Set List: Sometimes, Last Exit, Animal, Go, Hail Hail, Dissident, In My Tree, Corduroy, Better Man, Lukin, Not For You, Jeremy, Black, SOLAT, Satan's Bed, Habit, RVM, Immortality, Alive, Porch; 1st Encore: Present Tense, Even Flow, Blood, Daughter/Noise of Carpet/Away from Work/Real Me/Brick in the Wall, I Got Id, Leaving Here, 2nd Encore: Rockin' in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter

Ft. Lauderdale show
by: Laura (sundawn@icanect.net)

The October 7th Pearl Jam concert was the most amazing, wonderful, honest thing I have ever seen. I saw them up close. I moshed. I almost died. {Well, almost!}

I got there with my best friend and my dad and her dad around 5:40. The concert was set to start at six, but when we finally got in the stadium and everything, the Fastbacks were already playing. My best friend and I went to buy t-shirts. {I bought the *limited edition* ;) one with the red collar and sleeve cuffs that said Ft. Lauderdale on the back, Lisa got the black one with the No Code poloroids on the front. We both got free stickers.} We went to go sit in the bleachers because my dad said we were not, under any circumstances, going to mosh or we would die. We argued that we were going to see PJ up close no matter what it took. My dad gave us 20 dollars and told us to go buy dinner. BTW, the only reason our dads were there is 1} they like Pearl Jam despite their age, but not enough to go insane.

Lisa and I actually lived it out in the bleachers with all the old fogies and non-fans, that is, until Pearl Jam was about to go on. Then, we kind of just left with a promise we would be back before the end of the concert. The first song PJ played was Sometimes, and it sounded a lot different than it did on No Code. . . more bombastic. They jazzed it up a little. Next was Last Exit, then Animal {complete with Eddie counting on his fingers!} , then Go, then a very spooky rendition of In My Tree. It was so beautiful, In My Tree. After In My Tree, I lost the order of which songs they played, all I remember is that Hail, Hail, Lukin, Rearviewmirror, Corduroy, and Betterman were near the beginning, that Even Flow, Not For You, Alive, Immortality, Present Tense, I got Id, Porch, Black, and State of Love and Trust were closer to the end, with Jeremy, Daughter, Dissident, Blood, Satan's Bed, Immortality, and Habit made up the middle. The last encore consisted of Leaving Here, Rockin in the Free World, and Yellow Ledbetter. In total, they played 28 songs.

Some very interesting things happened during this concert. Such as, Eddie climbed. I remember when he used to do that, but I thought he had stopped. But right in the middle of Porch, the jamming part, Eddie ran to the left side of the stage and just climbed right to the top. He was hanging there for awhile, and everyone was just in shock. But then he climbed back down with an explaination: "I needed a point of view." Is this a historical event, the return of climbing? Also in the Porch jam, Eddie sat himself right down on an amp and just started to talk to the audience. He talked about what he had seen on TV the previous night {the news} and he started saying that he hoped Josephine wouldn't come, and that everyone was welcome at this concert but Josephine. At first I didn't realize he was talking about the hurricane, and I was like, who the hell is Josephine, and why does Eddie hate this girl so much? I was pretty shocked at what Eddie was saying, I was thinking Josephine was some girl, and I had never known Eddie to be so mean or vicious. I was feeling pretty sorry for poor Josephine, when Eddie mentioned that she was a tropical storm. Oh!

And in the jam of Daughter, this guy came on stage, {Eddie told us his name but I forgot!} [It was Kelvin.] and Eddie gave him a huge hug and then said to the audience "This is a reunion of sorts, because the last time we were here [this guy] came on stage, and here he is again tonight. And he just informed me that he didn't even have a ticket tonight, and he got in anyway, and here is he on stage, so this is proof that miracles really can happen." Then Eddie proceeded to get on the guy's shoulders, he sat there and sang the rest of Daughter. he had the crowd sing him some Pink Floyd {"We don't need no education! We don't need no thought control!}, then Eddie got off the guy's shoulders, hugged him again, and the guy went back to the audience.

