Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam tabs Pearl Jam discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

Pearl Jam guitar tabs

CD reviews

Live: 02-23-03 - Perth, Australia

Pearl Jam - Live: 02-23-03 - Perth, Australia Audio CD

A fair review of the Pearl Jam "Live: 02-23-03 - Perth, Australia" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Pearl Jam reviews here, or go back to the Pearl Jam tabs.

Band: Pearl Jam
Title: Live: 02-23-03 - Perth, Australia
Rating:

Release Date: 2003-06-10
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Long Road 2: Save You 3: Gods' Dice 4: Corduroy 5: Given to Fly 6: Even Flow 7: Get Right 8: Cropduster 9: Jeremy 10: Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town 11: I Am Mine 12: Love Boat Captain 13: MFC 14: Improv 15: Habit 16: You Are 17: Wishlist 18: 1/2 Full 19: Insignificance 20: Go 21: Encore Break 22: Do the Evolution 23: Betterman 24: Daughter 25: Crazy Mary 26: Encore Break 27: Throw Your Arms Around Me 28: Alive 29: Fortunate Son

Best of Australia, but not the tour
Unfortunately, Neil Young's 'Rockin' in the Free World' is never available, which kinda makes a lot of shows incomplete. Thanks to iTunes, I have been able to procure most of the 2003 bootlegs. But regardless. This is definitely the best of the Australian leg bootlegs. Being that this is only the tenth show, there are still some mistakes. The worst of which is at the beginning of 'Gods' Dice' where Eddie starts way late. Also, another thing that's damaging to the concert is a rather quiet crowd, which fails Eddie in not singing at the end of 'Jeremy'. Not to knock the Australians at all, but one could just imagine Eddie's face showing a little disappointment in the crowd at that point.

I think the highlight of the whole show is actually the opener, 'Long Road'. All other versions I've heard have a strange twang on them that wasn't there during the 2000 Binaural tour, and this is definitely due to Eddie Vedder switching his guitar from the Fender Telecaster to the Gibson SG with its P90 pickups. But here, something is different, and the opening is much darker with the higher strings not really registering. Mike McCready's guitar is also unusually loud on this one, which is actually really great to hear. 'Save You' also sounds good here. A lot of feedback and such in the beginning, with Mike then hitting the intro, which is quite uncommon in any Pearl Jam song, with that job usually being taken by Stone Gossard. 'Get Right', a great song written by Matt Cameron also sounds quite good, and moves well into yet another good Riot Act song, 'Cropduster'. Eddie's vocals on 'Habit' actually sound much better here than most other parts of the entire tour, making this a good closer of the first disc. Ironically, the band seems to do best on their newest songs in this concert, with a great take on the trippy 'You Are' and '1/2 Full'. Now here's where I'm really conflicted. The songs that follow are rather mediocre, which can easily blamed on the fact that it's still early in the tour. But the last few songs of this show are actually some of the best versions of the tour. Eddie's duet with Mark Seymour on 'Throw Your Arms Around Me' is absolutely beautiful, which goes into a rather short rendition of 'Alive'. But surprisingly, this isn't the closer. Instead it is the classic CCR tune 'Fortunate Son' that salutes farewell to Australia, with a rather cool sounding intro from Johnny Mar and the Healers, and a very long goodbye to the continent.

While definitely not being one of the best of the whole tour, this concert definitely has a couple memorable songs, and is a definite buy for any real fans of Pearl Jam. But if someone were looking to buy something to give them a good look at the band performing the hell out of a place, one should definitely try the second New York show, or the mammoth State College bootleg.

Good live show.
This show, from Perth, Australia, is the earliest of the commercially available releases, and the only one from the Australian tour (although one from Japan, eight days later is also available). As they did in 2000, in 2003, Pearl Jam decided to beat bootleggers by releasing every show they performed, although this time rather than flood the market with 72 releases, they decided only a select few would end up in retail outlets.

It feels like on this show that the band saved their best performances for the more recent material-- it works out ok since seven of the songs come from the last album-- take the beginning of the show, after opener "Long Road" (fantastically performed), "Save You" and "Gods' Dice" are powerful, intense, and boiling. The intensity seems to let up a bit for the next few songs, although in there are great readings of "Cropduster" and a fantastic "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" (and if I'm not mistaken the only time Vedder gets the lyrics right on the whole Australian tour) and some fantastic vocals (both lead and harmony) on new song "Cropduster".

The last portion of the first disc sees the intensity rise again with powerful readings of "I Am Mine", "Love Boat Captain" (even if it does funble a bit in the opening strains) and "MFC". The intensity keeps up even as the pieces slow down at the beginning of the second disc, with an unnervingly brilliant performances of "You Are" and "Wishlist".

Pearl Jam is known for their marathon encores, this show being no exception with seven songs performed in two encores-- the first is more hits oriented, with a fumbled "Do the Evolution" joined by "Betterman", "Daughter", and "Crazy Mary". The second encore is a pair of covers around "Alive". Closer "Fortunate Son" is a lot of fun, with one the openers joining in.

Truth to be told, the band put on better shows during this tour, but whats amazing is what a value these sets are-- they're priced rather nicely and are pretty much all worth having. Recommended.

Good indication of where the band is at right now
They perform some of their most well-known songs such as 'Jeremy' and 'Daughter' as well as some material from the new album, 'Riot Act'. This set from Perth, Australia finds Pearl Jam in good spirits and good voice. At times, the material from 'Riot Act' sounds more interesting and energetic than it did on the album!

Basically, fans can get a good idea of where the band is at this point in time, with some older songs thrown in for nostalgic purposes. There are even some interesting covers thrown in for fun and a guest appearance from Hunters and Collectors front man Mark Seymour thrown in. Even though the set gets a bit lacklustre at times, it's still an interesting listen and well worth a look. Besides, the band seems to be having a good time!.

Just as if you are there - LIVE
However this double CD pack is the entire concert at Perth on the 23/02/2003. Unfortunately due to work committments I could not attend any LIVE concerts of Pearl Jam when they toured Down-Under. This was to be PJ's 10th and final concert on their Australian leg of the tour and this was one of their best.

Disc 1 is loaded with 15 tracks taken from all their popular albums with hits like 'God's Dice', 'Corduroy', 'Even Flow', 'Jeremy' and 'I am Mine'.

Disc 2 is 14 tracks long and has some oldies and rarities but still fine ones to listen to like 'You Are', 'Go', 'Do The Evolution' and 'Alive'.

All in all this album is worth your money and will keep you entertained with a backdrop of an enthusiastic crowd. .

Australia gets rocked
I listen to this one more than any of the other 2003 sets, and more than a lot of the 2000's. I own all the mass-produced 2003 bootlegs, in addition to the show I attended in Chicago, and a dozen of the 2000 bootlegs. The opener, "Long Road", is nothing short of stunning. After that, they rock hard through the next 8 songs, including good takes on Evenflow and Jeremy, obvious crowd favorites. The 20-song main set does flag a bit by the end: Insignificance and Go are two of my personal favorites, and I don't feel the band does either one justice here. They redeem themselves with an excellent encore, though, and the "Throw Your Arms Around Me" performance with Mark Seymour is wonderful. They included as an extra on the tour DVD and it's probably the best thing on it.

You can see a complete list of all Pearl Jam discography, or go back to the Pearl Jam tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.