Red Mosquito

omg the experience

the Ed-xperience

The last Eddie solo show I saw (in July 2011) was an utter trainwreck. He messed up probably 80% of the songs, and not just ''quick stumble, quick recovery''-type stuff. I enjoyed the ''experience,'' and Eddie remains a compelling presence in this setting regardless, but only someone truly delusional could pretend that really the performance was fine and any criticisms were just going to be people nitpicking the bootlegs. The guy simply did not live up to the standard of a professional performer that you pay $85 per ticket to watch from the top row of a theater. He was more like one of your stoned buddies sitting around a campfire with an acoustic guitar trying to remember how to play songs he hadn't played in ten years, stopping every two minutes and saying ''now, how does that go again?'' and then twiddling around with different chords until he eventually figures it out. Charming in its way, but it takes some nerve to expect someone to pay to see it. I can't help but feel like anyone who believes that the problem in that type of performance scenario lies with the audience and not the performer has to have some kind of unreasonable degree of adulation for the performer.

well that could have also just been a shitty performance. I think I saw Ed on the 2011 tour and my show was fantastic. But regardless I remain pretty convinced that the quality of a live show is based on how it sounds in the moment and how it feels to be there. That's the whole point of live music.

well that, and a chance to buy crap with the band's name on it.

I appreciate what you're saying and don't entirely disagree, my point was primarily just that performance quality--good or bad--doesn't only come across on bootlegs, and not everyone is so swept up in the inexplicable positive juju of the experience that it doesn't bug them when the singer they just paid nigh-on $100 to see can't remember how to play his own songs. I refuse to believe that you can't appreciate that there is a quality to the performance that a recording is capable of documenting in some capacity, that some people are just perceptive enough to pick up on that in person, and that for some people that's more critical a factor than whatever illusion of perfection the ''moment'' may create for them.

Sure--I wouldn't argue that.

stip wrote:well that could have also just been a shitty performance. I think I saw Ed on the 2011 tour and my show was fantastic. But regardless I remain pretty convinced that the quality of a live show is based on how it sounds in the moment and how it feels to be there. That's the whole point of live music.

Agree.

these setlists have been the same since 1978

theplatypus wrote:On paper, the setlist is barely ever the problem at a Pearl Jam show.

So true; besides the fact that the last 2 albums (and really 3) all stink.

theplatypus wrote:omg the experience

IT'S LIKE RELIGION FOR THE NON-RELIGIOUS

I thought that many songs on Water on the Road were kinda sloppy myself which doesn't make an Ed show less compelling for the average fan. it all boils down to whether you think it's human or under-rehearsed.
my take on this, as a consumer, is that you pay a quite expensive ticket to spend an evening with EDDIE VEDDER OF THE PEOPLE OF PEARL JAM who happens to play songs in an austere setting, surrounded by (apparently) ill-mannered dumbasses who just have heard of Even Flow and have enough money to be there. it's not a nice way to spend an evening for me.
as a musician, I think that Eddie developped a guitar style of his own (with a lot of Townshend thrown in) and that his voice is best suited to his solo material than PJ's nowadays. having said that, I can't help but think that these shows are more Eddie-centered than music-centered and that's annoying me.
fun fact: I have never attended an Eddie Vedder solo show

I've been a big defender of the Eddie solo shows, but water in the road was pretty disappointing

No, More

the poster behind him is a list of all the companies he's done a paid show for, how cute

I had a good time at the one solo show I saw, and never had the desire to see one ever again. It was fun while it lasted, but (and I think I've made this comparison before), it just felt like a Pearl Jam show played on acoustic guitar for the most part. There was no attempt to do something really different with it. I don't think it's coincidential that, for me at least, the most exciting moments were the most un-PJ like moments of the concert (like Arc or something). It just felt a bit like a wasted opportunity.

Ed has two things working against him, though; solo shows in general, IMO, are hard to make compelling, and there are few fanbases less suited for a quiet, respectful show than PJ fans.

That new song 'cant hold on' or whatever it's called, sounds like a sketch. But so did unthought known and that was the finished article.

Yesterday Concert:

Walking the Cow
Trouble
Dead Man
Can't Keep
Sleeping By Myself
Without You
Soon Forget
Light Today
Throw Your Arms Around Me
I'm One
Speed of Sound
(Pearl Jam song)
I Am Mine
Man of the Hour
Wishlist
Far Behind
Setting Forth
Guaranteed
Long Nights
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
Unthought Known
Picture in a Frame
Future Days
Masters of War
Porch
Sleepless Nights(with Glen Hansard)
I Won't Hold On...(with Glen Hansard) (Not official title)
Society(with Glen Hansard)
Falling Slowly (with Glen Hansard)
Last Kiss
Should I Stay or Should I Go(With Marcelo, a member of the audience)
Off He Goes
Open All Night
Better Days

Encore:

Hard Sun

I've liked both the setlists. But I love the Ed solo shows.

Will have another one today.

And Im not going again.

Im really pissed off.