Pearl Jam slams the Garden

Pearl Jam invaded New York City last week for a two night run at the Garden and I was lucky enough to be there.

Some nice surprises - CJ Ramone joining them for I Believe in Miracles both nights and an appearance by Ace Frehley for Black Diamond on night two. Another unique twist to the Garden run was that the band experimented (successfully) with backup singers for the first time.

The NYC crowds were also treated to Love Reign O'er Me and All Along the Watchtower on night one and Rats on night two.

Here are the best pictures I've found from both nights:

LINK

Philly PJ fans get reverse Mamasan

No, it's not some twisted sex act.

It's something even better...

Fans learned back in 1992 that three Pearl Jam songs belong together as the Mamasan Trilogy - "Alive," "Once" and "Footsteps." At a show at the Volkshaus in Zurich, Ed explained to the crowd the story behind the songs and how these songs come together -

"It's about incest; and it's about murder; and you know all those good things. And if you can picture it in your mind, the third song takes place in a jail cell. So this is our own little mini-opera here." --EV, 6/18/92

It's only been played together a handful of times and sometimes in reverse order. That's what fans at Pearl Jam's second Philadelphia area show experienced in the second encore last night.

And on top of that, the show closed with a cover of the Who's Baba O'Riley.

Nice.


Learn more about the trilogy and download the three Zurich songs HERE.

Get the full setlist from last night HERE.

HEADLINES

Pearl Jam, at the top of its game, in Camden
Philadelphia Inquirer

"I change by not changing at all," Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder sang at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden on Thursday night.

Written more than 15 years ago, the words (part of "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town") have emerged as a credo in retrospect. By simply sticking to what they do best over the long haul, Pearl Jam has managed to surf the waves of a shifting culture and emerge as that rarest of entities: a long-running rock band still performing at the top of their game.

LINK


Update: Second review of this show from Philadelphia Weekly is HERE.

Rock Show Posters

Pearl Jam is one of the few remaining major rock bands that still produces a unique poster for each city they visit.

Posters are produced by either Ames Bros. or Brad Klausen and are offered as high quality prints at a reasonable price ($25). Not only are they almost always interesting (and sometimes beautiful), but they retain and gain value nicely.

Here are the posters so far for the current mini tour - LINK

The unlikely star of the Pearl Jam mini tour

Zack Newman made a proposal to Spin magazine - give me two tickets to each show on the current Pearl Jam tour and some per diem and I'll get my self to each show.

So far, so good.

Zack has managed to snag rides to each city and post some fantastic videos and pictures along the way. At some venues, he's been able to post live during the night.

Fans of the band are following his posts closely. Comments on his site and the band's forum, The Message Pit, have been mostly positive and it's clear many are envious (myself included).

I ran into him in Tampa and he seemed like a pretty cool guy. Everything is "great" or "awesome". He's a happy camper.

Check out his vblog here - LINK

Vedder shares one from Into the Wild

From the Virginian-Pilot:

“I haven’t been doing this song on tour but there’s a very special person in the audience tonight that I want to play it for,” he said before indulging in “Guaranteed,” a track he composed for the “Into the Wild” soundtrack.

LINK

Music festivals face challenges

From USA Today:

More than a dozen new festivals — from All Points West in Jersey City to Outside Lands in San Francisco — are springing up to compete with established events such as Chicago's Lollapalooza, South by Southwest in Austin, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Bonnaroo in Manchester.

"It's a demand that has more supply than it had 10 years ago — or even two years ago," says Ray Waddell, Billboard's touring editor.

But ticket sales to two of the most successful recent festivals, Bonnaroo and California's Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, were down this year.

----snip----

In theory, new festivals could cannibalize from existing ones, especially those like Bonnaroo, which draws fans from all 50 states and several countries. Few festival experts believe the market has reached a saturation point, however. And although gas prices might prevent fans from driving long distances to destination festivals, they could help new regional festivals that offer a nearby option.

----snip----

Gasoline prices don't just affect the fans. "It's bad, man," says country singer Dierks Bentley, who'll play Lollapalooza in August. "It's six grand to go to the pump with two buses and four semis. And we do that two out of every three days."

LINK

60 Songs in four dates

Pearl Jam promised to dig deep into their catalog for their current tour. They're staying true to their word.

In just four dates so far, PJ has played 60 different songs with an appearance by one song they've never played live - All Night. Gems that have been shared so far include Can't Keep, Footsteps, Gods' Dice, I Got ID, Sometimes, Who You Are and W.M.A.

And the "big" shows in Philly, NYC and Boston still lie ahead!

Here's a nice review of last night's show by the Columbia State -http://www.thestate.com/weekend/story/436116.html

HEADLINES

Rolling Stone review of Pearl Jam's Bonnaroo show
Kanye West blames Pearl Jam for late set debacle

Roo Wrap-up

From the coverage I was able to see of Bonnaroo '08, the highlight was festival regular My Morning Jacket. Besides serving up plenty of their own work in their three hour set, MMJ also did some very interesting covers...

