Customer Reviews

Pearl Jam: Live at the Garden

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Let me preface this by saying that I have been to maybe 150 shows in my life, and the 7/8/03 MSG show is the best show I have seen by any band, ever. Coming from a huge music fan, that's saying a lot.

Ok, here goes. I'll try to write it for the casual fan who may not know every song.

First let's start with quality. The video work is fine. Nothing fancy. It's a little jumpy sometimes, but good overall. The 5.1 surround sound is quite nice as well. There are lots of extras on the DVD as well, including an easter egg. It includes lots of tour montages, bonus clips (Ed pre-show solo stuff), etc. But the main part of the dvd, the show itself, is probably what you want to hear about so I'll try to be specific. I'll do a song-sy-song review below:

set:

Love Boat Captain: Good opener. The sound is a little off, but gets better during the next couple of songs. This is off the latest album. It references the 9 people who were killed during their set at the Roskilde Denmark show in 2000

Last Exit: Good rocking song that gets the crowd going.

Save You: Same as above. Good version. Off the last album

Green Disease: Also off the last album. You'll notice that the crowd doesn't go insane for some of the newer stuff, but because the MSG shows had such a high fanclub turnout, the reaction is better than expected. This is a fun, hard song.

In My Tree: This is a new, slower version of the song off of No Code. This is one of my all-time favorite songs, and they nailed the new version this time. This was the first tour they tried it this way, and it worked.

Cropduster: Also a new song. Good, but for the casual fan nothing spectacular.

Even Flow: Mike totally owns the middle jam, and the crowd goes nuts for it.

Gimme Some Truth: John Lennon cover. It was nice to see.

I Am Mine: This is prefaced by a nice speech from Eddie about Sept 11. You have to rewind to the end of the previous song to hear it. Good version as well.

Low Light: Had I not seen it a few days earlier I would have gone nuts. They broke it out in Boston on 7/3 for the first time in 5 years and the place went nuts. They also went nuts at MSG.

Faithfull: Great hard-rocking song from "Yield"

Wishlist/(Why Can't I Touch It?): Great light show for this, and the tag at the end is a Buzzcocks cover. Before the show, 3 members of PJ came out when the Buzzcocks finished their set and played this song with them. Great crowd singalong!

Lukin: 1-minute rocker from No Code that goes right into the next song

Grievance: Good hard song, was nominated for a grammy 3 years ago.

1/2 Full: Gotta love Ed w/ the mirror during this one. Great guitar from Mike on this song...very bluesy.

Black: Decent version. Great solo at the end from Mike. There are better versions, but this is pretty good.

Spin The Black Circle: Great hard song circa 95. A crowd pleaser.

Rearviewmirror: Awesome first set closer. Insane ending, crowd and band going nuts w/ the strobe lights.

enc 1:

You Are: Nice light show, great vibe to this song.

Thumbing My Way: Good slow song from the last album.

Daughter/(With My Own Two Hands): This was around the time I realized it had gone beyond being just a great show to being something special. Ben Harper comes out and sings the Two Hands tag w/ the band. I still get chills watching it. The crowd loves it.

Crown Of Thorns: Crowd going nuts by this point. It is a Mother Love Bone cover, which is Stone/Jeff's band before PJ that broke up when the lead singer died of an overdose. They played it twice on the 2000 tour (the first time being at their 10th anniv show), and twice on the 2003 show. I never thought I'd see it.

Breath: Yeah, the band is on fire at this point. Breath was the song they broke out at the MSG II show in 98 for the first time in years. It's special to see them play it there again.

Better Man: Not a particularly great version, but the crowd singing the first verse alone makes it worth listening to.

Do The Evolution: Watch the band during this...they start freaking out. Eddie gives a speech after the intermission explaining why. Considering Roskilde 2000, it's totally understandable. You could literally feel the floor moving if you stood still. MSG is raised off of ground level, and the crowd was going so nuts that they caused the whole place to shake. Watch Ed in particular.

enc 2:

Crazy Mary: 1 word: RIP. That's all I have to say

Indifference: Ed re-introduces Ben Harper. They have played this with Ben a couple of times before. This was my first time seeing this older song and I was loving it.

Sonic Reducer: Buzzcocks' member comes out. This is an old Dead Boys cover. I had never seen it live either and it was great. Maybe not as intense as it was on the early tours, but still rocking.

Baba O'Riley: Another Buzzcocks' member comes out. I will *never* forget the look on the usher's face next to me when the crowd sang the middle bridge part. He just had this huge grin on his face, like "wow, that was freaking cool as hell!!!"

