Customer Reviews

25/6/00 - Parkbuhne Wuhlheide, Berlin, Germany

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

 

 

I've seen Pearl Jam live 4 times, and never got to hear Indifference live...So getting this was a must for me. The sound quality on this one seems better than some of the others I've bought. Lukin and I Got Id are icing on the cake for this set, which is well balanced covering all their work, and not overly heavy on any one album. This one, Verona 20/6 and Spodek 16/6 are the best of the 7 I've got from this series and if you're going to get just a few of these, then this one definitely should be on the short list!

Disclaimer: Owner of all 72 official PJ bootlegs. This extremely lengthy bootleg is one of the longest shows in the 2000 Pearl Jam world tour, and at a whopping 31 songs it's tied for first place in number of tracks. The other three shows in Germany were all a lot shorter than this, so maybe the band wanted to give the Berliners a marathon session to make up for it. This show gets off to an incredible start, with the surprisingly effective opener "Sometimes," followed by some PJ's heaviest rockers like "Hail Hail" and "Breakerfall." There are some surprises in the set list, like rare appearances by "In Hiding" and "Evacuation," and a creepy "Improv" tune (which sounds rehearsed to me, but still effective). "Not For You," "Immortality," and "Rearviewmirror" combine to bring the first set to a tremendous and transcendent close, while the evening unexpectedly ends with the chilling "Indifference." Unfortunately, this show starts to run out of steam in the encore, with "Thin Air" and "Wishlist" really dragging, and there are painfully obvious errors in "Do the Evolution" and "Alive." But by that point, the band was understandably tired, and so was the crowd. The funniest moment of the show is in the break in "Habit," when Eddie Vedder murmurs "I am a donut," giving a possible translation of JFK's infamous "Ich Bin Ein Berliner" speech. Who knew the guy was a history buff?

A live version of Indifference is reason enough to buy this CD. Indifference as the closing song puts Berlin in the lucky seat of the world. A rarely performed gem, Eddie Vedder's vocals glow into the air. This bootleg will be a favorite of die hards.

One of the longest of the European bootlegs, "Berlin" clocks in with 32 songs. Amazingly, the band keeps up the energy level and drive until the last selection "Indifference" which, weighed down by a slightly out of tune bass line, collapses onto itself at the end. The rest of show more than makes up for this one slight disappointment, especially a stellar version of "Immortality" that will stay with you long after you have finished listening.

I agree with the other reviewers, the CD is worth purchasing. The impressive number of songs and live version of Indifference make it so, but I recently purchased the San Sebastian concert, and by comparison, I was disappointed with the energy at the Berlin concert. Vedder doesn't talk much, the band seems to be going through the motions, and the crowd doesn't seem to get into it until late in the show. With so many European concerts to choose from I read many of the reviews and tried to be discerning with my first purchase (San Sebastian) but happened to be in a music store and picked up the Berlin concert on a whim expecting similar awesome results. Next time I will do alittle research before purchasing.