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| - As a venue, I'll give Quicken Loans Arena three stars. C'mon! It's pretty much like any other modern arena you've ever been to. It's pretty good for sports, not so great for concerts (I prefer theaters and clubs for live music). It's clean and the sightlines are pretty good. I headed up to Cleveland from the 'Burgh along with my brother Paul and my cousin Cindy for the Pearl Jam concert last night.
Oh but I give the concert itself five stars! See, the three of us grew up on Pearl Jam and have seen them many times. I remember I was about 14 or 15 when they first hit it big in 1991. 1991? Holy cr@p! Am I really 33 now? But lest you think this was some flannel induced nostalgia trip back to the heady days of grunge, think again! Pearl Jam may be the last of the grunge bands, but they're still a musical force to be reckoned with! Unlike Stone Temple Pilots who are trying to "recapture", Pearl Jam is still evolving.
So they began their set with a little bit of an oddity: ""Wash" (a B-side from 1991). From that point on they mixed it up with some of their best known stuff and some numbers from the new "Backspacer" CD. When they played some of their older material ("Why Go", "Daughter", "Even Flow"--man do I remember those Laser Grunge shows at the old Buhl) they did not sound like they were going through the motions the umpteenth time through these. The band did not do "Jeremy", which in a way, I'm glad.
But I thought the songs from the new "Backspacer" came off really well. For the first encore, Eddie Vedder came on singing "Just Breathe" with just his acoustic guitar. Believe me folks, his baritone voice was well suited to this ballad of love and loss. If there was one other number Vedder should have done right after this, it was "Hard Sun" from the "Into the Wild" Soundtrack. Alas, he did not and it would have been very fitting.
Unlike the other bands of its ilk, (STP, Soundgarden, etc), Pearl Jam remains a vital musical force. What could have been a greatest hits concert instead showcased the evolution of this band. Here's hoping Pearl Jam continues to advance with the times.
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