I will use this thread to put down some thoughts, feelings and other random stuff about Pearl Jam or related to Pearl Jam. This is for stuff I sometimes want to post but don’t know where to.

First of all, I would like to talk about how I completely found my love for Pearl Jam back. I think the last 2 weeks I listened to more Pearl Jam than all the time from January till half May. And I’m pretty happy about that. I could skip the Copenhagen show and I almost decided to since I have the perfect ‘excuse’ (bachelor’s degree reception), but I know I would deeply regret it afterwards. The setlist might suck, but hey, it’s a Pearl Jam show and it’s in Denmark. It’s a promise I made myself at Werchter 2000 after hearing what happened and that I wouldn’t get to see Pearl Jam. And I’m not a man to do empty promises.

What is it that brought it back? I remember about 3 weeks ago, the In My Tree SOTM got bumped. I read it at work (where I can’t listen to music) and all day, I had this desire to listen to In My Tree as soon as I got home. I listened to some more No Code that day, but [prepare for shock] Present Tense couldn’t really get to me. I was disappointed. But slowly it came back. I listened to quite some 00 and 03 shows and more and more it came back. And then I have to thank stip and lots of the recent posters in PJ Chat/Live. The level of argumentation and discussion has been great. Especially the Guided tour through Ten made me want to listen closely to the album.

And so here I am, yesterday was my last day of work placement. Now I have 4 weeks in which I have 5 exams, but they’re mostly exams you can’t study for, so I’ll take it as 3 weeks holiday with 1 week exams or something like that. And after that, it’s Copenhagen and Werchter. And before I head off for my 11th and 12th PJ concert since September 2005 (and to think before April 05, I thought I’d never get to see them.), I want to go through every Pearl Jam album again and preferably the non-album songs as well. So I’m starting at Ten.

This morning I already listened twice to the album. And seriously, I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed songs like Once, Even Flow, Why Go and Oceans that much. Thank you stip. Now I’m listening to Boston 1 (Lolla) 92. Set: Why Go, Deep, Jeremy, Even Flow, Garden, Hard To Imagine (ramblings)/Alive, Leash, Porch. Hard to Imagine starts now. That was the first time Hard to Imagine was played, but apart from that riff a couple of times and Eddie mumbling a bit, it’s nothing like the Hard to imagine we know.

Other plans for today… I think about throwing on a Holland 92 show and tonight Ten in my car for the ride to the pub.

Dude, can you grab me a tour shirt?

That was a great post. You have a lot of interesting thoughts regarding their music.

I listened the the actual Ten album for the first time because of stip. Since I had heard live versions of all of the songs, I felt that I didn't need to listen to the album. And my daughter usually had it, so it was pretty much unavailable. So when stip started this guided tour, I wrestled the real thing away from her and have been listening to it every day since stip started his thread.

This is just personal, but I won't be posting much after the middle of June because I will be in Belgium for the summer. Unfortunately, because of family commitments, we won't be able to see Pearl Jam at all. My kids were bitterly disappointed, especially since Werchter is very close to where we will be living.

I look forward to reading more of your thoughts. Similarly, I turn to Isaac Turner's thread in order to sit back and experience his musings.

glad to see your love return. I listened to 1st day of my life this morning and thought of you

I get frustrated when people "get over" Pearl Jam and think it has something to do with the band. I feel like most of the time, it's something the person's got going on, and they aren't self-aware enough to identify the internal reasons, so they fall back on the band's decisions/albums/tour stops/ten club/ etc. etc. etc. I'm not saying you've done that, but I am saying it's cool in my book that the music is what's drawing you back in. Most people ebb and flow in their relationships with everything. what eras are you familiar with, bootlegs wise?

Good to have you back, Angus

Sometimes people just need a break from a band they listen to all the time. What I've never understood is the need to find a reason for it. No apologies necessary--almost anything can get stale without a little distance from time to time, and you'll come back when the distance is great enough to put into perspective what you've left behind

Random thought: it still makes me laugh when people refer to you as "Anus."

now THAT is funny

im in my car quite a bit for work so all i do is listen to music...since the new album came out my 6 disc changer has stayed relatively the same...
S/T
Ten
Vs
Vitalogy
no code
yield
then more recently (3-4 months ago) i swapped out no code and yield for 2 dmb albums
needed to mix it up a little...but now after vitalogy plays im starting to get bummed knowing pj wont be next...gonna hav 2 do another switch soon...
Cant believe how much i still like ten...there was a time i couldn't even think of listening to it...just old and played out...but for some reason now it has new life and stip has certainly added to that with his tour...
thanks stip

Aaauw, too bad you can't come. I love talking to people from elsewhere, preferably from anther continent who go to Pearl Jam shows. Have a great time here in my beautiful country...



I have a total of about 350 concerts going from 1990 to 2006 and I think since the Yield tour I have every concert of every tour. But I'm most familiar with:

98-00-05

98 was during my mad Yield period. I listened to every show of that tour multiple times.

00 is my favourite tour, especially the Euro leg. I practically know those shows by heart. They are phenomenal. And before you start accusing me of being biased. In 2000 I was very much looking forward to see my first Pearl Jam show at Werchter. Guess what happened 2 days before in Denmark? I was so sad that I didn't buy a 2000 bootleg (I just couldn't stand hearing other people who did get to see PJ live) until after the 03 tour.

05 is personal, I know that. I effectively know all the Canadian shows by heart. That was my personal greatest achievement of my life. Me, Brecht from Belgium, one of the shiest persons you'll ever meet, who could never to anything on his own, fucking went to Canada alone (met up with lots of people of course) and saw my 6 first Pearl Jam shows. Kitchener-London-Hamilton-Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto I still can't believe it. I love every show of that tour. the South-Americans as well. I don't know what it is. It's something about PJ 05 that just can't do anything wrong for me.



