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Archive for the ‘Victoria Williams’ Category

Pearl Jam (Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA, September 9, 2024)

Posted in Glen Hansard, Neil Young, Pearl Jam, Philadelphia, PA, Victoria Williams, Wells Fargo Center on September 10, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 9, 2024] Pearl Jam

After Saturday’s show we were pretty psyched to do it all again on Monday.  We wound leaving almost an hour later than Saturday night, because we saw how small the GA section was.  And even if we were in the back of it we’d still be damn close.  BUt heck, I guess everyone else had the same thought on a Monday night because we arrived and not only scored the same spot, but I was able to grab this cool poster.

And our new friends Greta and Molly were there again.  So we hung out with them and enjoyed Glen Hansard and were super psyched when the lights went down for Pearl Jam.

For this show I wanted to be a little closer to Mike and I think it was a bad choice.  The group around us was really loud and really pushy.  So the crowd was less enjoyable but the band was on fire.

We have seen Pearl Jam open with a banger, but mostly they tend to open with a slow building song like tonight’s Of the Girl (which I can’t believe we hadn’t heard live before).

We were delighted to get Elderly Woman in which everyone gets to scream Hello!   And speaking of screaming, a whole room of people singing the opening of Corduroy is pretty intense.  (more…)

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Pearl Jam (Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Camden, NJ, September 14, 2022)

Posted in Camden, NJ, Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Neil Young, Pearl Jam, Pluralone, Van Halen, Victoria Williams on September 14, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 14, 2022] Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam released Gigaton, their first album in seven years back in 2020.  They announced a US tour, but it was remarkably limited in scope.   There was an NYC date, but that sold out really quickly.

It was postponed for COVID and when they announced their 2022 tour, they threw in a stop in Camden as well.  So we actually had a chance to see them (us and 25,000 other people).

Well, getting there was a nightmare!  We got to Camden with no trouble and then it took us an hour to get from the Camden exit to a parking space.

I don’t know if this is a Camden problem or if the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion is to blame (they are at least the third owners since I’ve been going there and it doesn’t get better).

We missed the opening band Pluralone entirely and were actually worried we might miss the opening of the Pearl Jam set.  We didn’t but we only had to wait about 15 minutes.  And of course, we were REALLY far back.

Pluralone is the creation of Josh Klinghoffer who also played guitar and more with Pearl Jam on this tour.  I was really surprised that they had an opening band as recently they haven’t been having one.  I’m glad there was one as we would have missed the band if there hadn’t been.  But it also meant a shorter set (I think).

Pluralone plays some interesting experimental music.  They would have probably been pretty interesting to see, although Klinghoffer did wind up playing with Pearl Jam for the entire set,

C. went with us for this one (his first and hopefully not last Pearl Jam show).  T. was going to come with us, but she bailed.  It’s probably just as well, as we had to walk about a mile to our car and she didn’t really know them all that well.

Without question, I will not be going to another show in Camden again. They simply don’t have the infrastructure for that capacity crowd.

But all was forgiven when the band came out. (more…)

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Evan Dando (Monty Hall, Jersey City, NJ, October 1, 2018)

Posted in Elvis Costello, Evan Dando, Hair, Jersey City, NJ, John Prine, Lucinda Williams, Mary Lou Lord, Misfits, Monty Hall, Nick Cave, NRBQ, Rolling Stone, Smudge, The Bevis Frond, The Jayhawks, The Replacements, Townes Van Zandt, Victoria Williams, WFMU 91.9 FM--Jersey City, NJ on October 1, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 1, 2018] Evan Dando

Back in 2015 I saw that Evan Dando was playing at the New Hope Winery.  I had no idea that there was a concert venue so close to me and that Evan Dando would be there.  For some reason, I was unable to make that show, (Thurston Moore was also playing there around that time and I couldn’t make that either, so we must have been away).

Since then I have monitored the Winery to see what other cool bands would be playing there.  Sadly, pretty much since that day, aside from Dar Williams (who is awesome) everyone playing there is a cover band.  Which sucks.

