Category: Pearl Jam

Quicken Loans Arena – Cleveland, OH
Opener: My Morning Jacket
Attendance: 19,000

Pre-Set: Last Kiss (Ed solo), It Makes No Difference (Ed w/My Morning Jacket)

Main Set: Betterman, Given To Fly, Worldwide Suicide, Life Wasted, Severed Hand, Faithfull, Unemployable, Gone, Daughter/(It’s OK), MFC, Immortality, Lukin, Do The Evolution, Spin The Black Circle, Porch

Encore 1: Wasted Reprise, Thumbing My Way, Inside Job, Black/(We Belong Together), Alive

Encore 2: Go, Comatose, U, Don’t Gimme No Lip, Smile, Why Go, Fuckin’ Up, Yellow Ledbetter

I tend to get a little long-winded on these things and I’m running out of superlatives to describe the band’s performance, so I’m going to keep this oh-so-brief.

Upon arriving in Cleveland, the first thing you’re gonna notice downtown is the overabundance of these incredibly annoying, mosquito-like creatures that are affixed to windows on every building. I made the mistake of leaving my car window’s cracked overnight and woke up to find a hundred or so of the little buggers all over the interior of my car. They don’t put that in the chamber of commerce brochure for Cleveland, do they?

We had dinner before the show at a local bar and restaurant, Flannery’s (which featured aforementioned bugs on establishment’s windows) and ordered a burger. Much to my delight (I’m easily amused), the burger was topped with an avocado! Yahoo, what a coincidence! This could only bode well for the night to come.

I met a few people from a Pearl Jam message board I occasionally post on, and then it was on to Quicken Loans Arena for the show. It’s a cozy, little venue; it felt much smaller than HSBC Arena in Buffalo, but appeared to have the same number of seats.

I wasn’t in my seat for more than a few minutes when Ed came onstage to thunderous cheers from the half-full building (at that point), ready to do a preset. He did a solo version of Last Kiss during the preset, which is exactly where I prefer Last Kiss to be, if it has to be played at all. I’m a little tired of it, but that’s what happens when you’ve listened to every album, song and bootleg a thousand times each.

Opener My Morning Jacket came onstage after Ed finished, but Vedder stayed to do the first number with the band, It Makes No Difference. Nice, rocking number. MMJ continued to rock after Ed left, almost well enough to make me think about checking out their albums. Good stuff and I recommend you check them out at some point.

Pearl Jam came onstage to their typical roaring standing ovation, and proceeded to start with the rarely-used-as-opener Betterman. As always, the crowd did a lot of the singing. Nice, surprising start to the show. That was followed up by the standard 3-song set of new album tunes: World Wide Suicide, Life Wasted and Severed Hand. I expected a somewhat repetetive (from other nights) setlist at that point, but I was pleasantly surprised when they went into Faithfull, which made its debut on this tour. I’ll always dig stuff off of Yield, regardless of how much it’s played, but when you get a rare one like Faithfull, I’m extra happy.

A haunting rendition of Gone (off the new album) led into Daughter, which isn’t such a surprise. But when the band started into the It’s OK (by Dead Moon) tag, it became something special. The last time the full It’s OK tag was played was in Jones Beach in 2003, I believe, and it was a treat to hear it in person live. I felt like we were in for a special night by this point.

I appeared to be right when they played a tight but soft version of Immortality before launching into a blistering assault with Lukin, Do The Evolution, Spin The Black Circle and Porch to end the main set. The entire crowd was in a frenzy by the 10th minute of Porch.

The first encore was very laid back, highlighted by a soulful Black tagged by a brief “We Belong Together.” The band kicked it back into high gear with Alive to end the encore. The second encore kicked ass right off the bat with Go and not letting up through Comatose. The rarely-played U came next and then, guitarist Stone Gossard took the mic to sing lead vocals on his Don’t Gimme No Lip. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen the lead vocal stylings of Stone Gossard. You can’t help but laugh (with him, of course).

Smile followed that up and yes, folks, I was smiling by that point. It’s a song that isn’t played nearly often enough live. A now-standard Why Go led into Neil Young’s Fuckin’ Up, which would have closed the set from there, but it looked like lead guitarist Mike McCready wanted to stick around for one more and eased into Yellow Ledbetter.

Well, I guess that wasn’t too brief, but I strove for conciseness (is that a word?). Couldn’t have asked for a much better setlist–lots of relatively rare stuff that debuted for the first time this tour. Another fantastic show that only feeds my obsession with the music. See you in Camden.

