Pearl Jam at Shepherd's Bush Empire
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| Photo taken from The Evening Standard's photo gallery |
Pearl Jam
Shepherd's Bush Empire, 11 August 2009
Shepherd's Bush Empire, 11 August 2009
One of the first gigs I ever went to was Pearl Jam back in the early 90s, just before they broke big, at the tiny ULU venue. Maybe it was my youth and concert-going inexperience, but to this day that show still holds up as one of the best I've ever been to, with the band playing so passionately and full of excitement, Jeff Ament and other members of Pearl Jam jumping into the crowd and Eddie doing his now legendary climb around the venue and landing just over our heads. The gig even ended with members of the audience jumping on stage and grabbing instruments to play along with the band.
I've since seen the band play numerous festivals and arenas (as well as two nights at the more intimate Brixton Academy and in a tiny TV studio for the Jools Holland show a couple of years back) but nothing has ever compared to that first night, well until now. I was extremely lucky to get tickets to see the band play the Shepherd's Bush Empire, a 2,000 capacity venue (compared to the 20,000 capacity O2 show they are playing in London next week), the smallest I had seen them in since '92 and it blew just about every arena show out of the water.
We arrived at the venue hours early in order to secure a good spot for the show and it was actually good fun to chat to other Pearl Jam fans about our concert-going experiences. Not one I spoke to had gone to less than five shows! Here gathered the obsessed indeed. There was also quite a few that had travelled over just for this show, just in the queue next to us there was a guy from France (who had first seen the band in 1991!) and a crazy long-haired Portuguese guy who seemed super excited by it all. Another foreign man also came up to us to ask us what our tickets looked like because he had just purchased his from a tout and wasn't sure if they were authentic, and sure enough they were not the tickets any of us had. "How much did you pay for them?" we asked. "Enough," he said, looking panicked while running off to find the cheat who sold them to him. Tickets had been going for over £400 on eBay, I'm not surprised there were some counterfeits going around. I hope the guy got his money back.
Finally the doors opened and we found a place at the barrier in front of Mike McCready. I've been to the Empire many times before but looking at the stage knowing Pearl Jam were about to grace it, it just looked so small. I turned around to scan the crowd, and on the first balcony I spotted Yusuf Islam aka Cat Stevens, who I had just seen at this very same venue a couple of months before. Eddie Vedder is a big Cat Stevens fan often performing Trouble live in concert, so I assume he invited him. I got my hopes up then the two might perform together but alas no.
Arriving on stage 15 minutes late at 8.45, my feet were aching by this time but the pain quickly disappeared as they started slowly with the beautifully building Sometimes, which quickly moved into a tiny snatch of Pink Floyd's Interstellar Overdrive segueing into Corduroy (one of my favourite ever PJ tracks and it sounded as glorious as ever).
We were expecting some new songs since the new album Backspacer is out next month, but it was surprisingly short on them, but the couple they did air were maybe the highlights of the night. The Fixer just sounded like a power-pop classic, with the crowd chanting along to the "yeah, yeah, yeah" chorus. There was even more singing when the first of the Ten tracks appeared, Why Go, and there were times Eddie didn't even need to sing, the crowd was so loud. I looked around and all I could see was hands in the air, it was pretty amazing.
There had been some buzz that there might be some special guests and the first turned out to be Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones, who Eddie told us he had recently worked with and then stolen the song for the new album. This was a somewhat misleading introduction as they then launched into a Neil Young-style version of Dylan's All Along The Watchtower. That said it sounded pretty fantastic too.
To be honest, while the set didn't have all the rarities some people predicted or were expecting, it was filled with highlights from the rush of Even Flow to intense rock of Do The Evolution, Eddie almost turning red with feeling. There was a rare outing for Ten outtake Brother, but two of my favourites were the still gorgeous acoustic strum of Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town and the beautiful build of Present Tense. There was lots of interaction with the audience too with McCready pointing to just about everyone who caught his attention (what a cool dude) to Eddie grabbing people's hands in the audience. Eddie also told us some amusing stories, the funniest was encountering Big Brother live on TV: "do they actually show people sleeping here on TV?" he asked. "I watched for a few minutes and was riveted: was he going to turn over or move? I switched the channel to the golf but then switched back, the people sleeping were more interesting!" he quipped. The main set ended on new song Got Some, during which, I kid you not, the whole audience appeared to be jumping and rocking along. It sounded absolutely incredible live and I can't wait to hear it again.
