Brian F.

That's a rare one. Even I've *only* seen them play it eight times. 

 

I hope you get to see it at your next Pearl Jam show. They're due to play it-- it did not appear at any of the shows on the first leg of the tour.

 

 

The best shows of this run were L.A. 1, L.A. 2 and Vegas 1. Then probably Vancouver 2. I really loved hearing the new songs for the first time at Vancouver 1, but the mini-set of "oldies" that opened the show was a little bit of a letdown. The mini-set on Night 2 was much better, including "Immortality" and "In Hiding" back-to-back leading into the new stuff.

 

The overall highlight of this run were the Dark Matter songs. As far as older songs go, off the top of my head, in addition to the ones mentioned above, "Alone" at Vancouver 2 was great, as was "Breath" at Vegas 1. "Come Back" at L.A. 1 was particularly emotional for very personal reasons, as was "Present Tense" at L.A. 2. The last three songs at L.A. 1 were incredibly exciting, not necessarily because of the songs themselves-- it was "Alive," "Baba O'Riley" and "Setting Sun," and I've seen the first two of those too many times at this point-- but because I was able to move up to the rail at dead center for them. It was already pretty immersive and overwhelming being one or two people off the rail for the show up to that point, but I just about lost my mind for those last three songs. It was major sensory overload. One of my friends was really hoping for a Who cover, and I turned all the way around during "Baba" as we screamed the big "YEAH!" after the first chorus and that was really fun. Another old warhorse that was newly invigorating was "Rockin" in the Free World" with Deep Sea Diver, Chad Smith and Andrew Watt at L.A. 2. It was bedlam. Seattle 1 was probably the only show that felt ordinary, and that had something to do with being in seats for the first time after five straight nights at or near the front of GA. Seattle 2 had a pedestrian set list by Pearl Jam's standards, probably because it was going out over satellite radio, but it was really, really good.

 

As far as favorite shows ever, that's harder. I tend to forget specifics pretty quickly-- ask me about these shows next year and they will probably blur-- but Jones Beach 2000 is up there. It's also hard to understate the impact my first show, in Boston in April 1994 three days after Kurt Cobain was found dead, had on me. There was the three nights in Mansfield, Mass., where they did the whole repertoire. There were the four nights in L.A. at the Gibson in 2009. There have been really phenomenal shows in San Diego and twice in Phoenix, of all places. I've seen them eight times at Madison Square Garden and other fans tend to wax rhapsodic about any show there but I'd probably take the ones I've mentioned over any of them. I'm probably forgetting other great ones. Randalls Island 1 in 1996 was epic. Camden 2 in 2000 was special for personal reasons. I could go on, as if you couldn't tell...

 

That's cool that you saw them in Krakow. What were you doing in Poland? The show in Katowice, Poland, in 2000 is legendary. I have the bootleg. (I actually have all 72 of the bootlegs from that tour. That was unnecessary.) You mentioned that you were in Vegas. Maybe you saw me get that tambourine!

The best shows of this run were L.A. 1, L.A. 2 and Vegas 1. Then probably Vancouver 2. I really loved hearing the new songs for the first time at Vancouver 1, but the mini-set of "oldies" that opened the show was a little bit of a letdown. The mini-set on Night 2 was much better, including "Immortality" and "In Hiding" back-to-back leading into the new stuff.

 

