Ted Leo + Pharmacists/Pearl Jam @ Madison Square Garden, NYC 6/24/08
Our friend Matthew Perpetua (Fluxblog) is a big Pearl Jam fan who hasn't seen the band live in over ten years. Last night we sent him to Madison Square Garden. Here is his review. Photos by Maria Tessa Sciarrino.
If you need to know anything about this concert, it's that Pearl Jam's audience is very, very intense. The Garden was at maximum capacity, and about 96% of the people in the building were flipping out from the beginning of the show all the way to the end of it, about three hours later. I feel like I've been in a lot of good crowds over the past ten years or so, but leaving this Pearl Jam show left me wondering if the people at all those other gigs even liked those bands at all. In my experience, I've found that arena rock shows tend to attract a lot of fairweather fans -- for example, I saw R.E.M. at the same venue last week, and there were certainly a lot of people just standing around waiting for the big hits -- but the unanimity of enthusiasm for Pearl Jam was remarkable, and on par with only a handful of acts that I've seen in much smaller rooms. At certain points in the evening, the crowd was louder than the band, and very often it seemed like the entire audience was following a specific choreography that I wasn't aware of due to the fact that I hadn't seen them play in a decade. A lot of the time it seemed too good to be true, like some perfect fantasy of an arena audience. It was very inspiring.
Pearl Jam put on a no-frills rock show. They don't mess around with fancy lighting, projected images, or video monitors. It's just a bunch of guys rocking out on a stage with standard lighting, but given the quality of their performance and the natural charisma of their frontman, they don't really need anything else. Eddie Vedder has got some rock star moves, for sure -- it was particularly cool when he held a guitar up to a spotlight beam and reflected it out into the audience during the instrumental section of "Porch," as if to give everyone in the house a high-five of white light -- but he's mostly quite laid back, even when he's letting out a huge scream. He makes his control of the crowd seem effortless, but it's clear that he's working hard up there, and emotionally present in the moment of every song.
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists opened up the show, and to the credit of Pearl Jam's fans, they got a very warm reception. The group opened with two surefire crowd-pleasers -- "Sons Of Cain" and "Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone?" -- but focused mainly on material from their forthcoming album. Though the subtleties of Leo's songs were often lost in a fairly lousy, ridiculously treble-heavy P.A. mix, the new songs came across very well, and the band were obviously energetic and enthusiastic. There were some moments when it seemed that Leo was slightly out of his element, but the songs themselves made perfect sense in the big room.
SETLIST
01 "Hard To Imagine"
02 "Save You"
03 "Why Go?"
04 "All Night"
05 "Corduroy"
06 "Faithfull"
07 "Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town"
08 "Down"
09 "Unemployable"
10 "Given To Fly"
11 "Who You Are"
12 "Whipping"
13 "1/2 Full"
14 "Even Flow"
15 "Present Tense"
16 "Daughter" (with the Rangers chant!)
17 "Do The Evolution"
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18 "Love Reign O'er Me"
19 "W.M.A."
20 "Leash"
21 "Spin The Black Circle"
22 "Wasted Reprise"
23 "Porch"
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24 "No More"
25 "Crazy Mary"
26 "Comatose"
27 "I Believe In Miracles" (with CJ Ramone on bass)
28 "Alive"
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29 "All Along The Watchtower"
30 "Indifference"
PEARL JAM
TED LEO
Posted at 1:09 PM by Matthew Perpetua in Concert
Tags: Pearl Jam | Ted Leo
who is ready for round 2?!
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I am so ready for night 2. And with no album to plug, we might get like 2 repeats.
It's going to be hard to top last nights crowd. When you get everyone singing along to a riot act bside like down, you're doing something right.
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riot act b-sides are better than riot act a-sides. that's a no brainer.
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amazing and accurate review. it was my first Pearl Jam show, and I too had seen REM the week before, and had the EXACT same feeling. Everyone at Pearl Jam's show was energetic and enthusiastic the ENTIRE SHOW, whereas people at the REM show were wondering the entire night where the Man on the Moon was (last, with Johnny Marr! too bad you left, bitches!)
