Customer Reviews

Perth Australia: February 23rd 2003

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A few years back, one of the members of Pearl Jam walked into a record store to find one of their concerts on a bootleg that was priced at an atrocious [price]. They then decided, whether it made money or not, that they would release all of their concerts from the 2000 World Tour on CD and price them affordably. This translated to over 70 double CDs and one three disk, "Official Bootleg." They set a Billboard record for having 6 of these sets on the top 100 albums at once.

They have again decided to produce their tour in this way; this time on a much smaller scale. This show in Perth, Australia is one of two set for mass release from the overseas leg of the tour.

They play a lot of new material from "Riot Act" and quite a bit that is off of their previous records. They also drop a few tracks from their "unreleased" catalog, and even a few covers (a pearl jam staple).

The highlights are many. They play the almost forgotten: "Jeremy." It sounded great. The hits are all there save for "Black" & "Dissident." Victoria Williams' "Crazy Mary" is always a treat.

Overall, this is one of the best bootlegs released thus far. They play a healthy mix from all of the albums. . . It is rather amazing trip into the past of this iconic rock group.

epc

Thanks to iTunes, I have been able to procure most of the 2003 bootlegs. Unfortunately, Neil Young's 'Rockin' in the Free World' is never available, which kinda makes a lot of shows incomplete. But regardless. This is definitely the best of the Australian leg bootlegs. Being that this is only the tenth show, there are still some mistakes. The worst of which is at the beginning of 'Gods' Dice' where Eddie starts way late. Also, another thing that's damaging to the concert is a rather quiet crowd, which fails Eddie in not singing at the end of 'Jeremy'. Not to knock the Australians at all, but one could just imagine Eddie's face showing a little disappointment in the crowd at that point.

I think the highlight of the whole show is actually the opener, 'Long Road'. All other versions I've heard have a strange twang on them that wasn't there during the 2000 Binaural tour, and this is definitely due to Eddie Vedder switching his guitar from the Fender Telecaster to the Gibson SG with its P90 pickups. But here, something is different, and the opening is much darker with the higher strings not really registering. Mike McCready's guitar is also unusually loud on this one, which is actually really great to hear. 'Save You' also sounds good here. A lot of feedback and such in the beginning, with Mike then hitting the intro, which is quite uncommon in any Pearl Jam song, with that job usually being taken by Stone Gossard. 'Get Right', a great song written by Matt Cameron also sounds quite good, and moves well into yet another good Riot Act song, 'Cropduster'. Eddie's vocals on 'Habit' actually sound much better here than most other parts of the entire tour, making this a good closer of the first disc. Ironically, the band seems to do best on their newest songs in this concert, with a great take on the trippy 'You Are' and '1/2 Full'. Now here's where I'm really conflicted. The songs that follow are rather mediocre, which can easily blamed on the fact that it's still early in the tour. But the last few songs of this show are actually some of the best versions of the tour. Eddie's duet with Mark Seymour on 'Throw Your Arms Around Me' is absolutely beautiful, which goes into a rather short rendition of 'Alive'. But surprisingly, this isn't the closer. Instead it is the classic CCR tune 'Fortunate Son' that salutes farewell to Australia, with a rather cool sounding intro from Johnny Mar and the Healers, and a very long goodbye to the continent.

While definitely not being one of the best of the whole tour, this concert definitely has a couple memorable songs, and is a definite buy for any real fans of Pearl Jam. But if someone were looking to buy something to give them a good look at the band performing the hell out of a place, one should definitely try the second New York show, or the mammoth State College bootleg.

As they did in 2000, in 2003, Pearl Jam decided to beat bootleggers by releasing every show they performed, although this time rather than flood the market with 72 releases, they decided only a select few would end up in retail outlets. This show, from Perth, Australia, is the earliest of the commercially available releases, and the only one from the Australian tour (although one from Japan, eight days later is also available).

It feels like on this show that the band saved their best performances for the more recent material-- it works out ok since seven of the songs come from the last album-- take the beginning of the show, after opener "Long Road" (fantastically performed), "Save You" and "Gods' Dice" are powerful, intense, and boiling. The intensity seems to let up a bit for the next few songs, although in there are great readings of "Cropduster" and a fantastic "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" (and if I'm not mistaken the only time Vedder gets the lyrics right on the whole Australian tour) and some fantastic vocals (both lead and harmony) on new song "Cropduster".

The last portion of the first disc sees the intensity rise again with powerful readings of "I Am Mine", "Love Boat Captain" (even if it does funble a bit in the opening strains) and "MFC". The intensity keeps up even as the pieces slow down at the beginning of the second disc, with an unnervingly brilliant performances of "You Are" and "Wishlist".

Pearl Jam is known for their marathon encores, this show being no exception with seven songs performed in two encores-- the first is more hits oriented, with a fumbled "Do the Evolution" joined by "Betterman", "Daughter", and "Crazy Mary". The second encore is a pair of covers around "Alive". Closer "Fortunate Son" is a lot of fun, with one the openers joining in.

Truth to be told, the band put on better shows during this tour, but whats amazing is what a value these sets are-- they're priced rather nicely and are pretty much all worth having. Recommended.