Two Feet Thick notes:

The band is playing Cleveland and Detroit consecutively, coinciding with the NBA Playoffs pitting the Cleveland Cavaliers vs. the Detroit Pistons. “That last song is called ‘Unemployable’ which I’m sure the state of Ohio knows plenty about. It’s a beautiful place, but we’ll always make room for you in Seattle if you ever want to come out. Then you’ll be jobless and wet and depressed, but you’ll be out drinkin with us, so it’ll be alright.” Continuing, Ed introduces “Gone”, saying that “there’s a line in a song called ‘Dissident’ that says something about ‘escape is never the safest path’ or the easiest way, but this song kinda explores that idea, it’s called ‘Gone’.” “It’s OK” returns as a “Daughter” tag (at a slightly higher pitch than previous versions) with the entire band playing a slightly different arrangement. Ed modifies the lyrics somewhat, “This is my plea / this is my need / this is my time for standing free / this is my stand / in this world so demanding of me”. “Immortality” starts with a few bars of finger-picking guitar, similar to some previous versions. Ed gets a big roar from the crowd during “Do The Evolution” with the lyric change “Those ignorant Indians .. they’re a great team, right?” An adventurous 10-minute “new Porch” begins with an even slower-than-usual start by Ed before it kicks in with the second verse. Ed does band intros during the jam, including “on bass, and rooting for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Mr. Jeff Ament” and “the engine with so many horsepower there’s no number, Matt Cameron on the drumkit”, “from the jungle to Cleveland, Mr. Boom Gasper on the B3”, and “sometimes you don’t pick your friends but he’s one of my best friends, Stone Gossard on guitar”. After the main set, Ed says that “it’s interesting, the place we go next is Detroit and we’re in no hurry…” which starts many chants including boos and eventually Ed picks up on an anti-Detroit chant, “I got it … I can’t repeat it because of the bootlegs and all, (Detroit will) get a hold of it. (long pause) I can say it once, ‘Pistons Suck'” to loud cheers. “Thumbing My Way” is played for the only time during the first leg of this tour. Starting the second encore, Ed wants to buy everyone a drink for being such a good crowd and beckons the arena staff to “open up the beer stands”. Ed modifies the “Comatose” lyrics “Blood on all the pistons / Fuck the Detroit Pistons! / Feel it rising (sorry!) / Yeah, next stop falling (sorry Detroit!) / Feel it rising / Comatose, with no fear of falling”. “U”, “Don’t Gimme No Lip” and “Smile” have the band “taking care of a couple of requests that (they’ve) been seeing” so far on Leg One. After “Fuckin’ Up”, Ed tells the crowd about a dream he had where the moon exploded and “crumbled and disappeared into nothing”, creating a world of chaos with the absence of the tides”. He continues that he thinks maybe the moon in his dream could be like “democracy”, and “it looks like it’s full right now, but if we don’t start paying attention … and looking at it thinking it’s beautiful, it’s just gonna disappear like this on us if we don’t participate, and you would know better here in Ohio – the deciding vote” (the vote tally in the state of Ohio decided the winner in the 2004 Presidential election).

Cleveland Image Gallery

Pearl Jam in Cleveland image gallery: link.

Indians vs. Pirates image gallery: link.

Pearl Jam in Cleveland video: link.

Enjoy. I am tired.

Air Canada Centre – Toronto, ON
Opening Band: My Morning Jacket
Attendance: 20,000

Main Set: Release, World Wide Suicide, Life Wasted, Severed Hand, Hail Hail, Unemployable, Dissident, Even Flow, Corduroy, I Am Mine, Low Light, (Toronto Improv)/Whipping, You Are, I Got Shit/(Cinnamon Girl), Betterman/(Save It For Later), Jeremy, Marker In The Sand, Black, Rearviewmirror

Encore 1: Wasted Reprise, Man Of The Hour, Elderly Woman, State Of Love And Trust, Do The Evolution, Alive

Encore 2: (Improv)/Go, Happy Birthday (to Sean Kinney), Crazy Mary, Fuckin’ Up, Indifference, Yellow Ledbetter/(Beast Of Burden)

Much of Wednesday was spent reflecting on Tuesday night’s show and walking around the city of Toronto in search of activities to collect fantastic, new anecdotes for this tale. Alas, we walked around a ton, we did nothing more than go to the Royal Ontario Museum and have dinner in the upscale 360° restaurant at the top of the CN Tower. No outlandish anecdotes featuring gunfights or drunken brawling or naked women. But, ya know, come to think of it, there may have been one or all of those after the show. I’ll get to that in a bit.

My Morning Jacket opened again, very similar-sounding set to the previous night’s, but very good all around. The lead singer is a nut, and his high, wailing vocals can induce chills. Very intense performance, and you could tell right off the bat that tonight’s crowd was going to be much better than Tuesday’s.

