Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:02 pm Posts: 1777 Location: Naperville, IL, USA Ten Club: 230xxx Gender: Male
Other people who have been to these shows might rank them differently, bootleg listeners might as well, but these are MY rankings based on the overall experience.
1. Champaign 4/23/03. The band was soooo good that night, and I'm not looking at it through "first show" goggles. I go back and listen to the boot and stuff like Elderly Woman and Nothingman from that show just FLOORS me. DTE opener was phenomenal.
2. Chicago 5/17/06. A bit early to rank it this high, but for setlist alone it has to be considered here. You guys will see when the boot comes out!
3. St. Louis 10/5/04. I waited until my 6th (and last show for over a year and a half) to get something I had wanted for a long time: The SIFL tag on Betterman. Great performance of everything to boot, plus a lot of stuff I don't expect to hear ever again (The Seeker, New World). In a BEAUTIFUL venue too (Fox Theater).
4. Council Bluffs 6/13/03. Can one song make a show? How about two? How about two songs and being in the 18th row on the floor? The best of the "Arc" performances (and my shitty tape is the source of this one, thank you very much), and an AMAZING RITFW where Ed was just floored by the crowd...a building of 7000 fans definitely beat the 20,000+ United Center from tonight, if only for that one song. The rest of the show was so-so because Ed was sick, but I still got Faithfull, Grievance, STBC, Bushleaguer, and an Every Day (Buddy Holly) tag on Betterman.
5. Chicago 6/18/03. Ed was still sick, but this show was so DIFFERENT that I had to put it here. I finally got my Release opener after 3 shows across two legs for this tour, and it was beautiful. Ed's Grandma was on stage for a few songs. Ed was still sick, so they played a lot of lighter material. I wish I would have taken a couple extra days of vacation and went to East Troy that tour, but I definitely saw a unique show!
6. Three-way tie: Chicago 5/16/06, Boston 9/28/04, Boston 9/29/04. The two Boston shows had wild, INSANE setlists, but the band was super-sloppy, especially Ed (who was just silly drunk more than anything else). Chicago had one of the most pedestrian setlists in a while (with a couple of exceptions), but was so tight and professional that it was just a joy to see because of that.
I've probably been to 50 major concerts and even the lowest ranked Pearl Jam ones are easily in the top 15, so that says a lot for them.
_________________ Saw you at: 4/23/03, 6/13/03, 6/18/03, 9/28/04, 9/29/04, 10/5/04, 5/16/06, 5/17/06, EV 8/22/08, 8/23/09, 8/24/09, 10/31/09, 5/7/10, EV 6/28/11, 9/3/11, 9/4/11!
Pearl Jam shows: Champaign 4/23/2003 Chicago 6/18/2003 St. Louis 10/05/2004 Portland 7/20/2006 Gorge 7/22/2006 Ridgefield 9/26/2009 Philadelphia 10/31/2009
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 12:59 am Posts: 18643 Location: Raleigh, NC Gender: Male
1. Missoula 2003 - Front row, 3 encores, pick from Mike, I Won't Back Down
2. Cleveland 1998 - 3rd row, held Ed up during Baba
3. Boston 1 2000 - 8th row, Patriot, dancing cow
4. Detroit 2 2003 - lawn, lots of No Code
5. Boston 2 2000 - lawn, intense setlist, very little crowd interaction
6. Sacramento 1998 - main floor GA, insane but short show, violent and unruly crowd
7. Seattle 1 Dec 2002 - great seats on main level, bad crowd, lackluster performance
8. Seattle March 2005 - only a one hour set, but a good one
9. Seattle May 2004 - only 5 songs, only Ed, Stone and Mike
10. Seattle 2 Dec 2002 - awful seats, awful crowd, awful performance
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 10:59 am Posts: 9057 Location: Camden, NJ
1. MSG II 1998: this will probably be the best show I ever see. I cant think of one night where the guys were as dead on perfect as this night.
