Vault #3 - Constitution Hall, 9-19-1998 (vinyl, cd, digital)

[McParadigm]

I think the 2009 Philly debacle I witnessed defines current day Pearl Jam. The sound was fucking horrible - you couldn't hear shit. The whole band was drunk. Their performance was beyond poor. The audience was 98% frat boys, all of them looking at game scores on their cell phones (or even on TV's out in the lobby while the band performed). They even brought out a fucking SCORECARD GIRL to give the score between songs. Then balloons & confetti dropped from the ceiling and everybody high-fived each other. Worst concert I've ever attended.

So yes, Pearl Jam shows are big frat parties now. If you can't see that, then you must be part of it.

u know those were the last shows at the spectrum, right? and the scorecard girl was giving the score to the world series, being played across the street? weird post.

Exactly. It was the world series.

There are no circumstances under which that's not an incredibly corny thing to do at a rock concert.

[darth_vedder]

Is Wendy Carlos's Twin internet user Cameronia?

Spoiler: show

If not, they both pretty much have the exact same take on the Philly '09 shows.

[stip]

I think the 2009 Philly debacle I witnessed defines current day Pearl Jam. The sound was fucking horrible - you couldn't hear shit. The whole band was drunk. Their performance was beyond poor. The audience was 98% frat boys, all of them looking at game scores on their cell phones (or even on TV's out in the lobby while the band performed). They even brought out a fucking SCORECARD GIRL to give the score between songs. Then balloons & confetti dropped from the ceiling and everybody high-fived each other. Worst concert I've ever attended.

So yes, Pearl Jam shows are big frat parties now. If you can't see that, then you must be part of it.

u know those were the last shows at the spectrum, right? and the scorecard girl was giving the score to the world series, being played across the street? weird post.

Exactly. It was the world series.

There are no circumstances under which that's not an incredibly corny thing to do at a rock concert.

Totally appropriate if you are playing a show where the home team is in a championship game. Any audience would eat it up, and it would add to the feeling of community you get at the show.

[McParadigm]

Totally appropriate if you are playing a show where the home team is in a championship game. Any audience would eat it up, and it would add to the feeling of community you get at the show.

Concerts are already some of the easiest and most open community-building moments around. A band almost has to TRY to fuck that up, it's so easy. You're in this crowd, and all of these people came from who knows where to see the same band...to hear the same music that has left such a mark on you. By comparison, not everybody gives a shit about the world series or about the home team. In fact, if you don't follow the sport or the team, it can be a real buzzkill of a topic for you because everybody around you seems diabolically obsessed.

My point, for what it's worth, is not that tossing baseball scores around during the show shouldn't be done because it's exclusionary....I only point out the non-universality in response to your community argument. I just said that it's really corny, and that's because it IS really corny. David Lee Roth could do it, and it would probably work for him because corny is in his blood. He makes it beautiful.

[broken iris]

Are back to the "Pearl Jam isn't living up to its potential" discussion again?

[warehouse]

Totally appropriate if you are playing a show where the home team is in a championship game. Any audience would eat it up, and it would add to the feeling of community you get at the show.

Concerts are already some of the easiest and most open community-building moments around. A band almost has to TRY to fuck that up, it's so easy. You're in this crowd, and all of these people came from who knows where to see the same band...to hear the same music that has left such a mark on you. By comparison, not everybody gives a shit about the world series or about the home team. In fact, if you don't follow the sport or the team, it can be a real buzzkill of a topic for you because everybody around you seems diabolically obsessed.

My point, for what it's worth, is not that tossing baseball scores around during the show shouldn't be done because it's exclusionary....I only point out the non-universality in response to your community argument. I just said that it's really corny, and that's because it IS really corny. David Lee Roth could do it, and it would probably work for him because corny is in his blood. He makes it beautiful.

so they shouldnt have updated people on the score b/c 2% of the audience didnt care? if there's anything corny, its thinking updating people on the world series being played across the street is exclusionary.

