2014 Official Bootlegs

[CopperTom]

Music is art and art is subjective. No 2 people would review the shows the same.

[LetMeSleep]

Sydney is one of those shows that was a blast in person, a real party atmosphere where the crowd became part of the show, and the band is in good spirits. Unfortunately that doesn't translate too well on the boot, especially with the crowd mixed so low. Ed is pretty blind from the start of the show, but taking that into consideration he doesn't do much worse vocally than most of the 2013 shows.

I've only heard it once but it was a pretty average listen. The Jeremy clip on YouTube was spine tingling yet the boot is nothing special. You nailed brad. It was great at the party but watching the video was disappointing.

[Birds in Hell]

This blog is a great read to get the song by song lowdown on the boots - they're spot on most of the time

http://pjbootlegreviews.blogspot.com.au/

This guy is on-point.

Oops, I didn't realise there's more than one reviewer.

Anyway, their review of LA 2 is hilarious. Some choice quotes:

- I must preface this review by giving a warning: this may be the worst performance I've ever heard from my favorite band in the world. I don't mean to take a shot at their professionalism, but this performance is mostly pathetic.

- Having Amongst the Waves follow immediately does not flow well at all, and kills the momentum completely. Furthermore, the band is noticeably off time and out of synch throughout most of Amongst the Waves. It's truly one of the worst versions I've heard; Ed's forgetting lyrics and coming in at the wrong time, for example. This is seriously rough start to the gig, and almost embarrassing.

- I hate to harp on my favorite band, but Swallowed Whole is another miniature disaster.

- Another odd placement is Future Days in the main set, and is a terrible performance. The Boom intro is absent. Ed stops midway through the first verse, quits singing for several seconds, then he goes to the chorus. It is simply inexcusable to have this amount of musical errors in one set.

- I have no idea where Ed was going with this set flow, it's almost atrocious.

- Mike goes completely silent for the last minute or so in Alive, during his solo. It leaves the song sounding very much empty. I’m told it was due to Mike jumping in the crowd! Ed even gets the lyrics wrong in the opening line of RITFW, mumbling something to cover it up.

- The main set, song after song, is just so incredibly flawed musically and utterly sloppy.

- There is neither vibe, nor flow to help save this mediocre performance. I highly urge skipping this one.

[LetMeSleep]

Makes me want to hear it now.

[WtOB?]

yeah it's almost intriguing.

[stupidmop]

Is it the LA shows with both ed yelling at the girl and the Ricky Ramone thing? Seems like a clusterfuck all round. Good No Way though.

[Strat]

Just checked LA 2 out.

Ed is a mess.

The band isn't really the problem other than everything is fast as usual.

Oceans: Ed - 1, 2, 3 hold on to the...

:\

So the band was fine but Ed is a mess.

Man, these are tough to listen to. I absolutely cannot stand how ed feels the need to swear in every song. How he also needs to sing the first chorus of Present Tense in the higher octave. No subtlety in the playing at all.

[delanoche]

I absolutely cannot stand how ed feels the need to swear in every song. How he also needs to sing the first chorus of Present Tense in the higher octave. No subtlety in the playing at all.

My two biggest complaints about post-2000 PJ!

[Birds in Hell]

This probably should've been posted in this thread initially:

Listening back to snippets of the Adelaide show, I'm pleasantly surprised that it's more enjoyable than I'd remembered.

It was honestly one of my least-enjoyed live music experiences, it wasn't a good time in any respect; I would've preferred to have been paying bills or doing laundry than watching Pearl Jam at that moment. I guess it may have just been one of those times where the environment had an overwhelmingly negative impact on my enjoyment of the show.

Looking forward to giving it a full listen tomorrow!

I haven't yet made it through all of the encores but the Adelaide show has been significantly more enjoyable on recording than I found it in person. It's a reasonably solid show; the band play pretty well and Ed sounds no worse here than on any other recent show.

Really strong renditions of Why Go and DTE to open up, the only respectable version of My Father's Son to date and the Once into Red Mosquito duo near the end of the main set is pretty cool.

Kind of a bummer the experience of being there was such a drag: turns out they were doing a pretty good job up there.

[dimejinky99]

While I loved the two Brooklyn shows I was at, listening to them, it's apparent the band are getting better and better but eds become the weakest link. Hard to say that cos he's the talisman.
Do we know what the best shows of this most recent tour are yet?
I'd like to hear them.

[lowlight79]

While I loved the two Brooklyn shows I was at, listening to them, it's apparent the band are getting better and better but eds become the weakest link. Hard to say that cos he's the talisman.
Do we know what the best shows of this most recent tour are yet?
I'd like to hear them.

So far...

Leg 1
Philly 1
Hartford
Charlottesville
Boston 1

Leg 2
Portland

Still not done with leg 2. I am on spokane, very odd show, they are so up and down here. Mind Your Manners is fucking furious. But then you have some disasters. Seems like it was a very fun show to be at in person.

LA1>LA2>Oakland may be the worst run of shows I have listened to since the beginning of the 2003 tour in Australia.

[delanoche]

While I loved the two Brooklyn shows I was at, listening to them, it's apparent the band are getting better and better but eds become the weakest link. Hard to say that cos he's the talisman.
Do we know what the best shows of this most recent tour are yet?
I'd like to hear them.

Give OKC a try. Eddie figures out pretty early on (i think during MYM, which is pretty squealy) that his high/scream range isn't quite working and adjusts pretty well. Aside from two or three small things the band is spot on, the only lyric flubs are in Sirens, and the banter is non-drunk and playful/fun. And a pretty solid setlist too.

[ridleybradout]

Give OKC a try. Eddie figures out pretty early on (i think during MYM, which is pretty squealy) that his high/scream range isn't quite working and adjusts pretty well. Aside from two or three small things the band is spot on, the only lyric flubs are in Sirens, and the banter is non-drunk and playful/fun. And a pretty solid setlist too.

I'll second this - OKC is a very underrated show. Great vibe and solid performance, with the best renditions of LB and LTRP to date

[dimejinky99]

Thanks lads. I'll buy it today.

[lowlight79]

So I am on calgary, not bad so far, of course he flubs sirens AGAIN, wtf is that noise in the backround during given to fly and Infalliable?

[ridleybradout]

There's seems to be a mixing screw up in GTF and Infallible though - Matt's cymbals in the left channel are about a second ahead of the rest of the song which makes for a headache inducing listen in the chorus.

Haha, woah.

Seems to be a rare mistake by our man Brett Eliason. 10C still haven't rectified the problem...

[Fuzzcharger]

I'm listening to Melbourne and gosh Matt's drumming sounds impeccably tight and frenzied during the fast sections of Got Some. A bit Jesus Christ Pose type frenzied.

[lowlight79]

Finally up to seattle. First 5 tracks has the band is good form. Very good versions of Nothingman and Pendulum here.

[Leatherhead]

I just listened to Nothingman from Auckland. Holy shit this is good! Ed fuckin nails it. I guess I need to listen to the rest of this bootleg.

[lowlight79]

Footsteps from Auckland is really good. I guess I am going have to accept that Ed just repeats a line from the first verse in Brain of J in the second verse now. Since it's been going on now for 3 years!