Ed, caving in his own forehead with the microphone after screwing up Got Some.

Ahem.

It's a Pearl Jam live album. What do you want from me? Of course it's great. They're one of the premier live acts of the last few decades, with a back catalogue most bands would murder dewy-eyed orphans to appropriate, and a devotion to varied and interesting setlists usually only seen among suspiciously-smelling jam bands where no one can really tell the difference between songs anyway (both because they all sound the same, and because all attending are in a chemical fog. And should get haircuts and real jobs. Anyway.). This is the band that, since 2000, has offered somewhere in the region of 300 official live bootlegs. You don't do that unless you've got a live show worth bragging about.

Live on Ten Legs (henceforth: "LOXL") is the follow-up to 1998's Live on Two Legs, and includes tracks compiled from shows between 2003 and 2010, which is roughly the amount of time it took for Pearl Jam to have a mid-life crisis, going from gracefully aging classicists (Riot Act) to snarling, reinvigorated rockers (their eponymous album) to contended family men (Backspacer). The songs themselves are mainly drawn from Ten and Backspacer, with some surprises thrown in. Long-time engineer Brett Eliason has been brought back into the fold to get the sound quality up to scratch (a distinct problem on recent bootlegs, as evidenced by my unwieldy real-time rant over here).

Of course it's great.

The only question is how great? And how is it great? And why should you care, since you gave up on Pearl Jam after the Jeremy video went out of rotation fifteen years ago? And why am I still listing questions, after promising only one question?

Practicing your golf swing during a rock concert - the perils of middle age.

LOXL is about as good a primer for modern-day Pearl Jam as you're going to get. This is what the band is now: straightforward, chunky rock n' roll, with the primal angst and drama forgotten in favour of a sense of energy and community. Nowhere is this more evident than in The Fixer, the band's biggest single in eons, where all five bandmembers (keyboardist Boom Gaspard doesn't count, mirthless pedants) and the entire crowd bellow the chorus at each other: a simple "yeah, yeah, yeah" mantra encourages such moments, I suppose. There are other such moments (on far superior songs, too): Ed dropping out during In Hiding, and the crowd's voices taking over unbidden; or on Alive: "Is something wrong?" she said - "Of course there is!" the audience screamed.

The band sounds incredibly tight throughout (especially appreciated on the sometimes-sprawling jam in Rearviewmirror - here, it's just the band coiling for the coda's release) and Ed's voice, now weathered by years of toil and tobacco, sounds strong without delving into the gurning voice of which Scott Stapp now claims exclusive ownership. Two covers are included: Arms Aloft, a splendid choice from Streetcore, Joe Strummer's posthumous release with the Mescaleroes, and Public Image, by PiL, Johnny Rotten's other band. There's probably some sort of statement in their using songs by two cornerstones of British punk, neither of which are from their most famous bands, but never mind that - Arms Aloft is fantastic, and Public Image doesn't offend.

And so, when the 18 song album closes with Yellow Ledbetter - just like the vast majority of their concerts do - it's hard not to feel like you just got a snapshot of the band at their best.* It's a perfect place for new or lapsed fans to dive in, and it's even worth owning if you're wrongheadedly in possession of every single bootleg from the last 7 years, just to hear the guitars mixed properly. And if that doesn't convince you, check out the wonderfully silly video below.

Al Byrne

* Except, of course, you didn't, because Live on Two Legs was a snapshot of the band at the best. Buy the two together for bonus enjoyment. And buy Streetcore while you're at it. And then buy me dinner.