Also, Eddie told us before they played Satan's Bed that they had't played it live before, but they were doing it as a request for Kurt. When Eddie said Kurt he looked upwards.

For those who are interested in that sort of thing, Eddie was wearing blue jeans, a white t shirt with a design on it, suspenders, and a brown shirt. All the guys were in top form, the songs all sounded great. I moshed. Let me tell you, never again. I'm about five feet tall, and I weigh about 90 pounds. I'm fifteen and I'm a girl. I think I deserve some sort of medal for surviving the mosh pit for three whole hours. I am insane to even go in there, but the things people will do to see Pearl Jam very close up. . . I am all scratched up, people were literally all over me, and at one point, I fell down and a zillion other people fell on top of me. I seriously thought I was going to die. But this guy picked me up and I gave him a big hug of gratitude, and I have no idea who he is. So, if he's reading this right now, I want to thank him big time. The other guys in the mosh pit are animalian. I was wearing a non-holey black shirt when I got to Pearl Jam, and now it is in shreds. I was clawed, I was grabbed, and I don't even know by who. But I can say it was totally worth it to get to see Pearl Jam. Eddie said he was worried about us in the mosh pit. He said he was concerned.

The only sad part of this all is that after the concert, some asshole stole Stone's guitar. [It has since been recovered.] Now on Zeta {a radio station} they are trying to get it back. I just feel so bad about this, because the guys played such a great show for us, Eddie was nice to us, they said we were the best show on the tour, and then some idiot has to ruin it all and take Stone's guitar. I'm so ashamed for the whole state. Now PJ will never come back here. I guess I'll have to move. Either way, that was still the most incredible concert.

October, 1996, Pearl Jam and The Who, Florida and California

Ft. Lauderdale 10/7/96, Bridge School 10/19/96, Quadrophenia 10/20/96
by: Dru Cursi (decibell@is.netcom.com)

I'm tired and need to surf some of these beautiful fall waves here in Encinitas...having just finished a mini-tour with Pearl Jam...oh, yeah... and the Who, ah heck, then there was Neil Young, too. Just too bad they didn't KNOW I was touring with them. And too bad I didn't have my guitars with me, but I did manage to have my harmonica at each show. Gets through security a little easier than a Les Paul. Before I face my other life in high-tech marketing...am I getting nauseous?...I'd like one more opportunity to just go off about how great a time I've had "doing these shows". If YOU GUYS--Pearl Jam-- ever read this: THANKS for the INSPIRATION.

Well I guess I got the "bug" in September when I attended a Neil Young show in Irvine Californa. It was a b-day present to me...from me. No hassles, just went with me. I'd forgotten how much I had been influenced by Neil Young in my acoustic playing. I used to hear him all the time for free growing up in Santa Cruz. He hadn't lost a thing. He stomped around the stage like a tribal chieftan. I ran right out and bought a CD. Then...I got an offer to buy a ticket at face value - only PJ Fans do this!!!-- to a Fort Lauderdale Pearl Jam Show over the internet.

Was I losing it? Was I really going to do this? Fly ALL the way to Florida? Doubting my own sanity and convinced that "they" drove me to this rash act..."they" being of course all the yuppies I work with all day...yep I was a'goin. Oh yeah and I was TERRIFIED of getting on a plane again. Well, I guess this was time to challenge myself. I needed this. I'd just spent a bad vacation with a flu at my parent's house instead of surfing Santa Cruz. So OFF "I" GOES.