I still don't 'love' the Avocado album and the 06 tour and that was what turned me off for a few months.

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In all honesty, I currently love the studio version of Even Flow. What is happening with me?

Reading that paragraph just put the biggest smile on my face. Awesome shit! I'm almost sorry I oppinionated against you in another thread 2 minutes ago!

Restepc, Angus, Restepc.

by the way angus--great thread title

Thanks. I put some serious thought into the title.

which begs the question: how much serious thought did Stip put into the title for my thread?

I think Europe 2000 is one of my favorite tours as well. My only criticism of it is, I think they were learning how to situate the Binaural songs in the setlist during that leg, and by the time they got to the US, they had it figured out, but not the desire they had in Europe to be playing.

Maybe, but still... NAIS as show opener in Cardiff...

Anyway, today and tomorrow are Vs. days. This will be pretty hard. Vs. has been in the bottom 2 of my album list since quite a few years now. And 93 shows... this is strange, I have never really liked the 93 shows, but I always adored the spring 94 shows, which consisted mostly of the same songs. I'm curious to see how I'll react. Now first over to Vs...

Maybe the best european bootleg of 2000, unique show. NAIS cool opener indeed. I don't really consider the 2000 tour as my favourite. But I really love it, because back in 2001 was the only way for me to hear PJ live. I remember seeing all those bootlegs at the record stores and thinking "Wow, they play a different setlist every night " or "They don't play Jeremy regurarly " (:lol:). Btw my first 2000 bootleg was Milan, another great show.

Vs.

This is such difficult album. I think it's problem is that is has been rushed to follow up Ten after doing basically nothing but touring. I mean, props to Brendan O'Brien, it's very well produced, but, to me, the end of Blood, the intro to Daughter and the beginning of Go is like wanting to do it unprofessionally professional. They should have kicked Go right off in my opinion. Bam! It's a bit like the Brain of J intro (O'Brien's idea as well? ) but much worse.

About the songs... I'm not a huge fan (to say the least) of the first half.
Go is good and rocks live like I said in another topic if it's followed and preceded by songs I like more. If Glorified G and Deep are the surrounding songs, they take Go down.
Animal has something huge over it. I can't really explain it, it's by far not one of my favourite songs, but in some way it kicks some incredible ass. If an emo band has written those lyrics, we would have all laughed with them, Eddie gets away with it. There's some very strange production on here IMO. Give me any live version over this.
And still... Go-Animal is a great combo. Both in a row live is awesome, there, I said it. Release-Go-Animal in Toronto 05 was great.

And then comes what totally puts Vs. down the list:
Daughter: good at best, live totally depending on tag.
Glorified G: sucks major ass
Dissident: sucks more ass than the busiest porn actor.
W.M.A.: should have been at least 5 minutes shorter, the length of Red Dot or something... I like the message, I like some of the tribal stuff... but 6 minutes... my god...

At this point the album is in urgent need of a hard kick in the ass or it's over and out... and we get that kick and how! 6 brilliant songs follow.
- 2 songs of which I only truly felt the power and "brilliance" after seeing them live: Blood in Canada & Leash in Dublin, howly fuck! High voltage rock 'n roll!
- 1 song of which I only truly felt and feel the power and brilliance, but on a totally different level when seeing it live (Indifference at Kitchener, Hamilton, Toronto, Dublin & Antwerp. A highlight every time). Studio version doesn't really grab me as much.
- 1 song that has been in my top-15 PJ songs since the day I first heard it (RVM). After I gave Vs. to a friend who had hardly heard any PJ before, he said "I'd better not say much negative about RVM, not that I would otherwise, cause it's a very good song, but this is such a typical PJ song. this IS Pearl Jam". I think he was right. By the way, there are not many live versions that can match the studio version in my opinion.
- 1 song that I only started liking about a year ago. Rats. I don't know what it was that I didn't like about it. The song is so sexy, so mean. The bass... wow. And the lyrics are brilliant in their own way. They're so true. Gotta love "fuck to procreate till they're dead".
- 1 song that I always kinda liked, but never really did much for me until about a week ago. Small Town is actually such a sweet song now that I really get it. In terms of PJ's best "pop" songs, it's possibly right there on the top with Sad and Betterman. I feel bad for doing so long about it to get it. I promise myself I will enjoy it much more if I get to hear it live again.

- Blood-RVM-Rats is a fucking hell of a 3-in-a-row. In terms of rock-in-your-face songs probably the best they have. Once-EvenFLow-Alive come close. STBC ruins what could have been the greatest of all (Last Exit - Not For You - Tremor Christ). Don't dare mentioning a trio that includes either Life Wasted or Severed Hand. I'd might have kill you for doing so.

- Also, I think we've had the discussion before... do you guys think Daughter (the shades go down) and RVM (finally the shades are raised) are related? I don't know. I'm putting some thought into it.

- I listened to Vegas 93 today. I totally forgot I downloaded... euh... bought... euh whatever... that bootleg. Actually pretty good, Tremor Christ sucks though. The Vitalogy version and the live versions after it are so incredibly much better.

- I probably listened to Vs. about 5 times today. That's a fucking lot.

- That's it for today. Good night friends.

That's a great story. I didn't see a single one of those shows, but I love them all as well. As much as I'm constantly told about Eddie's failing voice and how much better he was in 1992 or 1998, I love the 2005 shows and, unlike you, the 2006 shows much more than any of the earlier shows.




I feel that same way about ANIMAL. There is something primal about it. I love hearing it, and I even love the album version. For whatever reason, I love listening to Vs, probably second only to S/T, but it contains only one song that is one of my favorites, RVM.

Are you French-speaking or Flemish?