Pearl Jam 2011-09-07 Bell Centre Montreal, Canada

 Bell Centre,
Montreal, Canada - September 7, 2011.

Mudhoney Opened.
Source: Sony Electret Condensor, Plug-In Type ECM-DS70P Mic. > Sony MD MZ-NH700 @ Hi-SP.
Transfer: MiniDisc Optical Out > Sonic Stage V2.1.02.09031 > Soundblaster Live > Sound Forge 7.0 > Wave > CD Wave Split > cd-r.
Location: Red Level, Section 101, Row P, Seat 4.  About 60' From the Left Stack of Speakers.
Quality: Very Good+/Excellent-, 8/10 Rating.
Taper & Transfer: PBelle.

Set List:

Disc 1: 73:27 Minutes.

1.Introduction - Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town 5:22
2.Last Exit 2:32
3.Hail Hail 4:09
4.The Fixer 4:28
5.Amongst the Waves 3:55
6.Severed Hand 4:52
7.Setting Forth 1:30
8.Corduroy 5:16
9.Given to Fly 5:34
10.Insignificance 4:44
11.Daughter - Blitzkrieg Bop (The Ramones) 6:39
12.Glorified G 3:38
13.Half Full 4:49
14.Do the Evolution 4:18
15.Unthought Known 3:48
16.Why Go 3:29
17.Encore Break #1 - Eddie Talks 4:16

Disc 2: 78:05 Minutes.

1.Evenflow 8:40
2.Come Back 6:03
3.Sleight of Hand 4:18
4.Down 3:13
5.Black 9:11
6.Arms Aloft (Bullen, Shields, Slatterly, Stafford, Strummer) 4:28
7.Lukin' 0:51
8.Porch 7:26
9.Encore Break #2 (Edited - Changed MD) 2:27
10.Eddie Thanks the Audience* 2:48
11.Betterman 5:37
12.Crazy Mary (Victoria Williams) 8:21
13.Alive 8:01
14.Yellow Ledbetter - Goodnight (Outro) 6:35

151:32 Minutes.

* Eddie thanks the crowd and says Montreal was a great place to start the tour.  He then reads his horoscope in the local paper which suggests he should avoid glum people and needs to surround himself with happy, laughing people today.

Montreal Gazette Concert Review:

Before Pearl Jam unleashed their encore set near the end of a triumphant concert at the Bell Centre Wednesday night, lead vocalist Eddie Vedder read from his horoscope, which recommended that he avoid people and places that depress him and instead go where there is music and people are happy.  He took the advice.

Just over 15,000 people showed up for the kickoff stop on the group’s 20th-anniversary Canadian tour. The faithful came prepared to celebrate, with lung-busting and throat-shredding intensity, the band’s happy milestone.

One of the best ways one can assess what Pearl Jam has accomplished in its career is by examining what it is not. Mudhoney’s 45-minute opening set was very helpful in that regard.

The grunge pioneers, who, like Pearl Jam, hail from Seattle, alternated between their three favourite tempos – vacuum cleaner, washing machine and Magic Bullet – and showed exactly why grunge’s shelf life had to be limited. While we owe the sub-genre a debt for bringing guitars back into the game, it was – and is – just too tuneless and one-dimensional.

Mudhoney screamed, flailed away and thrashed about as the crowd filtered in, letting their deafening volume collide with the arena’s execrable acoustics. The sound was so bad that you had to take it on faith that the members were playing and Mark Arm was singing in the same key.

When Pearl Jam opened their two-and-a-half-hour set with the gentle, acoustic-guitar-driven Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town, it became clear that they brought a sense of songcraft, musicianship and dynamics to the table. Along the way, they incorporated the simple truths of real rock n’ roll. The terms “grunge” or “alternative” can only be an explanatory footnote in their career.

The beat picked up with drummer Matt Cameron hammering out the steady thwack of Last Exit and Hail Hail as bassist Jeff Ament locked in and snaky, unusual chord patterns filled the room. Vedder, bless his heart, took on the awful sound and wailed for all he was worth.

It’s been said that Mike McCready’s solos caused Kurt Cobain to label the band sellouts at the dawn of their career. Well, we don’t know where the lamented Kurt would be in his career had he lived, but it was easily observable on Wednesday night that McCready’s chops are a crucial and enduring part of the Pearl Jam equation.  He gleefully played guitar god more than once during the evening, firing out soulful licks, overdrive noise, grandstanding showstoppers and just plain lyrical constructions, as required.

This was clearly a band rejuvenated and inspired. At the half-way mark of their set, having maintained a breathless pace, they still seemed like they were only clearing their throat.

The fans responded to the group’s evident intensity with a sort of non-stop communal intensity, sharing the choruses with such gusto that Vedder simply leaned back and basked in it a few times. If he praised the audience once, he praised it a dozen times, expressing, before the encores, his delight that Montreal was the tour’s first stop. With that, Pearl Jam closed the night with crowd-pleasers, including Better Man and Alive.

Let’s drink to the next 20.

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Isa.

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