Set List: Oceans, Go, Animal, Last Exit, Tremor Christ, Corduroy, Rearviewmirror, Better Man, Even Flow, Why Go, Deep, Red Mosquito, Glorified G, Daughter/I Believe in Miracles/WMA, Jeremy (new), Not For You, I Got Id, Lukin/Whipping, This Boy, Alive, Black, Blood; 1st Encore: Spin The Black Circle, Leaving Here, I Can't Explain, Porch; 2nd Encore: Yellow Ledbetter

Enltenme@aol.com
This night, to me, was a rebirth. I thought rock and roll was dead. The 1980's were a musical black hole. I grew up listening and attending concerts by bands like the Stones, Led Zeppelin, the Who, etc., I even saw the Beatles. By the time the 80's rolled around, I didn't listen to the radio much. I mostly played my own tunes, (I play several intruments) Then, in about 1994, a local station here in San Diego started broadcasting the Howard Stern show in the morning. After Sterns show got over, the station (91X) played what they called "cutting edge" rock. So I listened in. And liked what I heard. I thought, finally some new stuff that rocks! Hard guitars, basic rockers, no keyboard shit! Nirvana really caught my ear. And, then, Pearl Jam.

So Pearl Jam blasts into town with 2 shows in Nov. '95. I didn't even own any of their records. I had no plans to attend, but as the date of the shows drew near, the buzz around town was palpable. I realized this was more then a concert, it was going to be an event. I decided I had to hit a show. I missed the 11-6 show, but scored a single ticket for the next night for $75. Looking back on it now, I would have paid $500 for the tic, it would have been worth it!

I got in late, the Ramones had just finished. It was a GA show, so I found a seat just to the side of the stage, about 10 rows back, in the elevated section about 12 rows off the floor. I was impressed by the stage, no theatrical BS, just a basic stage with lots of candles on both sides.

Pearl Jam is so great to their fans, they don't piss around, don't make their fans wait. The Ramones had been off for only about 30 minutes, when the lights went down, and they took the stage. They tore into "Why Go", jesus, what an opening number! "SHE SCRATCHES A LETTER, INTO A WALL, MADE OF STONE"!!

What hit me immediately was how Eddie is so un-pretentious, sort of the anti-Jagger, not needing to jump around like a maniac to get his point across, when Mike kicked into his lead, Eddie just sort of bent at the waist and backed away from the mic. I swear, it was almost a religious experience, I'm thinking, OH THANK YOU GOD, THANK YOU FOR GIVING US A REAL BAND AGAIN, I didn't think such a great band would ever come along again, and now, here they were, playing for us, touching our emotions, tearing off the tops of our heads and freeing us from the torment that rock had become!

The band was incredibly tight that night, I think because they had played the same venue the night before, they had tweaked the sound to perfection. They followed Why Go with Oceans, then kicked into Go, then Animal, Last Exit, Tremor Christ and Courduroy. The set list that night was pure heaven. RVM was followed by Better Man, then they ripped into a fantastic version of Even Flow. Mike's lead on Even Flow was an artistic masterpiece. After Glorified G, they played the best version of "Daughter" I've ever heard. That metamorphised into WMA, which got the loudest ovation of the night. Then they played a new version of Jeremy, which I thought was better than the original. "AT HOME...DRAWING PICTURES OF MOUNTAIN TOPS....WITH HIM ON TOP" so soulful. Around this time I realized Eddie is the best damn rock & roll singer EVER! No question. Next was "Not For You" Stone really shined on this one.

"I Got Shit" was next, it killed. At the end of this one, Eddie was having a problem with his guitar, it didn't want to stay in tune. He leaned into the mic and said "watch this" whereupon he took his axe off, and grabbed it by the neck, spun around, and launched the fucker over Jack's head (clearing it by maybe a foot) and said, "New guitar please, after all, I am a rock star!" To some this may seem a foolish thing to do, but this was a Pearl Jam show, not a high school dance.

As good as the show was to this point, the band cranked it up a notch or 3, kicking into "Lukin" then slamming right into "Whipping" after which Eddie said "I'm gonna do this here" and he did "This Boy", just Eddie singing and playing guitar. What a powerful song. As the last chord of This Boy faded, Stone kicked into the opening of "Alive." God, the rush that swept through the crowd, No band on earth can duplicate the emotional high we all felt as we wailed along with Eddie on the chorus. Before leaving the stage, the band played a scathing version of "Blood". I can't remember all the songs played that night, they did "Red Mosquito" also, I may have forgot one or two others. And "Deep". That might have been one of the encore numbers, I can't remember.

Oh, before leaving (before the encores) they also played "Leavin' Here" which Eddie introduced by saying "I just wanted to mention that you, and us, over the last two nights have raised $50,000 that's donated to the Surfrider Foundation to save our oceans. And I'd also like to say we tried to play this song last night and we fucked it up really badly, so we'd like to try it again." It was funny because they false started it 3 times before they got it going, but when they did, it sounded great. Then they encored with "Spin the Black Circle", "Can't Explain", "Porch" and "Yellow Ledbetter." I left knowing I'd just seen the greatest rock band ever. NOBODY does it better!!! Damn the band had fun that night. It was wild watching Mike and Stone throwing their guitars across the stage during Blood. And Eddie throwing the skateboard he'd been riding over Jack's head like the guitar earlier. Damn, I almost forgot the song of the night, "Black". Gotta go now, see you on the road this summer! Yield rules! PEARL JAM FOREVER!!!!!
--Tom S. SD, Ca 3-98