Search - Pearl Jam :: 29/5/00 - Wembley Arena, London, England

Eddie Vedder at his almighty best

Matthew Van Damn | 03/31/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I had the honour of being present at this concert, the first time I have ever seen Pearl Jam live, and I can assure you it will not be the last. I will be there whenever they visit these shores in the future. The favourites are all here, RVM, Alive, Courdroy and Go, and you will never hear Vedders vocals clearer than when they are recorded straight from the soundboard as they are on this bootleg series. I have since bought 11 of the series with the view to buying the whole collection before this year is out. Matt Cameron has superb timing in all of the numbers on show here, and proves that his timing is by far the best of all the Roster of Pearl Jam drummers they preceded him. Vedder delivers vocals clearly and with the passion that we have come to expect from one of the great vocalists of out time. His banter with the croud is also very humorous and I must say enlightening as I have been so used to his rants which to be honest go nowhere, and bring negativity to previous gigs. In conclusion, not the finest of the bootleg series, that honour goes to the "Live in San Sebastian, Spain" gig, but a worthy addition to any collection."

It makes you feel that you were there for real!

Christian Sandberg | 10/29/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was so happy when Pearl Jam announced that they were releasing 25 different bootleg CD's. And as Pearl Jam fan I got so extatic that I was going to buy them all at once. Now that didn't go as planned as I thought. So I started off by buying this one. And I couldn't believe how good the sound quality was. I have some old PJ bootlegs that sound really awful compared to this one. This gig was the first of two nights at the (soon to be) legendary Wembley Arena. And it's difficult to say how the concert was visually. But it sounds like there's thousands of people. How many I don't know but Wembley holds 72.000 people. Anyway the choice of songs on this record is quite weird. They start off with 5 songs of the new record. I guess that they wanted the crowd to hear the new stuff. Because that record was just released. There's the standard PJ tracks from all the five records as well. And after a encore break, Eddie starts to speak a lot about London as a religious place over the clouds and stuff. And he talks about all those famous people that has influenced him. From The Beatles to The Who, but then they play a The La's track "Timeless Melody". Which is really cool because I didn't know Eddie was into that group. Anyway this CD is really good and I recommend every PJ fan to buy it. The best track on this CD is Daughter. That has the now famous "It's Okay" add to it. It gives you shiver down the spine."

Truly Inspired.

Barack Obama | Washington DC | 02/17/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the fourth show in Pearl Jam's mammoth 2000 world tour. They opened with Lisbon, a solid show, went to Barcelona which was a little rusty, then to San Sebastian which was half brilliant and half disaster.This first night at Wembley is fantastic, however, and outranks the first three shows combined. This is Pearl Jam getting down to business, and it shows in the performance. Great versions of old and new songs abound over both discs. The concert begins with five straight songs from Binaural, all of which are fantastic (especially "Of The Girl," a perfect "Grievance," and a blistering "Breakerfall"). "Gods' Dice" features the band making its only real technical mistake of the night, but it's forgivable, since it was the first time the song had been played on the tour. The older songs are just as good: "Animal," "Even Flow," "Daughter," and "MFC" are all really great.If the first disc isn't convincing enough, the second puts it over the top. We have here the best performances yet of "Black," "Rearviewmirror," and "Yellow Ledbetter." Also included is a fine "Insignificance," a stellar "Alive," two great covers ("Soldier Of Love" and "Timeless Melody"), a rarity ("I Got S--t"), and a funny take on the song "Soon Forget." The next night would be almost as good, but did not match this, the first truly inspired gig on the tour."