well i haven't really listened to pearl jam since around the "vitalogy" days, but who am i to turn down a free ticket for a walk down memory lane? i wasn't blown away, but that has as much to do with the experience than the performance. i'm at the point where a sold out show at the 930 is too much of a big rock/impersonal experience for me, and i'm usually ready for a band to be done after 45 minutes, so being at verizon center w/20,000 people for a two and a half hour show was a bit much. i was really into it for the first seven songs. "release" is always a great opener, "corduroy" is my fave PJ tune, "do the evolution" is a solid rocker and "given to fly" always should have been a bigger hit.
then they started with the new stuff and lost me and never got me back. "even flow" was kinda formless, "rearviewmirror" is a great song but lost steam with that crap in the middle. "masters of war" was awesome, obviously, but that's some great source material. "fuckin' up" was fun.
when eddie said he was hanging out in mt. pleasant i was like, "and evens reference in 5, 4, 3 ..." and he came through. i definitely respect PJ and they are very good at what they do and they are everything that a big rock and roll band should be, it's just that when it comes down to it i don't really like big rock and roll bands.
