I love the song, in fact I'd say it's my favorite Pearl Jam song (Though I really can't choose between Elderly Woman, Black, Release, and Corduroy)

And obviously the sing along at the end makes this song an epic song live.

But for some reason I don't like the way they tend to play it nowadays. It seems to drag so much, which is strange considering how much they rush their songs. I dunno, whenever I hear it it sounds slow and plodding...I heard some versions from the mid-2000s, like around 2006 that were absolutely awesome...they seemed to be placed later in the show then and move much more. Ever since he started using it near the beginning I feel like the song lost some of its magic.

Edit: By recently I mean the last couple years.

It was always dull live. No variation. Worst was 2006.

Are they downtuning it now?

Good singing?

Nailed it.

I would love it if they vaulted this song for a while.

Nice. Age aint nothing but a number.

Not very into this song live or studio.

Me too. For a while I thought it was me and not them, but then I listened to Live on Two Legs and realized it was them.

Yea, small town could use a year or two on the shelf.

one of their worst (relatively frequent) live opener. it's a pale imitation of its studio counterpart and it's partly due to the fact that their live acoustic guitars sound like shit.

The last time this song was awesome live, possibly the only time, was North America leg 2 2003. I'm partial to Champaign, but really, most of the versions are sung incredibly well and everything acoustic sounds great in 2003 in general with whatever acoustic guitars they were using (sounds like real acoustics that were mic'ed, not electric acoustics like Ed's Ovation in 2000). I'm talking Black and Crazy Mary specifically, didn't like Crazy Mary in 2k that much but 2k3 was great.

That's true about the acoustics in 2003. Maybe they were more concerned about how the acoustics sounded for that tour as riot act songs had more acoustics than most of their catalog.

This has always been one of the DULLEST tracks to listen to, on record or live. I'd say it's on par with Hail, Hail in terms of being overvalued.

Hail Hail is still pretty awesome live

Hail Hail kicks ass

Hail Hail is one of the best Pearl Jam songs of all time.

You are correct on this one.

Hail Hail, to me, lost something after Euro 2k.