The moment I realized LIVE was no longer my favorite band..., I guess it had to happen sometime Options

[Senghe]

I came to the conclusion that Live were no longer my favourite band a while back. However, they're just about still in my top 5. My love for them has waned as it's been a slow decline with V, slightly picked up on BOP, then another inexorable slide to SFBM which has no energy or vitality to it. Apart from about 3 songs which I really enjoy, I feel a bit drained if I make myself listen to it. Not how it should be.

I can't really say anything either way about Pear Jam as I don't know enough about their songs to form a decision. However, as much as it may surprise people here, most music fans and people who go to see a band aren't that rabid. Yes, everybody here could probably sing the entire Live back catalogue, but most people who see a band want to hear the 'greatest hits' so to speak with a few songs off the new album sprinkled in. I remember watching Bruce Springsteen (friend made me go with her) and he played a 3 hour set. The only trouble is, when I looked at the crowd, only a handful of people were singing along to every song. Most were like me and only knew the words to about 4 songs and their attention tended to wander (as did mine if I was people watching rather than my attention being on the stage). It's a good and a bad thing playing either the same set every night or your total repertoire over 3 nights. Maybe somewhere in between would be perfect.

This post has been edited by Senghe: Sep 11 2006, 8:01 am

[sandkind]

[quote name='edstipe' date='Sep 11 2006, 12:20 am' post='19087']
Just a thought: perhaps Ed K. should take this approach to his singing. Let's face it, it would be better to not understand his words than to hear him sing shit lines like "Sophia I need ya' / Like a druggie needs a vein" at every show.
/quote]
good point

[sherocker]

well, i must admit, they aren't what they used to be...but their still my no.1 band!! there's just noone quite like Ed, his voice, charisma..it just keeps on moving me. I'm just hoping they'll get back to their roots a bit, i hope Ed gets that 'anger' back..

[Lis]

personally... ive never seen pj live so i wouldnt know. But the vibe that comes off that stage when LIVE is playing... i love it, that is what makes me go to a show. Of course i would totally love it if they mixed up the setlist. I feel they are musicians and its their job to know their own songs, and should be able to perform them all. But its their fun and excitement that keeps me coming back for more...

[Elise]

LIVE will always be my favorite band, but I do have to say that Pearl Jam is probably a close second. Ed Stipe I agree with everything you say. Pearl Jam rocks in concert and Eddie Vedder is very intense and charasmatic on stage. Love them both and enjoy them both in concert. I think at this point LIVE will always be my favorite band even if their music is uninspiring. Maybe its just habit. Either way still love them!!!

[Heather]

I came to the conclusion that Live were no longer my favourite band a while back. However, they're just about still in my top 5. My love for them has waned as it's been a slow decline with V, slightly picked up on BOP, then another inexorable slide to SFBM which has no energy or vitality to it. Apart from about 3 songs which I really enjoy, I feel a bit drained if I make myself listen to it. Not how it should be.

I can't really say anything either way about Pear Jam as I don't know enough about their songs to form a decision. However, as much as it may surprise people here, most music fans and people who go to see a band aren't that rabid. Yes, everybody here could probably sing the entire Live back catalogue, but most people who see a band want to hear the 'greatest hits' so to speak with a few songs off the new album sprinkled in. I remember watching Bruce Springsteen (friend made me go with her) and he played a 3 hour set. The only trouble is, when I looked at the crowd, only a handful of people were singing along to every song. Most were like me and only knew the words to about 4 songs and their attention tended to wander (as did mine if I was people watching rather than my attention being on the stage). It's a good and a bad thing playing either the same set every night or your total repertoire over 3 nights. Maybe somewhere in between would be perfect.

See but that is what I think makes a band or a show great. The fact that they just don't give a shit what casual fans would want to hear and they are playing THAT show for THAT "handful of people that were singing along to ever song."

Personally when I go to a show to see a band I am a big fan of theirs already nine times out of ten. I would much rather hear something obscure and unexpected over some radio hit any day. When I find a band that does that it only makes me a bigger fan because I may hear something of theirs that I have never even heard before until that show. I guess I just don't get why people who go to shows get pissed when they don't hear some "hit song" from ten years ago. To me that is not what a show is about. I can listen to a greatest hits cd and get the same affect.

[SJN1279]

See but that is what I think makes a band or a show great. The fact that they just don't give a shit what casual fans would want to hear"

Well if your a casual fan of a band, I think that's what makes them suck. Counting Crows anyone? I can bring a friend to a Live show and the fact that they play their hits makes the show great for them. Most people are casual concert fans, a band needs to cater to both the casual and the hardcore. Live has started to do that recently(Iris, Mirror Song, Rattlesnake etc.) along with all their hits.

[J.Sax]

Well if your a casual fan of a band, I think that's what makes them suck. Counting Crows anyone?

OMFG, I wanted my money back when they didn't play Mr. Jones.