Ugh? Hurricane? Is ..ugh that like ugh with the wind? This little Californian got a little sqeezy when I heard about a hurricane as I landed. Be my luck, survive the earthquakes all these years only to fly directly to a hurricane and buy it! Naw! Couldn't happen. There was too much overpoweringly good energy driving me to do this adventure. I found a hotel, got a car, and started to sweat. Just like they used to on Miami Vice. What's with the pastels people, it's 1996! Spent a tank of gas cruising around to the beaches and sticking my toes for the first time in the Atlantic. And I also had to stay up to watch the sun come UP over the ocean. With all the sunsets I watch here, I HAD to. But it made me feel weird. But then, you should always question your own markers of reality now and then. Their reality: no good surf.

I arrived hours before the show because I wasn't going to let anything, including my lack of direction, get in the way of me seeing Pearl Jam. The minute I got there I felt as if I had been re-joined with "my tribe". Pearl Jam fans are such cool people. Really. I got inside and there I was, right in front of the stage just outside the pit. Hurricane, hell... now I needed to learn how to survive the moshers. I sat for a few hours quietly talking with my new neighbors in the rain watching the blue field blanket below us turn to a mud puddle.

Light outs! There THEY were! Right there. Oh geez! Pearl Jam. Not trying to brown-nose, YOU GUYS were incredible. Better than I EVER expected. And Eddie, well you weren't the brooding shadow that those evil little press people like to dwell on. You treated us all like we were all at a backyard reunion, warm, happy, inspired. After all the wind, rain, the plane fare, the "you're nuts" looks from my boss and friends, fear of flying, second guessing my sanity...what a reward this was. From one musician to YOU GUYS, you must really have good sound people and know when to STOP overdubbing in the studio. Because you just don't sound this good live by accident. At the end of the show, I felt like I had new hope breathed into me. Okay, I'm getting really sappy, now. Well.. really. I did. I felt like I managed to bottle whatever went down there and was going to keep it in my soul to pull out whenever I needed inspiration to go on and get myself together enough to reach my TRUE GOALS while still doing all the other bs. Oh, I guess the tape will help, too, sort of like that guy Tony Robbins Power Tapes that all the yups at work listen to so that they can take over the world faster. JUST kidding!!

But I got restless so I decided to stay on the Pearl Jam tour and headed to chilly Mountain View Shoreline Theatre at the Bridge School Benefit, Oct 19. Another plane ride. NO sweat! More Neil, yeah! And Bowie! Wait, Bowie acoustic? I gotta see this. It was a treat. Bowie especially, and Hayden was no slouch either. I felt good as a human being to be here giving my money to something besides a corporation --these kids difficult little lives. What kind of world would it be if that's how everything worked? It'd be too nice for all those greedy "substitute-your-own-expletives". The Pearl Jam set started with the most meaningful (unfortunately, I might add) song for me: Footsteps. One of YOU GUYS HAD to be reading my mind. I needed to hear this, today of all days. Many a night I've sat in the dark comforting myself playing this song and another side envious as heck that I can't write something to comfort me just as much. Pete "my muse" Townshend showed up to preview what I was going to hear on the next stop of my little fall tour...

Last date: Oct 20 the Who, Quadrophenia. I had to do it. Quadrophenia is the soundtrack to my life. How someone so far away, that you've never met capture the sounds of your soul from the lyrical inflections to the background percussion, I don't know. When people want to know me, I just say, listen to Quadrophenia and if you still want to, call me. So there they were all three and I'm sure with Keith carousing somewhere above, playing my soul---just like the record! I don't know if YOU GUYS had a chance to be there, but if you were tired from the tour, this would have re-inspired you for the next leg. Once again I had new input for my inspiration bottle.

So ends the tour, 3 weeks of traveling, thinking and rocking. Now back to the brain work, but hey I got a new 4-track. So who knows, I could be there next year!

One of the lessons I learned over the last years is that when you challenge yourself, do something where you see a difference you learn to believe, and then anything is possible for you from then on. I started working with the Surfrider Foundation because I couldn't take the dirty water anymore. I needed to give my energy to something besides the "corporation" that fed me. Soon I started to see my words and little speeches make a difference in something I deeply care about. Along the way, I got re-introduced to Pearl Jam and hence this story happened.