I was just wondering of some of the veterans could comment on their feelings about the acoustics in some of the major big venues (I'm not talking about boutique shows like the Vic or the Beacon).

I thought the acoustics last night were not great-- kind of echoey, for lack of the appropriate technical term. Kind of like the Verizon Center in DC though perhaps not quite as bad.

In contrast, I thought the sound at MSG last year was terrific-- both very loud and really crisp and clean.

What's the San Diego venue like? And the immortal Spectrum in Philly?

I'd rather see them at an ampitheatre

Thanks for your reply. I guess nobody else is too interested in this question...

Generally speaking, the Amps/out door venues are better than the arenas...
arenas are set up to keep noise IN. Bring the noise back to the floor making the crowd noise louder for the basketball/hockey crowds. so you do get alot of echo

that being said, ive seen REM and McCartney in the United Center, McCartney especially really sounded bad, the bass really echoed on Sir Paul.

I was in the 300 level night one for PJ this year, and was shocked at how good the sound was... night 2 down 1 row up off the floor, sounded good too, wasnt as bad as i remember PJ being in 06 even...

but the out door venues are 99% of the time better than an arena, arenas are set up to make things louder, which is not good for concerts.

i think the full length curtain they had behind the stage helped the accoustics in the UC. The sound this go around was the best I have heard PJ at the UC.

The sound in the O2 in London was astounding. By far the best large capacity arena sound I have ever heard. Eddie was told right!

We had the best time at your party. The wife and I thank you very much.

That seems to be what people are saying... IMHO, if that's true, it must have sounded pretty shitty in the past! I'm not trying to be a snob or anything, I just noticed, like DC, how much more echoey it sounded than MSG.

San Diego looks like a really small venue. I'm surprised they're only doing one show there.

Someone compared the O2 to the MSG. If that is even partly true MSG must be pretty good because I dont think I have ever been to a rock concert that sounded as good as Pearl Jam at the O2. The Shepherds Bush Empire theatre show was wonderful and I thought the O2 was going to be poor sounding in comparison, but amazingly it topped it.

Well if they tour the East Coast for Backspacer, you'll have to come over to NYC and check it out for yourself!

Yep but tickets for MSG are tough to get, right?

I didn't have any problem when I went through 10C last year... I've read an awful lot of complaining on these boards about the 10C server etc but I guess I've been lucky. And if 10C doesn't work out, you can always pay more and get less from a scalper

I've always been lucky in general sales. 10C doesn't mean as much here, no seniority and all GA shows. And scalpers? we call those 'touts' and I would never go there. My Shepherds Bush Empire spares went on here for face

I guess if I decide to do the US a 10C membership or a friend in the 10C is essential?

Can anyone else speak to this? I've never tried to go through the general sale for PJ.

It seems like over here this sick thing has happened where a lot of tickets go straight from the venue to the scalpers. There was a sort of expose about it in the papers recently after a Springsteen ticket sale, I think. Seems like a lot of tickets never really go on the open market. Totally sick.
Nonetheless I'm sure there must be *some* decent seats to be had through the general sale. Ebay can also be a source of okay seats that are less overpriced than scalpers--there's a constraint under NY State law about how much a seller can mark them up on Ebay.

We did OK here in the UK, front row, side stage. Couldn't believe my luck when we were led to the seats

GetMeIn annoys me, run by Ticketmaster, even though the conditions forbid resale. Madness

I got tix for both MSG shows last year. Neither through the Ten Club because I WASN'T GOING when the pre-sale was on. A few weeks after, the peer pressure (Lorcan in one ear in Ireland and Laurie in California in the other) became too much, and I caved (ended up going to 8 shows!). Ticketmaster had their own presale, and I got a pair for night 2, and none for night 1. Laurie got me a pair for night 1 on the same sale. My night 2 tix were shit, but Laurie worked some magic and improved them DRAMATICALLY on the day of the show for me.

The moral is you can get tix for MSG. My computer is old and slow compared to most (my laptop was purchased in Boston in 2005), and my internet is only 2 or 3 Meg or whatever per whatever it is (3 meg per second? per minute? I dunno, but you get the picture) and I still managed to get tix for MSG. Granted, they weren't great, but if Laurie didn't upgrade them, at least we would have still been in the room.

i was always of the opinion that indoor arena's were better for concerts as its easier to control the acoustics and set a level whereas outdoors you lose the sound all over the place and it ends up sounding better in some places than others

I'd agree with this for the modern arenas that have been designed with sound in mind. The O2 is excellent, where Wembley Arena was built as a swimming pool.

acoustics and sound are such a funny thing. yes arenas can be very echoey or have the potential to sound horrible. weather they do or not can depend pretty heavily on the sound crew, which PJ probably have one of the best. same with stadiums and ampitheaters as well actually. take shoreline for example. ever concert i've attended there the mixes were shit. all you could end up hearing was generally the kick and bass way to loud and vocals and it would be very boomy from all the low end. when i've seen pj there though the sound was so good it actually just sounded like one of the boots cranked through the system with a little bit more low end popped in. that being said i've actually enjoyed the sound and overall vibe/experience of seeing them indoors.

i think the biggest revelation i've had was from seeing them at outside lands friday. even with outdoor venues you can sometimes forget the effort that goes into the design in terms of sound. being that polo field is just a field/park and not an actual real venue...the sound isnt held the same way. so i would see shots of the whole crowd looking pumped and all clapping to songs and going nuts, but in terms of the crowd and what i could actually hear of them, it was generally isolated to the surrounding pockets of where ever i was standing at the time. if you were standing in a pocket that was kind of dull...it could sound like the crowd as a whole wasnt that energized or into it. and visa versa.