Jay Meydad's Life Mashup

Wow!

Pearl Jam put together a spectacular show last night in front of a full Gibson Amp (~6100 seats) in LA.

The concert opened really strong with Why Go, Animal, World Wide Suicide and Got Some which were just the beginning to a well performed, top-notch rock concert. Other than those four songs, the set list included 6 other songs from Backspacer (which is fantastic album), a mix of old songs from the all of their previous albums, including a few non-hits they normally don’t play like Rats.

Ben Harper who did the opening show, joined the band in the middle of the first encore and played Red Mosquito (video is from the Portland show) and his sliding guitar sounded fantastic and added plenty of depth to the song. The show ended, after almost 2.5 hours and two encores, with Neil Young’s classic Rockin’ in the free world.

The sound and acoustic the Gibson Amp provides is world class, and the stage & lightning design were extraordinary (pictures here). My only regret is that I left my Digital SLR at home and only had my iPhone with me to document it. At the seats I had those could have been amazing pictures.

Bottom line — The way Pearl Jam plays together, the way they interact with the fans, the way the fans participate in every song and sing all the lyrics, is what makes Pearl Jam the best (live) rock band in our generation.

Here’s a video another fan took last night of my favorite tracks from the new album, Unthought Known.

Berry Sakharof performed last night at the Avalon Hollywood club in Los Angeles and gave a great 2 hour rock concert, and as in every Berry’s album and live shows, it was decorated with fantastic electronica (thanks to Gidi Raz on samplers) and some middle-eastern motifs.

Few other things to mention:
- Adi Renert can play keyboards for rockers and not just for mainstream artists. Very refreshing.
- Aviv Cohen is an amazing young drummer. I was really impressed with him.
- Oren Lotenberg is like an all around basketball player when it comes to guitars. You want to have someone like him on your band.
- At the age of 51 Berry is still miles ahead of many young Israeli artists in his ability to write, compose, and perform fantastic Israeli rock.

Below is one clip of Kama Yossi (with a talented trumpet player I can not remember his name named Lior Ron, who saw this clip on YouTube and contacted me) and I have more on my YouTube page, including Birthday (with Infected Mushrooms). Too bad my flip camera could not capture the great sound quality this venue provides.

The additional clips are on this playlist.

I am only now starting to recover from the Smashing Pumpkins concert I saw last week at the Gibson Amphitheater. It was one I am going to remember for years:

• The sound was great.
• The lighting was electrifying – check out this amazing flickr set.
• Diversified crowd – it was fun to see folks who grew up on the pumpkins 20 years ago next to youngsters who grow up on their music today. I wish that in 20 years I will get to take my sons to watch the 40 years anniversary.
• The set – the band played so well together and demonstrated their unique talent to play hard code alternative rock/punk, psychedelia and delicate ballads, and even an A Capella of “We only come out at night…”
• These should not be news to anyone, but Jimmy Chamberlin is a hell of a drummer.
• Billy was in a great mood, joked with the fans and shared some stories from the past. What can I say, even rock stars are as they grow up.

One last thing – If you are a fan like I am, treat yourself for the new year with a live recording of one of this tour’s performances. These are now for sale on LiveSmashingPumpkins ; If you are not sure whether you like the band or not, listen to the 30 seconds previews. You might change your mind.