Hot Fun, Sly & the Family Stone

Hit It and Quit It, Funkadelic

Tyrone, Erykah Badu

Cold Sweat, James Brown

Get Down On It, Kool & the Gang

Across 110th Street, Bobby Womack

Oh Sweet Nuthin, The Velvet Underground

Home Sweet Home, Motley Crue (featuring Zach Galifianakis in character as Little Orphan Annie)

One huge highlight, thankfully included in FuseTV's coverage, was Kirk Hammet of Metallica joining them for One Big Holiday to close out the first set (photo above).

Some other quick hits from the weekend -

Against Me! - Great band with a solid punk sound. Lots of angry vocals (which seemed weird at a hippy fest), but the crowd seemed to adjust.

Mastodon - Very heavy sound from a very good band. One I need to explore more deeply.

Yonder Mountain String Band - How can you not love a tight blue grass band that covers Ozzy's Crazy Train?

Ben Folds - Annoys me.

Broken Social Scene - Poster children for the hopeless jam band. PS - All your friends DO NOT get to play in the band.

Gogol Bordello - Gypsy punk rock, if you're into it. I wasn't.

Pearl Jam shines at Bonnaroo

By most accounts, Pearl Jam had a strong show last night at Bonnaroo. Their set timed out at a full three hours, but somehow they managed to play only 25 songs (on the short side for them). Eddie's little talks must have been pretty steady last night.

Hard to Imagine was a nice opener choice for the evening and they broke out one song they've never played live - All Night from their Lost Dogs B-side album.

The Roo crowd was also treated to some very nice covers - Love Reign O'er Me and closer All Along the Watchtower.

Now they're on to Columbia, SC for Monday's show.

Bonnaroo Webcast Quick Hits

What I've seen so far...

The Blue Grass Allstars, with Bela Fleck, were fantastic. Nice mix of new (polka blue grass!) and classic (great old Bill Monroe songs).

Metallica was comical, but in a good way. I get into the over the top metal godz thing if I'm in the mood.

But on the complete other end of the spectrum and maybe not on many jammers' i-Pod thingies,...I really enjoyed Swell Season. It's the Irish band you'd actually see in Ireland - one foot firmly planted in traditional music with an important need to tell a story.



Glen Hansard fronts the band along with Czech singer and pianist Markéta Irglová. They're the pair that starred in the movie Once.

It's impossible for me to watch them play without smiling. They're having the time of their lives with their unexpected breakout. Do yourself a favor and rent the movie to see how special these two are. Hopefully the Blueroom will post a clip if you missed them.

The Raconteurs were fun to watch, but I have to admit that I prefer their straight ahead rock tunes. Jack White somestimes takes things in strange directions.

Pearl Jam - Tampa's five year wait was worth it

Pearl Jam played in Tampa on Thursday night for the first time in five years.

Eddie Vedder was chatty and really seemed to be enjoying himself. The show was in the St.Pete Times Forum, which is in Tampa. He was joking about how confusing that is and then looked up and saw the Canadian flag (it's the NHL arena) and was like, "Where the fuck are we?!"

Great show with a LOT of crowd energy. I've been to probably 20 shows at the Forum and last night's audience could compete with any of them for intensity. The band really seemed impressed and Ed said they wouldn't forget it. Maybe we won't have to wait so long for a show next time

The set was fantastic. Lots of variety and some real gems - Sometimes, Light Years, Down and Hide Your Love away were nice to hear. Lots of "hits" for the casual fans to sing along with and they did a nice job. Show highlights for me were... Severed Hand (that song just rocks), Elderly Woman (dedicated to Bradenton ), Evolution (great main set ender), Nothingman (great encore starter), Alive (Mike cranked the best solo I've heard on that one) and Porch.

But the standout song for me was Present Tense. There are a few times in the 100s of shows I've seen when a band just merges into one life form. The Stones doing Midnight Rambler was another time that I saw it happen. The jam during the final build at the end was a thing of beauty. If you're thinking of buying the boot, this is the one song that will make it worth having alone. Great night in Tampa.

Now it's on to see them again for both nights at the Garden!

Here's the full set list and some downloads.

Enjoy

MAIN SET: Sometimes, Corduroy, Why Go, Severed Hand, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Marker In The Sand, Light Years, Down, Wishlist, Given To Fly, Daughter, Even Flow, Present Tense, Insignificance, Better Man, Do The Evolution

ENCORE 1: Nothingman, Black, Life Wasted, Porch

ENCORE 2: You've Got To Hide Your Love Away, Alive, Yellow Ledbetter

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0FRMR9PE
1. Sometimes
2. Corduroy
3. Daughter

Kicking off the new blog

Welcome to Last Exit Radio.

The primary focus here is the world of music. I'll touch on other things as the need arises, but since music is one of my true loves in life we'll just start from there.

Some of you have already figured out that I'm a big Pearl Jam fan. Last Exit is a song from their Vitalogy album (and the first song I saw them play live). The broken guitar belonged to Mike McCready until one night in Mexico City...

You can expect me to post my thoughts and feelings about my favorite bands and goings on in the music industry. I'll also try to share song files and music links that may be worth a listen.

So stop by from time to time and see what's happening.