2014 Official Bootlegs

[Simple Torture]

Honestly, I've found myself listening to just the main sets and then maybe the opening of the first encore. The band seems to lose steam towards the end of shows now, and I really could go my whole life without hearing "Alive" again and be perfectly content.

[matt reeder]

Honestly, I've found myself listening to just the main sets and then maybe the opening of the first encore. The band seems to lose steam towards the end of shows now, and I really could go my whole life without hearing "Alive" again and be perfectly content.

This is why they need to retire "Life Wasted" (and I say this as somebody who actually likes the song) - they only play it towards the end of the show, and Ed sounds like shit every time he tries to sing it. The end of the show is structured so that Ed can get through the songs he could sing when he's dead, so he can get drunk and blow his voice out and still sing them. It helps that they're all big hit songs, too.

[Birds in Hell]

Honestly, I've found myself listening to just the main sets and then maybe the opening of the first encore. The band seems to lose steam towards the end of shows now, and I really could go my whole life without hearing "Alive" again and be perfectly content.

This is certainly part of the issue for me too, except that I don't have any problem with Alive appearing at every show. They might play for three hours every night now but there's only about 80 or 90 minutes of worthwhile performance.

[Kevin Davis]

The old shows sound as great as they ever did so it's not as though I'm sick of the songs, there's just something not quite right about the shows in the last few years for me.

For me it was obvious something was horribly wrong when I saw them at the Spectrum. There was a weird disconnect there that is hard to explain. There was none of the tightness and chemistry/magic that they had displayed in 2005. It wasn't what I was used to from Pearl Jam, it was something else, something tedious to sit through. Nothing I have heard since then has changed my opinion. For me, the end of the Avocado tour is the cutoff point. After that something seriously changed. What that change actually was, I'm not sure. Maybe they are not really into their new music? Maybe they hate each other's guts and don't like playing together anymore? Who knows. But something happened.

The change in Ed's guitar tone, the gradual decline in Ed's vocal abilities and his consequent repertoire of tics, the shortened tours and resultant lack of opportunity to lock into a groove, the pointless addition of a keyboardist, Ed's alcohol consumption and increased need to yammer on about it to the crowd like a high school sophomore in a locker room, the downtuning -- I don't think it's one big thing so much as a mass compounding of a number of smaller, singularly insignificant things that add up to, as you say, this sort of undefined sense of things just feeling "off." I have been off the bootleg wagon since 2011 (though I can never resist checking out the lemonade-making efforts of RM's many comp-makers) and have the St. Louis and Moline shows on my Christmas list -- the shows felt great in person, consistent with what Matt Reeder is saying about the shows from the summer. We'll see how they sound with the blinders off...

[Leatherhead]

I made a compilation of songs from 2013-2014 out of shows I had available on my computer. I've been enjoying it more than anything else Pearl Jam. Ed's scream/yell/growl is sounding pretty great on a lot of the songs, and I've always loved his screaming/yelling/growling.

[Strat]

Whatever, listen to Denver. You goons

[tommymtcom]

I made a compilation of songs from 2013-2014 out of shows I had available on my computer. I've been enjoying it more than anything else Pearl Jam. Ed's scream/yell/growl is sounding pretty great on a lot of the songs, and I've always loved his screaming/yelling/growling.

How do you feel about his yelping?

[hlniv]

I have found that whenever I put on a recent show to listen to, I always end up selecting only about 20-25 songs to add to the playlist. It's the only way to keep it fresh, since there's so much poor/repetitive stuff that happens over a 3 hour set.

[BigRedLedbetter]

Whatever, listen to Denver. You goons

Probably going to buy it tonight. Quality good?

[Strat]

Whatever, listen to Denver. You goons

Probably going to buy it tonight. Quality good?

I Think so!

[dprival78]

just listened to bits of hail, hail and red mosquito from moline.

did stone forget to pack his distortion pedal for that trip?

[breakerfall66]

just listened to bits of hail, hail and red mosquito from moline.

did stone forget to pack his distortion pedal for that trip?

LOL.

