Welcome to In The Present Tense!------------------------------Celebrating 20 Years of Pearl Jam

Friday, September 28, 2007

Three More 2006 Bootlegs

Three more bootlegs from the 2006 European tour have been added to the 2006 bootleg section! Both of the amazing Lisbon shows and the Pistoia show that was featured in the Immagine in Cornice DVD are ready for download.

I really enjoyed the Pistoia show a lot. After watching Immagine and seeing the spectacular venue I finally got around to burning this to disc and giving it a good listen. It's a really special and powerful performance as are all of the Italian shows!

"We thank the city of Pistoia for letting us fill its air with our music. We invite you to sing so that your voices reach the sky." EV - Pistoia, Italy 9/20/2006

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Immagine In Cornice - My Review

In the mail the other day I received my long awaited copy of the new Pearl Jam DVD, Immagine In Cornice (a.k.a. Picture In A Frame). When I opened the mailbox and saw that brown envelope with the Ten Club return address on it the excitement built rapidly. I hurried into the house and carefully cut open the envelope with scissors so I didn't risk any damage to the DVD packaging. From the moment I held it in my hands and paged through the accompanying photos I knew I was in for something special when I finally got to watch the video. It wasn't until Tuesday that I had some free time to sit down and take it in. What an absolutely amazing piece of art!! The concert footage is absolutely crystal clear and sound quality is superb! The real treat however is the behind the scenes footage of the band and fans that makes this something special! Mike McCready describes how he used to wait outside the concert venues for bands like Def Leppard and Motorhead in hopes of catching a moment with the band members while footage of him signing autographs for some lucky fans is displayed. Jeff Ament is shown jumping the fence to a skate park to get in some board time while on the road. I thought it was especially cool to see how the guys come up with the set list for a show and talk about how they really go by the feel of the crowd when choosing songs for the encores. The footage of Ed and Mike jamming out to Lukin on acoustic guitars outside one of the venues is priceless as is the small snippet of some fans jamming out to Porch out on the sidewalk before the show!

I have to say that this is the best DVD Pearl Jam has released. It's not often you get to see the real human side of these guys. We tend to put them on a pedestal but they're just human like the rest of us. They laugh, they cry, they get scratchy throats from singing every night. They have children (the footage of Ed and daughter Olivia is truly moving). I came away just wanting more and more. So I watched it again and... I appreciated even more the second time. The sites and sounds of Italy are captured magically. The joy of the fans is overwhelming. Ed playing Immortality to an empty arena is chilling. Boom playing the organ inside an amazing, old, empty church is haunting... you can tell he was moved almost to tears. And then of course there's the music. The reason we are all drawn to these few human beings in the first place. Absolutely solid performances of some true classics. Really nice to see Alive on a DVD for the first time! You find any rarities on this disk but one can't deny the power of songs like Blood and Comatose or the intimacy of Comeback. This is a beautiful DVD. If you were thinking of passing on this one because the track list is not so diverse do yourself a favor and just go get it. You won't be disappointed. You've never seen the band like this before. Amazing!

Here's a bit of teaser...

2000 and 2006 updates!

The 2000 bootleg section has been updated with the Dublin Ireland show from 6/1. Review provided by Two Feet Thick...

