Monkeywrench

Though they technically got their start in 1990, 2011 marks the proper kickoff point of Pearl Jam’s 20th anniversary as one of Seattle’s most durable rock titans, as it commemorates the year that the group released their seminal debut LP, Ten. And kicking off the festivities of this celebration is this new compilation chronicling the band’s exhaustive oughties touring schedule whilst serving as a sequel to their first proper live album, 1998’s Live On Two Legs.

But given the fact that PJ has officially released every show they have performed on tour in the last 10-odd years, what was the point in putting this thing out, really? Well, if you understand anything about Pearl Jam, it’s mostly due to the fact that in spite of making every gig from 2000 on available for public consumption, it is to show that the art of the live album in the archetypal Kiss Alive or Rust Never Sleeps sense of the concept is not entirely lost on them. And as such, Live On Ten Legs, certainly serves its function, serving up 18 of the group’s finest performances as deemed by the band and engineers Brett Eliason and John Burton.

As with any collection of this nature, one might well quibble with the track listing. Needless to say, it certainly would’ve been cooler to have seen the likes of “Corduroy” or “Do The Evolution” over such droll 00s fare as “I Am Mine” and “World Wide Suicide”. But on the other hand, you have killer live versions of their last album Backspacer’s best songs in “Got Some,” “The Fixer,” “Unthought Known” and “Just Breathe.” In addition Live On Ten Legs offers absolute face-ripping renditions of such vintage PJ gems as “Animal,” “State of Love and Trust,” “Rearviewmirror” and “Porch.” The album also offers a luminous read of the classic “Jeremy” B-side “Yellow Ledbetter” while Eddie Vedder does a spot-on impression of Johnny Rotten on the sole cover of the set, a great tear through Public Image Ltd.‘s “Public Image,” which serves as a fine respite from the band’s usual onslaught of Neil Young tunes they take on at any given show.

Live On Ten Legs might not be as essential an addition to the non-obsessively hardcore Pearl Jam fan’s music shelf as say, the upcoming Vs./Vitalogy deluxe job coming out in late March (which contains a downright stellar soundboard from the Orpheum Theater in Boston from April of 1994 back when the group was arguably at the absolute peak of its powers). But as a throwback to the days of the single-disc concert album, it definitely provides a fitting overview of a rollercoaster decade on the road for the most vital mainstream rock band of the last twenty years.