The Eat @ Shrimpy's 2013 Year in Review

I have combed through my reviews this year to bring you a best of list.  If you neglected my recommendation the first time*, follow the links to re-read the reviews and make some post-New Year’s purchases.  If I neglected something, or you think I ranked one too low, please let me know in the comments, we’ll start a dialogue.

*Where I have failed to provide a previous review there will be a small blurb as to why I included that particular thing.

Concerts:

1.  Pearl Jam
2.  Kenny Wayne Shepherd
3.  Clutch
4.  Gigantour 2013
5.  Kid Rock and ZZ Top

CD’s:

1.   Black Sabbath: 13
1A.  Pearl Jam: Lightning Bolt
2.  Clutch: Earth Rocker
3.  Megadeth: Supercollider
4.  Black Label Society: Unblackened
5. The Rides: Can't Get Enough

Comic Series:

1.  Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye
2.  Transformers: Robots in Disguise
3.  Sons of Anarchy - I was going to wait to do a full review until after the six issue series concludes, but the long and short of it is that this is a pitch-perfect series that captures the true "voices" of the characters with good artwork that, for the most part, keeps everyone "on model" in terms of their appearance.  This couldn't have been written with any more eye toward the characters if series creator Kurt Sutter had done it himself.
4.  Bodie Troll
5.  Transformers: Monstrosity

Video Games:

1.  Ducktales Remastered - If you grew up in the nineties, there's a good chance you played the Ducktales game.  If you have even the slightest of fond memories of Uncle Scrooge bouncing up and down on the heads of his enemies using his cane then you owe it to yourself to drop the $15.00 on this digital title (you can get the hardcopy version as well, but it's an additional $5.00).  Everything is as you remember it, but the graphics are ten times better.  I kind of wish someone would get the urge to do this with the Mega Man games.  The only knock on the game is that it is so short, but you can't fault the people who created it twenty-plus years ago, as that was probably a pretty lengthy game back then. 

2.  Lego Marvel Superheroes 
3.  Donkey Kong Country - 3DS - If you like the Wii version of the game, you're in luck because this is basically the same thing but in a hand-held format.  Unfortunately it also comes complete with the horrible barrel-riding levels that are at best the worst thing to happen to a Nintendo property since Link went 3D.
4.  Transformers Prime - 3DS
5. Skylanders Swap Force

New Music Review: Pearl Jam – Lightning Bolt

                You could safely assume that seeing the band three days before hearing their new album would color my judgment to some degree.  You could also safely assume that if the album was terrible I would let you know, regardless of how great the concert that preceded it was.  Luckily, I can give you a glowing recommendation of Lightning Bolt without trying to sugarcoat anything.  It is really a terrific album, the best since the “Avocado Album” of 2006 (I know that only skips over 2009’s uneven effort Backspacer but it’s still been seven years). 

                This is not to say that the album is perfect.  It feels a lot like Vitalogy to me.  The majority of the album is incredible, but because of that, the low points stand out more.  The low points aren’t even that bad, hell they are still better than 90% of “rock” music being released today, but compared to the rest of the album they aren’t up to snuff, and feel like they would be more comfortable as B-Sides or bonus tracks released at a later date.  While we’re here, we’ll cover the low points and work our way up.  “My Father’s Son” just sounds disjointed and unpolished.  While the band has done a decent job of showcasing tracks like this in the past (“Dirty Frank” and “Bu$hleaguer” come to mind, though those two feel a bit more refined) it feels like this track was rushed.  To have it be the third track on the album is an odd choice as well, as you would expect it to be buried deeper in the album.  The only other song that isn’t up to par is “Sleeping by Myself” which is not a bad song by any means, but the fact that it appears on Eddie Vedder’s solo album Ukulele Songs and is then re-purposed as a Pearl Jam song on Lightning Bolt is a little disappointing.  Did the band not have enough songs to get twelve good ones without its inclusion?  Or was it that Eddie felt so strongly about this song that he wanted it released to the many fans of Pearl Jam that had not heard his solo version of it?  I would be more accepting of the latter, but still, another original up to the caliber of the rest of the album would have been preferred.

                On to the good, of which there is much to discuss.  Probably the best opening song on any Pearl Jam album since “Go” from Vs. is contained on this album in “Getaway”.  The band wears many, many hats on this record, from the poppy opener to the punk influenced first single “Mind Your Manners” to the complete other end of the spectrum.  “Sirens”, one of the best Pearl Jam ballads (right up there with “Just Breathe”) sucks all of the energy out of you…in a good way.  It’s the standout track for me on an album full of solid ones.  “Mind Your Manners” is great and gets better with every additional playthrough, and tracks such as “Lightning Bolt”, “Infallible” and “Pendulum” keep the momentum going.  The album does slow down considerably towards the end, ending with a whisper instead of a shout, which many people might mistake as frontloading the album with all the good stuff.  I disagree with that way of thinking, as there is a natural progression to the album, which is apparently the exact opposite of their current slate of live shows.  They hit you hard first and let you down easy (whereas on tour, they tend to ease themselves into the heavier stuff in each set).  There is nothing wrong with tracks such as “Yellow Moon” or “Future Days” (with the latter being a great closer in general), and I would gladly listen to them over and over again. 

