Customer Reviews

16/6/00 - Spodek Arena, Katowice, Poland

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Disclaimer: Owner of all 72 official PJ bootlegs. This show was apparently scheduled at the last minute, as Pearl Jam had to cancel a show planned for Budapest on the same evening. Hence, they decided to stay in the college town of Katowice, Poland, where they played a full show the previous night, and put on this surprise performance. It really was a surprise, as only a few thousand people showed up. So it turned out to be a very quiet and intimate evening, with the band deciding to give some special treats to the small crowd of rabid fans. In an unusual fashion, this evening starts off with four straight ballads, including a majestic take on a portion of "Release" to start the show (Eddie Vedder forgets to sing the second verse, and the band just skips that whole portion of the song). When the rockers finally emerge, they're still a little sleepy, but eventually everybody fully wakes up, and Pearl Jam deliver one of the most devastating performances of the tour. It's a little too long, and the show starts running out of steam in the (very long) encore, but for most of the show, the band performs flawlessly. Special treats are crushing renditions of the rarities "Immortality," "I Got S**t," and "Smile," which are performed rarely elsewhere in the tour; and bruising takes on the rockers "Hail Hail" and "Last Exit." Some other surprises are "Soldier of Love" and "Leaving Here" which the band decided to pull out of mothballs for this special evening. This particular bootleg is not representative of the series, and some non-PJ fans might be perplexed by this performance. But if you have several of the bootlegs, this is clearly one of the most intriguing and tantalizing of the series.

For a die-hard pearl jam fan, this is just about the greatest thing in the world. To others it might not mean much of anything. But regardless of wether you care or not, the music contained in these double live albums is nothing short of inspiring. Pearl Jam have always been known for their dynamic live performances and on the Katowice Poland show(#16), they give you everything that makes a rock concert great. Of the astounding 30 tracks which spans their entire career, there are rarely heard songs like "Soldier of Love", "I Got Id", and a blistering version of "Leaving Here" wich I believe is worth the price of the discs themselves as well as great performances of classics like "Alive", and "Black". They may be getting a little older and some people may have forgotten about them but these performances prove why they are the best Rock N" Roll band playing today. Buy this if you doubt that Rock still exists.

Well, This is a superb concert with a superb setlist. I love this band, they are so damn good. What makes this show so special is the fact that this concert was a secret gig. Few people knew that Pearl Jam was playing a second Poland gig. So only 3000-4000 people showed up. So Pearl Jam decided not to follow their setlist. If you look inside the cover for this cd you will see their original planned setlist. They open with 4 mellow songs. Then they play 7 rockers on a row. The songs that they played was chosen on the spot by the band. There are many suprises in this perfomance, "Release", "Leatherman", "Dissident", "Stolat" and "Leaving here". This is a great show. BUY NOW!!!

Now, I'm not a DIE-HARD Pearl Jam fan, but I am a BIG one, so the prospect of owning these European concert recordings has made me excited. Because I heard this is one of the longest concerts of the tour (almost 2 1/2 hours long), I made sure to pick this one (and one other one) up the first day, and I'm incredibly glad I did. The sound is, of course, excellent, and the crowd noise isn't annoying at all, it, to me, adds to the excitement of the show. At 30 tracks long, the 16/6/00 show in Spodek, Poland is time incredibly well spent. Everyone (especially Mike, proving the guitar god he is) sounds excellent. Several of my fave tracks are on here ("Alive", "Hail Hail", "Of The Girl", "Leatherman", more), and the between-song banter is real cool. A couple of rarities are on here, chiefly an awesome cover of "Leaving Here" (which brings to mind The Who or the many other Mod bands who covered this in the 60's, as far as the pure energy put forth on this song) and the No Code barnstormer, "Habit". The show never lags in excitement or energy. I can honestly say that this double-CD capturing of a June show in Poland is a superb place to start. If you're a PJ fan, or are just looking to pick up ONE of these, this is one to get for sure. Simply amazing.

I am sure this has been stated more eloquently, but I know that no one is more stunned and outright floored by this staggering double-cd than I am. I have ignored Pearl Jam since its first record, on the belief that I did not like Vedder's voice. A couple of times, people tried to turn me on to them, by playing Daughter or something like that. Always, I did not care. I am 38 years old and was raised on the Who, Neil Young, the Grateful Dead, the Beatels, the Stones, the Kinks. I would have laughed if you said Pearl Jam should be mentioned in the same paragraph with those bands. What happened to change all this was: I saw Eddie Vedder playing a song acoustically on that benefit show for NYC victims on 9-21-01. I was struck by how sincere, lucid, and powerful he seemed. He did not have that spaced out, self-important, and burned out look that so many rockers have. He seemed like such a real person. And his voice sounded great. The next day, I looked up Pearl Jam at a record store, and was dumbfounded to see that they had released something like 75 double-live albums from their last tour. On allmusic.com I looked them up, and I bought this 6-16-00 show from Poland. My jaw dropped on the first listen, I had tears in my eyes the second time through, and after five or six times through I am certain that this is the greatest live record I have ever heard, in the history of rock and roll. (Keep in mind that I know Live at Leeds, Live Rust, and Allman Bros. at Fillmore East like the back of my hand). It was my grievous loss to have ignored this band for ten years. This record shimmers with all the passion and raw rock power of the greatest testaments of that medium. Vedder's voice radiates spine-tingling emotional force, and the confidence and sincerity of a man of full maturity, a man achieving something which time-warps the grandeur of Roger Daltrey, Ray Davies and Robert Plant all rolled into one at this moment. Having gone back and listened to some of the studio records now, it seems that Vedder and the band had not achieved quite these sublime heights before. This band is peaking now, having shaken off youthful silliness and posturing. This record is a rock and roll glory, a goosebump fest, right from the start. 'Release', 'Of the Girl', to 'In Hiding' (this version is one of the most beautiful versions of a song I have ever heard), 'Dissident', and on and on. And the guitar work! I have never heard a band click like this with two guitars before. The interplay is stupendous, and the drumming and bass are perfect. I cannot describe how wonderful this record is. I also have the Jones Beach 8-25-00 and Washington 9-4-00. These are awesome records too, but there is something extra special about this show in Poland. Eddie's voice and the guitars sound better on this record than the others. There is extra clarity and closeness, like they are in your living room. The price of these records speaks very loudly about the ethics of this band: the highest in rock. This record is 145 minutes long! And I paid like 11 bucks for it. Ridiculous. If this had been the only record they had released from the tour, it would be famous already. But they released 75 (?) DOUBLE CDs from this tour. Who ever heard of such a thing!! This whole experience of Pearl Jam's 2000 tour is outrageously beautiful and totally unprecedented in the history of rock music; and the joyous, intelligent sound of Pearl Jam live has meant a lot to me after 9-11-01. Keep on Rockin in the Free World! (p.s. I like this record!)

