Post by matt reeder »

11/04/1996 - Hamburg, Germany
Spoiler: show
Set I
01 Wash
02 Hail Hail
03 Once
04 Last Exit
05 Animal
06 Dissident
07 Who You Are
08 Corduroy
09 (Small Town)
10 Better Man/(Save it for Later)
11 Whipping
12 Mankind
13 Even Flow
14 Black
15 Jeremy
16 Sometimes
17 Rearviewmirror
18 I Got Shit/(Cinnamon Girl)
19 Alive
Set II
E:
20 Off He Goes
21 Not for You/(Improv)
22 Glorified G
23 Daughter/(Another Brick in the Wall Pt 2)(Noise of Carpet)
24 State of Love and Trust
25 Smile
26 Rockin' in the Free World
One of the best shows of the 1996 tour and a phenomenal setlist. Such a great, great, great show,
User avatar
Hugh Mungus
Yeah Yeah Yeah
Posts: 64
Joined: Sat July 27, 2013 11:23 pm
Location: Riding The Lightning Bolt

Re: What bootleg are you listening to?

Post by Hugh Mungus »

Hamburg, Germany 2000. My favorite show of the Euro leg and probably a top 5 show of the entire tour. I love this bootleg.
User avatar
Birds in Hell
10Club Complaint Department
Posts: 16264
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 9:38 pm

Re: What bootleg are you listening to?

Post by Birds in Hell »

Hugh Mungus wrote:Hamburg, Germany 2000. My favorite show of the Euro leg and probably a top 5 show of the entire tour. I love this bootleg.
Love that show.

:nice:
User avatar
PryTo
AnalLog
Posts: 1009
Joined: Wed December 18, 2013 5:27 am

Re: What bootleg are you listening to?

Post by PryTo »

A serious question for you bootleg fans. Well, some thoughts and then a question. I've seen PJ a bunch of times in concert, beginning in 1992 and as recently as six shows in Europe 2012. They are an undeniably great live band, and I always enjoy hearing the boots of shows I attended. That said, they don't strike me as a band that mixes things up much, beyond the obvious setlists that differ from night to night. In other words, when they play Alive for a millionth time, or even something more obscure, they don't seem to play it much differently on a night to night basis. It's not like Bob Dylan and folks like that, who radically reconfigure their material, sometimes for a tour but other times even on a nightly basis. One example that comes to mind is slow Lukin, which was only done a couple of times.

PJ seems to play the same songs, pretty much the same way they always have. I supposed they've evolved a bit over the years, but not seemingly by much. Other than what songs they play (and a good 2/3rds of most sets are generally drawn from the same core), it doesn't seem to matter whether you're listening to a boot from Brooklyn, Salt Lake City, or San Diego. They even do the same little tags (Save it For Later, Brick in the Wall, etc) they've done for years. Understand that this opinion is uninformed -- I haven't listened to many of their bootlegs, mainly for the reasons mentioned above. It is interesting when they do something different, like Benny Hall or even the Chicago Vic show, but for regular shows, a regular tour, I don't hear much night to night variation in how songs are played.

So my question is a) Am I totally off base here and missing out big time? And if so, b) could you point me to a couple of bootlegs/tours where there is real variation in the performances of particular songs. It seems to me that other than the setlist and the energy of the performances(or feel or whatever subjective you care to add), there aren't many differences. I feel like I'm missing something when people discuss the various boots they're listening to. What is it that makes you listen to a tour's worth of shows? Is it just the setlists and the energy of the performance, or is there some other variation that you're listening for?
User avatar
Kevin Davis
tl;dr
Posts: 9312
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 6:06 pm

Re: What bootleg are you listening to?

Post by Kevin Davis »

The honest answer to that question is no. Despite natural changes in the way the band as a whole has changed their playing over time, "Alive" is the played the exact same way now as it was in 1991. They rarely switch up arrangements (and they're not usually very good when they do), and you can't even really expect Eddie to change his vocal inflections from night to night like some singers do. Honestly, much of their material simply isn't written to accommodate that type of night-to-night variation, at least not in the same way that a group like Phish's or the Grateful Dead's--other artists who attract rabid bootleg collectors--might be.

That said, I do think Pearl Jam (despite the fact that it seems like they're always trying to prove otherwise) is a markedly different live band than they are a studio band, and often throughout their career they've been a truly fantastic live band whose concert recordings have if not transcended their studio recordings, at least provided beautiful illumination to them. Each show does have its own personality of sorts, and the further back you travel into the concert history, the playing does become more organic and increasingly carried by this sense that, even on the nights when it didn't, anything could have happened when this band was onstage (for their first decade there did used to be a fair number of onstage improvs and genuinely surprising cover choices that I suspect were responsible for the group's ill-considered reputation as a band worthy of mention alongside others in "Relix" magazine). I think the band picked up on that at some point, consciously tried to replicate it, and ended up largely destroying that feeling in the process. Now they're at this weird juncture where, despite the fact that they dump rarities on the crowd like confetti and are so ill-prepared to perform that any given song feels like it could come unglued at a moment's notice, their shows feel more predictable and clinical than ever.

I don't know about others but for me the best Pearl Jam tours are like crack cocaine. The reason I own 35 bootlegs from the 2000 tour is because the first 34 were so good I figured one more could only be better--each new show is a chance to experience the high again, only with a slightly new program of material and a slightly different overall character. I imagine that's how it works for most people: You start out with a couple shows, then you get a couple more because they have live versions of a few songs you haven't heard yet, but then you realize that a couple of those desired songs have lyrical flubs so you go in pursuit of an instance of them pulling them off perfectly--one show at a time until pretty soon you look over at your shelf and there's more space devoted to Pearl Jam shows than all your other favorite artists' normal catalogs combined. It feels stupid to type it out but for whatever reason it has managed to keep material that has been at the fore of my listening for 15+ years from growing stale.

Of course, if you get nothing from it, save your time and money. For what it's worth I've made a conscious effort to stop with the PJ bootlegs (the performances have been pretty lousy for a few years, and I'd rather be sinking my time and money into discovering new bands at this point), but I've still got a shelf full of them that I continue to listen to and enjoy regularly. For my money there's no beating the 2000 tour if you want a readily available set of live discs that merits a deep dive.
Last edited by Kevin Davis on Mon January 20, 2014 4:54 am, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
Norah
Poster of the Year
Posts: 37328
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 2:04 pm
Location: September 2020 Poster of the Month

Re: What bootleg are you listening to?

Post by Norah »

Kevin Davis wrote:I think the band picked up on that at some point, consciously tried to replicate it, and ended up largely destroying that feeling in the process.
Hello 2003 tour.
User avatar
Kevin Davis
tl;dr
Posts: 9312
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 6:06 pm

Re: What bootleg are you listening to?

Post by Kevin Davis »

cutuphalfdead wrote:
Kevin Davis wrote:I think the band picked up on that at some point, consciously tried to replicate it, and ended up largely destroying that feeling in the process.
Hello 2003 tour.
"Uh, here's, uh, an 'improv' we wrote about SUV's. It's, uh, about SUV's."
Post Reply