Wow, so tonight was the last show of Media Decay’s Pearl Jam week, and also the last show of this leg of Pearl Jam’s tour.  It was the second night at New York’s famous Madison Square Garden, and revered home of some legendary Pearl Jam performances.  This show in particular sold out incredibly fast and tickets were almost impossible to get.  Everyone wanted to be there.  Everyone was hoping for something spectacular.  And the band delivered.  They not only delivered a super energetic 2 hour 40 minute set, but they delivered a crazy setlist and even a “new” song (more on that a little later).  Perhaps the best part was that thanks to my fan club membership and a worked out trade with another fan club member, I found myself sitting in the 11th row center for this amazing show.

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I’ve just returned home from the second show of Media Decay’s Pearl Jam week.  Tonight was the first of a 2 night run at Madison Square Garden.  Pearl Jam has played some legendary shows at the Garden and is best known for the show they eventually wound up releasing as a dvd(note please buy it through that link and get an awesome show and help support us bringing you features like these).  It’s like their second home and people fly in from around the world to see them play there.  As such not only are both shows sold out, but the fan club tickets were nearly impossible to get.  The server crashed before they even actually went onsale.  But I managed to get them and as such found myself sitting dead center on the floor of Madison Square Garden.

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This post is the beginning of a new series here at Media Decay that will be almost like a recommendation area for concerts.  Basically it’s writeups of some particularly special concerts I’ve either attended or heard.  One feature of these is that I’m going to do my best to include at least some audio from the shows in these posts, although if a show is available commercially this will be more complex.  I hope you enjoy the first installment of this series and come back for more.  It should be monthly. Click a song title to stream that song.

 

The first installment is all about David Bowie.  A consummate showman and the definition of rock star, I’ve managed to see him live twice before he retired from music (if you didn’t know Bowie is retired from music due to his heart being fucked).  The very first time I got to see him was this show, perhaps the best concert I have ever experienced (and I’ve been to a lot of concerts).

 

The date was January 9th 1997.  The place NYC’s legendary Madison Square Garden where many years before Bowie had already put on one of the greatest shows of all time that would be released as the movie Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars.  This show was to celebrate the legendary rocker turning 50 (his actual birthday was the 8th).  As a way to celebrate this milestone he decided that he wanted to share the stage with acts that he’d influenced and who had influenced him in return.  We’ll get to who exactly that was in a minute.

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