Pearl Jam - Live On TenLegs

Thu 17th Feb, 2011 in Music Reviews

It was almost 20 years ago that Pearl Jam released their landmark debut Ten, thrusting the what was dubbed the ‘Seattle Sound’ into the world spotlight. Flannel shirts, long wild hair and frenetic rock shows characterised the scene, dominated by then-young rock bands like Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Screaming Trees.

Pearl Jam are one of the sole survivors of the grunge era (not counting all the reformations over the years) and their two decade legacy is nothing short of impressive, with nine studio albums, and countless live shows and tours the world over. Their music, especially in the last ten years, may have divided fans and critics, but regardless they have still retained a huge and loyal fan base and can still sell out stadiums wherever they go. Pearl Jam are a formidable live act – you are, more or less, guaranteed a pretty special show.

Following in the footsteps of 1998’s Live On Two Legs, a compilation of songs recorded from the band’s US tour that same year, Live on Ten Legs is another concise collection of just some of the (doubtless many) highlights from world tours between 2003 and 2010. And given the band’s dedication to recording every live show, it must have been quite a task to choose from the absolute wealth of material over seven years.

Seamless editing between songs means this album plays out like a real concert (albeit a short one – clocking in at just over 70 minutes long), and like any good Pearl Jam concert, the setlist traverses the band’s entire back catalogue. Of course their more recent songs like Unthought Known and Just Breathe from their latest album Backspacer make the cut, but they don’t dominate the disc. There’s a few of their well-known anthems – the live beast that is Animal simply sears here, with the audience shouting along with Eddie Vedder: “I’d rather be with an animal!”; State of Love And Trust still sounds solid, despite being one of the band’s oldest songs; and _Ten_’s Alive and a jammed-out Porch are also strong album highlights. But a cool selection of rarities – like b-side Yellow Ledbetter and the Joe Strummer cover Arms Aloft – makes this a disc worth having for any PJ fan.

There’s a remarkable juxtaposition when you compare some of the band’s earlier (albeit shoddily bootlegged) concerts to some of their more recent performances. More and more the band sounds remarkably polished and tight, their solos sound more succinct, and Vedder’s voice is a lot more controlled. Pearl Jam remain one of the world’s biggest rock bands today, and listening to Live on Ten Legs, it isn’t difficult to see why they are, as they would say, “still alive”.