Review #2: Kitchener

I still haven't given up on writing a Thunder Bay review. I promise you that it's coming; I'll try and get it out around the same time as Guns N' Roses releases Chinese Democracy. In the meantime, here are three capsule reviews from Pearl Jam's three Southwestern Ontario shows. First up: Kitchener!

Kitchener
Let the record reflect that I was already exhausted by the time of the Kitchener concert - the first of three consecutive shows in three different cities. Tonight's Pearl Jam virgin was my buddy Dan, he of the Chris Martin complex (who also happens to front a very good up-and-coming band called Linehaul), who used to live at Le Stoppe on Brock Street along with two crazy Pearl Jam fans. After stopping off in Forest Hill to pick up Eric Sherkin, it was off to Mennonite Country for yet another Pearl Jam concert in an intimate venue.

Said venue, the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium, felt more like a community centre than a hockey rink...like, seriously, imagine your local neighbourhood community centre, drop a 6,500-seat arena in the middle of it and you've got the Kitchener venue. Our seats were about twenty rows away from the stage - not bad, considering the massive Ten Club contingent who were in attendance. Ed opened the show with a standard issue "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away", then introduced Sleater-Kinney. I'd actually forgotten that Sleater-Kinney was joining the tour until the previous day in Thunder Bay, when - in WalMart, of all places - it suddenly hit me: "I'm seeing Sleater-Kinney tomorrow, too!" Not surprisingly, their set ruled...honestly, I wish more people could be introduced to this incredible band.

Pearl Jam, meanwhile, were playing their first gig on 9/11 since their legendary Madison Square Garden show of 1998, the Queen's University frosh week concert of 1999 (IME/WMM) and the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. For some reason, these various factors led people to believe that "Long Road" would open the show. I'd written individual blog entries on how badly I wanted to hear "Long Road" open in Thunder Bay; when that failed to materialize, I assumed the predictions were accurate. Sure enough, Pearl Jam opened their set with the most glorious version of "Long Road" I've ever heard, Ed's voice surging joyously with the final chorus. From there, it was off into one of the most intense sets I've ever seen Pearl Jam perform - tight, sharp and hard-hitting, my blood was literally pumping extra hard when the band concluded with (appropriately) "Blood". Dan-o, meanwhile, was bringing the rock in a manner consistent with his rock star good looks...I mean, when a PJ newbie is singing along to "Long Road" you know you've got a special sort of project on the go.

Alas, the show sputtered to a halt with the acoustic set. Let it be known that I've been suspicious of these little interludes since they were introduced last year...I mean sure, they let Pearl Jam experiement with songs that might not otherwise make the set, but they also effectively bring the energy level way down. Such was the case this evening: despite a couple solo ukelele songs from Ed (including "Can't Keep", a first for me), Pearl Jam plodded through "Small Town", "Daughter" and "Black" one after the other with all the inspiration of an accouting convention, which essentially negated the massive momentum they'd generated earlier on in the night. For that reason, I was slightly annoyed from that point forward; I was put off enough that I didn't really enjoy "Baba O'Riley", which to me felt perfunctory and not genuinely anarchic (see: Buffalo or Toronto '03). Sure, "Ledbetter" was a nice closing song - but I felt as though, with the Kitchener gig, Pearl Jam had been on the verge of something truly special, and that they took the foot off the pedal at the exact moment where they should have been throttling down. The set was predicting it; the audience was demanding it; and Pearl Jam are more than capable of delivering it. Instead, the show was merely satisfactory. Luckily for me, there was still lots of time to make amends.