I Have Never Listened To The Avocado Album

[BurtReynolds]

Plus being up front at a PJ show means you have to rub elbows with the 10club# dick measuring crowd.

[Jorge]

Or rubbing dicks.

[McParadigm]

Live music is such a distant second to recorded music that I have a hard time caring one way or the other. Up against the overwhelming awesomeness of new creative effort, a live show may as well be a circus. And while there can be a romance to that kind of transience, it's not a romance I invest in much.

Besides, no live experience could ever compete with the Korn blueberries memory.

[Kevin Davis]

I understand Wishlist's point. I get increasingly less excited about the idea of paying $100 to sit at the top of a sports arena only for the band to appear as specks on the stage, trying to listen through poor acoustics and over a crowd of roaring drunk buffoons to try to decipher what's happening onstage. I'm not above making exceptions but I get it.

[zeb]

New album > Tour

Every day of the week.

[Birds in Hell]

I understand Wishlist's point. I get increasingly less excited about the idea of paying $100 to sit at the top of a sports arena only for the band to appear as specks on the stage, trying to listen through poor acoustics and over a crowd of roaring drunk buffoons to try to decipher what's happening onstage. I'm not above making exceptions but I get it.

Me too.

I can well understand, having seen a band early on at a relatively intimate level, not feeling particularly enthused about seeing them in a cavernous shed. The former is almost invariably going to be a superior musical experience.

[dimejinky99]

The argument could be made that a band at a point in their career, like PJ, aren't going to really do anything they haven't done before or you haven't seen before, and its about a communal experience more than a musical one.

[Wishlist]

its about a communal experience more than a musical one.

Well, for me going to a concert is about a musical experience. This isn't the '60s and I don't need Woodstock to have a good musical experience. I understand communal, and, yes, that plays a part in the overall experience. But do I need 19,000 people (the majority of whom are stoned and drunk)? No. Surround me with a few hundred fans who are as passionate about the music as I am, and that's a real communal experience.

Bottom line is this: you may have the time of your life seeing Pearl Jam at cavernous Madison Square Garden. And I am sure thousands upon thousands do. But in the back of your head there will be a voice saying, "Had I seen this exact same show at a club, it would have been 10,000 times better." That voice would be 100% correct.

[Birds in Hell]

its about a communal experience more than a musical one.

The communal experience of a live show is of almost no value at all to me.

[BurtReynolds]

I like outdoor venues on the lawn. I'm old.

[LetMeSleep]

But at this point the question is more a case of is it worth seeing PJ in a field/stadium/arena or not at all? Sure I'd love to see them in a club or theatre but they aren't playing those venues.

Which leads me to seeing them at an outdoor festival next week, at an exorbitant price.

[McParadigm]

Not at all has been good to me for like 10 years now.

[Birds in Hell]

its about a communal experience more than a musical one.

That communal experience is honestly of neglible value to me.

[LetMeSleep]

its about a communal experience more than a musical one.

That communal experience is honestly of neglible value to me.

Same. Most crowds (people) just annoy me.

[Kevin Davis]

I like this Wishlist guy.

I have a number of friends and family who have relatively significant interests in Pearl Jam, and those are the people I historically have seen PJ shows with. There are usually a few moments in the show where I can pick up on that sense of "shared experience" with these particular people, like if they play a song that was particularly significant to me and one of these folks at any given point in our lives, but I will confess to being baffled by this notion of communal bonding which is supposedly the essence of this band's live show, that idea that every time Mike lays into an "Even Flow" solo the entire crowd is consumed by some mystical wave of magic juju, somehow forever uniting a room full of strangers by virtue of their simultaneous enjoyment of a guitar solo. I've certainly been swept up in the moment at concerts, and certainly know what it's like to feed off the energy of a crowd, but I've never found myself suddenly feeling as though a few loud riffs could turn a room full of boozed up hooligans into my brothers.

[Wishlist]

But at this point the question is more a case of is it worth seeing PJ in a field/stadium/arena or not at all?

I see your point, but the answer for some is not seeing them at all. Shelling out $200 to be surrounded at Giants Stadium by 80,000 mostly uninterested drunks screaming for "Even Flow" or not seeing them at all? I honestly do not see how that is even a question.

You can't go home again. The music Paul McCartney is making today is nothing like what he was making in the '60s. So I don't buy it. Robert DeNiro films today are nothing like the ones he made in the '70s/early '80s, so I do not go to the theater to watch them. A Pearl Jam concert experience today ain't what it was. Some will choose to not attend.

[LetMeSleep]

There some people who may not have seen PJ in their "heyday" so any concert experience for them may be amazing. I can liken it to Neil Young. I've seen him live 3 times and all in the last decade. One in a theatre, one in a field with 75k and once in an arena. All 3 were great experiences that for me made it worthwhile. Sure there may be some guy sitting at home saying that it wasn't as good as when he saw him in the 60's/70's etc but that can't diminish what I experienced.

Yes PJ in 95were amazing but they still put on a decent show that (again for me) is worthwhile.

[BurtReynolds]

mostly i just like to go to shows to

Spoiler: show

RAISE HELL!

[Wishlist]

There some people who may not have seen PJ in their "heyday" so any concert experience for them may be amazing.

I agree. But you're not taking into account the people who have seen Pearl Jam in small venues playing material not from dog albums like "Backspacer" and "Lightning Bolt." Do you think someone like that would even think about sitting a mile away in the top row of Giants Stadium?

And look, I too have lost out on prime live performances because I was late to the show so to speak. You mention Neil Young. I got lucky to see him back on that classic "Rust Never Sleeps" tour. Big arena, massive crowd, but to me it was the first Neil show and I still hold it as one of the best shows I've ever been to. However, I am fully aware that there is some guy who saw Neil with Buffalo Springfield who would shake his head over the fact that people went to see the "Rust Never Sleep" arena tour.

[Birds in Hell]

There some people who may not have seen PJ in their "heyday" so any concert experience for them may be amazing.

I agree. But you're not taking into account the people who have seen Pearl Jam in small venues playing material not from dog albums like "Backspacer" and "Lightning Bolt." Do you think someone like that would even think about sitting a mile away in the top row of Giants Stadium?

Er, I'm pretty sure his post takes exactly that into account.