For the first encore Eddie came out alone and sang a new song called The End, which he dedicated to Yusuf Islam (crushing any hopes of a duet!), and it was a nice little taster of what Eddie's solo shows are like (sadly he's only ever done them in the States). The band came back full blast for the triple whammy of Inside Job, Better Man and, of course, Alive, again greeted with a chorus of audience members singing their hearts out. The second encore was even better though, with an extremely rare outing for their cover of the 60s hit Soldier Of Love and probably my highlight of the night, State Of Love And Trust, just one of the greatest Pearl Jam songs and always a rush live. There was a lot of speculation that Pete Townshend might turn up on stage with the band, since Eddie is famously a massive Who fan and Shepherd's Bush is their home town, so when he began to introduce a second special guest we turned to each other expecting it to be him. Well, we were almost right, it turned out to be Pete's younger brother, Simon Townshend, a recording artist in his own right who has often toured with The Who. Not quite as exciting to say the least but the upside was that it did lead them to play a roaring version of The Real Me. Having heard The Who perform this song live last year, I have to say Pearl Jam's version was every bit as amazing. Finally, and very sadly it all had to come to an end, and the band played out with a gorgeous, soulful version of Yellow Ledbetter until McCready was left alone on stage skilfully showing off his sweet, bluesy guitar licks.
When the lights came up I realised just how much I had been sweating, it was so hot and filled with energy inside the venue all night, the crowd as enthusiastic as the band: I was exhausted. But boy was it worth it, what a night, it was completely joyous. There's nothing like seeing Pearl Jam in a small venue, I don't know how the show at the O2 next week can compare now, but one thing's for sure, I know the band will put their heart and soul into it, like always.
I've since seen the band play numerous festivals and arenas (as well as two nights at the more intimate Brixton Academy and in a tiny TV studio for the Jools Holland show a couple of years back) but nothing has ever compared to that first night, well until now. I was extremely lucky to get tickets to see the band play the Shepherd's Bush Empire, a 2,000 capacity venue (compared to the 20,000 capacity O2 show they are playing in London next week), the smallest I had seen them in since '92 and it blew just about every arena show out of the water.
We arrived at the venue hours early in order to secure a good spot for the show and it was actually good fun to chat to other Pearl Jam fans about our concert-going experiences. Not one I spoke to had gone to less than five shows! Here gathered the obsessed indeed. There was also quite a few that had travelled over just for this show, just in the queue next to us there was a guy from France (who had first seen the band in 1991!) and a crazy long-haired Portuguese guy who seemed super excited by it all. Another foreign man also came up to us to ask us what our tickets looked like because he had just purchased his from a tout and wasn't sure if they were authentic, and sure enough they were not the tickets any of us had. "How much did you pay for them?" we asked. "Enough," he said, looking panicked while running off to find the cheat who sold them to him. Tickets had been going for over £400 on eBay, I'm not surprised there were some counterfeits going around. I hope the guy got his money back.
Finally the doors opened and we found a place at the barrier in front of Mike McCready. I've been to the Empire many times before but looking at the stage knowing Pearl Jam were about to grace it, it just looked so small. I turned around to scan the crowd, and on the first balcony I spotted Yusuf Islam aka Cat Stevens, who I had just seen at this very same venue a couple of months before. Eddie Vedder is a big Cat Stevens fan often performing Trouble live in concert, so I assume he invited him. I got my hopes up then the two might perform together but alas no.
Arriving on stage 15 minutes late at 8.45, my feet were aching by this time but the pain quickly disappeared as they started slowly with the beautifully building Sometimes, which quickly moved into a tiny snatch of Pink Floyd's Interstellar Overdrive segueing into Corduroy (one of my favourite ever PJ tracks and it sounded as glorious as ever).