[McParadigm]

so they shouldnt have updated people on the score b/c 2% of the audience didnt care?

Solid reading, chief.

My point, for what it's worth, is not that tossing baseball scores around during the show shouldn't be done because it's exclusionary....I only point out the non-universality in response to your community argument. I just said that it's really corny, and that's because it IS really corny. David Lee Roth could do it, and it would probably work for him because corny is in his blood. He makes it beautiful.

You'll note, in fact, that I never said that it shouldn't be done.

I simply said that it was corny.

Spoiler: show

...and that's because it IS really corny.

...and that's because it IS really corny.

...and that's because it IS really corny.

...and that's because it IS really corny.

...and that's because it IS really corny.

...and that's because it IS really corny.

...and that's because it IS really corny.

...and that's because it IS really corny.

...and that's because it IS really corny.

...and that's because it IS really corny.

...and that's because it IS really corny.

...and that's because it IS really corny.

...and that's because it IS really corny.

...and that's because it IS really corny.

...and that's because it IS really corny.

...and that's because it IS really corny.

...and that's because it IS really corny.

...and that's because it IS really corny.

...and that's because it IS really corny.

...and that's because it IS really corny.

...and that's because it IS really corny.

...and that's because it IS really corny.

[warehouse]

so ur in favor of the band doing corny things on stage?

[mray10]

I wasn't there, but it does sound like The Spectrum stand was kind of a mess.

But thinking that's the standard for what shows are like now is pretty misguided. Those were four special shows, with the band trying to play everything they could, in a total party atmosphere, essentially divorced from a tour ... to think the atmosphere of a typical Pearl Jam concert today is reflected by the crazy one-time circumstances of those 4 nights is a bit much.

[VinylGuy]

i wanna listen to those shows again.

I remember Hold On was good...and Sweet Lew! You cant go wrong with that one.

[stip]

Totally appropriate if you are playing a show where the home team is in a championship game. Any audience would eat it up, and it would add to the feeling of community you get at the show.

Concerts are already some of the easiest and most open community-building moments around. A band almost has to TRY to fuck that up, it's so easy. You're in this crowd, and all of these people came from who knows where to see the same band...to hear the same music that has left such a mark on you. By comparison, not everybody gives a shit about the world series or about the home team. In fact, if you don't follow the sport or the team, it can be a real buzzkill of a topic for you because everybody around you seems diabolically obsessed.

My point, for what it's worth, is not that tossing baseball scores around during the show shouldn't be done because it's exclusionary....I only point out the non-universality in response to your community argument. I just said that it's really corny, and that's because it IS really corny. David Lee Roth could do it, and it would probably work for him because corny is in his blood. He makes it beautiful.

I agree that box scores are not appropriate all the time (basically almost never) but I just don't see plugging an audience back into a defining moment for their region (and for better or worse that's what these are) as corny. Granted, if this was a somber show it would seem more off, but as mray pointed out, for what was billed as a 4 show stand to close out a historic arena in a celebratory manner this seems perfectly fine.

[surfndestroy]

Totally appropriate if you are playing a show where the home team is in a championship game. Any audience would eat it up, and it would add to the feeling of community you get at the show.

Concerts are already some of the easiest and most open community-building moments around. A band almost has to TRY to fuck that up, it's so easy. You're in this crowd, and all of these people came from who knows where to see the same band...to hear the same music that has left such a mark on you. By comparison, not everybody gives a shit about the world series or about the home team. In fact, if you don't follow the sport or the team, it can be a real buzzkill of a topic for you because everybody around you seems diabolically obsessed.

My point, for what it's worth, is not that tossing baseball scores around during the show shouldn't be done because it's exclusionary....I only point out the non-universality in response to your community argument. I just said that it's really corny, and that's because it IS really corny. David Lee Roth could do it, and it would probably work for him because corny is in his blood. He makes it beautiful.

