The days of PJ playing emotive heartfelt rock seems to be over yet I still hope their next album changes my mind...ha! What if though? What if?

I never said I'd like it, but at least I'd respect it.

Also, and I might've gone through this before, the idea in their heads that they can't go out and rely on past glories to satisfy a crowd might mean some better songs get written.

In any case, there's absolutely no motivation for the band to take my suggestions on board, so I'm sure the hoary old chestnuts will continue to be dragged out.

Hey you never know

My point is also undercut by the fact that their most recent material is often that which they seem to have trouble performing well, hence the detuning etc.

So.

Honestly, less. I have been able to see them seven times in the last five years, and my longest drive was five hours from home. So, I guess my location has something to do with it.

Things I have liked -

Lollapalooza 2007 - Our Sunday was Blue October, Kings of Leon, My Morning Jacket, then PJ. My best festival experience, ever.
PJ20, the concert - This was a really special one, loved every minute of it. Plenty has been said about this, but it was a great experience for us.
PJ20, the book - For the money, one of the best PJ items you could buy. Great companion to the movie, which moves very quickly over certain parts of the band's history.
Legacy of the official bootlegs - they continue to tape and sell the vast majority of shows, and have a partner who can print them indefinitely.
Set lists over the last five years- you can't please everyone, but they have certainly tried.

Thinks that I liked, but have had major flaws -

Studio albums - Backspacer was objectively their worst album. There are parts of it that I like, and some of it has grown on me over time, especially live, but its still easily their worst. If the next album is not out by May, Backspacer will be their only studio effort for a seven year stretch. Not a great run for studio work. Eight years is what it took to get from Vitalogy to Riot Act, and those were all amazing. A decent album in 2013 would remedy this, in a big way. Honestly, it just has to be better than Avocado and Backspacer, and all is forgiven.
PJ20, the film - I really enjoyed it, but could not help think about how it could have been better. It was edited together as a film for casual fans, but only marketed to hardcore ones. The lack of theaters it was in was disappointing, and the sale of the special edition DVD and Blu rays was pretty bad.
Re-releases - zero complaints about the product, bought both of the super deluxe sets, and the content is great. Pricing of them was the only complaint I had, they were a pretty big commitment.

Things that have pissed me off -

Tickets on their website - Tickets and the seniority system is why the vast majority of people keep their memberships up. Why not embrace that? Based on what a membership costs per year, they obviously can keep a server that should be able to maintain the load. Just put the membership money towards that. Thinking that there are 13 year olds getting memberships for the ten-club stickers is just naive and/or manipulative, so they could easily drop that and stop figuring it into the costs. Or, if they cannot do it right, its not a crime to outsource it.
Tour lengths, and announcements. - Just announce each leg all at once, fuck. Its like there is some kind of secret about tours being so short, and more announcements of dates somehow hide that fact.

Objectively, you say?

Yep, its science.

I'd love to see Pearl Jam try NOT to please their fans for once.

I agree. They should stop giving up their seat to the old lady on the bus and just enjoy the ride.

I offered my seat to a genuine old lady today (she refused but thanked me for the offer) and thought of RM.

All I mean by the above, incidentally, is my general indifference to their "we aim to please!" approach to setlists. I prefer a "fuck you, this is what you get" approach to live performance.

spenno wants his live PJ to be like he is in bed

Great couple last few posts. Good stuff.


Team Spenno. I probably wont shut up about comparing them to Neil but since they never shut up about how much they learned rom Neil....I may keep hammering on about it.

PJ should tell us to fuck off. Stop pleasing or trying so hard to do what you think pleases the fans. Take a chance again. Get over trying to be u2.

That's what she said...

I am not even sure when the band looked back that they were happy with Backspacer. Unlike avocado and riot act. It didn't even take a full tour for them to drop songs. Gonna see my friend, force of nature, speed of sound, supersonic were never really put into regular rotation. If they played gonna see my friend and force of nature right, those could be great live.

I spent some time listening to my 2003 mix yesterday, and I know age does contribute to things, but man they were good in 2003.

I for one, am not a big fan of how Ed sounded in 2003, but the band was tight.
And I do think that GSMF, FON, SOS and Supersonic sounds really good live...
Melbourne FON is a tight performance, IMO. And Supersonic... It has a nice riff, and intrumentally, its a good song, but Ed took a crap in it. I love the intro with the slide. They should use slides more often...
But anyway, these songs are SO underplayed, when UK and The Fixer are overplayed like shit...

Sometimes i feel i like you.

You mean, like, asleep?

I played both discs of the "PJ20" soundtrack last week, which, apart from the Vic bootleg and a haphazard spin of "No Code" a few days ago, was pretty much the only Pearl Jam I listened to all summer. It sounded great, both discs from beginning to end--mongrel-ish, disjointed, juxtaposing some of the band's most public moments against some of their most private, some of their most ragged against some of their most pristine. I wonder if this album wouldn't have been received differently divorced from the hype surrounding the film, released instead quietly as a kind of "bootleg series" type thing. There seems little rhyme or reason behind some of the selections, but taken exclusively on its own I'm compelled by the picture it paints, by the wide net it casts and the associations it forces you to draw on your own. Most of my favorite compilation records are this way.

like playing a rap song?

can we add masochistic to the thread title?