[ShowalittleLove]

I would much rather listen to polished hits that sound like your playing your cd with the volume turned up along with a mix of some obscure songs and 1 quality cover song rather than 30 randomly selected songs from every song they've ever made sounding half ass every night and 5 covers that really do injustice to the originals. I respect everyone's opinion and I am a Pearl Jam fan myself, although I will never pay to see them in concert again. Eddie Vedder's stage presence is non existent, motionless and whoever made the mumbles comment is dead on. His voice sounds a lot worse in concert than on cd (whoever voted him to have the best voice was probably on some good drugs at the time), and I just can't listen to a majority of the stuff they've put out in the last ten years except for the new album. Yeah Lives new albums don't sound like TC or SS, but they're not supposed to. Ed & the boys have a much better sound in concert IMOP, it's not even close. It's going to these other concerts that I realize why LIVE IS still my favorite band.

[ShowalittleLove]

OMFG, I wanted my money back when they didn't play Mr. Jones.

Counting crows really sucked IMOP, but I did enjoy the GGD's

[edstipe]

Well if your a casual fan of a band, I think that's what makes them suck. Counting Crows anyone? I can bring a friend to a Live show and the fact that they play their hits makes the show great for them. Most people are casual concert fans, a band needs to cater to both the casual and the hardcore. Live has started to do that recently(Iris, Mirror Song, Rattlesnake etc.) along with all their hits.

Sure, but casual fans don't attend multiple shows, so I don't see any reason to repeat the exact same setlist night after night. I have no problem with LIVE playing "hits" at every show -- but playing the exact same hits and non-hits, in the exact same order, in the exact same way, every night gets quite stale and really takes away from the unique concert experience that every show should be.

Would it be that difficult to alternate All Over You, I Alone, Selling the Drama, Lakini's Juice, Lighting Crashes, The Dolphin's Cry, Heaven, etc. over various shows? I mean, a casual fan should be happy to hear half of these at any given show (with Lightning Crashes possibly the one nightly staple), and the hardcore fan would be happier to hear the half that didn't get played that night substituted for more rarely-played songs that would at least make his/her show somewhat different from every other show played on that tour.

Pearl Jam, like LIVE, has a wide variety of radio hits to choose from every night. They typically play at least 6 or 7 of these at any given show -- but the 6 or 7 they choose varies from show to show, so a fan can attend multiple shows and not have to sit through ALL of the same exact songs more than once.

Then, they play 20+ more obscure songs every night, and they rotate these at will -- so as a hardcore fan, you never know what special treats are going to be in store that night, and you walk away feeling like the show you got was indeed a unique, special performance. Again, would it be that hard for LIVE to play a few different non-radio hits from time to time? Over half of their catalog hasn't been played for many, many years -- a fact that I attribute to nothing more than sheer laziness.

Finally, I am astounded that anybody has even suggested that a show should cater to casual and hardcore fans at an equal level. Do you really believe that a fan who has simply jumped on the bandwagon, or who is only at a show because he/she was brought along by someone else, or who only knows the radio hits but has never listened to a full album, deserves the same attention and love from the band as a hardcore fan who has supported the band from the beginning and would be so much more touched by his/her favorite song being played?

[UOPness]

It really comes down to what you want out of a concert experience. While I don't want the song sounding just like the record, I like the band I'm listening to have a good mix, balance, and coherant lyrics. I find that very hard to come by in live recordings of Peal Jam. The quality of sound coming out isn't the same as LIVE. Not that it's bad, it's simply a reflection of each bands sound. Peal Jam has stayed very close to its grunge sound and LIVE has stayed with their more polished sound as well. I personally like the stage presence, energy, and everything LIVE puts into their shows. If it means a shorter set list, then so be it. While it would be nice to have more random songs to be thrown in, the thing I like about going to LIVE concerts is the feeling you get when everyone is singing to TSUFL, LC, ect...It's a euphoric feeling to me, because everyone is sharing their same passion and messages that come out in the songs. I don't know how anyone can compare LIVE vs. Pearl Jam shows and say one is better than the other because in the end like my grandpa used to say, "It's all a matter of taste the dog said as he licked his ass".

-Mica

[edstipe]

While it would be nice to have more random songs to be thrown in, the thing I like about going to LIVE concerts is the feeling you get when everyone is singing to TSUFL, LC, ect...It's a euphoric feeling to me, because everyone is sharing their same passion and messages that come out in the songs.

Right, but you don't have to play a song to death in order for fans to sing along to it, or to have a moment of shared passion when it's played.

All it takes for this to happen is for a band to do enough to build a strong, connected fan base that is truly passionate about the music.

Case in point: Pearl Jam playing "Baba O'Riley." It's not even their fucking song (it's a cover of The Who), but when the first chorus hits, 95% of the people in the crowd sing along in ecstatic euphoria (so much so that Eddie V. usually lets the crowd sing all by themselves). Of course, the chorus to the song is one that most common music fans don't know word by word, but because Pearl Jam reaches out to its fans by releasing every single one of their live shows for download, us Pearl Jam fans know the song and know the chorus even though it's not played on a nightly basis.

Here's a video of PJ doing "Baba O'Riley," perhaps it will show you what I mean: http://youtube.com/watch?v=9B9Ty7d33uk&mode=related&search=

And if you complain that you can't hear the words because of Eddie's so-called "mumbling," I will kindly ask you to clean the wax out of your ears.

[PearlJamminJason]

thanks for the video mr stipe once again you rock!!!!!

[edstipe]

Here's one more singalong for you: http://youtube.com/watch?v=lo0PotNJk0s