Audience

CDR

3

DVD 3347; lineage: Church Audio CA-11 cards => UGLY pre-amp => Tascam DR-2D (24/44.1). Transfer: DR-2D => WAV => Audition 1.5 (dither to 16-bit) => WAV => Magix Audio Cleaning Lab => WAV => FLAC (level 8). Location: Floor, section H, Row 15

Killer show by Pearl Jam in advance of their upcoming release "Lightning Bolt." In addition to featuring several songs from the new album, lightning played a major role in this concert in that heavy thunderstorms forced a three-hour delay after the seventh song. The band returned at nearly midnight and by the end of the show, had delivered a nearly three-hour set (spanning 8:15 PM to 2:05 AM). In a testament to the band's loyal fan base, virtually nobody left during the lengthy delay, and during the encore I looked up and saw even the nosebleed sections were still packed. Although it was a long show, there were about 7 songs from the original handwritten setlist that were dropped in order to get under the (revised) 2 a.m. curfew -- so the original planned length would have been over 3 1/2 hours.

I was 15th row floor in line with the left stack - great taping location. There is some audience chatter nearby between songs and a few whoops, but altogether a very respectful crowd. (In the "second set," I suspect people were getting too tired to do much whooping.) I figured I'd put this up because even though it doesn't have the same fidelity as the Schoeps sources (Church Audio aren't Schoeps, unfortunately) it sounds great and in parts has more "immediacy" than the other two. The others are both great on their own, so you may not have an appetite for yet another source; I figured there may be enough hard-core collectors that they'd appreciate another one to choose from.

I hope they add a Chicago stop (or two, or three) to the fall shows. Pearl Jam is a class act, and one of the best live artists around.

3347

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