Yellow Ledbetter: Nice closer, with Ed mumbling some new lyrics. Not a great version by any means, but different which is always good.

I'm not sure I can say enough about this show. I have never seen so many people leave a show speechless with their jaws on the ground.

The DVD is a small window to the band holding the Rock and Roll Torch on one night. A window to a tour of a band at its peak...can they get better?

The members of Pearl Jam truly love music and it shows. They wear their influences on their sleeves, The Who, The Ramones, The Buzzcocks, Iron Maiden (McCready), and it shows in their genuine wish to put on a good performance worth the money of a concert ticket. The night filmed at Madison Square Garden in NYC may not have been their highlight concert from 2003's Riot Act tour but it's a cross-section of one night with the band. And if you are a fan and happened to miss PJ on that tour, it's one way to be a part of what happened.

Boom Gaspar is a benefit added addition to the PJ 5 and truly elevates Crazy Mary with an inspired Hammond Organ romp. Though Eddie is in the spotlight, each band member contributes and the camera spends isn't mono-mano focused on Ed the whole time. It's the little things you get to see in concert recordings that make the DVD worth the price of admission. Mike McCready loses himself from time to time becoming some alter-ego guitar god. You can tell when it happens because his eyes are closed head faced upwards, in the zone. His guitar playing becomes otherworldly wicked. The man can play. The DVD reveals each member has his talents...Jeff Ament has the groove and energy, Stone Gossard has a knack for songcraft (though his guitar skills are better left providing rhythm and not lead), Matt Cameron has a precise straightforward drumming style (and gifted musically evidenced by his song You Are), Eddie is truly gifted, but Mike McCready elevates the band above just another good Rock and Roll outfit. The free-flow jam on "Even Flow," is always good but this night stands out. Each band member plays off the other and Stone Gossard give McCready room to soar. Other guitarist maybe more technical, other guitarist may be more speedy, other guitarist may have more individual style, but McCready truly adds soul to all elements of his playing. It's truly a notch above in Rearviewmirror, Crown of Thorns, Yellow Ledbetter...how he plays the keyboard part of Baba O'Riley will boggle the mind...in fact I would dub it mind-boggling.

There are fun extras here watching Eddie ape Bush in Bushleaguer, a "Fortunate Son," montage of all the bands PJ played with in the Riot Act tour, a wonderfully talented solo performance of Eddie's Dead Man (get Lost Dogs for the studio version). Pearl Jam has lasting power and outlived the hype of the "grunge" movement in the early 90's. Other bands that got caught up in the overwhelming pressure of popularity that movement caused either aren't around anymore or aren't relevant. This Disc captures a band that has stayed true to its roots and true to the music. Don't miss a concert in your very own living room with one of the best bands playing today in their prime.

An absolute must have if you love good rock & roll. The other reviews basically said it all. Black, Breath, guest appearances, etc are wonderful. Dead man (Ed solo before the Boston show) was great.

ALSO- Hunger Strike (Temple of the dog) is hiding on disk 1. Was from Mexico City with Corrin Tucker from Sleater-Kinney doing Chris Cornell's part. A very pleasant surprise which is undocumented anywhere. Press display and go to chapter 2 on the disk.

I remember a friend of mine coming back from the city and talking non-stop about the Pearl Jam show he had been to the night before. I love Pearl Jam, but it was getting on my nerves...(maybe i was just upset I didn't go!) But anyway, when the DVD came out, I bought it, and watched. I haven't stopped kicking myself for not going to the show. All of the songs are played so well. The second disc is my favorite. The first time I saw "Daughter" I just was entranced, and as soon as they broke into "With my own two hands" with ben harper, I knew that this show was superior to any other. "Indifference" is played so well that I almost broke into tears. I got chills when PJ played "baba" as an "encore" and as the rest of the band walked off stage, mike mcready started to play "ledbetter" as one last song. Don't just buy this DVD. Buy it and be glad your a human being.

I agree that if you compare, say, the concert shown in the video for "Even Flow" to the performance of the same song on this DVD, there is a significant difference in the band's energy. It's ALMOST like that video was filmed some 12 years before this concert was performed. Almost. Pearl Jam has grown extensively with each album, especially their most recent studio effort RIOT ACT. The nature of the lyrics and the intricacies of the music do not beg to be performed by five guys jumping all over the place (check out the absolutely incredible performance of Matt Cameron's "You Are"). The subdued nature of most of this performance fits the maturity that not only highlights new material, but is being applied to past classics (check the interesting new tempo of "In My Tree"). Even with that being said, the band still rocks out plenty on this DVD (check out the Matt Cam feature, and the performances of "Last Exit" and "Baba O'Riley", plus plenty of others). I saw Pearl Jam on this tour, and this is a perfect representation of where the band stands today: a mature, innovative hard rock outfit, and my favorite band in modern music.

