Here's the deal, about 15 minutes prior to a show Eddie Vedder scans
the audience, gets a vibe and goes back and writes a set list. I
imagine it wasn't too difficult to work up a winning set for this show,
after all it's a huge outdoor festival and people are there to RAWK,
but what he gives the audience at Live at Lollapalooza 2007 puts on
full display what the hardcore fans of the band already know. Pearl Jam
is one of the greatest live bands ever.
It's not just that they come out and jackhammer you into a sweet rock
'n roll frenzy by opening with “Why Go,” “Corduroy,” “Save You” and “Do
the Evolution” (any two of which, when played consecutively, threaten
to set the sky on fire), but they follow that spine-shifting onslaught
with the largely acoustic “Elderly Woman Behind a Counter in a Small
Town” and make it sound as natural as the progression of the seasons.
And that's what PJ does as well as anyone, they effortlessly glide
between frenetic and calm and in doing so turn their audience, no
matter the size, into a community. The people who know the words sing
along, and those that don't wish they could. And LAL2007 is that very
experience recorded. You listen to it and you wish you were there.
Eddie mentions BP Amoco dumping in Lake Michigan and the crowd
instantly takes up the chant, “Fuck BP.” The band starts in on “Better
Man” and the crowd takes over the beginning of the song to which Eddie
replies “Fuckin' beautiful.” They play one of hardest rocking songs
ever put to tape (or hard drive), “Lukin,” and there's the crowd
singing along. How do they do it? To restate, it's “Fuckin' beautiful.”
Yeah, Pearl Jam is now a “big rock show,” and they've become incredibly
wealthy getting there, but they're connected to the best that rock can
be. It's not the Rolling Stones lumbering through town with their hands
out and an “I can't believe you're still paying us to do this” smirk on
their faces. It's more like a Neil Young show and listening to the
graying audience, thrilled to be in the presence of an artist so
important to their lives, shout for him to play “Heart of Gold.” When
he responds with “Campaigner” they're just as thrilled. It's not Bon
Jovi at the Staples Center, it's the Who “Live at Leeds.” It's being in
that room, whatever the size, and believing you're not only witnessing
something so special you can't wait to tell your friends (if they're
not passed out next to you), but you've become part of a collective
that alternately wants to “Rip It Up” and “Give Peace a Chance.” It is
danger and brotherhood. It's not the “herd behavior” of “Do the
Evolution,” it's the joy of a temporary community engaged, and
participating, in the world's most beautiful form of communication,
music. And when the audience continues to sing “Alive” long after the
band has finished, it's a spontaneous representation of that community.
It's grown bigger than the band, or the venue, or the event. It's alive.
And the musicians who make up Pearl Jam (Eddie Vedder, Stone Gossard,
Jeff Ament, Mike McCready & Matt Cameron) have a clear sense of
what that community is, respect for the people in it, and what it is
they're getting out of this symbiotic relationship. Eddie, in
particular, seems to have the supernatural ability to make the audience
believe that he'll be coming over to each of their houses after the
show to have a few drinks and talk about Iggy Pop, Ted Leo and Kings of
Leon. And no matter how many times he hands his wine bottle into the
audience at the end of Victoria Williams' “Crazy Mary” it doesn't feel
like James Brown's cape. And no matter how many people put their lips
to the bottle before you, you drink too, 'cause you're all in it
together.
When he looked out on the audience before this show in Chicago in the
middle of summer Eddie decided to give them a show that they'd never
forget. It was all the audience could want, or expect, and I wish that
I'd been there with them … even though I've been to much better PJ
shows I could tell you about. Well, everyone there could tell you,
because they feel the same way.
Sound
This was a really great show; originally a webcast and mired in a bit
of controversy when Verizon decided to censor a comment EV made about
George W. I mention this in case you're interested in the comment (you
hear something like it in bars all across America 2007) and to allow me
to wonder if the original broadcast impacted the recording in some way.
It seems much more compressed than PJ live show recordings I've
purchased over the last six years. The playing is typically fantastic
but some of the highs, and lows, seem to be missing (at least to my
ears). Since it's an iTunes exclusive download it could be, and
probably is, the loss of fidelity that comes along with that particular
medium. I've purchased PJ downloads from Ten Club in the past and they
seemed to have a bit more life to them. It could be that after a year
or so of touring they became tighter than a Johnson glove and we're
experiencing the fruits of that labor. Stone, Jeff and Matt are locked
in throughout. If you want to hear PJ in all their glory grab hold of
the DVD “Imagine in Cornice” and play it loud. You'll also be happy to
know that proceeds from Live at Lollapalooza 2007 go to the Save the
Music Foundation.
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