11/6/00: Seattle, Washington - Pearl Jam (CD 2001)

After it was announced that Pearl Jam would release their entire 2000 tour on double disc sets to the world, I quickly made a vow not to even try to review them all. For one, while the order of songs changes nightly, most times there are a good 15-20 songs that are played every night, just in different spots. For two, I have no interest in trying to detail a 72 date tour in a series of reviews.

Up until now, the only other "official bootleg" I have written about was the one documenting the band's 10 year anniversary show in Las Vegas. I haven't even listened to Pearl Jam in the last 4-5 months; I've been catching up on everything I've missed when I was in my last Pearl Jam phase: that is, all Pearl Jam all the time.

11/6/00: Seattle, Washington is the last show of the band's tour. Within hours of it ending, it was being called the band's best performance ever. It had been an extremely tough year for the band. The Roskilde Festival. That just about sums it up. For those who somehow don't know what happened, nine fans were trampled to death during the band's set at said festival. In addition, singer Eddie Vedder was going through a painful divorce from his wife. Fans wondered if they would break up, if the American tour would be canceled. They played on, they healed from the cheers of exuberant fans who just wanted to see their favorite band again. Those not lucky enough to be in Seattle had to wait 4 months for this three CD set to be released in order to experience exactly what happened that night. But by the time you're listening to the closing notes of Yellow Ledbetter on disc 3, you won't care. Forget the other 71 bootlegs released, forget 1998's Live on Two Legs, this is the only live Pearl Jam a casual fan will ever need.

DISC ONE

The band begins things in the usual slow way with Release, a song that has become the definitive Pearl Jam opener over the years. But it's not something like Release or Corduroy, or even the pre-election night appropriateness of Grievance, that makes the very early part of this show special: no, rather it's Rearviewmirror appearing only 4 songs into the set. This is a powerful song that just does not appear this early in the set that often. It takes on a new life in this performance, it's urgent, it's loud, it's rambunctious. More than anything, it's what it was before it became the official replacement for the not played Alive.

The band moves on. Hail Hail rocks as usual, and Evacuation will never sound this good to these ears again, and Dissident soars like a high flying bird in the sky. After a couple more songs, they start the infamous "man trilogy."

After Leatherman ends, an entire section of the building begins chanting the name of bassist Jeff Ament. "Jeff, Jeff, Jeff, Jeff." Drummer Matt Cameron eventually gives them a bit of a beat to chant along to. After a nice speech by singer Eddie Vedder about the band's show in Las Vegas and everything, he goes into Better Man. Better Man is one of those songs that is just completely misunderstood by the casual fan. Some fans take the "can't find a better man" part literally, and they look into their boyfriend's or husband's eyes as if this is the most romantic song ever penned. Jackasses I tell you, every one of them.

Anyways, Better Man on this night is by far the most emotional and most gorgeous I've ever heard it played. As the band jams out the ending, as they usually do, Eddie begins playing the same notes that would signal the Save it For Later tagline that he adds into the song at the end. Instead however, he sings these improvised lines that just sum up everything on his mind while he's home:

I don't wanna leave
it's hard to leave
I wanna believe you I wanna believe you
I wanna believe that... you're in love with me
Here I come, I'm coming home
I'd rather it be yours
And it takes my strength
It takes all my strength
And I know, I know I gotta go
Go .I'm gone I'm gone!!!

DISC TWO

Disc two opens with a pair of songs off of the band's first record, and two of their biggest hits, in Even Flow and Jeremy. Jeremy is the only time it sounds like the band is just going through the motions. The regular set closes with another huge hit, Daughter. Daughter is one of those songs I could probably go without hearing again for the rest of my life. This version isn't so bad though, as at the end, there's a really long and really cool call and response going on between Eddie and the crowd.

As the band steps back onstage for the encore, Ed begins by telling the audience how good they are. He then mentions a young man named Anthony Hurley from Australia, who was one of the Roskilde Nine. He dedicates Off He Goes to him and his family, who was in attendance. I've always liked this song, but I like the next one even more. Light Years was one of the best songs from the band's 2000 Binaural album, and it fits in perfectly after the speech about Anthony.

After a spacious and gorgeous Parting Ways, the band decides it's time to rock again. After kind of dancing around an audience chant of "why go home" (the chorus to the song Why Go, a song the band hasn't played live since oh, 1996), the band launches into a fiery Go and then an extremely hard rocking Once.

DISC THREE

Disc three begins with the band's cover of Crazy Mary, a hugely popular song for the band despite it's lack of radio airplay, at least in Jeremy type amounts. I like how guitarist Mike McCreedy, the quiet star of this tour and this 3 disc set, adds in the solo from Stairway to Heaven towards the end of the song. The band continues the darker tone with Immortality, which features a badass drum solo from Matt Cameron. After that, though, it's celebration time.

Those opening chords begin, and you're thrown headlong into Alive, a song the band hadn't played since Roskilde. I've long stated that after Kurt Cobain's death, Alive became a defiant anthem celebrating life. Well, after Roskilde, Alive is destined to become a hopeful anthem celebrating life. This version is actually kind of off, until the end. The roaring guitar solo by McCreedy is just awe-inspiring, you can literally hear it reaching the heavens to the Roskilde Nine.

Eddie then steps forward with his ukelele to play Soon Forget, but before he does that, he actually plays the opening riff to Iron Man by Black Sabbath on ukelele. Whoever says Vedder has no sense of humor is just an idiot, I'm not convinced of that.

After Soon Forget, which is a rather unremarkable song, Eddie starts talking about the security costs that Seattle required for this show, and then about the ridiculousness of Seattle dealing with the Teen Dance Ordinance, and he goes on to dedicate The Kids Are Alright to the kids. I've never thought PJ's cover of this was anything special, in fact I've always thought it to be rather pedestrian. I can say though, that this performance has a bit more of an urgency to it.

After that it's into another Who cover: Baba O'Riley. I love PJ's cover of this song; I love McCreedy's guitar and how it imitates the synthesizers of the original, I love Matt's pounding drums, and I love Eddie's Roger Daltry like wail that pervades the song.

But there is, of course, only one way to end a Pearl Jam tour: Yellow Ledbetter. As Mike solos away, he adds in some Little Wing riffs, a tribute if you will to one of his heroes, Jimi Hendrix.

It's safe to say that if you only own one of the offical bootlegs, this one should be it. The three disc set (the only one in the series, all others are two discs) will only be $2-3 more expensive in most places. And this is by far Pearl Jam's most definitive performance to date in their careers.

More on PJ's 2000 tour:
10/22/00 Las Vegas, the 10th Anniversary show
http://www.epinions.com/content_23194930820

8/29/00 Mansfield, MA, my concert review
http://www.epinions.com/musc-review-2C0A-3527882D-39B3039D-prod5

8/30/00 Mansfield, MA, my concert review
http://www.epinions.com/musc-review-718A-6FA7E35-39B78DC4-prod1

TOURING BAND 2000 VHS/DVD
http://www.epinions.com/content_20451921540