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| | Pearl Jam: Arena di Verona - PopMatters Music Review |
 | | This alone is an admirable feat, not only because it displays the band's attention to each performance, but because it stands in stark contrast to the one-size-fits-all, semi-choreographed shows to which so many stadium bands (and, perhaps even more inexcusably, some club acts) have fallen prey. |
 | | I purchased Arena di Verona (Italy), not only because of the enormous breadth of the set, but also because Italy apparently gave Pearl Jam a rather distant reception during their 1993 tour supporting U2. |
 | | As far as the live performance itself, the songs offer more in the way of adrenaline than improvisation, so there are only minor points of commentary: "Hail, Hail," and "Animal," for instance, are too fast, while ballads like "Black" and "Immortality" fare much better, refusing to collapse under their own weight. |
| www.popmatters.com /music/reviews/p/pearljam-arena.shtml (606 words) |
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