Red Mosquito

During my last year of college I went on a downloading binge and accumulated what felt at the time to be a pretty significant fraction of the 2006 shows (looking back I think it probably isn't even half of them, but it's still a shit-ton of Pearl Jam). The ritual was that I would usually download a show in the morning, listen to disc one on the drive to school, and disc two on the drive back. The majority of these discs have been sitting untouched in one of those 200CD binder thingies for about 7 years, being taken out only to revisit highlights that I actively remembered, and then the other day I got the itch to start going through them again in order. It's taken me four days to get through the first two concerts (Albany and Hartford), but it's been a joy. These guys were killing it pretty much right out of the gate on this tour, and I know it only gets better. The one-two of "I'm Open" and "Sleight of Hand" from Hartford is pretty entrancing -- deep, resonant singing from Ed, and great coloration from Mike and Stone. Great tone on "Sleight" too -- in a lot of ways I think the 2006 shows are the best the official boots ever sounded, a crystal clear presentation but still retaining a lot of the character of the room and personality of the individual instruments. I am sure I will tire of the exercise before I get through to the end but for now this is good shit.

Kevin, those bootlegs just keep getting better. If you get bored, listen to Grand Rapids, Cleveland and Detroit and then just skip to San Diego and start there.

The "hot spots" on the 2006 tour were California, Italy, Australia and Hawaii. Those shows are all smoking good. The rest of the tour, although very good, doesn't quite reach those heights. I remember thinking that the first couple shows didn't sound all that great - the mix was off balance - but after that things smoothed out and the mix is generally perfect.

Berlin, 6/26/2014

I kind of can't believe how good the 2014 tour was. They clearly figured out a lot of their shit and they sound completely reinvigorated. Great setlists, great performances, and extremely tight for the most part. There are still the flubs that come with playing such a huge number of songs, but man they sound good. Best of all, it sounds like they really care.

Wendy Carlos's Twin wrote:The "hot spots" on the 2006 tour were California, Italy, Australia and Hawaii. Those shows are all smoking good. The rest of the tour, although very good, doesn't quite reach those heights. I remember thinking that the first couple shows didn't sound all that great - the mix was off balance - but after that things smoothed out and the mix is generally perfect.

Yeah, I remember being at the first Boston show and the Albany show and noticing the mix being off.

The 2006 bootlegs are fantastic, the band were just flying by European and Pacific legs. Great show after great show. They were consistent on that tour in a way they haven't been since and, at that stage, hadn't been since at least 2000.

matt reeder wrote:Kevin, those bootlegs just keep getting better. If you get bored, listen to Grand Rapids, Cleveland and Detroit and then just skip to San Diego and start there.

Looks like Cleveland and Detroit are next on the docket (apparently I never downloaded Grand Rapids). Got through about ten songs of Cleveland this morning -- they sound good but I really hate that "Better Man" opener, it's like they go straight to the part of the show where Ed starts feeling lazy and letting the crowd take over.

The Australian leg of this tour is some of the best live PJ I can call to mind -- I have revisited those shows many times. I remember thinking that Honolulu show (the one that starts with "Oceans") was about as strong of a show as this band has played -- just totally firing on all cylinders.

Kevin Davis wrote:

matt reeder wrote:Kevin, those bootlegs just keep getting better. If you get bored, listen to Grand Rapids, Cleveland and Detroit and then just skip to San Diego and start there.

Looks like Cleveland and Detroit are next on the docket (apparently I never downloaded Grand Rapids). Got through about ten songs of Cleveland this morning -- they sound good but I really hate that "Better Man" opener, it's like they go straight to the part of the show where Ed starts feeling lazy and letting the crowd take over.

The Australian leg of this tour is some of the best live PJ I can call to mind -- I have revisited those shows many times. I remember thinking that Honolulu show (the one that starts with "Oceans") was about as strong of a show as this band has played -- just totally firing on all cylinders.

That's the one black mark of that Cleveland show to me, since I hate the "Better Man" opener too. But that show is excellent, and it just keeps getting better as they go along.

matt reeder wrote:

Kevin Davis wrote:

matt reeder wrote:Kevin, those bootlegs just keep getting better. If you get bored, listen to Grand Rapids, Cleveland and Detroit and then just skip to San Diego and start there.

Looks like Cleveland and Detroit are next on the docket (apparently I never downloaded Grand Rapids). Got through about ten songs of Cleveland this morning -- they sound good but I really hate that "Better Man" opener, it's like they go straight to the part of the show where Ed starts feeling lazy and letting the crowd take over.

The Australian leg of this tour is some of the best live PJ I can call to mind -- I have revisited those shows many times. I remember thinking that Honolulu show (the one that starts with "Oceans") was about as strong of a show as this band has played -- just totally firing on all cylinders.

That's the one black mark of that Cleveland show to me, since I hate the "Better Man" opener too. But that show is excellent, and it just keeps getting better as they go along.

I haven't listened to Cleveland all the way through but it has one of my favourite It's Okay tags

Watching portugal 06.

Man; what a show....the jam at the end of big wave is reallt good and tight..pretty much every song is great.

The vault release from '98 is on in the background.

Busted out some Live On 3 Legs.

LetMeSleep wrote:Busted out some Live On 3 Legs.

Alpine Valley 03

One of my favorite shows of that tour.

Just getting around to listening to the second half of Cleveland -- the "Immortality" and "MFC" twofer is a score, and "Don't Gimme No Lip" just kicks ass live -- Eddie seems to have more fun with this one than he does with "Mankind." "Smile" is always a bonus.

I think I have come to the conclusion that I really just don't care for "It's OK" -- it was a special moment on the Touring Band video but I just don't really care much for the song itself. Give me a verse of "WMA" any day.

It's OK was awesome in 2000 and has sucked ever since.

Kevin Davis wrote:I think I have come to the conclusion that I really just don't care for "It's OK" -- it was a special moment on the Touring Band video but I just don't really care much for the song itself. Give me a verse of "WMA" any day.

I very much agree (and seeing it in person this year didn't endear me to it any further).

I miss "proper" Daughter tags, they were something I always looked forward to on boots. I think the last truly new example was the Peter Gabriel 'Red Rain' tag sung by Ed a few times on the 2011 South American tour (and even that was possibly the only new one since 2006).

Gee, I really like the "It's Okay" tag, but I wish they'd leave it as something they very rarely do. I saw it in 2006 and absolutely adored how they did it, but I don't think I need to see it again and I don't think it's something they should do very often.

Been in a big 2000 mood lately. Rocked out to Fresno, Boise and Seattle so far this week.

BigRedLedbetter wrote:Been in a big 2000 mood lately. Rocked out to Fresno, Boise and Seattle so far this week.

Do you have Live on 3 legs? I'm ploughing through it this week. Great compilation