The overall highlight of this run were the Dark Matter songs. As far as older songs go, off the top of my head, in addition to the ones mentioned above, "Alone" at Vancouver 2 was great, as was "Breath" at Vegas 1. "Come Back" at L.A. 1 was particularly emotional for very personal reasons, as was "Present Tense" at L.A. 2. The last three songs at L.A. 1 were incredibly exciting, not necessarily because of the songs themselves-- it was "Alive," "Baba O'Riley" and "Setting Sun," and I've seen the first two of those too many times at this point-- but because I was able to move up to the rail at dead center for them. It was already pretty immersive and overwhelming being one or two people off the rail for the show up to that point, but I just about lost my mind for those last three songs. It was major sensory overload. One of my friends was really hoping for a Who cover, and I turned all the way around during "Baba" as we screamed the big "YEAH!" after the first chorus and that was really fun. Another old warhorse that was newly invigorating was "Rockin" in the Free World" with Deep Sea Diver, Chad Smith and Andrew Watt at L.A. 2. It was bedlam. Seattle 1 was probably the only show that felt ordinary, and that had something to do with being in seats for the first time after five straight nights at or near the front of GA. Seattle 2 had a pedestrian set list by Pearl Jam's standards, probably because it was going out over satellite radio, but it was really, really good.

 

As far as favorite shows ever, that's harder. I tend to forget specifics pretty quickly-- ask me about these shows next year and they will probably blur-- but Jones Beach 2000 is up there. It's also hard to understate the impact my first show, in Boston in April 1994 three days after Kurt Cobain was found dead, had on me. There was the three nights in Mansfield, Mass., where they did the whole repertoire. There were the four nights in L.A. at the Gibson in 2009. There have been really phenomenal shows in San Diego and twice in Phoenix, of all places. I've seen them eight times at Madison Square Garden and other fans tend to wax rhapsodic about any show there but I'd probably take the ones I've mentioned over any of them. I'm probably forgetting other great ones. Randalls Island 1 in 1996 was epic. Camden 2 in 2000 was special for personal reasons. I could go on, as if you couldn't tell...

 

That's cool that you saw them in Krakow. What were you doing in Poland? The show in Katowice, Poland, in 2000 is legendary. I have the bootleg. (I actually have all 72 of the bootlegs from that tour. That was unnecessary.) You mentioned that you were in Vegas. Maybe you saw me get that tambourine!

7 hours ago, remphish1 said:

Wow impressive!! Hard tickets to get you get them from the 10 club? Struggled to get one pair! Can’t wait to see them. My minor complaint with their live shows is they don’t really play much off of VS but still can’t wait to see them in Sept in Philly! 

 

Yes, I was like the ultimate winner of the Ten Club lottery. I put in for ten shows and got all ten. I got GA for five of them, and was one, two and six rows behind GA for three other shows. For the last two shows, I had seats in the first section next to the stage. I have a pretty good membership number, which doesn't affect whether you win the lottery, but it does give you better seats once you do win (for the seated sections; seniority has no bearing on GA).

 

If they were going to emphasize an older album, I'd certainly rather it be Vs. than Ten, but I'm generally most excited to hear the new stuff when they tour. 

I didn't know there was a thread here for the only band I've seen more than Wilco!

 

As referenced on Live Tonight thread, I just saw ten shows in May in six cities and they were great. The new album is fantastic live, and they continue to cast a wide and deep net over the catalog. Depending on how you count, they played about 98 unique songs across the shows. There were old and new highlights every night. (And Deep Sea Diver, who opened, were a revelation. I can't recommend them highly enough. I saw their set ten times and it never got old despite mostly remaining the same from night to night.)

 

Ed gave me a tambourine on Night 2 in Las Vegas. On Night 1 in L.A., I finally made it to the rail for the first time in 77 shows when the guy on the rail left with three songs left in the show to go get in line for GA for the next night (which is ridiculous). I had GA for five straight shows and it was amazing to be so immersed, anywhere from zero to fifteen feet back from the rail dead center. Just an incredible month of excitement.

 

I had the incredible good fortune of putting in for ten shows in the fan-club lottery and going ten-for-ten. And I have good seniority so the shows for which I got seats were great seats-- one, two and ten rows behind GA for three of the shows, and sidestage for the other two.

