Camden 1 (2006-05-27)
Welcome to New Jersey – or do we say Philadelphia? (Just paraphrasing EV here.)
The show starts calmly with “Wasted Reprise” and the kicks into “Life Wasted.” I STILL have to get used to these shows being from 2006 as I still think they do a better job nowadays by using this combo to open an encore ever so often. They’ve mastered “WWS” by now (which follows) making for a nice start. Afterwards, two solid heavy hitters (“Do the Evolution” and “Animal”) are played which takes the intensity up a notch.
What follows seems to be a back-and-forth of new versus old. “Severed Hand” comes first followed by “Corduroy.” This pairing works well but then “Marker in the Sand” is performed, then “Given to Fly,” and then “Unemployable.” It all just doesn’t work for me. To me, from the start, assuming all these songs must have been played, they should have gone:
Reprise
Life Wasted
WWS
Severed Hand
Evolution
Animal
Marker
Unemployable
Corduroy
Given to Fly
I think the flow of the show would have worked much better.
Things pick up really fast – and in a fast way – with “Lukin” which is followed by (finally they played this one again!) “Not For You.” Unfortunately, this isn’t their best performance of the song (serves them right for leaving it off the setlist for so long) as EV flubs a few lyrics and the “Modern Girl” tag is, imho, much too slow.
“Daughter” is next – sound goods – but no “It’s OK” tag tonight. An extended “W.M.A.” tag does follow, however, and the crowd seems to be into the “police stopped my brother again” lyric. Following this song with “I Am Mine” works quite well to me.
The main set finishes with “Jeremy” (where EV sings the first chorus!), a really nice performance of “Present Tense,” and a nice one-two Ten punch of “Why Go” and “Porch.” Admittedly, “Porch” is a bit long and seems a bit subdued on this night. I preferred a high-octane rendition of this song.
EV introduces the band and calls the audience his friends to start the first encore which, not surprisingly, is well received. “Better Man” follows – an okay performance where EV messes up a few lyrics during the last version. He lost his place.
“Come Back” is next. It should have been played before “B-Man.” I do appreciate the emotion EV puts into his singing near the end of the song, however. “Small Town” follows – I guess it was mainly an encore song back in 2006.
Now EV introduces a few individuals who had been wrongly-accused for crimes they did not commit thanks to the help of a local charity. He then invites them (the ones who are, coincidentally, musicians to play “Last Kiss” together. Touching? Maybe. Worth listening to? Definitely not. It sounds like shit. They’d really butchered this song up to this point on the 2006 tour. Next comes “Alive” to close the first encore. – again. I still love it but the “Last Kiss” debacle has put me off a bit.
The second encore seems to provide a little redemption. “State of Love and Trust” opens – it deserves to be an encore song and is followed by a ferocious version of “Blood.” Next...Guess what? I got this show from pearljambootlegs.org and for whatever reason it doesn’t include the last five songs of the show! For this reason, I have nothing to add about the performance of “Even Flow” (a refreshing position for it in the setlist), “Comatose” (stop including it in the encore!), “Leash” (I would have liked to hear their second crack at it), “RITFW,” and “YLB” (ho hum)!
Highlights: Animal, Severed Hand, Present Tense, Corduroy, State of Love and Trust, Blood
Rating: A generous 2.5 Stars. Maybe I’d raise it if I heard the end of the show.
