Live at Benaroya Hall is a two-disc live album by the American alternative rock band Pearl Jam, recorded on October 22, 2003, at Benaroya Hall, Seattle, Washington and released on July 27, 2004, through BMG.
Overview The concert—which took place on October 22, 2003, at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Washington—is acoustic, and was performed and released as a benefit for YouthCare, a non-profit charity in Seattle. The album was also released as a limited edition quadruple vinyl through Ten Club, Pearl Jam's fan club. Only 2,000 were pressed—each individually numbered by hand—and sold out within minutes of being on sale.
Live at Benaroya Hall was released through a one-album deal with BMG, and the band used the experiment to later sign with BMG subsidiary J Records to produce the album Pearl Jam (Avocado). It debuted at number 18 on the Billboard 200 chart and sold approximately 52,000 copies in its first week. As of April 2006, Live at Benaroya Hall has sold 168,000 copies in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Reception AllMusic staff writer Jason Birchmeier gave the album two and a half out of five stars, writing, "Of the many, many live albums Pearl Jam publicly released, their October 23, 2003, show at Benaroya Hall is one of the more novel ones... Such novelty, of course, doesn't make Benaroya Hall an especially excellent set (in fact, it feels a little one-dimensional and subdued because of the acoustic instrumentation), though it is one of the more unique and interesting of the many, many shows Pearl Jam released publicly over the years." Rolling Stone staff writer Christian Hoard gave the album three out of five stars, writing that the " album's warm, wizened feel and unusual set list are appropriate for souvenir-collecting obsessives and lapsed fans looking for a new take on Pearl Jam's substantial catalog."
Track listing Disc one "Of the Girl" (Stone Gossard) – 5:22 "Low Light" (Jeff Ament) – 4:18 "Thumbing My Way" (Eddie Vedder) – 4:49 "Thin Air" (Gossard) – 4:25 "Fatal" (Gossard) – 3:49 "Nothing as It Seems" (Ament) – 7:29 "Man of the Hour" (Vedder) – 3:58 "Immortality" (Dave Abbruzzese, Ament, Gossard, Mike McCready, Vedder) – 6:18 "Off He Goes" (Vedder) – 5:53 "Around the Bend" (Vedder) – 5:37 "I Believe in Miracles" (Dee Dee Ramone, Daniel Rey) – 5:29 "Sleight of Hand" (Ament, Vedder) – 5:13 "All or None" (Gossard, Vedder) – 7:42 "Lukin" (Vedder) – 2:07
Disc two "Parting Ways" (Vedder) – 5:24 "Down" (Gossard, McCready, Vedder) – 3:08 "Encore Break" – 0:49 "Can't Keep" (Vedder) – 3:15 "Dead Man" (Vedder) – 4:24 "Masters of War" (Bob Dylan) – 6:06 "Black" (Vedder, Gossard) – 7:41 "Crazy Mary" (Victoria Williams) – 7:40 "25 Minutes to Go" (Shel Silverstein) – 4:43 "Daughter" (Abbruzzese, Ament, Gossard, McCready, Vedder) – 6:30 "Encore Break" – 1:06 "Yellow Ledbetter" (Ament, McCready, Vedder) – 6:01
Personnel Pearl Jam Jeff Ament – bass guitar, double bass Matt Cameron – drums Stone Gossard – guitars Mike McCready – guitars Eddie Vedder – vocals, guitars, ukulele
Additional musicians and production Ed Brooks at RFI CD Mastering – mastering John Burton – recording Brett Eliason – mixing Boom Gaspar – Hammond B3, Fender Rhodes Brad Klausen – design
Chart positions Chart (2004)PeakpositionAustralian Albums (ARIA)Pearl Jam in Australian Charts . Australian-Charts.com. Retrieved on May 28, 2008. 27Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) 31Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) 38Canadian Albums (Billboard) 10Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) 25French Albums (SNEP) 116Irish Albums (IRMA) 48Italian Albums (FIMI) 10New Zealand (RMNZ)Pearl Jam in New Zealand Charts . Charts.Org.NZ. Retrieved on May 28, 2008. 12Portuguese Albums (AFP) 2UK Albums (OCC) 76US Billboard 200 18US Top Internet Albums (Billboard) 1
References
External links Live at Benaroya Hall information and lyrics at pearljam.com