2. MSG I 2003
3. Boston II 2004
4. Philly 2005
5. MSG II 2003
6. Boston I 2004
7. Hartford 1998
8. Holmdel 2003
9. Jones Beach II 2000: its ok
10. Uniondale 2003
11. VFC Reading 2004
12. Hartford 2006
Joined: Sun May 01, 2005 3:00 pm Posts: 1099 Location: Foxboro, MA (formerly Waltham, MA)
1. Boston 4/12/94 (yeah, that setlist was insane)
2. Boston 9/16/98
3. Boston 4/11/94
4. MSG 7/8/03
5. Boston 7/2/03
6. Boston 7/3/03
7. Boston 8/29/00
8. Boston 8/30/00
9. Boston 7/11/03
10. MSG 7/9/03 (best Corduroy I've ever heard)
11. Boston 9/28/04
12. Boston 9/29/04
13. Boston 9/15/98
_________________ Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
Joined: Thu Jul 07, 2005 7:02 pm Posts: 545 Location: just past the bar...
1. Mt. Baker Theater, Bellingham, WA 2000 - 1.500 seat venue in my hometown, incredible sound, ed debuts the uke?
2. Gorge, 2005 - despite being on the hill, this was the most amazing show i've seen at the gorge.
3. Seattle 1, 2000 - still wondering why i didn't go the next night... good set, terrible crowd, made me hate the chili peppers.
4. Bridge School 03 - only last because it was so short, but that was expected. masters of war and 25 minutes to go were great.
(I imagine the two impending gorge shows will shake this up a bit....)
_________________ never trust a man in a blue trench coat
never drive a car when you're dead
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:02 am Posts: 44183 Location: New York Gender: Male
1. Uniondale 03--best version of Even Flow, Know your rights, and Free World I've ever heard.
2. MSG II (overall a better show than...)
3. MSG I (amazing encore, but only an average show until then)
4. MSG I 98
5. Randall's Island night I (96)--first show
6. Hartford 06
7. Great Woods night I 98
8. Merriweather 98
9. Camden night II 00
10. Jones Beach Night I 00
11. Jones Beach Night II 00
_________________ "Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."--FDR
1. Chicago 5/17/06 (1st row dead center)
2. Augusta, ME 1996
3. Boston 4/11/94
4. East Troy '03
5. Indianapolis '00
6. Chicago '98
7. Chicago 5/16/06
8. Chicago '00
9. Chicago '03
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:14 am Posts: 37778 Location: OmaGOD!!! Gender: Male
1. Alpine 03, the best concert I've ever seen.
2. Chicago 2000, 30 songs, great crowd, some top versions of several songs.
3. Waterloo Village 92, short Lollapalooza set, but Ed climbed to the top of the rafters and dove from about ten feet up into the crowd during Porch.
4. Meadowlands 98, my first show in six years and they didn't disappoint.
5. Merriweather Post 98, a very good show, but I was way back on the lawn and I couldn't enjoy it as much as shows where I had a better view.
6. Chicago 03, Ed was sick, it was a greatest hits setlist, and the worst Even Flow solo I've ever heard. Totally phoned it in except for a couple of songs.
_________________ Unfortunately, at the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius, the Flower Children jerked off and went back to sleep.
01)08/03/00 - GTE Virginia Beach Amphitheater: Virginia Beach, VA
02)08/29/00 - Tweeter Center: Mansfield, MA
03)04/18/03 - Am South Amphitheater: Antioch (Nashville), TN
04)07/11/03 - Tweeter Center: Mansfield, MA
05)09/11/05 - Memorial Auditorium, Kitchener, ON, Canada
06)09/19/05 - Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada
07)06/13/03 - Mid-America Center: Council Bluffs, IA
08)08/15/00 - The Pyramid: Memphis, TN
09)08/21/00 - Polaris Amphitheater: Columbus, OH
10)09/07/98 - GTE Virginia Beach Amphitheater: Virginia Beach, VA
for anyone who went to both chicago shows this week, did anyone notice how much better the sound quality was at the 2nd show? This in itself made it way more enjoyable for me (besides the setlist). The first night all I could hear was Stone's guitar and the 2nd night everything seemed more balanced.
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