Customer Reviews

Landgraaf, Holland

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

 

 

Disclaimer: Owner of all 72 official PJ bootlegs. The unlucky bootleg just happens to be #13 in the series. Some critics have ragged on this one because it is extremely short, at just 91 minutes. This is by far the shortest in the series, and is more than half an hour shorter than the tour average. However, Pearl Jam only got a limited amount of time to play at this multi-act festival in Holland. This is indicated by the fact that there is only one encore in this show, instead of the usual two. So the short set is not a good reason to criticize this bootleg. Unfortunately there are several other reasons for criticism. It is plainly obvious that the band was not taking this gig very seriously. This is a disservice to the paying fans that went to the event, and it also makes for one very unimpressive bootleg. The carelessness of the band is evident early in the show, as the usually powerful "Animal" and "Hail Hail" fail to ignite. The attempts at the extended solos to end "Jeremy" and "Habit" are complete failures as the band breaks down into uncoordinated noodling. There are few strong tracks, like "Light Years," "Brain of J," and "Rearviewmirror," but these fail to save this sloppy show. The show ends very inconclusively with a lazy "Leaving Here," which is a cool song but not an effective closer. I suspect that the band decided to wrap it up early and split, and didn't think it was necessary to provide a true finale. The brevity of the performance can't be criticized too much, but this is still a pretty unsatisfactory bootleg.

I'm a big Pearl Jam fan, and so far I picked the Lisbon bootleg cd and the Pinkpop cd, and I have to admit that this (forgeting that i am a big fan)is one of the best live performances captured on cd. I was at the Lisbon concert, bought the cd afterwards, and all the memories came back. Great stuff, I gotta have them all.

Landgraaf does have one of the shorter setlists, but it is also one of the best of all the live CDs. I would reccomend buying all of the live CDs, but that may not be too likely. However, if you want just a couple, this is one of the ones you should get. It is all really great songs. My favorites are Breakerfall, Jeremy, Light Years, Even Flow, Rival, Black and an incredible version of Betterman. Highly Reccommended.