I have to admit, i was pretty shocked to hear that they sold out MSG in 4 minutes on ticketmonster. I had -no- idea Pearl Jam even had anything going on since Ten. The fans behind me had actually flown in from Glasgow Scotland, Wales, Winnipeg (hi sarah!) and an Aussie. People go crazy for this band, and i now know why. 20,000 people and the band STILL was able to make you feel like an individual - somehow.
The reflected spotlight was a really cool thing, and nice to see him not neglect the folks in the back too much.
CJ Ramone playing with them was a treat. Ted Leo killed it.
finally, to any of the lucky sons of bitches in the front row that got to share a couple bottles of wine with eddie, im wondering, what were y'all drinkin?
Wish i had tickets for tonight!!!
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awesome setlist.
so jealous.
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I have been a Pearl Jam fan since the age of 12, and last night at 29, I finally got to see this magnanimous band play. The show was nothing short of mind blowing. The crowd and the band swayed, sang, danced, and connected as a unit the entire night. The interesting thing was that although they played a few "hits" per say- they drew on some amazing numbers from the repertoire that have never seen video play or air time on a radio station... To add compliment to accomplishment the entire section around us knew EVERY single word to every single song...The arena boomed with a wave of emotion and euphoria. My comment to my wife was.. “I feel like we just saw the Stones in their prime..." And true to my comment, as these guys age and grow artistically-- they just get better with time.
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Amen. Also my first show, and as someone who was a fanatical teen for Ten, less interested in Vs. and then phased them out completely until Yield I couldn't believe how rabid their fanbase is. And holy hell does the show make you appreciate how deep their catalog is. I would've paid double for another 90 minutes and easily could come up w/ 15 songs they didn't play that I'd have been geeked to see. Enjoy Rearview Mirror tonight, kids. Kinda sorta wish I hadn't bought Liz Phair tix....
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matthew, thanks for the fantastic review. I'd love to see some shows on this tour; holding out for a second leg...maybe out thisaway (west).
that airborne picture is flawless and just became my new laptop wallpaper.
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Great review! I'm in the same boat regarding Pearl Jam and get to see them for the first time ever at their last show on the tour in Boston. I was hesitant before, but now I'm looking forward to it.
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what time did the show start?
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i saw them in DC a couple days ago. it was so great. i haven't even listened to the band in like 5 years and it was incredible. the fans were so into it. knew every song. they played 31 songs in DC + hendrix esque star spangled banner to close the show. very political. ted leo was great and eddie gave him a bunch of shoutouts. b/c ted lived in dc for a while he said something like "seeing as though we're in dc you've probably never heard of us and all our songs are new to you or you've seen us a million times and want to hear something new...so now we're gonna play a ton of new songs."
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Ted Leo starts at 7:30, and he's done by 8:00.
Pearl Jam starts at 8:45, and will probably end around 11:15-11:30.
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By the way, can we talk about that last PJ photo? I'm kind of amazed by how high these guys can jump. Mike and Eddie are both about four feet off the ground in that shot, and they're doing that ALL NIGHT. All five of those guys are totally athletic on stage.
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I went last night and had an oppsite experience. I felt like only 20 percent of the people around me were enjoying themselves. They were sitting, talking, texting. They were not singing or dancing. Nothing.
I admit I waited for the hits, but those failed to come. (missing were: black, once, jeremy.)
What a disappointment!
And no screens! I could not see the band at all!
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The Problem with fan club tickets is that 10Club is as corrupt as the Bush Administration.
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My two cents as a longtime 10club member is that they take awful good care of their fans, and make it a priority to try and do so. No complaints on this end, "Tim."
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I love how most reviewers think PJ hasn't done anything since "Ten." And then they're amazed at how ridiculously awesome their show is.
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Ted Leo has a forthcoming album? Is this new?
