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The last date of the best-documented tour in rock history, Pearl Jam's Seattle, Washington 11/6/00 might be the most important record in the band's entire career. Starting with the dates from the European leg of the tour, then moving through the U.S. East Coast, and finally concluding with the West Coast, every date on Pearl Jam's world tour has been immortalized with its own accompanying CD. Why would the band choose to do this? After listening to this three-disc set, one possible answer looms closer to reality-- it's the last gift to their fans before Pearl Jam calls it quits. "Hello, Seattle, this is it," says lead singer Eddie Vedder after a scorching rendition of "Dissident" (from 1993's Vs.). "One last show, (and) we never play again." After a round of boos, he retreats a little, backpedaling with "at least for quite a while," but it's clear that Vedder and the band are not just tired after a long tour. They're giving some thought to an extended, perhaps permanent, break.
Perhaps better than any other of the "bootleg" releases, it encapsulates the dichotomy of Pearl Jam's iconoclastic catalog. The sweeping set list from the longest show on the tour ranges from the Ten-era anthem rock that made them superstars to the introspective and artsy fare that has characterized their later work. They attack each song the same--with boundless energy and the tight stage savvy of veteran performers. Leading off with a stirring "Release," Vedder's voice bleeds with his now-familiar throaty power, laying into one of the band's signature ballads. He works a similar magic with "Off He Goes" from No Code and "Crazy Mary" (memorably captured on the Victoria Williams benefit record Sweet Relief), as well as Vitalogy's "Betterman," which the Seattle crowd turns into a giant choral number. But Pearl Jam are a rock band, and nowhere is that more apparent than on the start of the second disc, when Vedder and company rip through defining versions of "Even Flow" and "Jeremy," giving guitarist Mike McCready and the rest a proper forum to work the crowd into a sweaty mess.
It has been a wild 10 years since Ten blew the doors off alt-rock, when Vedder and company became worldwide icons and were swept up in the intense, if short-lived, ascendancy of grunge. If it's all coming to an end, it makes this already essential disc that much more so. --Matthew Cooke
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