I agree that box scores are not appropriate all the time (basically almost never) but I just don't see plugging an audience back into a defining moment for their region (and for better or worse that's what these are) as corny. Granted, if this was a somber show it would seem more off, but as mray pointed out, for what was billed as a 4 show stand to close out a historic arena in a celebratory manner this seems perfectly fine.

I think it worked at the Spectrum but you can't deny it's a frat boy move. Somewhere along the line I think the Pearl Jam live experience change from lets take a journey together, to lets just play a bunch of songs and have a whole bunch of fun. Neither approach is wrong but I can see why someone would find the scorecard girls pretty frat boyish.

[VinylGuy]

Habit from Seattle 98 is on pj radio now...a dvd from that show could be amazing for Vault 4.
Or maybe for the Yield reissue.

[Norah]

]with the band trying to play everything they could

That was their stated goal, but they didn't actually try to do that. If they tried to do that they wouldn't have repeated so many songs over the four nights.

[warehouse]

]with the band trying to play everything they could

That was their stated goal, but they didn't actually try to do that. If they tried to do that they wouldn't have repeated so many songs over the four nights.

"stated goal"=eddie vedder's drunk ramblings

how many songs were repeated?

[Norah]

]with the band trying to play everything they could

That was their stated goal, but they didn't actually try to do that. If they tried to do that they wouldn't have repeated so many songs over the four nights.

"stated goal"=eddie vedder's drunk ramblings

how many songs were repeated?

Way too many. And not just repeated once.

[warehouse]

]with the band trying to play everything they could

That was their stated goal, but they didn't actually try to do that. If they tried to do that they wouldn't have repeated so many songs over the four nights.

"stated goal"=eddie vedder's drunk ramblings

how many songs were repeated?

Way too many. And not just repeated once.

u should do a search and find the list, im sure its around here somewhere

[stip]

Totally appropriate if you are playing a show where the home team is in a championship game. Any audience would eat it up, and it would add to the feeling of community you get at the show.

Concerts are already some of the easiest and most open community-building moments around. A band almost has to TRY to fuck that up, it's so easy. You're in this crowd, and all of these people came from who knows where to see the same band...to hear the same music that has left such a mark on you. By comparison, not everybody gives a shit about the world series or about the home team. In fact, if you don't follow the sport or the team, it can be a real buzzkill of a topic for you because everybody around you seems diabolically obsessed.

My point, for what it's worth, is not that tossing baseball scores around during the show shouldn't be done because it's exclusionary....I only point out the non-universality in response to your community argument. I just said that it's really corny, and that's because it IS really corny. David Lee Roth could do it, and it would probably work for him because corny is in his blood. He makes it beautiful.

I agree that box scores are not appropriate all the time (basically almost never) but I just don't see plugging an audience back into a defining moment for their region (and for better or worse that's what these are) as corny. Granted, if this was a somber show it would seem more off, but as mray pointed out, for what was billed as a 4 show stand to close out a historic arena in a celebratory manner this seems perfectly fine.

I think it worked at the Spectrum but you can't deny it's a frat boy move. Somewhere along the line I think the Pearl Jam live experience change from lets take a journey together, to lets just play a bunch of songs and have a whole bunch of fun. Neither approach is wrong but I can see why someone would find the scorecard girls pretty frat boyish.

I think it's kinda funny in that context. Context matters

[Birds in Hell]

]with the band trying to play everything they could

That was their stated goal, but they didn't actually try to do that. If they tried to do that they wouldn't have repeated so many songs over the four nights.

I don't actually recall them stating they were aiming not to repeat songs across those shows, just that they were going to play as many different songs as they could. Now, of course (taken on face value) that means they could've played more had they not repeated The Fixer, Just Breathe, YL etc but I don't think that's what Ed meant - just that they'd do their best to fit as many different songs in around the material they already intended to play most nights.

[Strat]

Anytime the band plays back to back shows the fans over emotionally assume PJ will attempt to play their entire catalog and when that doesn't happen - Sad faces galore.