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What the F? All of the pictures are mere horizontal lines stacked on each other on my crappy ass comp. None of the other articles on stereogum are like that. Just the ones I really want to see. What the fucking F?
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so uhhh where's the Ted Leo setlist at?
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I don't think they've formally announced anything, release dates or titles etc, but yeah, Ted Leo has been recording a new album with the Pharmacists. Not sure if it's finished yet. He's mentioned it on the Best Show On WFMU. I imagine it will be out in the fall.
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I was wondering why there were so many people wandering around 2 Penn drunk or carrying 6 packs when I left work.
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I hate to say it but there's something religious about Pearl Jam shows (the anti-hippie in me just cringed). Vedder and the boys work the stage like no others... as your article pointed out, a completely minimalist stage design allows all the attention to be on them, and the crowds (and band) eat it up. When I saw them in Vancouver about 4-5 years ago they were unbelievable. When Vedder would move his hand slowly over his head, the entire crowd would mimic him. When he would scream and jump back, you could feel the entire stadium take a step back too.
Unbelievable live act.
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I tried to take down the Ted setlist, but he wasn't announcing titles for the new songs and I just gave up halfway through. He started with "Sons Of Cain" and "Rude Boys," and they ended with "The Unwanted Things." They did eight songs, and I think there was one other oldie in the middle but I can't recall the title.
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I had the setlist in my phone, but deleted it. To the best of my recollection:
1. "Sons of Cain"
2. "Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?"
3. New Song #1
4. New Song #2
5. "Bomb.repeat.bomb"
6. "Counting Down the Hours"
7. "Little Dawn"
8. "The Unwanted Things"
Matthew, glad to hear that you think that TL got a warm reception because I thought it was somewhat chilly down in the Ten Club seats (aside from the 2 guys in front of me). I also thought he should get at least 45 minutes to play, as it seems like he wasn't planning on ending with "The Unwanted Things" but was signaled by someone slightly off stage that his time was up.
I echo what everyone else has been saying about the show; PJ is a transcendent live band. Few things can eclipse a Ted Leo show for me, but this night certainly did that.
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I saw the show in DC, my first PJ show, and it really was mindblowing. I know their whole catalog pretty well but they still managed to stump me once, which I thought was pretty cool. I was rather worried before hand because my tickets were off to the side of the stage and i figured something on stage would block my view, but the stage had nothing of the kind, turned out to be great seats all because of no silly project screen.
Also, what song is Stone Gossard singing? I know he sings Mankind, but thats not on the setlist.
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All of those pictures up close were taken in the first three songs, so Stone is singing one of those.
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Stone sings backup on Why Go.
I've been a huge Pearl Jam fan for many years and I really do think they are the best live band out there whose name is not Radiohead. Their back-catalog is deep, they often change the way they play songs to keep things fresh, they bring out buried songs like WMA, Who You Are, and Leash, Eddie still captivates an audience like very few lead singers can today, the band is technically flawless, and the crowd involvement at the shows is like nothing I've seen from another band live.
That MSG setlist is no joke...the cover of The Who's 'Love Reign O'er Me' is incredible!
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the show tuesday at msg was magical all of their n.y. shows are always amazing but this one was equal to the who in 73 the stones 72 or even better because of the crowd i was at those shows and the crowd interaction does not compare to this and my eight year old son agreed at his first rock show especially when we snuck down front for evolution baby and felt the garden shaking under our feet.
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Anyone know the setlists for Ted Leo's performances? I am new to their stuff but open to hearing some more......thanks in advance.
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agreed. arena shows in general aren't great. pj is phenomenal - period. chills from start to finish that don't leave the back of your neck.
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Ted Leo > Pearl Jam
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"Ted Leo > Pearl Jam" posted by Young
I was waiting for Righteous-Indie-Boy to throw his two cents in. RIght on cue.
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Pearl Jam is such a great arena rock band. How many artists can you say that about these days?
The energy in the Garden for these two shows was unparalleled and anyone who was there can attest to that.
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