Pearl Jam hope to have their next album out "this year, for sure," guitarist Mike McCready tells Rolling Stone.
Key word...HOPE.
I "hope" Im wrong,but I dont see it..like I said,why play 3 shows in South America at the end of this month,when they could be finishing this album ??!!??!!
I'm not going to lie. This review was completed over a month ago - and I have written reviews for all of the other leg #1 shows. It's time for me to start purging...
Boston 2 (2006-05-25)
Well, the third Night #2 so far in the tour. In my mind, Night #2 was better in Toronto but much worse in Chicago. I wasn’t that impressed with Night #1 in Beantown so let’s see how this one turns out.
Opening with “Severed Hand” is good – very good – but not best. What about “Sometimes” fellas? I know, you’ll screw that one up during you’re only attempt to perform it later on.
A nice, quick transition into “Corduroy” turns a good start into a great one. Not too sure however, how I feel about them switching back to a new one, albeit the then hit single, “World Wide Suicide.” I guess it’s okay but maybe play something like “Hail, Hail” first and then play “WWS.”
The energy keeps going with the classic Yield combo, “Do the Evolution” and “Given to Fly” – both of which are performed with some pretty solid intensity.
At this point in the show, you might expect the band to dip back into the new album or even slow things down a bit. Is “Dissident” considered to be a “slow” one? I don’t think so. They are really coming on with the classics on this night! In fact, an intense version of “Even Flow” follows. Wow!
So now you can’t fault them for deciding to play a new one, “Marker in the Sand.” Oddly enough, EV hasn’t really said too much to the crowd up until this point and just comments on what a beautiful day it was earlier on. He’s talking about the weather. Ha!
Things quiet down a little more as “Lowlight” is played. I think EV might be a bit tired at this point (out of the gates too fast) as this performance lack the energy it had in Chicago. Also, it’s a decent enough song but not one that should be played more than a couple of times per leg/tour. The playing of “Insignificance” keeps the band relatively deep into their catalogue but picks up the pace significantly – pun intended.
They delve back into the new album a play a nice version of “Army Reserve” – a song I really hadn’t listened to all that much until this review session. It’s not a bad little song, really. The pendulum swings back to the 1990’s and another quick version of “Garden” is played. No complaints here. Next comes “I Got Shit” a song that really nails the band that PJ is – lots of emotion, some sweet quiet parts, some full on rockin’ parts. Great tune.
The main set is nearing its end so they decide to pick things up with “State of Love and Trust.” Aside from a muffled lyric at the start, it’s played well. It’s a song, however, that is even bettered saved for the encore.
Next comes “Comatose.” Bad move, in my opinion. At least switch the order with “SOLAT.”
“Inside Job” follows, continuing the surprisingly high number of Pearl Jam songs played so far tonight. As per usual, it’s played well but I have a feeling that those in attendance who’d yet to pick up the new album may have been getting a bit restless – or at least frustrated by the back and forth between classics and new stuff.
The main set closes with “RVM” which if it’s going to be played this is where it will be. Nice version.
“Wasted Reprise” begins the first encore and I am waiting for them to break into “Life Wasted,” which hasn’t been played yet on this night. My guess is wrong, however, and I am once again baffled by the decision to play “Man of the Hour” next. It’s a beautiful song but the transition between the two just doesn’t work.
A quiet, bittersweet song gives way to a not-so-quiet-when-play-live one, “...Small Town.” EV hopes they don’t mess it up again and as far as I could tell they didn’t.
I am (pleasantly) surprised with what follows – they debut of “Parachutes.” It fits the mood/tempo of the previous two songs. They’ve never play this one a lot (they probably shouldn’t) but it’s nice when they do.
The main set closes with yet another great version of “Black” (Is it just me or did the acoustic guitar seem more prominent than usual in this performance?) and a kickass version of “Alive.” I love those performances where the crowd repeated chants “yah” in time with the guitar – kind of like at the end of the PJ20 documentary.
Encore 2 starts with a good performance of “Why Go” (I’m still surprised how often they are playing it now that it’s back – I mean it was barely played at all for over a decade and now they play it at almost every show!) and then onto “Life Wasted” which sounds out of place. As I mentioned earlier, it should have started the first encore. Next is “Smile” (Why do Stone and Jeff switch instruments for this song?) and the-always-great “Indifference” (which is dedicated to Theo Epstein (the then-Boston Red Sox General Manager who is now, oddly enough, with EV’s Cubs) for matching the bands donation to a local charity for homeless children).
Next comes probably the biggest deal of the night, the performance of “Leash.” Surprisingly, there is no introduction to it and they mess up the beginning but the crowd is thrilled to be part of this song’s return. They refused to play this for years - just over 12 years to be exact where they played it in the very same building! I don’t it really mattered what they played next but they closed the show in rather usual fashion with “Rockin’ in the Free World” and “Yellow Ledbetter” – both solid performances on this night. YLB includes the “Star Spangled Banner” tag.
Rating: Four Stars – some great performances but the ordering of the songs isn’t the greatest. I was hoping for something even bigger (more “epic”) from a Boston show.
while i'm on my review process here a couple of excerpt of another Mike interview
On Pearl Jam’s new album: “Well, we’re gearing up to finish the second part of the record that we started about two years ago. We all decided to pull back a little bit after we had done about seven songs, which I think are going to be on the next record. I’m not really sure. It all depends upon how this next session goes. I have a feeling that we’ll have something out this year. We are all very prolific in bringing in ideas and we’re all in conversation and are starting to rehearse in about a month. I feel like we’ll have something by this year. I don’t know that everyone in the band feels that way, but I’m going to do my damndest to move it along if I can have any kind of say in it. I would really like to get it out this year because we would really like to do some touring and things like that.”
On Pearl Jam’s songwriting process: “It’s all of those things. Specifically for myself, I will demo ideas in my studio and try to make them as good as possible and if Matt [Cameron] isn’t around I will use a local drummer friend of mine to help me get an idea down. So I’ll bring fully realized demos to the equation and then it all kind of changes from there because everybody kind of goes, ‘Well why don’t you take out this part or put this in here or move this over here or do half of that?’ Stone [Gossard] and Jeff [Ament] are great editors so once you have your demo you bring it in and people scrutinize it and they either like it or they don’t. If they do then I just go, ‘Dude, if you have any ideas, just go for it.’ I also want to be able to add to people’s songs in the way that I do and I think I’m kind of the coloring on top of a lot of ideas and melodies at times. I feel like if Ed [Vedder] brings in a song, I want to be able to do a solo that’s cool for it. He may not have any ideas for what that is yet until I do it right there on the spot. Sometimes Jeff will bring in a couple of riffs and we’ll just jam on that. Matt will bring in parts of stuff. That being said, everyone brings in fully realized demos, too. It’s like everything; we have a lot of stuff. We don’t have any outside songwriters. [Laughs.]”
I hope soon...I failed to get tickets to that London show so I am hoping they'll pass through Toronto (at a larger venue) so I don't have to spend over $300 for a ticket on Stub Hub and drive 2.5 hours (each way!) on the same day, by myself (none of my friends want to go to this one) just to see them in 2013.
If memory serves me right,the 2010 spring mini tour was announced in March
of that year.Last years mini Euro June/July tour was announced in Feb I believe.It was cold in NYC when I booked my flight to London,for the IOW/Man 2 gigs..