2016-08-07: Boston, Massachusetts

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[Jorge]

I think what Trag said (that the band sounds great and you can still enjoy the show if you ignore Ed's warbling) is considerably different from what Bi3 is saying (that if you let yourself be turned off by the band's sloppiness and unprofessionalism it's somehow your fault; the implication being that one should divorce themselves from any semblance of critical thought when attending a show, and just hearing Pearl Jam songs being played by Pearl Jam should be enough to satisfy you)

[Norah]

yeah i'm arguing with bi not trag

[Strat]

bi has some 'splainin' to do

[numbers]

You all complain about Pearl Jam too much and defend Pearl Jam too much.

[Bi_3]

If their sloppiness and technical failings ruin the live experience for you, that's on you

What the fuck

exactly

What I'm saying is if you listen to a post-2003 show demanding the same level of performance from over a decade ago, you will be disappointed. This shouldn't be news to anyone here, since that shit is brought up in nearly every thread in the Tour forum. I humbly suggest you re-calibrate your expectations to meet reality and move on or you're just going to be perpetually disappointed by everything they do. It is my belief that if you don't, you are allowing in that bias of "everything sucks now because PRAMG" and that turns out to be somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy, because you will notice Stone's oft untuned guitars or Ed's thinning voice before you allow yourself the chance to be taken into the moment that the bootleg captured. Basically, you can get stuck in the "it's not like the good old days" mentality and you prevent yourself from appreciating what they can still offer.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[Strat]

Coping with PJ's aging is the same as coping with my own aging.

The aging both increases and decreases exponentially while living in a mountain town. Good luck.

[swan]

I still love being at a PJ show (when they play in the NW every 5 years..) but listening to semi-recent to recent boots is a no-go.

[Bammer]

Sirius XM must have a free trial going or something right now because magically in the car this morning it worked.

The song I turned on to was Draw The Line. Not sure if it was Fenway 1 or 2, but the audio alone (without benefit of the visual/atmosphere of being at the show to go with it) made me want to pull an Aubrey McClendon and drive straight into a retaining wall at 70mph.

That was followed up by live cuts of Go and Breakerfall, which were clearly recent because Ed's voice is completely shot. There has been a lot of bitching about how Ed is drawing out the words. Like on Go, "shoulda pulled the allaa-haaarrmmm" and now that I hear it for myself, I see what all the ruckus is about. It sounds really bad. I guess I never notice it while I'm at a concert.

I picked up the Moline boot from a couple years ago because No Code all the way through is pretty cool, but realistically any recent boot is not worth the purchase. Someone alluded to Ed as the weak link in another thread. At the concert, not true. On the radio, absolutely true.

I've hardly purchased a bootleg since 2000, apart from the few shows I've attended. But I was really happy with my purchase (free 10C download, technically) of Toronto 1 and Ontario from this tour. The band is on fire, and apart from the Jukebox Hits of the encore, the energy is sustained enough to make me feel connected to the show, so as to diminish the annoying Ed stuff considerably. What I'm trying to say is, there are some good listens to be had from this tour if you focus on the rest of the band.

This. If your enjoyment of 2016 Pearl Jam depends on Ed's enunciation, you are just going to end up being a miserable cunt about the whole tour.

I love the attitude of "you guys are right, ed's enunciation does sound like shit, but it's your fault for paying any attention to it"

Yeah, how dare I pay attention to the sounds in music.

I can't tell if chad and I are having a Broment here or not.

[Norah]

If their sloppiness and technical failings ruin the live experience for you, that's on you

What the fuck

exactly

What I'm saying is if you listen to a post-2003 show demanding the same level of performance from over a decade ago, you will be disappointed. This shouldn't be news to anyone here, since that shit is brought up in nearly every thread in the Tour forum. I humbly suggest you re-calibrate your expectations to meet reality and move on or you're just going to be perpetually disappointed by everything they do. It is my belief that if you don't, you are allowing in that bias of "everything sucks now because PRAMG" and that turns out to be somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy, because you will notice Stone's oft untuned guitars or Ed's thinning voice before you allow yourself the chance to be taken into the moment that the bootleg captured. Basically, you can get stuck in the "it's not like the good old days" mentality and you prevent yourself from appreciating what they can still offer.

Ed's enunciation has nothing to do with age. It's a deliberate style choice.

[Strat]

If their sloppiness and technical failings ruin the live experience for you, that's on you

What the fuck

exactly

What I'm saying is if you listen to a post-2003 show demanding the same level of performance from over a decade ago, you will be disappointed. This shouldn't be news to anyone here, since that shit is brought up in nearly every thread in the Tour forum. I humbly suggest you re-calibrate your expectations to meet reality and move on or you're just going to be perpetually disappointed by everything they do. It is my belief that if you don't, you are allowing in that bias of "everything sucks now because PRAMG" and that turns out to be somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy, because you will notice Stone's oft untuned guitars or Ed's thinning voice before you allow yourself the chance to be taken into the moment that the bootleg captured. Basically, you can get stuck in the "it's not like the good old days" mentality and you prevent yourself from appreciating what they can still offer.

Ed's enunciation has nothing to do with age. It's a deliberate style choice.

Probably because he can't hold notes anymore, due to age, and wear and tear.

[Leatherhead]

There's still a lot of songs Ed sounds great on. They're still completely capable of putting on a show that's not an Extreme Jukebox Party. Most of the criticisms about live PJ that I read on these forums are not about the capabilities of the band, but rather what they've chosen to do with those capabilities.

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[Kevin Davis]

Eddie adding syllables is very much a compensatory device to keep from going off-key. Adding superficial consonant sounds (i.e. "nothing as it see-heems") provides a sort of vocal "pivot point" -- instead of his voice curving and bending to get where it needs to go, it ricochets off hard surfaces like a pinball. This makes the singing sound choppier but makes the trajectory more certain given his limitations. A savvy device, but unattractive.

[numbers]

If their sloppiness and technical failings ruin the live experience for you, that's on you

What the fuck

exactly

What I'm saying is if you listen to a post-2003 show demanding the same level of performance from over a decade ago, you will be disappointed. This shouldn't be news to anyone here, since that shit is brought up in nearly every thread in the Tour forum. I humbly suggest you re-calibrate your expectations to meet reality and move on or you're just going to be perpetually disappointed by everything they do. It is my belief that if you don't, you are allowing in that bias of "everything sucks now because PRAMG" and that turns out to be somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy, because you will notice Stone's oft untuned guitars or Ed's thinning voice before you allow yourself the chance to be taken into the moment that the bootleg captured. Basically, you can get stuck in the "it's not like the good old days" mentality and you prevent yourself from appreciating what they can still offer.

Ed's enunciation has nothing to do with age. It's a deliberate style choice.

Yeah, I think it has everything to do with age.

[Bi_3]

Coping with PJ's aging is the same as coping with my own aging.

Booze and porn?

[tragabigzanda]

pearl jam sucks now

[Bi_3]

Still enjoying datfly's recording of this show, though the PJ radio version is not bad either. Light years ahead of the shit recording of Fenway 1 they play a track from every 30 minutes

[numbers]

Listened to the main set from the bootleg last night. From Corduroy on they kicked ass.