Master/Slave played again as the band hit the stage, and they started into what is probably my favorite opener: Release. The crowd was into it right from the get-go, matching Ed’s singing line for line, everyone screaming in unison with Ed’s soaring vocals. Tonight’s crowd had already blown Tuesday’s out of the water by the end of the song. I should probably note that my judgment of events might’ve been impaired by this point (yes, this early in the show) due to the copious amounts of wine drank at 360°. The ridiculous amount of ganja-smoking in the arena didn’t help matters any further. The band, in addition to the lasers mentioned in last night’s review, had smoke machines in the arena for certain songs, but I’m not sure they were necessary on Wednesday. The thick clouds of weed smoke more than took care of any atmosphere the band was going for with the machines.

After Release, the setlist followed much the same pattern as last night’s, with World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand and Life Wasted. They were all great, but I was hoping for the songs they hadn’t played on the new album, Army Reserve in particular. Ah well, I can’t complain too much, as they all sounded great. Unemployable was a big improvement from last night’s rendition, the band in tune and together this time. Dissident was played, and while I know it’s a popular song and crowd favorite, I’m ready for it to be retired. It just doesn’t have the same gravitas and emotion after having heard it so many times over the years, both in studio and live.

The highlight of the main set was I Got Id (or Shit, depending upon your preference), quite possibly my favorite Pearl Jam song, written along with Neil Young. After the outstanding performance of the song, Ed let us all in on “a secret,” and played the chorus to I Got Id and followed it with the chorus to Neil Young’s Cinammon Girl, pointing out their uncanny similarity. Very cool moment.

Also in the main set was the rarely-played Low Light, and the infrequency of its appearance in setlists is probably due to the fact that the band screws it up every time they play it. Not tonight; they nailed it. They also nailed the hell out of Whipping, which incited the crowd into a stark-raving frenzy, myself included. It was preceded by a short improv, featuring the lyrics “I don’t wanna go…from To-ron-toooo! Don’t wanna gooo!”

The encores were great, exceeding last night’s if that’s possible. Ed made note of two flags in the audience, one Canadian (two rows in front of me) and one Brazilian, in the course of speaking about the world and what’s going on. He told each group that they should get together and “make babies…or something” in the interests of world relations.

At some point, I’m not sure if it was at the end of Rearviewmirror or some other extended-jam song, Ed threw his mic stand up in the air at the end of the song and it hit Jeff right on his foot. He hobbled off the stage with the rest of the band, all of them laughing. It was clear at this time that Ed was absolutely wasted. He’d been swigging out of his wine bottle the entire night, and I think he broke out a second bottle about halfway through the set. It got so bad that he was laughing at something keyboardist Boom Gaspar said or did just before Yellow Ledbetter. Ed struggled to get out the lyrics over his laughter, finally getting it together to sing a Beast of Burden (Rolling Stones) tag on the end and put an emotional capper on the incredible 2-night stand in Toronto. Lots of smiles and laughs all around as the band made their curtain call and left the stage. This band gives it everything they’ve got at each show, and May 20th in Cleveland can’t get here soon enough.

Quick notes: we made our way to some dance club after the show, filled with lots of hoochies and large black dudes who may or may not have been bouncers. The obnoxious DJ persuaded a bunch of girls up onto the bar with the promise of free shots. Unfortunately, I’m not sure anyone wanted to see the girls that did go up actually up on the bar. Anyway, I got my dance and drink on as only I can. I was tempted to start breakdancing, but thought better of it after realizing I’m an out-of-shape white guy in a ghetto dance club. The night was capped off with a bag of chips and a Snapple as only Toronto can provide at 3 in the morning.

Two Feet Thick notes:

