Live On Two Legs

Pearl Jam established itself as a powerful live act capable of delivering the expected goods alongside a loose, experimental nature that could turn a song into an anthem at any moment. While Eddie Vedder has his moments of intense personal revelation, he is just as at home spreading his vision to the masses with grand gestures that bring an epic quality to the band’s hardest rockers. Live On Two Legs was cut during the band’s 1998 tour behind Yield and features material from each of the band’s studio albums to that point, refusing to settle for all the expected touchstones. “Black” and “Even Flow” are here. “Jeremy” is missing. However, the power of “Corduroy,” the haunting Zeppelin-rip of ‘Given to Fly,” the merciless charge of “Hail, Hail,” the forlorn cadence of “Daughter” and a committed cover of Neil Young’s “F****n’ Up” make for a full-spectrum portrait of one of the decade’s most vital bands. The band, however, has since made an incredible amount of its live performances available to the general public and it’s truly difficult to decide which versions represent the band at its best moment, considering its overall high consistency.