I was fortunate enough to attend a Pearl Jam concert this year
\nin support of their last album
\nYield<\/i>, but I don’t remember much of it. It wasn’t that I was
\nunder the influence of some substance. No, it was because one girl
\nwho was in the luxury suite I was invited to was completely bombed,
\nand decided to strike up a conversation throughout almost the whole
\ngoddamn show. I had to quickly abandon my plans of reviewing the
\nshow, and slowly learned to tune out both the drunk and the little
\nI could hear of the band. (I really shouldn’t complain; the tickets
\nand parking were free.)<\/p>\n
So I was more than a little excited about the release of
\nLive On Two Legs<\/i>, the live album documenting this last tour.
\n(Although it’s called their Pearl Jam’s first official live album,
\nyou could argue that the import-only
\nLive In Atlanta<\/i>, a three-single set, holds that honor. One
\nof these days I’ll review that on these pages.) At last, I could
\nget an idea of just what I missed that evening.<\/p>\n
It’s interesting to hear Eddie Vedder actually introducing the
\ntracks more than once, something I don’t remember him doing at the
\nshow in the United Center. Vedder, always known to be on the shy
\nside, actually seems to connect with the audience throughout these
\n16 tracks. I would even dare to say that Vedder’s singing is more
\nrelaxed; this is the most natural-sounding I’ve heard Vedder in a
\nconcert setting. For that matter, the band seems to have a new
\nlevel of excitement kicked into the music. Whether this is due to
\nthe addition of ex-Soundgarden drummer Mike McCready to the lineup
\nI don’t know, but there is a noticeable difference.<\/p>\n
The set list is a good representation of Pearl Jam’s career so
\nfar – a nice surprise, considering that this was supposed to have
\nbeen a two-disc set before the holiday deadline hit. Whether you’re
\na fan of the band’s old days (“Even Flow,” “Black”) or you really
\ncaught a vibe off the tracks from
\nYield<\/i> (“Given To Fly,” “Off He Goes,” “Do The Evolution”),
\nthere is something that everyone can appreciate on this album. The
\nlive versions of tracks from
\nYield<\/i> actually have made me want to run out and pick this
\nalbum up. (Believe it or not, I still have yet to buy this one –
\ngimme a break, budget restrictions.)<\/p>\n
If I had to level one criticism against this album, it would be
\na simple one: I would have liked to have seen the two-disc set.
\nNothing against this album, which is incredibly tight and is an
\nexample of the right way to do a live album. But there is so much
\nmore material that Vedder et al. could have thrown into the mix to
\nbring even more smiles to the fans. Then again, had this been
\nstretched to a two-disc, I might have been questioning if we really
\nneeded to hear another version of “Alive” or “Jeremy”. Maybe the
\nband knew something the critics were expecting. Still, there’s
\nbound to be some disappointment if you see a favorite track of
\nyours didn’t make the cut.<\/p>\n
What eventually makes
\nLive On Two Legs<\/i> a winner for me is the spontaneous feeling
\nof the show, down to throwing a snippet of “W.M.A.” (from Vs.) at
\nthe end of “Daughter” – a space usually reserved for a sample of
\n“Another Brick In The Wall”. Where
\nLive In Atlanta<\/i> sounded like the band was going through the
\nmotions,
\nLive On Two Legs<\/i> makes you feel as excited as if you were in
\nthe first few rows of the show.<\/p>\n
I’ve heard many live albums that have disappointed me in the
\npast;
\nLive On Two Legs<\/i> is not one of those. In fact, it makes me
\nthat much more upset that I probably missed out on one helluva show
\nthanks to another inebriated concert-goer. While this disc doesn’t
\ntake the place of being at the show, it’s a close second.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5726],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-36067","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-pearl-jam","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36067"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36067"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}