I have loved The Lemonheads since college and It’s a Shame About Ray is a stellar album.  I’d never seen him play, so when I saw he had announced one show (which has since turned into a small tour) at Monty Hall in Jersey City, I knew I had to go.

Evan came out pretty late by any standard.  But I wasn’t even sure if he was going to show up.  He seemed surprisingly discombobulated (he forgot his capo) and it took a pretty long time or him to get set up.  This was all fairly surprising since he’d been doing this forever.

He had a total artist look: pants that were filthy and a suit jacket that had a giant rip under the armpit (and which seemed too small for him).

He was wearing glittery flip flops!  (more…)

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Carleigh Baker–“Last Woman” [The 2017 Short Story Advent Calendar #20] (2017)

Posted in Billy Pilgrim, Books about writers, Boredom, Canadian Content, Carleigh Baker, Christmas, Christmas Album, Daniel Johnston, Dillon Fence, Drinking, Everything But the Girl, Jill Sobule, Juliana Hatfield, Mary Karlzen, My So Called Life, Robert Earl Keen, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar, Tori Amos, Victoria Williams, Video Games, Yuck! on December 17, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: YOU sleigh ME: Twelve songs from Twelve Atlantic artists for the twelve days of Christmas (1995).

This is one of the first “alternative” Christmas albums I bought.  At the time, I bought it for Tori Amos and Juliana Hatfield.  But this disc has not held up very well and collections have gotten so much better.

Between the poor song choices and the rather bland recordings, the whole things is kind of tedious.

MARY KARLZEN-“Run Rudolph Run”
I’ve said before that I don’t really like this song.  This version chugs along just fine.  The one thing it really has going for it is that she plays with the genders of the kids so that it’s the girl who wants the electric guitar. That’s cool.

COLLECTIVE SOUL-“Blue Christmas”
I don’t really love this song either, although surprisingly this is probably one of my favorite versions so of it.  The rhythm is a weird shuffle, almost like the hand-jive but I like the heavy guitars at the end of each verse.  Weird that his delivery is almost like Elvis though.

TORI AMOS-“Little Drummer Boy”
I can’t imagine when she would actually have sung this live (for it is a live recording). Typical Tori, her voice sounds great and it’s before she started singing in a weird style.

DONNA LEWIS-“Christmas Lights”
No idea who Donna Lewis is.  This song is a mild, inoffensive Christmas song that I can’t say much more about.

BILLY PILGRIM-“The First Noel”
I have no idea if this band is still around or even who was in them, but this version of the song is quite nice.  There’s pretty folk guitar and some great harmonies.  I can nit-pick about the No-ell-ell part but overall this one’s a keeper.

JULIANA HATFIELD-“Make It Home”
As I said, I bought this disc for Tori and Juliana.  This song is pretty, but it was used in My So-Called Life so it’s not special at all.  Boo.

JILL SOBULE-“Merry Christmas from the Family” (NSFC)
I’d always assumed that Jill wrote this song, although I see now that it was written by Robert Earl Keen.  This song is hilarious and mostly inappropriate.  And yet it also has a lovely sentiment (if you can get past the drunks and family problems).  It’s my favorite on this disc to be sure.

DANIEL JOHNSTON-“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”
I just don’t understand why people listen to Johnston.  His voice is not compelling, and this sounds like someone making fun of the song.

DILLON FENCE-“Christmas”
This is a slick song that is about Christmas in some way.  It’s sort of blandly inoffensive jangle pop.

JAMES CARTER-“White Christmas”
This is an interminable 8 minute jazz sax solo version of the song.  Wow, it never ends.

VICTORIA WILLIAMS-“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
Victoria Williams also has a take-it-or-leave-it voice.  I used to like her more than I do now, bu that could change any minute.  This song is faithful to the original and pretty if you like her singing.

EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL-“25th December”
Another bland folky song.  The chorus is catchy, but I can’t be bothered to figure out what it has to do with Christmas.

Overall this is a disappointing disc and there are far better options.

 

[READ: December 17, 2017] “Last Woman”

Once again, I have ordered The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This year, there are brief interviews with each author posted on the date of their story.