To basically generalize this amazing and mindblowing DVD by Pearl Jam is if you like alternative rock or even rock for that matter this DVD is a must buy for you. The DVD captures the total energy and greatness produced a 2003 Pearl Jam concert in New York City @ Madison Square Garden. The DVD has some high points, such as the energy of "Baba O'Riley" a The Who cover, "Crown of Thorns" which was a great tune from the former band Mother Love Bone and also the large disco ball covering the whole arena during the classic song "Wishlist". Those are just some great points but basically the whole DVD is great and solid in preformance and the tons of bonus footage of "Bushleaguer" "Down" and a tribute to the band and crew in the end with "All Those Yesterdays" is plus as well

I must say that this is just an amazing dvd, I just got it yesterday and can't stay away from watching it. Having such songs as an excelent version of "In my tree" from their best album to me "No code" is already worth the prize. Also songs like Yellow ledbetter and Black and of course new songs like I am mine, love boat captain and the beautiful thumbing my way it's such a plasure. If you like rock n' roll at its best go buy this dvd right now!!!!!

It seems that no matter how people feel about Pearl Jam, there's always something to be said. Give credit to a band who was never supposed to make it, made it, was never supposed to survive making it, survived, and is now experimenting and flexing its own creative muscles outside of the Sony box.

This DVD has a damn good performance. Is it legendary? Probably not, and it certainly isn't the greatest of all PJ concerts. HOWEVER, that being said, Pearl Jam is the one band you can always count on to never cheat the audience, to never let them down. They stay as long as they can (their average set is almost twice as long as most bands, and their tickets half the cost), and play as hard as they can. Nobody can argue that.

This concert was special for many reasons and if you come for the music and for the special guests, you'll be more than happy, you'll have the surround sound CRANKED and you'll be screaming along side by side with the video. It is a concert that draws you in as you see a band who has aged and matured alongside you for the last 13 years. They are not the best band ever, (and this is coming from a big PJ fan) but they are a damn good band who has never wavered in their mission to produce solid rock and roll that THEY as PEOPLE would want to go see themselves.

Buy the DVD, turn it on, crank it up, and watch a band who has earned the respect of their peers and of their own idols. The Buzzcocks don't just tour with anyone, folks, and they lend their own unique sound to a show that needed just a little filling out. And it works. Sing along because I told you so, and because you know you will. And because your neighbors need to hear some rock and roll.

I did. LOL. go.

I am one of the biggest pearl jam supporters since they broke big back in the early 90's and they have never disappointed me and this dvd just reassures me that they never will. i was able to get the cd lost dogs and the dvd on the saturday before the public could buy the cd/dvd by ordering through pearljamstoreonline and i was instantly blown away. the entire band has such a great chemistry and are able to connect with every fan inside the garden. highlights for me that stand out is the crowd singing the chorus of betterman to the band (definetly got some chills there), indifference w/ ben harper (simply b/c it might be my favorite PJ song ever), and baba o riley (teenage wasteland for those not familiar w/ the who or havent heard PJ cover it before) the band along w/ steve diggle of the buzzcocks had so much energy even after an over 2.5 hour set...just amazing LONG LIVE PEARL JAM and ALL THE TRUE LOYAL FANS THAT HAVE STUCK WITH THEM

While this certainly isn't the best pearl jam concert ever it isn't the worst either. The first disc starts a little slow..but you can't argue with getting to hear song's like "In My Tree" and "Faithfull".

Highlights are:

Love Boat Captain...a nice opener. One of the best of riot act song's for sure.

In My Tree, one of, if not my favorite pj songs. Not quite as rocking as the 2000 tour performances but still great.

Gimme Some Truth. Maybe not a technically perfect perfomance but heartfelt and passionate. Good john lennon cover.

Even Flow. Always great.

Spin the black circle...the band starts to get more into the show after this rocking performance.

Thumbing My Way...just a great slow song.

Breath. In my opinion the best performance of the show...just great.

Crown of Thorns. I really like this version of the song...played well whether you think ed should sing it or not.

Baba O'Reilly. The classic "who" song. A great performance. Just try to sit still during this one.

I would reccomend this dvd to anyone that is a pearl jam fan already but if you're not then I would start with some of their studio albums first.