The band hits the stage at 8:50PM local time, entering the stage with “Master/Slave” playing as the intro music over the P.A. “Severed Hand” now features stage effects including smoke and lasers. The first set clocks in at 100 minutes! “Wasted Reprise” premieres at this show, seguing into “Man of the Hour”. During “I Got Shit”, a drumstick flew out of Matt’s hand, hit Ed’s leg and landed in front of Stone. He looked down and grabbed it, holding it up excitedly as though he were in the audience and caught it. After “I Got Shit”, Ed told the crowd he had a secret to tell, that this won’t be on the bootlegs and first sang the chorus of “I Got Shit” by himself, then sang “I wanna be with a Cinnamon Girl, I want to live the rest of my life with a Cinnamon Girl”, hinting the similarity in the two choruses. During “State of Love and Trust” where Ed often goes over and head-butts or leans again Mike, Ed looked at Mike and leaned down like he was going to go over, but didn’t. Ed mentioned that Sean Kinney’s birthday was coming up and told the crowd he was going to count to three, and then the crowd would say, “Happy birthday Sean!”. He said they’d send Sean a video of it so he could watch it on the tour bus (Sean Kinney’s birthday is May 27, and Alice In Chains will be on tour in Europe) . It was then that he asked Kevin to make sure he was filming. Ed spoke directly into the camera as if he were talking to Sean, saying something like, “Hey Sean, we’re just here hanging out in Toronto, and we just wanted to say something to you…”. He then counted to three, and the crowd yelled “Happy birthday Sean!”. The wine bottle was passed back quite a ways during “Crazy Mary”. At one point in the encore, Matt whipped his sticks into the crowd behind the stage (maybe a litte harder than he intended), and then briefly pretended he was a fan who got hit in the eyes and had a stick stuck in each. Towards the end of “Fuckin’ Up”, Ed tried to lay down on Stone’s monitors and fell off. He sat up and remained there, snapping his fingers along, and drank a Heineken after the wine bottle was empty. Ed laughs so much during “Yellow Ledbetter” that it interrupts his singing. He laughed because there was a banner to his left that caught his eye, it said : “Impeach Bush. Pearl Jam For President”.

Toronto Night II Image Gallery

Air Canada Centre – Toronto, ON
Opening Band: My Morning Jacket
Attendance: 20,000

Main Set: Severed Hand, World Wide Suicide, Life Wasted, Marker in the Sand, Given to Fly, Betterman, Even Flow, Unemployable, Garden, Sad, Corduroy, Present Tense, Daughter/(Blitzkrieg Bop)/(To Come*), Grievance, Not For You, Inside Job, Why Go

Encore 1: Do the Evolution, Jeremy, Come Back, Alive

Encore 2: Porch, Rockin’ In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter

*Lenny Bruce monologue…yes, that Lenny Bruce

Back in Toronto again. I’d last seen the band live in September of last year in, that’s right, Toronto. Since then, we’ve gotten a fantastic, new album and the announcement of a tour opening up with a 2-night stand in the Air Canada Centre in–you guessed it–Toronto.

Making our way onto the arena floor, we couldn’t help but notice the Maple Leaf Stanley Cup banners hung in the rafters. As the Sabres are in the middle of a Cup run, I felt it appropriate to show proper respect to our Cup-winning neighbors to the North. I’ll have some thoughts and recap of the events in the city in my second review, but let’s get right to the first night’s show. Opener My Morning Jacket, a rock band with a wailing lead singer that looks like a hillbilly, they unsuccessfully tried to get the crowd going with a short 45-minute set, but looks like they were having fun doing so. They’re alright, but I don’t think I’ll be buying their music.

About 20 minutes after MMJ left the stage, the arena lights went dark and Master/Slave (you can hear it on Ten before Once and after Release) came over the speakers, inciting the crowd into a relatively restrained frenzy. The band came out, said hello, and a pre-recorded loop started playing the beginning of Severed Hand. After about 5 loops, the band launched into a tight but relatively low-key rendition of the song, a track off the new album. Notable about the performance was the introduction of lasers–yes, freakin’ laserbeams–accompanying the regular lighting. Very cool effect.

That quickly segued into more new albums cuts: World Wide Suicide, Life Wasted, and Marker in the Sand. I’m not sure if it was all of the new songs or people were just tired, but the crowd seemed a bit restrained and lethargic up until after they finished Given to Fly and went into Betterman. I’m wondering how many Canadians even know the new album is out.

Anyway, as I said, once Betterman hit, the crowd really started getting into it, arms raised, voices shouting the lryics in unison as Ed sat back and listened, as has become customary during the song. Next up was an unusually early Even Flow, featuring Mike McCready’s customary extended guitar soloing, during which he ran a lap or two around the stage. By his standards, the solo was relatively laid-back, and the band seemed to follow suit, never really letting loose until Grievance and Not For You later in the show. That being said, it sounded as if they’d been playing together for months. There have been first shows of past tours that make it sound painfully obvious they’re out of practice (Missoula ’03 comes to mind). Not in Toronto; they sounded great (perhaps with the exception of Unemployable, which needs some work).

Quite possibly the highlight of night one, the band played a McCready-penned track off the new album, Inside Job. Marking the first-ever live performance of the song, the band made it special and played with quiet intensity, no one moreso than Mike, who shredded on a double-necked guitar. The best place to be at any Pearl Jam concert is right in front of Mike, who develops a relationship with the crowd over the course of the night, always in the moment and owning it.