Hello. Welcome. It’s finally here: Short Story Advent Calendar time.

If you’re reading along at home, now’s the time to start cracking those seals, one by one, and discover some truly brilliant writing inside. Then check back here each morning for an exclusive interview with the author of that day’s story.

(Want to join in? It’s not too late. Order your copy here.)

This year I’m pairing each story with a holiday disc from our personal collection

I enjoyed this piece for the way it juxtaposed a woman living by herself with the last woman left alive in a video game. (more…)

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Pearl Jam (Fenway Park, Boston, MA, August 7, 2016 & Ten Club Screening of August 5 show, House of Blues, Boston, MA, August 6, 2016)

Posted in Aerosmith, Boston, MA, Dinosaur Jr., Fenway Park, Happy Birthday, House of Blues, J. Mascis, Neil Young, Pearl Jam, Phish, Pink Floyd, Rocky, Sleater-Kinney, The Ramones, The Who, Tom Waits, Victoria Williams, Wells Fargo Center, WMMR 93.3 FM--Philadelphia, PA on August 7, 2016| 1 Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 7, 2016] Pearl Jam

2016-08-07 18.26.10After the excitement of seeing Pearl Jam at the Wells Fargo Center, we were psyched out of our minds to go to Fenway.  I didn’t realize that Fenway has a regular concert series.  I’d assumed that Pearl Jam were the first band to play there–they weren’t–but that didn’t detract in any way from the coolness of the venue.

Neither of us are baseball fans, although when I lived in Boston two decades ago, I did attend a couple of games at Fenway because it is a landmark (and when I was a kid I loved baseball, so duh).  But we knew that the venue would make the show even more special.

We’d have loved to have gone to both shows, but unlike some people, we couldn’t get tickets for both nights.  However, through a small piece of luck, I won tickets to a screening of Friday night’s show on Saturday night.  What?  Well, each night is filmed.  So the film crew filmed Friday night, then edited the footage together and had it ready on the next night as a really nicely edited package at the House of Blues (across the street from Fenway) on Saturday night.

It seemed kind of dumb to go to a music venue to watch a movie.  And Sarah and I were skeptical about going.  But we did and we had a  great time.  I’ve watched live DVDs and it’s always an okay thing to do–fun, but never like you were really there. But this was different. Having a group of some 600 people in a club–with bars and good lighting and excellent sound–it made it feel (almost) like a real concert.  And even though we laughed at the people who were clapping and cheering (as if the band were actually there), and taking videos of the screen (my battery died or I would have grabbed a few screen shots too), we were caught up in the excitement on several occasions as well. (more…)

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Pearl Jam (Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA, April 28, 2016)

Posted in Boston, MA, Fenway Park, Mother Love Bone, Muse, Neil Young, Pearl Jam, Rocky, Rush, The Rolling Stones, Tom Waits, Victoria Williams, Wells Fargo Center, WMMR 93.3 FM--Philadelphia, PA on April 29, 2016| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 28, 2016] Pearl Jam

pjphilyWells Fargo Center is becoming one of my favorite venues.  Not because the acoustics are so good (although they are pretty good), but because now I’ve seen three of my favorite concerts there: Rush, Muse and now Pearl Jam.

I’ve been a fan of Pearl Jam for nearly their entire 25 years of existence.  I loved their first few albums, lost my way a bit in the late 1990s and then came back big time in 2001 when I enjoyed listening to their Live bootleg series.   Their live shows sounded amazing–super long, playing different songs every night–and making all of their songs sound more alive than on record.  They just sounded amazing.

And yet I had never seen them.  I should probably have gone on the 2003 tour but didn’t.  And then I met Sarah and Pearl Jam was one of her favorite bands, but she’d never seen them either.  Since we’ve been married they’ve toured near us 6 times.  We had some excuses of little babies for a couple of those tours, but we should have certainly gone in 2013.

Well, here it is, their 25th anniversary tour and Sarah and I finally got to see them.  And, although I do wish we’d gone before, was it ever worth the wait. (more…)

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