Ed is in a chatty mood, proposing a toast to Dublin, mentioning that the crowd had waited two albums for them to come to The Point again. He adds, "That's what we did ... how 'bout you? What did you do? You all grew up. You all became a bunch of thieves. You broke out of prison just so you could come here (a note about a local news story about early release of political prisoners under the terms of the Good Friday agreement). Now you have a taste of freedom ... here's to your new found freedom." Ed dedicates a wonderful version of 'Off He Goes' to the fair people of Donegal, noting "all six of 'em are right over there." After 'Alive,' Ed blesses the crowd with liquid from his wine bottle and Stone comments, "I think tonight was one of those nights where we probably shouldn't have played that song." Before 'Go,' Ed tells the crowd a lengthy story (full of Irish wit and wisdom) about a farmer, his son and his horses, which is a big crowd pleaser. 'Go' finishes with Mike making Hendrix/Townshend type contortions with his guitar while Ed sings lyrics from the Crowded House song, 'Don't Dream It's Over.' At the beginning of the encore Ed tells the crowd, "If you're not goin' we're not goin'." After 'DTE,' Ed mentions that Monkeywrench opened up for them in London and some of the members of that band used to be in Mudhoney and that the next song was written about one of their members, leading to 'Lukin.' After 'Better Man,' Ed says that if the crowd's up for it they'll play a song they haven't played in a long time (and that the band would remember the fact that they tried it out in Dublin), leading to 'Garden' - definitely a treat. (He asks the front row for help with the second verse.) 'Black' is introduced as a tragic little song. At the end of 'Black,' Ed covers himself with black tape, climbs up on the speaker at the right hand side of the stage and jumps into the crowd, where he is treated with superhero respect. A fantastic finish to a great concert. Other highlights: a huge, magnificent Better Man (Ed made it disco!), dancing on the intro of 'DTE', 'RVM' - as good as it's meant to be, while 'Insignificance' and 'Lukin' are powerful. Mike ON FIRE and the solos on 'NAIS' and 'Alive' were stand outs. Songs from Binaural are received like old favorites (although not particularly 'Insignificance') throughout and the Yield tracks never performed in Europe before especially (particularly 'Given To Fly').

Also added were three shows to the 2006 bootelg section. Arnhem, Barcelona, and Vitoria!! Enjoy the music!!

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Big Day for the UK!!

Three updates today! The 2000 bootleg section has been updated with the 5/29/2000 show from London, UK at Wembley arena. Also added was the Glasgow, Scotland show form 6/3/2000. The Glasgow show is dedicated to sj.brodie from the Message Pit! Enjoy the show sj!

The 2006 section has also been updated with the Leeds Festival show from 8/25/2006! Enjoy the shows!!

Thanks to jaymz69 for the Wembley show!!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

The People Have Spoken!!

Thanks to those of you that participated in the poll to see which 2006 bootleg would be posted next! The votes have been counted and the the winning show, Antwerp, Belgium has been posted! More European bootlegs coming soon! Stay tuned.

Two Feet Thick notes on the Antwerp show:
TFT Notes: This show marks the first show in Belgium since ... ever! Pearl Jam previously had cancellations in 1992 (07/04/92 - Torhout Festival, 07/05/92 - Werchter Festival) and the 07/02/00 Werchter Festival following the Roskilde tragedy. The audience sang the "doo doo-doo"s at the end of "Black" and repeated it for minutes, with the band eventually stopping and Ed signaled to the crowd we gave him goose bumps. Wolfmother's Andrew Stockdale joins the band for "Hunger Strike". More notes coming soon!

The FLAC3 link for the Slovenia 2000 show has been reuploaded and is active again. I had accidently deleted that file when I was doing some cleanup. If you haven't gotten that show yet I highly recommend it!! Enjoy!

Another correction: The FLAC4 and FLAC5 link for the Sydney 2/11/2003 show contained the same files. FLAC5 has been reuploaded with the correct files! That should do it for corrections I hope. Sorry for the inconvenience on that one.

Also and addition to the 2000 bootleg section with the San Sebastian, Spain show from 5/26/2000!! Thanks to Jaymz69 for uploading this one for us! I haven't listened to this one yet but I'll throw a comment up after I give it a spin.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Three Shows Added to 2006 Section

The 2006 bootleg section has been updated with three amazing shows! An unofficial bootleg of the London, England show at Astoria from 4/20/06. This is a decent fan recording and a very good show. Also added were the San Diego show which features a super performance of "Long Road" along with the story behind the song told by Ed. L"Long Road" is followed by "Comeback" which is extremely fitting after you hear the story leading into "Long Road". Overall, an amazing show hailed as one of the best of the tour by many of the Pearl Jam faithful!

