SOUNDTRACK: PEARL JAM-East Rutherford, NJ 6.3.06 (2006).
This concert was a free download with the purchase of Backspacer. I chose this because this is the show that I should have gone to. [How many concerts have I seen at the Meadowlands–or whatever it is called now?]. Not to mention, this is the last concert date of the first leg of the tour, and the last concerts are usually a little longer, a little wilder, a little more fun.
And there’s a number of reasons why this is true during this show.
The first is the technical flaw. Midway through their fifth song, “Animal” there is some kind of power failure (the flaw with audio from concerts is that you have no idea what’s really going on). The song shuts down, there’s some crowd chanting and then the power comes back on. This gives Eddie Vedder a chance to make a Springsteen joke (did he leave for tour without paying the electric bill) and the band resumes, even more intense than before.
There are a number of Springsteen moments during the show. They thank him for introducing them to the Community Food Bank of New Jersey–where proceeds from this night’s show go). Later, Eddie’s explains that his failure to figure out the chords to Springsteen’s “Atlantic City” led to his creating the song “Gone”. And Eddie’s “Pre-Opener” (sadly not on the download, but you can hear it here) is a cover of Springsteen’s “No Surrender.”
Springsteen aside, this is a great show. The download is three discs long (the first disc is 25 minutes or so and comprises the audio from up to the power failure). But even with the confusion, the band sounds wonderful. They run through all kinds of songs from throughout their career, “Even Flow,” “Alive,” “Why Go,” “Black,” “Porch,” and “Garden” from Ten. “Animal,” “Rats” and “Leash” from Vs. “Last Exit,” “Whipping” and “Corduroy” from Vitalogy, “Habit” and “Lukin” from No Code, “In Hiding” from Yield. “Love Boat Captain” and “I am Mine” from Riot Act, and about half of the songs from Pearl Jam. There’s also a whole bunch of songs from Lost Dogs: “Hard to Imagine,” “Yellow Ledbetter,” “Last Kiss” and “Don’t Gimme No Lip” and even “State of Love and Trust” and “Crazy Mary.”
The show is a pretty rocking show overall. In fact, as you can see above they don’t even play their more crowd pleasing ballads (“Betterman,” “Daughter”). And the set in no way suffers from it.
This show also has a special guest and a special announcement. Vedder explains that June 3 is West Memphis 3 Recognition Day. Wikipedia says The WM3 are three teenagers who were tried and convicted of the murders of three little boys in West Memphis, Arkansas in 1993 by a prosecution team that put forth the idea that the only purported motive in the case was that the slayings were part of a Satanic ritual. In July 2007, new forensic evidence was presented in the case, including evidence that none of the DNA collected at the crime scene matched the defendants, but did match Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of one of the victims, along with DNA from a friend of Hobbs’ whom he had been with on the day of the murders.
The WM3.org site shows that many musicians are behind them, offering support and free music. A new trial date has been tentatively set for October 2011. If they are found not guilty they would have spent eighteen years in jail for nothing. Damien Echols (who was sentenced to death) co wrote “Army Reserve” with Vedder, and Echols’ wife says a few words on stage.
Another great moment comes in “Crazy Mary” when Boom Gaspar and Mike McCready have a kind of dueling organ vs guitar solo. It goes on for several minutes and Gaspar’s Hammond sounds great. Later in the show, Vedder toasts the crowd for being great. It may also be the only toast to incorporate the phrase “fucking assholes” (as in if people don’t think you were amazing, they’re fucking assholes).
One of the great things about Pearl Jam shows is that they pack a lot of music into them. I was especially mindful that when they came out for their second encore, they played nine more songs for about 30 minutes. Not a bad encore at all.
This is a great set if you’re looking for live Pearl Jam.
[READ: May 24, 2011] Breakfast of Champions
I read this whole book during my trip to BEA. I read it while on the bus (two and a half hours total) and then while waiting on line for various author signings. I don’t know that I’ve ever read a book in such a short period before. It’s not a long book by any means and it is full of illustrations (more on that later). It was an ideal book to choose for a day of book reading.
So the novel is actually set up as a story within a story. The Preface explains that the story is written by Philboyd Stuge (Vonnegut has a lot of fun with names). It explains that “Breakfast of Champions” is a trademark of General Mills and he is neither associated with GM nor disparaging them by using the phrase so much (it doesn’t occur frequently until much later in the book). Stuge explains some of the background information about ideas in the book (that people are actually robots and how Armistice Day was a better name for the holiday than Veterans’ Day). He also explains that he is writing this book as a 50th birthday present to himself (Vonnegut was born in 1922). And for his 50th birthday, he is going to act childishly and draw illustrations in the book. So I found this picture from the novel
That may give you an idea of what to expect inside (although most of the illustrations are “better” than that one).
What is especially helpful about the story is that it tells you what will happen as it goes along. So the novel starts:
This is a tale of a meeting of two lonesome, skinny, fairly old white men on a planet which was dying fast.
One of them was a science fiction writer named Kilgore Trout. He was a nobody at the time, and he supposed his life was over. He was mistaken. As a consequence of the meeting, he became one of the most beloved and respected human beings in history.
The man he met was an automobile dealer, a Pontiac dealer named Dwayne Hoover. Dwayne Hoover was on the brink of going insane.
And that is literally the story. So why is the book 297 pages long then? Vonnegut is really out to talk about contemporary society: America mostly, but not exclusively. And does he ever. (more…)
Read Full Post »
SOUNDTRACK: STEVE MARTIN & THE STEEP CANYON RANGERS-“Athiests Don’t Have No Songs” (2010).
We watched this Steve Martin performance on Austin City Limits last night. Who knew that Steve Martin (yes, that Steve Martin) won a Grammy in the bluegrass category! I’m not a huge fan of bluegrass–basically I like it enough for a few songs, but a half an hour is a bit much.
I Just Read About That... 