Live at the Gorge 05/06

From the time of their spectacular arrival 17 years ago, Pearl Jam has continually earned and maitained the respect of one of popular music's most devoted followings. Live at the Gorge represents why. Weighing in at 7 1/2 hours of unparalleled, nonstop, incendiary rock 'n' roll, this box set faithfully presents an all-time legend at the height of their power.

Perhaps it's the color scheme and imagery on the slipcase art for Live at the Gorge, recalling Roger Dean's classic 1970s-era album jackets, but this 7-disc set of live Pearl Jam feels warmly retro. Fans will concur, of course, since the 100 tracks favor Ten and Vs. And let's not kid ourselves, it'll be mostly committed fans that buy Gorge, given the sprawl and the fact that several tunes appear three times. That fact alone is retro: Fans buy live albums; generalists stay away. What fans will get--and generalists miss--here is an old-school, road-proved rock throwdown, from start to finish. Eddie Vedder's connection to fans is palpable in the between-song chatter and the Brit-style sing-a-longs (not to mention the Tom Petty goading he has going strong on the 2005 gig or the two appearances of Petty's "I Won't Back Down"). The general soundscape goes like this: The 2005 set is somber and slow-to-build, with its highlight in "I Believe in Miracles" as a show-opener. The 2006 discs, all four of them, are heated and gritty, with the final show's opening, "Severed Hand," providing a great vantage point into Pearl Jam's version of what Keith Richards calls "guitar weaving." It was a sweltering day at the Gorge (in George, Washington, no less), and the music embodies the heat. --Andrew Bartlett