What's the best PJ soft/acoustic show?

[mikejasond]

Is it Benaroya? I listened to it and enjoyed it and would like to hear more. Is that the best of them though or is there an even better one out there?

[E.H. Ruddock]

Mansfield 03 pre-set

[Norah]

/thread

[numbers]

Yeah, some of the Bridge Schools are decent but nothing tops Mansfield 03.

[mikejasond]

So Mansfield > Benaroya?

[E.H. Ruddock]

So Mansfield > Benaroya?

Yes.

[Biff Pocoroba]

Night two of '01 is still my favorite Bridge set.

[VinylGuy]

Bridge 99.

[Norah]

Bridge 99.

that's two shows

[The Argonaut]

Santa Barbara 2003 had a TOTD reunion and I listened to that one a lot.

[Kevin Davis]

Bridge 99.

that's two shows

He had to make up for the 1/3 of a show that you guys are all going on about

[Strat]

ahem, chud.

[Bammer]

The first 8 or so songs from Gorge 2005 was the tits.

[wease]

The first 8 or so songs from Gorge 2005 was the tits.

Finally, one I was at!

An yes, it was the tits.

[Kevin Davis]

The answer is Benaroya, which some could say the Mansfield acoustic set was something of a dry run for. Pearl Jam really haven't played that many full shows like this, and to be honest it's no great loss - they're really just not very good as an all acoustic band. Stone has a sort of robotic, inorganic strum, and Mike simply can't pull off his parts with the degree of dexterity that he can on an electric -- in fact, being able to play acoustic rhythms with an element of natural comfort may be the one technical area where Eddie excels over the other two guitar players in the band, having presumably played often enough by himself to know how those rhythms function best in communication with the vocal melody. But I still think these "mellow" theme shows are best when they permit themselves to plug in here and there -- meaning Unplugged, most of the Bridge shows, etc., are all lacking in some way. Benaroya, a few flubs aside, is damn near perfect, a strong show by any standards, even if Eddie does start slow ("Low Light," still a pretty new addition to the live set at the time, is a little sluggish) and run out of steam a bit towards the end.

That said, I'd love to see some proper releases of the Bridge shows -- for as often as they've played those shows, and for as much live material as they flood the market with in general, those shows are something of a gap in the catalog.

[Norah]

ahem, chud.

I can't find my hard drive.

[TouringReg]

I don't think these were the best, but a couple other shows to mention for "soft/acoustic" would be the Gorge 2005 (a sloppy mess) and Santa Barbara 2006 pre-sets. Both more soft than acoustic.

[numbers]

The first 8 or so songs from Gorge 2005 was the tits.

There's a couple songs on that that I really like.

[wease]

I don't think these were the best, but a couple other shows to mention for "soft/acoustic" would be the Gorge 2005 (a sloppy mess) and Santa Barbara 2006 pre-sets. Both more soft than acoustic.

The only thing that was sloppy was Off He Goes. Everything else was done rather well.

[Biff Pocoroba]

The first half of Telluride last summer is pretty good too.