 

I also did some Pearl Jam tourism while in Seattle, including a visit to the former Off Ramp Cafe, site of their first show, played the first week when Eddie came to Seattle to write and record with the rest of the band. I visited some other esoteric sites. (I saw them in Seattle in 2009 but didn't think to do any of that.) Less esoteric and not Pearl Jam-related, I visited Kurt Cobain's house and the memorial to him in the park that abuts the property. At least a dozen people came by while I was there, many of whom were in town for the Pearl Jam shows.

 

For the record, the Pearl Jam show count is 80, from April 1994 to May 2024. The Wilco show count is 52, from June 1995 to October 2023. If you add in Jeff Tweedy appearances solo, with Jay Bennett, with Golden Smog and with the Tweedy band, the Tweedy count hits 81. But then if you add a couple of Eddie Vedder solo shows and one Eddie-and-Mike-McCready mini-set at the Tibetan Freedom Concert, Vedder gets to 83, I think. Whether I've seen Vedder or Tweedy more often is like whether Jupiter or Saturn have more confirmed moons-- it depends on when you ask. Tweedy will surge ahead after Solid Sound, but then Vedder will take the lead again after Ohana.

I thought I remembered them being mailed out last time, but I guess I'm wrong about that. So they email you a digital ticket which you exchange for a wristband at the gate? I wonder why they ask for a shipping address.

 

I have had an issue where I get an error message when I try to order through Front Gate, so I have needed to have a friend (coldasgasoline) order the tickets for me for this as well as for Ohana Fest. The tickets are in his name, but they have my email address. So can I expect to get a digital ticket emailed to me such that I won't need to coordinate with coldasgasoline to enter on Friday?

 

And now let me restate my original question: has anyone received an email with their digital ticket yet?

Has anyone received their SSF wristbands yet?

Here are some retroactive posts:

 

May 4, Pearl Jam in Vancouver

May 6, Pearl Jam in Vancouver

May 10, Pearl Jam in Portland

May 13, Pearl Jam in Sacramento

May 16, Pearl Jam in Las Vegas

May 18, Pearl Jam in Las Vegas

May 21, Pearl Jam in Los Angeles

May 22, Pearl Jam in Los Angeles

May 28, Pearl Jam in Seattle

May 30, Pearl Jam in Seattle

 

And also Deep Sea Diver each of those nights. Chuckrh has already covered it. PJ was great-- nearly 100 different songs were played across the ten shows, all of Dark Matter appeared in the first three shows, the new album represented about a third of the songs played across the ten shows. And DSD was a revelation. They did more or less the same set, with some minor tweaks, all ten nights but I enjoyed it every time. I just got their most recent CD yesterday, and I'm looking forward to the next one from which they played three new songs at the shows.

 

Now I'm in the process of getting caught up on life, and I'll probably do that just in time to head east for a week including Solid Sound and get way behind again. (I went back and forth from L.A. to the cities above, so I was not on the road all month, but it was not enough to keep me from getting behind on life.)

Nice. Thanks for sharing. John is the best, and I'm not just saying that because he agrees with me that "Sunlight Ends" is a high point of the Wilco catalog. (O.K., he didn't exactly say that, but he did single it out for praise among the tracks on Cousin.)

One of the perks of the "Friend of the Festival" pass for Solid Sound was, if I recall correctly, a 10-inch with unreleased Wilco tracks. I'm assuming this is that.

In what has to be a high-water mark for any person who has ever been a member of Wilco, Glenn Kotche will reach No. 12 on the Hot 100 for the week ending May 4, 2024, with his song "loml" (featuring Taylor Swift). Glenn will also chart ten other songs on the Hot 100, including "Clara Bow" at No. 21.

From someone who was there, thanks for all of the reviews this week. I am still scrambling to catch up from having been out of town the week before the shows, and then from the long days in line at the shows, and then Holy Week for Pearl Jam fans, so I have not had a chance to add some thoughts about these shows. Hopefully, I will get around to that some time this week. In the meantime, I just want to say that Jeff was totally going to play "Sunlight Ends" when I requested it-- he actually said something like, "O.K., I'll try that one," and started to tune it up-- until he was spun around by the request for "Quarters," which he remarked was the first time anyone had ever requested that song. I tried to bring him back to "Sunlight Ends" but the moment was gone. I almost said, "I thought we agreed on this!"