                This is not the best album of Pearl Jam’s career, but when you start out as strong as they did, all you can really do is try and live up to those earlier successes.  With Lightning Bolt, Pearl Jam has gotten as close to replicating that as ever.  

Worshipping at the Altar of Pearl Jam

                I have been going to concerts for a loooooong time.  We are talking a nearly twenty year obsession with live music, and yet I have never, in all my life, witnessed a concert that doubled as a religious experience.  That is the only thing that I can call seeing Pearl Jam in concert.  It was not a concert, or at least it was not just a concert.  While I have seen large crowds at concerts before, I have never seen this many fans that were all laser focused on the show at hand.  I would assume a lot of it has to do with the infrequent touring schedule of the band (they have not been to Buffalo in three years) but regardless, for two and a half hours, Pearl Jam captivated nearly a full stadium of 18,000-plus people with their performance.

                This was the second stop on Pearl Jam’s North American tour, and you could tell in some spots, especially with their new music (from Lightning Bolt - in stores today) as it wasn’t as crisp as you would expect seasoned veterans to perform.  There was even a point where they stopped the show (shortly into “My Father’s Son” because vocalist Eddie Vedder was not in synch with the rest of the band.  They restarted and had no more issues, but throughout the performance Eddie was having trouble with his ear-bud.  It didn’t affect his enthusiasm or his performance, but you could see him getting frustrated as the night wore on.  There were even instances throughout the night where he brought the band together and had a pow-wow on stage and it was strange to see.  From checking message boards and conversations about the concert Vedder was apparently changing the setlist around a little, at first to save his voice, and then for reasons unknown to me.  At times it looked like he was yelling at the other members of the band, but it was hard to determine from where I was sitting, and what looks like yelling to me could have been simply because he was trying to communicate over 18,000 rabid fans. 

                Even with everything not going exactly as planned for the band, they didn’t let that stop them from putting on one of the best concerts I have ever seen.  From new songs (of which they played nine of the twelve new songs from Lightning Bolt – an ambitious setlist considering the album had yet to be released), to the old staples that everyone came to see, they had the crowd enthralled.  Many people, like the know-it-all guy behind my girlfriend and I, had seen the band before and were already indoctrinated into the universal church of Pearl Jam.  We, on the other hand, had waited a good twenty years to see Eddie and the boys take the stage and were not disappointed.  Did we wish they had played more of their older stuff?  Sure.  But that’s the price you pay when the first three albums in a band’s catalog are three of the best albums of all time.  Every fan of the band has their favorite album or song, and the band did a great job of trying to accommodate those people by playing at least one song from nearly every album in their catalog (including a lot from No Code, much more than I anticipated).  This is the best thing about Pearl Jam.  Sure, they’ll play their staples, and on a tour like this they’ll probably play much of their new album, but they will vary the setlist from show to show, so even if you follow them from city to city, you will never hear the same concert twice.

 

                Grunge music kind of gets a bad rap for being all angsty with heavy, chunky guitars.  What many people don’t always see is the incredible guitar players that came out of that generation.  It’s often hard to believe compared to the hair metal generation that preceded it which spawned the likes of Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhodes and Zakk Wylde, but grunge guitarists like Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam’s own Mike McCready can still pull off some amazing guitar work amongst the heavy grunge sound (and at this point, it would be hard to even classify Pearl Jam as Grunge, or really any label aside from "rock band").  Even though I know Pearl Jam's music and I’ve been a fan since I was young, I never really realized how exceptional of a guitar player Mike McCready really is.  Not just in a technical precision kind of way (which, believe me, he excels at) but in a pure energy kind of way.  McCready kept the concert moving at times when a lesser guitar player left to their own devices may falter.  He stood at the front of the stage and gave everything he had on every song, and showed just how adept he is at his chosen instrument.  This is not to take anything away from the rest of the band as this is one of the best bands in history.  They are all on the same page musically and they all approach shows the same way, to give it everything they have from start to finish and leave the audience satisfied.  

               There were a few reasons to not be too happy with the performance on Saturday night, from the new-music heavy setlist to the oddity that was the interaction between Eddie and the band, to the fact that the concert started an hour later than its posted time, yet, when all was said and done, and the band took the stage, my girlfriend and I were able to look at each other and see in each other’s eyes the joy of seeing one of our favorite bands after so long (not to mention when they turned to the back of the stage and played "Elderly Woman...", I've never seen her eyes light up that much).

 

                If you have even a passing interest in Pearl Jam, a “hey, I liked Ten back in the early nineties” kind of appreciation for the band, you owe it to yourself to go.  Don’t think twice about ticket prices (which, I know, is hard to do in this day and age) as this is the best show you will ever see, regardless of how much you had to pay for tickets, or parking (screw you $20 parking garage).  If you’ve never been, go, if you have, go again…I know I will.