I own all the mass-produced 2003 bootlegs, in addition to the show I attended in Chicago, and a dozen of the 2000 bootlegs. I listen to this one more than any of the other 2003 sets, and more than a lot of the 2000's. The opener, "Long Road", is nothing short of stunning. After that, they rock hard through the next 8 songs, including good takes on Evenflow and Jeremy, obvious crowd favorites. The 20-song main set does flag a bit by the end: Insignificance and Go are two of my personal favorites, and I don't feel the band does either one justice here. They redeem themselves with an excellent encore, though, and the "Throw Your Arms Around Me" performance with Mark Seymour is wonderful. They included as an extra on the tour DVD and it's probably the best thing on it.

Due to a fractured ankle, I am currently confined at home on medical leave. The beauty to that is that other than wine and cigars, I've had a chance to revisit my entire Pearl Jam collection.

I am a big Pearl Jam fan and have all their studio alblums, and all 25 boots of their European 2000 series.

Having listened to these again, I can't believe how good a studio band Pearl Jam is, but more amazingly so, how great a live band they are. In my mind, a live boot from Pearl Jam is always worth the money, and my listening ratio of live boots to studio albums is about 6:1.

Perth Australia is the only boot I have of Pearl Jam's 2003 tour series. Pearl Jam's boots are hard to come by in Singapore where I live.

I rate it 4 stars.

It is not great (but my standard for rating Pearl Jam is ridiculously high as these guys are just so good!), but very good --- good enough for me to want to lay my hands on every 2003 Pearl Jam boot that they release and which I can find.

In fact, after re-listening to my European 2000 boots and this Perth Australia boot, I have re-energised my commitment to purchase, own, and enjoy every bootleg that Pearl Jam releases.

Having read the roaring reviews of hard-core Pearl Jam fans for the boots from State College and Mansfield, I can immediately tell you that if you only want to buy the best 2003 boots, then just go for these 2.

If, however, you're like me, who is an avid collector and fan, and who is able to thereby find beauty in every concert CD that Pearl Jam plays on, then you will also want to get this to complete your 2003 bootleg collection.

All in all, Perth Australia is a very solid concert, with strong enthusiastic performances from all band members.

Had the set list been longer, and if the band had played in a tighter, more vicious and desperate style (which I particularly like), it will have warranted 5-stars.

First off, the set list:
Long Road, Save You, Gods' Dice, Corduroy, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Get Right, Cropduster, Jeremy, Small Town, I Am Mine, Love Boat Captain, MFC, Improv, Habit, You Are, Wish List, 1/2 Full, Insignificance, Go;
1st encore: Do The Evolution, Better Man, Daughter, Crazy Mary;
2nd encore: Throw your Arms Around Me [w/Mark Seymour], Alive, Fortunate Son [w/Johnny Marr](by Creedence Clearwater Revival)

As you can see, this boot is full with a lot of old favorites, (Alive, GO, Even Flow, Jeremy, Small Town, Daughter, Betterman)
Great live songs
(Corduroy, Given to Fly, Crazy Mary)
Probably PJ's 2nd best opener behind Release
(Long Road)
And some new rockin songs
(Save you, LBC, You Are, 1/2 Full, Get Right, Cropduster, I am Mine)

This show is great for the everyday Pearl Jam consumer to get a taste of this leg. However, shows played in the USA this tour have been generally better and longer. Buying this show will hopefully encourage potential buyers to goto PJ's site and buy other boots. BUY THIS BOOTLEG!

I am a huge Pearl Jam Fan and own many of the bootlegs. This one is good, but not great. There are some sections where the band and Eddie just seem out of it, like "Do the Evolution". Eddie forgets his own song. Perhaps it is the wine talking...lol.

This set from Perth, Australia finds Pearl Jam in good spirits and good voice. They perform some of their most well-known songs such as 'Jeremy' and 'Daughter' as well as some material from the new album, 'Riot Act'. At times, the material from 'Riot Act' sounds more interesting and energetic than it did on the album!

Basically, fans can get a good idea of where the band is at this point in time, with some older songs thrown in for nostalgic purposes. There are even some interesting covers thrown in for fun and a guest appearance from Hunters and Collectors front man Mark Seymour thrown in. Even though the set gets a bit lacklustre at times, it's still an interesting listen and well worth a look. Besides, the band seems to be having a good time!

Unfortunately due to work committments I could not attend any LIVE concerts of Pearl Jam when they toured Down-Under. However this double CD pack is the entire concert at Perth on the 23/02/2003. This was to be PJ's 10th and final concert on their Australian leg of the tour and this was one of their best.

Disc 1 is loaded with 15 tracks taken from all their popular albums with hits like 'God's Dice', 'Corduroy', 'Even Flow', 'Jeremy' and 'I am Mine'.

Disc 2 is 14 tracks long and has some oldies and rarities but still fine ones to listen to like 'You Are', 'Go', 'Do The Evolution' and 'Alive'.

All in all this album is worth your money and will keep you entertained with a backdrop of an enthusiastic crowd.

I was at the Perth, Western Australia concert and it was fantastic. If you werent there then this album is obviously the next best thing. Great vibes (and a great city!)