 

Anyway, thanks again, and more later...

Thanks. For what it's worth, I thought I heard the new lyric as, "Is your heart higher than your mind?"

 

Since I was standing in line outside Largo all day yesterday and not privy to any news, I actually first learned of the death of O.J. Simpson from the crowd interaction described here. Speaking of death and Wilco, I came across an item the other day that I've been meaning to post on the board so I'll mention it here. From the July 1996 Music Issue of Details, in an article about the death of the great Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon, who died on the band's tour bus: "The body stayed on the bus for a couple of hours, until the coroner took it away. (According to the driver, the bus just carried on. It wasn't fumigated, or refurnished, or taken out of commission. It simply transferred to the next band who needed it-- Wilco.)" I wonder if Jeff knows about this.

Like I said, "mostly" moved on. Having witnessed the ironclad "Mother"/"Country" early-set bloc about ten times in October, I'm keenly aware that this is primarily how they are choosing to represent that outstanding, sprawling double-album (with the occasional tailless bird and "Falling Apart" sprinkled in).

 

I'm just glad I got to see "The Empty Condor" at Solid Sound because that one may never appear again. (And, really, how could I die in peace without witnessing that syllable-stretching opus?) Of the four one-play wonders from Cruel Country, I feel like "Tonight's the Day" has a shot at a revival at some point and "Darkness Is Cheap" seems like it might pop up at Jeff's solo gigs at some point as "Sad Kind of Way" has a couple of times. I know at least one fellow member of the VC community who missed Solid Sound that year who is dying to hear that one. (That's two death references in this post; I keep forgetting that nobody dies anymore.)

On 3/1/2024 at 9:40 PM, TCP said:

The timing makes sense for a fall release. Hopefully this means we finally get the Wilco Book on vinyl.

 

I really find it works best on paper.

I know my opinion is an outlier among a fan base that is content to hear Yankee Hotel Foxtrot ad infinitum, but I would be disappointed in these sets if I were at these shows. Cousin isn't even six months old, and they're down to two songs from it at the March 7 and March 8 shows. Wilco seems to be moving on from it almost as fast as they mostly moved on from Cruel Country.

Thanks. The good thing about this is that the shows are spread out, and two of them are in my city, so it's much less of an undertaking than it would be if I were going from city to city. I don't really like to be away from home and this allows me to keep coming home. I'll be in Vancouver for three days at the beginning, in Vegas for three days in the middle and in Seattle for three days at the end, but the other shows will each be less than 24-hour commitments.

 

I've been to Seattle a couple of times and really enjoyed it. I actually saw Pearl Jam there in 2009 when Backspacer came out. After these shows, I will have seen them 80 times, and the only reason that makes sense is that they mix things up so much from night to night. I commented here last fall when Wilco was playing in and around L.A. that they played something like 43 different songs across ten shows, but Pearl Jam the month before did at least 100 different songs across eight shows. (I was not at those particular Pearl Jam shows.)

 

I hope I will hear all of Dark Matter multiple times at these shows, just as I got to hear all of Cousin (except "Ten Dead") at the October Wilco shows.

12 hours ago, chuckrh said:

I like QOTSA plenty. I just got spoiled seeing them in small places in the old days. With exceptions, I kind of stay away from the arena/stadium shows. That being said, I got tickets in May for the Stones & Pearl Jam. Boom! There goes the concert budget for the summer basically. I did get $20 tickets for Particle Kid in April before Micah Nelson hits the road with Crazy Horse. Tiny club, more my speed. I've seen Particle Kid open for Flaming Lips & they were great. Some real fine records, too.