Other notables of the night included a reworked version of Garden and the old-school Why Go, neither having been played on tour for far too long. Come Back, off the new album, was played for the first time and made me rethink most of the crowd not having heard the new album, as everyone went nuts when they heard the first notes and worked themselves into delirious frenzy as Ed crescendoed to the closing “woo-oo-oo-oo’s” at the end of the song. Really special.

The highlight of this show, looking back, were the encores (of which Come Back was included). Hitting a high point with Porch in the 2nd encore, the band led up to it with blistering versions of Do The Evolution, Jeremy and Alive (with the now-traditional “HEY!” chant at its end). Porch is a song that got kind of lost in the shuffle the last few tours, but the band seems determined to bring it back to the forefront this tour, even giving us a glimpse of Pearl Jam’s early touring past–the days when Ed climbed scaffolding and lept into crowds from 15 feet above the mosh pits. They’re all a bit older and wiser now, but that didn’t stop Ed from climbing a speaker and whipping his mic through the air, just like the old days.

They closed, as expected, with Yellow Ledbetter and a promise to see each other tomorrow night for what promised to be another outstanding show.

Two Feet Thick notes:

This is the first night of the first leg of the tour in support of Pearl Jam. The band hits the stage at 8:50PM local time, entering the stage with “Master/Slave” playing as the intro music over the P.A. The “Daughter” tag is parts of “To Come”, a monologue by Lenny Bruce. In the middle of “Not For You” just before the “All that’s sacred…” line, Ed sings “Check up on it” twice from Beyonce’s “Check On It”(!). “Inside Job” premieres at this show, with Mike playing a double neck guitar. My Morning Jacket joined in smashing tambourines during “Rockin’ in the Free World” and two of the band members did backing vocals with Jeff and Stone. At the end of the show, all of the band members were throwing guitar/bass picks and Matt his drumsticks as usual. Stone, though, started throwing out a lot of merchandise (hats, t-shirts, etc.) into the crowd. He didnt scrunch them up, so they didn’t travel that far into the crowd. One time he tried to toss it over his head backwards and it ended up only a couple of feet behind him, amusing those up front.

Toronto Night I Image Gallery

Now that the album is actually out legally, I’ve chosen to revise my review of Pearl Jam’s new album. Well, maybe not so much “revise” as “write more rambling crap in an effort to add more content to the site.” Updated ramblings appear in red italics. Enjoy this and, more importantly, the album.

vocals, guitar: Ed Vedder
guitars: Stone Gossard, Mike McCready
bass: Jeff Ament
drums: Matt Cameron
keyboards: Boom Gaspar

1. Life Wasted (3:54)
Fast, rockin’ opener. The chorus gets a little repetetive and “easy,” but I think this is the band’s way of working the listener into what’s to come. I love the wailing, rapid-fire guitar at the end.

This song went from a 9 (the leak version) to an F+ (don’t question my grading scale!). The last 15-20 seconds of the leak version built to a wailing, writhing beast of guitar and drums, closing the song out with a rapid-fire assault on the senses. So what did the album’s producer do? He FADES THE FREAKING SONG OUT JUST AS THIS SECTION STARTS! Unconscionable. It’s a huge letdown from the original version and reason enough to illegally download music. You don’t know what you’re missing sometimes. Yeah, this is probably a gross overreaction on my part, but you already know I have an unhealthy obsession with the band.

2. World Wide Suicide (3:29)
Obvious lyrics about war and its effects upon the world; all of us heading toward a “worldwide suicide.” This is the first single off the record, and deservedly so. It’s a hard rocker and sounds like it’d be right at home on Vitalogy. I think songs like WWS are what the band was trying to achieve on Riot Act but didn’t quite succeed.

I’m firm in my belief that WWS will bring the band more mainstream success in terms of album sales and overall attention this time around. It’s a radio-ready rocker meant for widespread consumption; which is all the more appropriate considering its’ subject matter. WWS is better than 98% of the garbage on the radio and MTV today, so maybe all these teenage idiots will get some exposure to real music if we’re lucky.

3. Comatose (2:19)
Very raw, very punk. Ed’s weakened voice is the most apparent here, but also the most appropriate. It sounds ragged, raw, and rasping–like he’s on the edge of losing his voice. It’s perfect for Comatose.

Much, much cleaner than the leak version, which isn’t necessarily a good thing. This is a down and dirty, guitar-driven rager, and I think the muddied up sound on the leak puts it in a better musical context than a cleaned-up, shiny studio production does.

I have no idea what “musical context” means, but it sounded good.

