Jamming...

So, Thursday night brought Pearl Jam. One day after seeing Alice in Chains we got to go see Pearl Jam, both born out of the late 80s/early 90s Seattle scene. Both my favorite bands to come out of that explosion.

Mayra got tickets through Ten Club (the fan club). This means we don't know our seats. They are distributed by seniority save the front two rows, which are random. We get there and the guy at the ticket booth informs us our seats are FRONT ROW. Which was crazy (see that pic at the top? Yeah that was taken with a terrible cell phone camera, that's how close). The venue was really nice and had no bad seats... but that's still not front row. So, that was an awesome surprise.

Ben Harper and the Relentless 7 open up. He did a good job and you can do loads worse for an opener 98% of the time.

Pearl Jam take the stage and start off with Corduroy (for the most part, actually played some Pink Floyd Interstellar Overdrive first). Awesome. They sounded awesome. Being so close was awesome. We were posted directly in front of lead guitarist Mike McCready and I was glad. He played with the most energy and was all over the place.

I learned that Eddie Vedder is a lot better guitar player than I thought. He played 3 songs with a string quartet backing him up. Ben Harper came back on to play on Red Mosquito. The set list was satisfying to me. I got to see Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town.

All in all it was good to see a band that tight that has never really missed a beat in their entire career. I've felt for a long time that Pearl Jam is in the same category as Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young. The kind of artist that is in it for the long haul for all the right reasons. A band that tours until it can't and loves bringing live music to all.

Keep it up, PJ!

Videos and Set list below...

Eddie Vedder puts the string quartet on the spot to play Lukin'... which they have not rehearsed.


Part of new song Amongst the Waves... in this one... down on the front row left just in front of security in yellow... in white... is me being all big. You can see M dancing on my right.


Jeremy... M is dancing in this one too...



Set List: (Interstellar Overdrive)/Corduroy, Severed Hand, Got Some, Do The Evolution, Dissident, Given To Fly, Johnny Guitar, Amongst The Waves, I Got Shit, Daughter, Jeremy, Unthought Known, Small Town, Driven To Tears (Police), The Fixer, Rearviewmirror

1st encore: Just Breathe w/string quartet, The End w/string quartet, Lukin w/string quartet, Red Mosquito w/Ben Harper, Jazz Odyssey, Better Man/(Save It For Later)

2nd encore: Gonna See My Friend, I Believe In Miracles (Ramones), Once, Alive, Yellow Ledbetter/(Star Spangled Banner)