Show number three is Melbourne III. The Australian tour was absolutely awesome and this show is probably one of the best. The following are the show notes from Two Feet Thick:
TFT Notes: A slightly quicker tempo "Long Road" opened the show that began at 8:47 PM local time. Ed pushed his microphone and stand to his monitors with a thrust after the first verse of "Do The Evolution", then grabbed the mic cord and pulled on it hand over hand to get the mic back in time to sing verse two. Lyrical addition at end of "Dissident" is "Escape is never the safest path, but you gotta do it anyway!" During "Given To Fly", a cloud effect is created by the lights shining on the white screen that surrounds the stage behind Matt. GTF includes lyrical change: "Made it the ocean smoked a joint in a tree." Ed comments about the unseasonably cold weather in Melbourne by mentioning that although the band weren't allowed liquids on the plane, they did bring the Seattle weather with them. He thanked the crowd for filling the 15,000 seat arena for three nights, and that he hoped to play it with the roof open (the arena has a retractable roof as the venue is used for the Australian Open Tennis Championship), that they'd have to try it next time. He asked for help from the crowd for "Love Boat Captain" to aid his weary voice, telling them when he says "love" they should say "love". The crowd claps along with Ed and Boom in the beginning. For Matt's drum solo in "Even Flow", solid royal blue light fills the screen behind him. Ed tells each of the band members of a setlist change, and introduces "Sad" as a request from row ... correcting it to row 10 as he spotted the people with the sign. During the first verse of "Present Tense", the video screen shows a close up of Ed's hand, which he has positioned into the shape of a tree. When he says "tree bends", he slowly bends one of his finger "branches". The crowd strongly sings the end of the first chorus "makes much more sense to live in the present tense." Matt joins in on verse two with some tribal drumming using timpani mallets. On the quiet "cuz there is just you" verse of "Save You", the crowd claps a 1-2-1-2-3 beat the entire time. Ed hammers out 11 windmills to finish off "Rearviewmirror" and the main set at 10:05 p.m. Ed starts the first encore at 10:07 p.m. by telling the crowd "I reckon we ain't gonna be here for yonks" so the band would play a bunch more songs. The crowd were booing, and Ed wondered if it was because they wouldn't be back for a while or for his attempt to say it in "Australian". During "Black", Ed turned the mic around and let the crowd sing "I'm spinnin', Oh I'm spinnin". At songs end, Ed sings "Pull me up... pull me out ... We didn't belong together." Stone strums along, and for the entire end of the song repeatedly puts his leg in front of him and then pulls it back, then bending at the waist and pointing to the floor in time with the music. Lyrical change on "State of Love and Trust": "I don't trust myself ... myyyyyself." During "Alive" a mirror ball bathes the crowd as everyone sings "Oh I, Oh I'm still alive", and after the "yeah yeah yeah yeah" at songs end, Ed climbs up behind Boom and stands behind him with his hands on Boom's shoulders while he plays the song out, hugging him from behind. Ed jumps off, landing pretty hard on his back, rolling over and lays there for a minute to recover before "Rockin' in the Free World". Ed seemed a little unsteady, and got two tambourines just toward the very end of the song to give out.

Friday, September 7, 2007

San Francisco III

The San Francisco, CA 7/18/2006 show has been added to the 2006 bootleg section! All three San Fran shows are now available for download. They are all great shows! Enjoy!

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Ed & Mike Tibetan Freedom Concert 1997

Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready 1997-06-08 TFC Downing Stadium New York , NY

Source:
SBD > Beta-SP video master > Sony TCD-D8 > DAT > CD-R

First Set:
01 Corduroy
02 Yellow Ledbetter
03 Rockin' in the Free World
04 Long Road (with Michael Stipe and Mike Mills)

FLAC http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SL7KELTW

Converted to MP3 using Switch at 320kbps

MP3s http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZGP410F3

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

More 2006 FLACs coming soon!!

We are in the process of getting a lot more 2006 shows available in FLAC format for your enjoyment. Please voice your opinion in the poll to the right to let us know which of those European shows you would like to see next here on ITPT. Thanks and check back soon for more downloads!! Peace.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

San Francisco II

The 2006 Bootleg section has been updated with night two of three from San Fran California. Another great setlist and from what I've heard a great peformance. Enjoy!