4. Severed Hand (4:30)
This is probably my favorite track on the album so far. Great Stone riff driving this song about what I perceive to be a soldier going off to war for the first time and getting in a bit over his head. The first time I heard this, Mike McCready’s solo about 2/3 of the way through the song had me flipping out while driving down the road. I’m sure I looked like a nutjob. This has to be a lock for the 2nd single.

This is still the standout track for me, made even better by the cleaned-up album version. A colleague of mine had the following reaction to the above-mentioned McCready solo:

And then his face melted! I can’t friggin’ wait to hear this live.

5. Marker In The Sand (4:23)
Blues-tinged rocker that works itself into some lulls throughout. Starts off with a nice, groovy intro, but there are some sections I’m not enamored with, starting right after the intro. The last minute or so doesn’t stand out until Boom’s organ kicks in. I could see this as being much better live, possibly with a different arrangement, but the chorus is great.

I’ve come around on Marker and I think it’s now one of the better tracks on the record. The chorus has become my least favorite part of the song; that opening groove is great and serves as a great change-of-pace after the opening four-song salvo.

6. Parachutes (3:36)
The Beatles comparisons will be fast and frequent upon hearing this, and appropriately so. The most apt tag I could put on this would be a “lullaby.” You could easily put your kids to sleep with it while you sit downstairs in your den smoking a cigar and enjoying a brandy. Alright, that made no sense, but I’m trying to say this is a very low-key song.

Still a nice, little lullaby but a much more drastic change in pacing than Marker. I like the song a lot but I’ve got be in the right mood/location to get into it. Speeding down the road in shades with the top down doesn’t work as well with a lullaby blasting out of the speakers. Parachutes probably won’t get a lot of play out of my car’s CD player this summer.

7. Unemployable (3:04)
The first time I heard Unemployable, I went from “what the F is this?” to “hmm…” to “YEAH!” in the space of about 30 seconds. It’s about a guy who just got laid off from his job and the emotional and physical toll that can take on a man. If you want to view it in a broader sense, this is the story of one of the faceless statistics that have been affected by Bush’s economic policies. I’m not saying I agree with the political leanings of this, but it works very well in that context. The music itself seems reminiscent of an almost Fleetwood Mac/Rolling Stones/Police track from the early ’80’s.

Not much more to add.

8. Big Wave (2:58)
An obvious cousin to Gremmie Out of Control (found on Lost Dogs), this is another riff-happy surf song, though it’s got some evolutionary influences. It’s a good, upbeat change of pace for the album with some nice solos from McCready. There’s not a whole lot more to say about it than that.
GotmeabigwaveridemeabigwavegotmeabigWAAAAVE!

Nice riffs here, but I don’t think Big Wave holds up well to rest of the songs on the album. This has B-side written all over it. It should be a pretty good rocker during concerts, though.

9. Gone (4:08)
The demo version from the X-mas single, with just Ed and his guitar, was a stark, almost-haunting rendition that packed a real emotional punch. That same simplicity is evident in the full band version, but it’s much fuller-sounding and seems like the kind of song you’d hear over the closing credits of a movie. I don’t think it packs the same, stark chord the demo did, but that isn’t to say that the full band version is any less great. Beautiful.

I like the X-mas demo more and more each time I hear this album version. It’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but the song seems a bit more “meandering” here. The simplicity of just Ed and his guitar works a lot better for the song.

10. Wasted Reprise (0:59)
Just Boom and Ed on this one, a reprise of the album opener. Very strange-sounding in a Pearl Jam context. It feels like I’m in church and Vedder suddenly made his way in front of the altar and started singing. This’ll take some getting used to.

It provides a nice breather before the last chapter of the album, but it’s not my favorite “experimental/short/ditty” entry into Pearl Jam’s album history (I refer to songs like Aye Davanita, Pry, to, Soon Forget, Arc, [The Color Red], etc.).

11. Army Reserve (3:45)
The beginning sounds almost (I stress almost) like Coldplay. That gives way to a low-key rocker with a bluesy feel at times. Great bassline by Jeff Ament. High, wailing guitar from McCready. This is one of the standout tracks. Ed sounds almost strangled at times, but again, it’s all very approriate to the song and subject matter (about the impact a man’s going off to war has on his family).

#2 on my favorites list. I keep trying to come up with adjectives to adequately describe my reasons for that, but my always-impressive vocabulary is failing me. I’ll try this: soulful, anguished rock. Or are those adverbs?

12. Come Back (5:29)
Very retro-sounding. I read someone make an Elvis comparison while listening to this, and I couldn’t agree more. Lots of organ and real basic guitar and drum work here. It really soars at the end, with some wailing guitars and Vedder raising his voice an octave. Very cool.