I wonder just how many PJ fans remember when the instruments had some real power to the Pearl Jam sound? It's been gone for many a years now; I remember seeing PJ for the first time during the Yield tour in '98 - what a powerful live sound they had back then. This is one of the main bugaboos I've had with their live sound after the Avacado tour - the instruments sounding weak live as an overall unit.

A live powerful sound was something that the band really excelled at, but that is now a thing of the past.

[Iholdthepain]

just listened to bits of hail, hail and red mosquito from moline.

did stone forget to pack his distortion pedal for that trip?

LOL.

I wonder just how many PJ fans remember when the instruments had some real power to the Pearl Jam sound? It's been gone for many a years now; I remember seeing PJ for the first time during the Yield tour in '98 - what a powerful live sound they had back then. This is one of the main bugaboos I've had with their live sound after the Avacado tour - the instruments sounding weak live as an overall unit.

A live powerful sound was something that the band really excelled at, but that is now a thing of the past.

[VinylGuy]

Yeah they changed their volume and power. Still the show from chile 2013 was as loud as fuck. Much more intense than any other band; lets say the foos.

[breakerfall66]

Yeah they changed their volume and power. Still the show from chile 2013 was as loud as fuck. Much more intense than any other band; lets say the foos.

Let's not forget Soundgarden. They are hands down one of the more loud and powerful bands I have ever seen live. AC/DC-like in nature.

[breakerfall66]

The old shows sound as great as they ever did so it's not as though I'm sick of the songs, there's just something not quite right about the shows in the last few years for me.

For me it was obvious something was horribly wrong when I saw them at the Spectrum. There was a weird disconnect there that is hard to explain. There was none of the tightness and chemistry/magic that they had displayed in 2005. It wasn't what I was used to from Pearl Jam, it was something else, something tedious to sit through. Nothing I have heard since then has changed my opinion. For me, the end of the Avocado tour is the cutoff point. After that something seriously changed. What that change actually was, I'm not sure. Maybe they are not really into their new music? Maybe they hate each other's guts and don't like playing together anymore? Who knows. But something happened.

Fans started noticing in 2007-2008. We saw them during the DC show in 2008 at the Verizon Center, something was definitely off with the band that night. The one train wreck I do recall was when they clustered Evacuation. We saw them in Columbus 2010 after that; that show was better than the DC show, but not by much. Night 2 main setlist 2011 in Toronto was really really good, but sucked on the bootlegs.

I stopped purchasing these bootlegs after the Avacado tour, mainly because they have just plain run their course, and the very fact that they are missing something. And all of the sound remastering in the world by Brett Elliason will not change that.

I try to find good DVD bootlegs of select shows as I find them much more entertaining than the CDs. And I stopped with those after seeing the 2009 Spectrum shows and hearing the bootlegs. Besides, I always hear them on Pearl Jam Radio.

[dimejinky99]

I was at the Vienna show this summer and am now listening to it properly..

best Cant Keep i can remember hearing..

[dimejinky99]

oh vienna....kick ass show! didnt appreciate it on the night

[breakerfall66]

There is nothing like seeing PJ and other bands actually live in person. I feel that the bootlegs have run their course to this point; the course being from 2000-2006. In that post-timeframe, we started seeing and hearing unusual things with the Pearl Jam live sound that we weren't used to seeing or hearing out of them. The tangible things noticed - Ed's gradual vocal decline, the down-tuning in many of their songs (YUCK), turned down instruments in the mix and the lack of power to their sound (DOUBLE YUCK). The intangible - the band chemistry and lack of tour shows after 2006; seeming in many instances unprepared on stage when playing (UGHHH). When it comes to playing a setlist - it's about quality, not quantity.

The bootlegs were fantastic when the band was on top of their live game.

[dimejinky99]

We're spoiled though, in fairness..

when some like Spenno(not picking on you Spenn), can knock holes in a gig cos jeff fluffs a note or mike or whoever, and that makes it a shit show, or an argument for them being terrible, we're in a different place.

There is nothing like being there...not one person ever among us has ever noticed that stuff if we were in the room..you're seeing your favourite band playing their balls off..that's all..

boots did ruin that, but i'd rather have the document and try ignore people shitting on missed lyrics and fluffed notes, than not have it, or pay for a shitty recording of it