Listening to Salzburg Austria 2000 now, first live PJ in a few months.

Absolutely great opening set so far.

Katowice 2 and Milan are definitely my 2 favorites from the European leg.

The 2000 tour felt like their art school project tour, or Eddie's perhaps. Having read so many posts over the years while remaining unseen, who knows how much of what I'm going to say is unintended reiteration of points already made but, so be it.

Looking back, I appreciate the 2000 tour even more (despite of course, the loss of those poor fans in Roskilde) as an anomaly within their overall live oeuvre.

First, is the lack of Alive as a dramatic conclusion to their shows, and while they have over the years, sometimes refrained from playing it or placed it early in a set, over subsequent tours it slowly came to rest as the big final showpiece towards the end of a set. Usually followed by a cover or Ledbetter, but just part of their live tradition.

Without it, save for Seattle 2, the shows seem a bit more open to experimentation, though aside from some one-offs, this wasn't a tour populated by many rarities from their own albums, but more some interesting change of pace covers and Binaural.

I don't know if these shows in Europe had a high-energy fun feel to them despite the more dour Binaural subject matter but there's no doubt that the American tour was in the shadow of Roskilde. At the time I actually thought they were going to disband, and was surprised they continued on with the tour.

Healing act? Too much money riding on it for too many people? Both? I don't know and it feels gross and inappropriate to pursue that further, for me.

Within this context, you have a band with a lead singer who does his best to tailor shows to the unique vibe or history of the city they're playing in, a definite factor in making PJ concerts feel special and part of the reason they have a heightened anticipation level, for me-the highest.

Binaural's a dark album, but even so, the songs taken on a more energized presence on stage and listening back on some of these shows, the band was tight, from a large tour with much repetition and a more limited (compared to later tours) batch of songs to draw from.

I prefer the more expansive tours of later years, where they pull out Bugs and Goat and Gremmie, but I can also hear the appeal of a tight performance and in 2000, the band were as the saying goes, firing on all cylinders.

Eddie isn't just playing Grievance, he's attacking it, the whole band is and it and Insignificance storm across the audience.

At some point, the solo in Even Flow became a power trio, which I loved, just Matt, Jeff and Mike powering through an improvisational middle while Stone and Eddie were to one side, understandably awestruck at the brilliant lead work and the muscular rhythm section propelling them forward.

This post originated in going back and listening to select tracks from the Pittsburgh show, particularly Porch which has a mournful middle.

This song had previously been an epic jam through the Dave years and epic and moody with Jack but in 2000 had become a tighter less sonically blazing affair. But damn, if this version just doesn't feel all out sad.

I never think of Porch in those terms and for this show, and maybe other performances of this tour, it fit. Certainly, I'm glad it expanded once more in '03, '05 and really became epic again in '06 and '08 onward, only slightly not going on for as long as it did on the recent tour.

Porch always had this moody section before Eddie's return but it sounded more elegiac this time.

The true energetic powerhouse, even more than Even Flow was RVM. Another one of my favorite songs and they really took it to a new level on this tour, expanding the already explosive middle to new lengths with a unique soundscape.

I've seen it compared to Sonic Youth, or that they were most influenced by them in this performance, as someone who doesn't listen to that band, I'll take their word for it.

Regardless, the combination of relentless chugging rhythm and wild, at times dissonant and noisy lead work, where it was like Mike, Stone and Eddie all decided to paint their own unique version of the song before reuniting for the outro, and while I'd really love the versions they did from '05/06 on even more, I really enjoy these 2000 versions, where the middle became about unique expression, frenetic leads, unique mini-riffs, wild squeals, it was a wonderful audio stew served to audiences, though really it seemed they were more cooking for themselves.

And that I think can sum up the mournful yet powerful 2000 N.American tour, the sense that the band was at its least audience-friendly, despite the usual number of hit songs performed, a sense they were adhering to some stubborn, rebellious art school, moody goth emo punk vibe.

Again, I love the different live iternations of the band, epsecially the evening with Pearl Jam, throw everything into the set, wild, celebratory shows that would come down the road, but the performances from 2000, while perhaps not as expansive and welcoming as future tours, offered their own unique energy, angular, dark, moody and potent exercises, that still revealed a band in transition, and yet for all its crowd pleasing energy felt like the band most had their backs to tha audience, playing to impress each other, even when they looked out across the different yet same crowds across the United States.

Great versions of Corduroy and Go.

Great podcast episode about the release of the 2000 bootleg series

OK podcast but it's a but hurtin' in the subjective audio expertise department.

There is nothing wrong with the mixes on the European leg. The only problem is that there was no mastering applied at all. And mixing and mastering are two entirely different things.

The European leg also didn't have the extreme compression added to it, so it actually sounds better than the US legs with a proper mastering. "Alone And Far Away" demonstrates this.

So I take issue with the implied general consensus that the US legs are a massive improvement and the painfully misconstrued Eliason quotes.

I'm a dick like that.

Add the difference in crowd noise as a pinch of salt.

Which bootlegs are considered to have the best sound?

[qu.ãote="wease"]They did it in Nashville in ‘03. I could’ve gotten so many crossed off my list if I’d gone to that one.[/quote]
Yp
If you are at a show and have to go the B-room and you miss a song x

They all have issues but the issues with Europe 2000 can be overcome while the issues with what came after are destructive so they can't.

But the best mixed and mastered shows are generally thought to be 2000 and 2006.

Virginia Beach has to be pjs finest concert ever

And that’s in importance probably

I am gonna definitely put that show in my list