Lots of The King here. I’m gonna blatantly plagiarize someone else’s thoughts on the song that I read and say that the last section of the song (the wailing guitars and soaring vocals) “validates” everything that comes before it, which is basically a roundabout way of saying that the song doesn’t necessarily do it for me until that last part. But when those “oo-oo-oo-ooohs” come, it feels like it’s all built up to this and Come Back works better as a whole because of that build-up. This could end up being a new contender for show-closer on the tour this year.

13. Inside Job (7:08)
Two minutes of subdued instrumental before a soft-spoken Vedder comes in. Sounds a little–dare I say it?–Pink Floyd-ish. Lots of sustain on the guitar; nice piano accents throughout. As the song picks up, I hesitate to say this, but it sounds very “country” at specific points. I hate country, but I don’t mean that as a dig on it; it all feels very appropriate. There’s a nice, little outro that may be part of this song or just another hidden track.

Inside Job serves as the perfect response to the cynicism and negative outlook on life that the album seems to exhibit (when you start with a title like “Life Wasted,” that seems readily apparent). Despite all the horror and despair inherent in our world (whether seen through the context of war or losing your job or losing a father or losing your faith), there is still reason to go on–to be one of those individuals who doesn’t accept that the world’s gone to shit and there’s nothing to be done. You can’t necessarily look to others to accomplish this for you, you’ve gotta look within yourself and renew your faith in the world in your own way–it’s an “inside job.” Eh? Eeeeeh? Get it?

As a whole, I think the album is great, but I think Ed’s voice is noticeably weaker than in years past. That being said, I liken his performance here to an aging pitcher. He may not be able to bring the “high heat,” but he can get it done just as well with a different approach–a nasty curve, if you will. This album is also different from anything the band has done before, but at the same time, it feels like a natural evolution of everything that’s come before. I’m no music expert, but I can see why this album took so long to make. They’ve really worked on making each song consist of sound guitar work and vocals. It’s almost indescribable at times, trying to put my reaction to this into words. I need more time and a few live performances of these before I can come to a conclusion as to where this ranks among the seven other albums.

I’ll be interested to see how the mainstream music populace will react to this. World Wide Suicide is already a radio and commercial hit, so that should at least get some people turning their attention to this. It’s definitely more radio-friendly than 2002’s Riot Act, and normally I’d mean that as an insult based on what’s on MTV these days, but I think this is radio-friendly because it’s just so damn good. The band has aged well. May 9th in Toronto can’t get here soon enough.

Reviews of the new album have been pouring in (here’s a good one from Jeff Miers of The Buffalo News), and I’d say they’re about 85% positive at this point, confirming my feeling that this is going to be a big hit for the band. They’ve done more media for this than they have for the last four albums combined, and I think that’s going to result in a chart-topper (Tool’s new album notwithstanding). Regardless of all that, they hit the road next Tuesday in Toronto and I’ll have a full report on the festivities. Like I said, it can’t get here soon enough.

I arrived home this evening to find a nice surprise in my mailbox.

And not just that:

So I giddily open the CD and I’m thumbing through the booklet, noting the traditional typewritten lyric pages and the somewhat strange pictures, the album credits, and some oth–

GOOD GOD WTF IS THAT?!

Also, the album smells like an avocado. Seriously. I’m not joking. The album smells like an avocado.

Well, it’s finally leaked. Pearl Jam’s new album, that is. The leaked tracks are all less than CD quality, so this is simply a provisional review until I get the actual album in my hands and have had a chance to endlessly dissect it a thousand times over, but here are my intial track-by-track thoughts:

vocals, guitar: Ed Vedder
guitars: Stone Gossard, Mike McCready
bass: Jeff Ament
drums: Matt Cameron
keyboards: Boom Gaspar

1. Life Wasted (4:12)
Fast, rockin’ opener. The chorus gets a little repetetive and “easy,” but I think this is the band’s way of working the listener into what’s to come. I love the wailing, rapid-fire guitar at the end.

2. World Wide Suicide (3:29)
Obvious lyrics about war and its effects upon the world; all of us heading toward a “worldwide suicide.” This is the first single off the record, and deservedly so. It’s a hard rocker and sounds like it’d be right at home on Vitalogy. I think songs like WWS are what the band was trying to achieve on Riot Act but didn’t quite succeed.

3. Comatose (2:35)
Very raw, very punk. Ed’s weakened voice is the most apparent here, but also the most appropriate. It sounds ragged, raw, and rasping–like he’s on the edge of losing his voice. It’s perfect for Comatose.

