Pearl Jam, Live on Two Legs
Featured Album
A collection not lacking The Hits
In terms of song selection, the biggest surprise on Live On Two Legs (the group’s first of many officially sanctioned live releases) might be the relative lack of Ten representation: It only gets two slots out of 16, and both of those tracks (“Black” and “Even Flow”) are in the back end of the setlist. Despite that minor quirk, the Legs set doesn’t lack for The Hits; if anything, it’s disappointing that the non-album tracks are limited to “Untitled” (an ersatz intro into “MFC”) and their righteous cover of Neil Young’s “Fucked Up.” Both “Elderly Woman” and “Betterman” are included, as are the singles from No Code and Yield, while the group stretches out the outro of “Daughter” to let Eddie Vedder sing lyrics from Neil Young’s “Keep On Rockin’ In The Free World” and his own “W.M.A.” Musically, the group sticks to the script, though the addition of a new cast member (then-temp drummer Matt Cameron) does add some wrinkles. He doesn’t show off at the expense of the tunes, but still manages to find space to flash some skill and make his mark (especially on “Corduroy” and “Hail, Hail”). If this tour was meant to be an ersatz audition for Cameron to join the group, he passed with flying colors. — David Raposa
