This is the only live Pearl Jam album one needs to own.
Far better than Live On Two Legs and a step above the other 71 live releases from the Binaural Tour, the second show in Seattle is also the final show on the tour. And, as one would expect, the band pulls out all the stops to create a memorable evening.
The Seattle show is notable in that the crowd energy feeds into a lot of the songs, likely because the band returned home after 10 years of being together, and the energy crackles through the three discs. Much of the music is spread across the Jam's career, hitting the obvious highlights from the early days ("Go," "Jeremy," "Even Flow") up to the Binaural songs, but everything sounds fresh and vital.
Disc 2 is the strongest, with a blistering rendition of "Lukin" segueing nicely into "Not For You," which then goes into a 10-minute take on "Daughter." As usual, singer Eddie Vedder stretches this song out, but instead of taking snippets from other songs, he does a call and response with the audience that is just wonderful, proving why the band has such a strong fan base.
The third disc features mostly covers, including the Who's "Baba O'Riley" and "The Kids Are Alright," as well as the forgettable "Crazy Mary." Of course, "Yellow Ledbetter" closes the show, and the band also plays "Alive," the only time it was played on the North American tour. Amazing stuff.
Had it been confined to those two discs, it would have been perfect, but the first disc has a few missteps. The songs are executed well, but they're not the band's best work -- tunes like "Dissident, "Leatherman," "Release" and "In Hiding" were not that great to begin with, and don't get better here. Of course, for every clunker there is a great tune to balance it out ("Corduroy," "Nothing As It Seems," the always-great "Rearviewmirror,") but as a whole the first disc just seems like a buildup for what's to come.
Pearl Jam never sounded better live, even when I saw them in concert in July 2003, and that was a great show. But Seattle is the best live document the band has and will ever release, hands down. It's only fitting that it was recorded in their hometown among the fans who knew them from the beginning.
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