4. Severed Hand (4:28)
This is probably my favorite track on the album so far. Great Stone riff driving this song about what I perceive to be a soldier going off to war for the first time and getting in a bit over his head. The first time I heard this, Mike McCready’s solo about 2/3 of the way through the song had me flipping out while driving down the road. I’m sure I looked like a nutjob. This has to be a lock for the 2nd single.

5. Marker In The Sand (4:28)
Blues-tinged rocker that works itself into some lulls throughout. Starts off with a nice, groovy intro, but there are some sections I’m not enamored of, starting right after the intro. The last minute or so doesn’t stand out until Boom’s organ kicks in. I could see this as being much better live, possibly with a different arrangement, but the chorus is great.

6. Parachutes (3:42)
The Beatles comparisons will be fast and frequent upon hearing this, and appropriately so. The most apt tag I could put on this would be a “lullaby.” You could easily put your kids to sleep with it while you sit downstairs in your den smoking a cigar and enjoying a brandy. Alright, that made no sense, but I’m trying to say this is a very low-key song.

7. Unemployable (3:06)
The first time I heard Unemployable, I went from “what the F is this?” to “hmm…” to “YEAH!” in the space of about 30 seconds. It’s about a guy who just got laid off from his job and the emotional and physical toll that can take on a man. If you want to view it in a broader sense, this is the story of one of the faceless statistics that have been affected by Bush’s economic policies. I’m not saying I agree with the political leanings of this, but it works very well in that context. The music itself seems reminiscent of an almost Fleetwood Mac/Rolling Stones/Police track from the early ’80’s.

8. Big Wave (3:02)
An obvious cousin to Gremmie Out of Control (found on Lost Dogs), this is another riff-happy surf song, though it’s got some evolutionary influences. It’s a good, upbeat change of pace for the album with some nice solos from McCready. There’s not a whole lot more to say about it than that.
GotmeabigwaveridemeabigwavegotmeabigWAAAAVE!

9. Gone (4:14)
The demo version from the X-mas single, with just Ed and his guitar, was a stark, almost-haunting rendition that packed a real emotional punch. That same simplicity is evident in the full band version, but it’s much fuller-sounding and seems like the kind of song you’d hear over the closing credits of a movie. I don’t think it packs the same, stark chord the demo did, but that isn’t to say that the full band version is any less great. Beautiful.

10. Wasted Reprise (0:59)
Just Boom and Ed on this one, a reprise of the album opener. Very strange-sounding in a Pearl Jam context. It feels like I’m in church and Vedder suddenly made his way in front of the altar and started singing. This’ll take some getting used to.

11. Army Reserve (3:49)
The beginning sounds almost (I stress almost) like Coldplay. That gives way to a low-key rocker with a bluesy feel at times. Great bassline by Jeff Ament. High, wailing guitar from McCready. This is one of the standout tracks. Ed sounds almost strangled at times, but again, it’s all very approriate to the song and subject matter (about the impact a man’s going off to war has on his family).

12. Come Back (5:31)
Very retro-sounding. I read someone make an Elvis comparison while listening to this, and I couldn’t agree more. Lots of organ and real basic guitar and drum work here. It really soars at the end, with some wailing guitars and Vedder raising his voice an octave. Very cool.

13. Inside Job (7:10)
Two minutes of subdued instrumental before a soft-spoken Vedder comes in. Sounds a little–dare I say it?–Pink Floyd-ish. Lots of sustain on the guitar; nice piano accents throughout. As the song picks up, I hesitate to say this, but it sounds very “country” at specific points. I hate country, but I don’t mean that as a dig on it; it all feels very appropriate. There’s a nice, little outro that may be part of this song or just another hidden track.

As a whole, I think the album is great, but I think Ed’s voice is noticeably weaker than in years past. That being said, I liken his performance here to an aging pitcher. He may not be able to bring the “high heat,” but he can get it done just as well with a different approach–a nasty curve, if you will. This album is also different from anything the band has done before, but at the same time, it feels like a natural evolution of everything that’s come before. I’m no music expert, but I can see why this album took so long to make. They’ve really worked on making each song consist of sound guitar work and vocals. It’s almost indescribable at times, trying to put my reaction to this into words. I need more time and a few live performances of these before I can come to a conclusion as to where this ranks among the seven other albums.

I’ll be interested to see how the mainstream music populace will react to this. World Wide Suicide is already a radio and commercial hit, so that should at least get some people turning their attention to this. It’s definitely more radio-friendly than 2002’s Riot Act, and normally I’d mean that as an insult based on what’s on MTV these days, but I think this is radio-friendly because it’s just so damn good. The band has aged well. May 9th in Toronto can’t get here soon enough.