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

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

2004 Update!

The 2004 bootleg section has been updated with the 9/24/04 performance at The Showbox in Seattle!! This was part of the No Vote Left Behind music and arts festival and somewhat of a warm up gig for the Vote For Change tour! Nice setlist and a solid performance in my opinion. Some very good covers including "The American in Me" by The Avengers, "The Seeker" by The Who, and "Masters of War" by Bob Dylan!! Enjoy the show!
attendance: sold out
support act: Smoosh
Ed's pre-set: Don't Be Shy (Included in download)
electric set: Last Exit, Save You, Hail Hail, 1/2 Full, Do The Evolution, The American In Me, Grievance, Love Boat Captain, Insignificance, Given to Fly, U, Go
enc 1 (acoustic): Elderly Woman, Footsteps, Man Of The Hour, Masters Of War, Crazy Mary
enc 2: Even Flow, The Seeker, Down, The New World
notes: PJ's contribution to the No Vote Left Behind music and art festival (with the goal of motivating the youth vote in November to vote out Bush) is this club show at The Showbox. Ed opens with a preset song, 'Don't Be Shy' [a Cat Stevens' song and a nod to the Muslim's (now known as Yusuf Islam) recent skirmish with U.S. officials as a result of his name being on a no-fly list for suspected terrorists]. Ed introduces "two future voters of America," the preteen sister duo Smoosh (Asya and Chloe) who entertain the crowd with a brief set. Rep. Jim McDermott (Washington democrat) provides an introduction for Pearl Jam saying, "If voting becomes the 'in' thing, my generation will be freaked out." Pearl Jam take the stage for an electric set and Boom is there on keyboards. Stone is particularly animated and at one point, his glasses fly off and Ed accidentally steps on them, breaking them! Ed says something to the effect of "this may effect the rest of the gig tonight," and Stone then does a modified duck walk in circles, acting as if he can't see anything, making a funny, cross-eyed face and playing a bunch of disturbingly out of tune riffs. Ed starts laughing (as everyone was) and teases him about how "maybe the show will actually sound better now" or, remarking to the noise from Stone's guitar, "that actually soundsbetter." 'The American In Me' is a song by The Avengers, a California punk band. Returning for an acoustic set, Ed jokes, "We're going to do this next bit sitting down ... not because we're old, because you're old." Dylan's 'Masters Of War' is a slower version featuring the whole band. During Boom's 'Crazy Mary' solo, Mike is near his the back, playing rhythm with his eyes closed and his head back. Boom is going crazy, but the solo went on and on and Boom is looking like he's dying and Mike can jump in any time. Ed walks across the stage, hollers at Mike several times (finally from two feet away) and snaps him out of his trance, Mike looks at Boom and immediately transitions into his solo with Ed and Stone laughing. The encore is electric again, opening with 'Even Flow' and followed by 'The Seeker' (by The Who). Infrequently performed 'Down' is dedicated to Howard Zinn. Introduced as an American hero, John Doe (X) makes a surprise appearance, performing X's 'The New World' with PJ and explaining how it was written when Ronald Reagan was president and Doe references Reagan as "the devil himself." Very little chat at this show, political or otherwise.