I bought all 25 of these albums (I'm obssesed) -- actually I have over 250 Pearl Jam bootlegs of Concerts. As far as best bang for your buck, this is the one album to get. Most varied song selection and throughly on performance. Everyones got their own personal favorite songs, so if thats your thing, by all means by the album(s) of the song(s) you want to hear. Of the other 24, notable ones include Hamburg, Germany & Milan Italy, and Oslo, Norway. I havent read much about people giving much praise for the Oslo show, but something about it grabs me. I recently read an interview from the Band Travis the other day. They mentioned something about having a lot of songs, but only 4 or 5 have magic on them, the songs that have that intangible it that somehow draws you to them, that somehow, someway relates to something in your own personal life, something that takes you back to that time. I believe Pearl Jam to do this better than most. Thats what sets them apart. So basically, buy this album. Go see them live, do whatever you can. They are one of the few remaning credible loyal bands out there.

It's hard to call any one of these bootlegs "the best," but if I had to do it, this would be the one. I've heard about five of the shows now. All have outstanding quality, so that's not really a factor.

This 2nd night from Katowice was one of the longest concerts on their tour and probably has the best setlist. They do a lot of new stuff, which is good... but you'll also find some really rare performances on this.

State of Love and Trust is done really well, same with Yellow Ledbetter and I Got ID. They also performed Leatherman on this one, which is VERY rare, and the performance is amazing. Definitely a great show.

I have purchased 4 of these "bootlegs" and they are soooo good! I must restrain myself from purchasing more so that I have the $$ to buy some of the US tour boots when they are released. These recordings have rendered Pearl Jams studio recordings useless. The live versions of their songs are far superior, I will always reach for one of these recordings when I want to hear this band. Definately air guitar heaven, my wife has repeatedly caught me jumping around our apartment in my underpants pretending to be Stone Gossard. Mike McCreedy kicks with his classic rock sytle spiced up with weird sound effects. I love how he shows his Rolling Stones influence by playing some phrases from "can you hear me knocking" durining "of the girl" and his Brian Jones sounding slide work in "thin air" Ed has always been one of my favorite vocalist and overall great performer and seems like a cool guy. Matt and Jeff are solid.

Great set list, uncharacteristically starting the show with four mellow songs in a row, than letting it rip including great versions of "state of Love and trust" and the rare "leaving here".

Buy this one and enjoy.

This set is one of the most interesting and best mixed of the tour, being a flashback in mood to the more somber sets of early PJ. Eddie announces early on, "We've got the place all to ourselves. . .We're just going to take it easy. . . plenty of time without the pressure of all those people..." and so they do - take it easy. Responding to their impoverished Polish surroundings, the quiet mood brings out the best of the old PJ mellowness, even the most raucous songs toned way down. Great versions of all songs, particularly a really laid back `Of the Girl,' a spacey `Sleight of Hand,' and perfectly performed versions of `Animal,' `Hail,' and `State of Love & Trust.' Also commendable are `In Hiding,' `Off He Goes,' `MFC,' `Smile,' the not oft performed `Leaving Here,' the `Soldier of Love' cover, `Last Exit,' and `Yellow Ledbetter."

The night before in the same venue makes a nice companion, and between the two sets, ninety-five percent of the entire song schedule for the tour is represented. However, the band were noticeably nervous the first night being such a "long, long way from home" as Eddie says, not quite as on target as their second heartfelt night, and (the biggest drawback) not nearly as good a sound mix.

Pick up this one, and the must have Sporthall set from Germany, and you've got not only an excellent contrast to the varied moods of Pearl Jam, but also the very best of the tour. And if you MUST have a third, check out Milan.

If you buy any one of the Euro Boots this would be the show to get. Pearl Jam have always been known for their live performances. The second Katowice Poland show(#16), they deliver a sonic punch of energy with their best hits and rare B-Sides like "Soldier of Love", "I Got Id", and a "Leaving Here" in addition to classics "Alive", and "Black". Best show of European tour. If you haven't seen their tour this year get this album. If you have seen the tour this year get this as an definitive example of what the Pearl Jam sounds like at their best. I can't wait for the US tour to come out as boot legs but this set is enough to get me through till then. Can't wait for the Pittsburgh show to come out.