I say it all the time, but I'll say it again: Pearl Jam is simply one of my all-time favorite bands. Haven't done the top 10 or top 5 or whatever kind of exercise, but is very probable that the Seattle almost-old-enough-to-drink band would end in my 5 favorite bands. So you can imagine how f****** excited I am ever since their upcoming 11/24 show in Mexico City was only a rumor, was confirmed by the band and ever since I bought my ticket! This is going to be my very first Pearl Jam show (it's their third visit to my city tough but back then, in 2003 and 2005, I was too young and too stupid, and I wasn't a fan yet), it's their 20th anniversary tour, one night only (at a venue with a 50,000+ people capacity), and also the Cameron Crowe 20th anniversary film is coming in September (an exciting book and soundtrack too), goddamn, it's simply a great time for the Pearl Jam fan!
Personally my excitement for all of this has been translated into hearing almost nothing but PJ records during these days. There was, and still is (with all the official bootlegs nobody will ever end!), lots of PJ stuff for me to discover. This DVD was one of those. When I read about it I wanted to get it immediately. The main reason was that I knew its director Danny Clinch. I knew Clinch's WHERE THE LIGHT IS: JOHN MAYER LIVE IN LOS ANGELES. I love that film, so I knew Imagine IN CORNICE was something really worthy. After all, it was indeed not just another concert DVD, as its short set list indicated (in the back of the case there are 13 songs listed).
Talking about the song selection, you have to keep in mind that this is about PJ's Italy tour of 2006 (the tour consisted in 5 shows, each in a different city – Bologna, Verona, Milan, Torino and Pistoia). So there's a lot from their 2006 album "Pearl Jam" (the film actually starts with 3 songs from that album – "Severed Hand", "World Wide Suicide" and "Life Wasted"). It's the "Pearl Jam" album plus some of the classics. Actually, it's literally that as we have, aside of the cover (Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" – also we can hear, as background music, the cover of Tom Waits' "Picture in a Frame") and "State of Love and Trust" (that first appeared in the SINGLES soundtrack), only songs from the 2006 album and from the first 3 ones ("Ten", "Vs." and "Vitalogy"). This is certainly a great resume of the 2006 world tour, with nothing but perfect performances. For me the ones that stand out are the starting-slow great version of "Porch", "Betterman" (the Italian crowd is great here, singing as loud as possible, and it ends with a great image of the four original members playing together in a circle), "Alive" (Clinch takes nicely an accidental fall of Eddie to edit this one as it was the very last performance of the film) and a f****** intense "Blood" (yet again showing that the Italian crowd is a great one, if not as intense as the Argentinean or the Mexican!).
Now, let's talk about the other element of the film. The Clinch element that made me knew this was something else. The interview, backstage, sound check, being-tourist-in-Italy, and stuff, sort of element. It's absolutely priceless. Just to see how the band prepares an encore, you must check out this one. Or how Eddie learns his Italian lines, or how, hell, see by yourself! It's a great picture, perfect for the warm-up prior to the entire PJ20 extravaganza!
