Pollywogs!

Went to see Pearl Jam in Philadelphia last night.

(I didn’t take these pics, I had shitty seats (hey well I guess I was in the building) thanks completely to Ticketmaster)

Pearl Jam was nothing less than the best, as usual. My fellow fans however, left something to be desired. Last two shows I got stuck next to an obnoxious drunk person, a frat boy the first time, some raging drunk guy this time. My wife is a little more outspoken than I am and told the guy off, and he and his poor girlfriend eventually left for greener pastures (where he could yell “Is this not fucking awesome” into someone elses face).

The pictures are from http://www.pearljam.com Apparently someone involved in the band’s businsess started a little company which lets them nearly instantly take the show and publish it online, where you can purchase the bootleg for $10. Comes with CD covers, lables if you are into that kind of thing, pics from the concert…not bad :) Personally I like it better than buying a hard copy, because I would just rip it anyway, this cuts out a step and costs less to boot (ahah, to boot hah…sigh…)

Java applet, should run on Microsoft, Apple, Linux, what-have-you…

The music downloads into a directory of the shows city and date, the files are 192kbps MP3s WITH NO DRM. Good for you Pearl Jam. And you know what? I bet for every person who downloads it free, another buys the boot from them. And you know what else? Pearl Jam doesn’t care if you download their concerts for free anyway (as long as you use common sense and not ‘pirate’ them while they are newly release on pearljam.com), they are ’sticking it to the man’ in reverse so to speak:

Official policy:
Q: Does the band approve of full live concerts or songs being traded online in MP3 files?
A: It’s ok.

Bless their warm little hearts. If you have $10 and want a good live show, go check it out. They are always better in person (ok, the Alive and Evenflow video’s were exceptions), but it is still a good record : Philadelphia, 10-03-2005