 

Talk about blowing the concert budget: I put in for ten Pearl Jam shows in the fan-club lottery, and I won all ten of them. Ten shows, six cities, two countries, 27 days-- that's how I'll be spending the month of May.

38 minutes ago, lost highway said:

Pearl Jam is getting ready to release 2024's Dark Matter LP. Official date TBA.

 

As evidenced by the fact that I've been refreshing the Ten Club message board every ten minutes for the last six weeks...

I had no idea it was coming until Sunday night, but Taylor Swift is definitely on my list (and at least a few other million people's lists).

On 2/4/2024 at 7:58 AM, Chez said:

Watched Maestro last night.  Incredible performance by Bradley Cooper.

 

Pretty fantastic performance by Carey Mulligan, too.

10 minutes ago, Oil Can Boyd said:

Secret of the Sea in my local Trader Joe's yesterday 

 

Such a gem. I wish this were the Mermaid tune that was the staple of the live set rather than "California Stars."

I guess this is technically violative of the topic, but Monday night I sent out my annual ten best list prior to the Oscar nominations announcement the next morning. Here it is, if anyone is interested:

 

Oscar nominations will be announced tomorrow morning, which means it’s time me to share the list of my ten favorite films of 2023. Of course, only films released in theaters during the 2023 calendar year were eligible for inclusion on this list (and all were actually seen in theaters during 2023). For whatever reason, there is going to be more overlap between my list and the Oscar nominees for Best Picture than in any previous year. There is a very good chance that seven of my top ten will earn Best Picture nominations. [EDITOR'S NOTE: In fact, seven did earn Best Picture nominations, and my top Honorable Mention was an eighth Best Picture nominee.] Last year, only two of my top ten received Best Picture nominations. For 2021, four of my top ten ended up as Best Picture nominees.

 

There was an especially high number of single-word-titled eponymous biopics in 2023, including Rustin, Priscilla, Nyad, Golda, Ferrari and Barbie, but only two such films made my top ten: the one about Leonard Bernstein and the one about J. Robert Oppenheimer. (The title of the latter film escapes me.)

 

*******************************************

 

1. Past Lives

 

2. Oppenheimer

 

3. American Fiction

 

4. The Holdovers

 

5. Anatomy of a Fall

 

6. Poor Things

 

7. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret

 

8. Maestro

 

9. All of Us Strangers

 

10. May December

 

Honorable Mentions: The Zone of Interest; The Color Purple.

 

Very Special Honorable Mention Because I Don’t Know How to Compare This to Anything Else: Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour (seen on a Thursday afternoon in a 500-seat theater in which I was the only patron; had I died and gone to heaven?)

 

Dishonorable Mention: Saltburn.

 

Best Director: Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer; also considered: Celine Song, Past Lives; Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things; Alexander Payne, The Holdovers.

 

Best Actress: Greta Lee, Past Lives; also considered: Carey Mulligan, Maestro; Emma Stone, Poor Things; Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall.

 

Best Actor: Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers; also considered: Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction; Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer; Andrew Scott, All of Us Strangers.

 

Best Supporting Actress: Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple; also considered: Rachel McAdams, Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret; Erika Alexander, American Fiction’ Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers.

 

Best Supporting Actor: Charles Melton, May December; also considered: Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things; John Magaro, Past Lives; Ryan Gosling, Barbie.

 

Taylor Swift

Whitney Houston

Shirley Manson

Nina Persson

Bjork

Sade (the singer, although I also love the band; many people don't realize that Sade is a band named for its singer, not a solo act)

Annie Lennox

Annie Clark (St. Vincent)

 

I also love every single I've heard by Dua Lipa but don't own anything by her.

On 12/20/2023 at 9:24 PM, lost highway said:

Don't sleep on Horsegirl either folks. That was one of the more exciting 2022 discoveries for me. Like that hip Alvvays band if they were scrappier, kind of the punk tinged side of Sonic Youth mingling with the shoegaze elements.

 

 

Seconded. They really impressed me opening the Port Chester shows.