We were expecting some new songs since the new album Backspacer is out next month, but it was surprisingly short on them, but the couple they did air were maybe the highlights of the night. The Fixer just sounded like a power-pop classic, with the crowd chanting along to the "yeah, yeah, yeah" chorus. There was even more singing when the first of the Ten tracks appeared, Why Go, and there were times Eddie didn't even need to sing, the crowd was so loud. I looked around and all I could see was hands in the air, it was pretty amazing.
There had been some buzz that there might be some special guests and the first turned out to be Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones, who Eddie told us he had recently worked with and then stolen the song for the new album. This was a somewhat misleading introduction as they then launched into a Neil Young-style version of Dylan's All Along The Watchtower. That said it sounded pretty fantastic too.
To be honest, while the set didn't have all the rarities some people predicted or were expecting, it was filled with highlights from the rush of Even Flow to intense rock of Do The Evolution, Eddie almost turning red with feeling. There was a rare outing for Ten outtake Brother, but two of my favourites were the still gorgeous acoustic strum of Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town and the beautiful build of Present Tense. There was lots of interaction with the audience too with McCready pointing to just about everyone who caught his attention (what a cool dude) to Eddie grabbing people's hands in the audience. Eddie also told us some amusing stories, the funniest was encountering Big Brother live on TV: "do they actually show people sleeping here on TV?" he asked. "I watched for a few minutes and was riveted: was he going to turn over or move? I switched the channel to the golf but then switched back, the people sleeping were more interesting!" he quipped. The main set ended on new song Got Some, during which, I kid you not, the whole audience appeared to be jumping and rocking along. It sounded absolutely incredible live and I can't wait to hear it again.
For the first encore Eddie came out alone and sang a new song called The End, which he dedicated to Yusuf Islam (crushing any hopes of a duet!), and it was a nice little taster of what Eddie's solo shows are like (sadly he's only ever done them in the States). The band came back full blast for the triple whammy of Inside Job, Better Man and, of course, Alive, again greeted with a chorus of audience members singing their hearts out. The second encore was even better though, with an extremely rare outing for their cover of the 60s hit Soldier Of Love and probably my highlight of the night, State Of Love And Trust, just one of the greatest Pearl Jam songs and always a rush live. There was a lot of speculation that Pete Townshend might turn up on stage with the band, since Eddie is famously a massive Who fan and Shepherd's Bush is their home town, so when he began to introduce a second special guest we turned to each other expecting it to be him. Well, we were almost right, it turned out to be Pete's younger brother, Simon Townshend, a recording artist in his own right who has often toured with The Who. Not quite as exciting to say the least but the upside was that it did lead them to play a roaring version of The Real Me. Having heard The Who perform this song live last year, I have to say Pearl Jam's version was every bit as amazing. Finally, and very sadly it all had to come to an end, and the band played out with a gorgeous, soulful version of Yellow Ledbetter until McCready was left alone on stage skilfully showing off his sweet, bluesy guitar licks.
When the lights came up I realised just how much I had been sweating, it was so hot and filled with energy inside the venue all night, the crowd as enthusiastic as the band: I was exhausted. But boy was it worth it, what a night, it was completely joyous. There's nothing like seeing Pearl Jam in a small venue, I don't know how the show at the O2 next week can compare now, but one thing's for sure, I know the band will put their heart and soul into it, like always.
Excellent review...wish I could have been there. I consider myself a pretty ardent fan having everything they have released in the UK (plus some imports), most of their side project albums and Mother Love Bone and Temple of the Dog.....however, I now feel slightly inferior!!
ReplyDeleteI never got to see them in the early days (I got into them just after they played the Finsbury Park gig in 93), and always wished I had. Finally got to see them in 2007 at Wembley Arena after years of missing out on tickets (should have joined the Ten Club earlier!) and it was well worth the wait.
I'm hoping the O2 gig is even half as good as this one sounded. To be honest, I can't even imagine it being a disappointment.