Set List: Hail Hail, Animal, Dissident, Even Flow, Jeremy, Last Exit, Given To Fly, Daughter (Hey Hey, My My) Corduroy, Wish List, Better Man, State of Love and Trust, Do The Evolution, Black

The afternoon started off with little hope of decent weather for the show, the skies were grey and rainy almost all day. My son and I left home near Sacramento refusing to let this dampen our spirits, and much to our delight, we arrived in Oakland under the just about perfect clear skies and beautiful full moon that we had "willed". After the obligatory line waiting and seat searching we settled in for what was probably one of best concerts in memory.

Pearl Jam launched the set with Hail, Hail and Animal, with the band sounding excellent and Mr. Vedder's voice clean and intense. I grinned through Dissident, Even Flow, Jeremy, Last Exit, and a song that quite frankly I don't know the name of. During their performance I got the feeling that this band was proving that they truly are of the same legendary caliber as their hosts. Although they did not use (or need) any of the tricks that the Stones had available, the band looked great on this absolutly huge stage, and Eddie was very snappy in his red and white striped sport coat, and shorter than usual hair cut. They finished off their set with one of my personal favorites, State of Love and Trust, another new one, and Black. The only down side to the show was the fact that as an opening act they were forced to keep their show painfully short (about fifteen songs). I would have loved to have seen more. I am looking forward to Nov. 19 as I have seats in the front third of the floor in the dead center for the last show, and it will be interesting to see how it changes from the first.

I don't know if any of the band members ever read any of this stuff, but I would like to thank them for what they do, and I hope they keep doing it for a long time.

Hester (fundnat@earthlink.net):
Just got back from the show, and PJ was fantastic! They were tight, and Eddie's voice was stronger than I have heard in a couple years. The new songs are great - Given to Fly as the first single is going to put them back in the running.

During the show, Eddie looked out in the crowd and said he was looking for the biggest Stones fan...pointed out some people, then said, "No, there's the biggest Stones' fan, right here (pointed to Mike). Mike's the biggest Stones' fan." Said something about how he knows how many grooves in the vinyl on every Stones' record. Then he tested Mike, asked for an album from the audience, and then Mike would say, "74,856" or something like that. It was cute. Then later, Mick Jagger said that Keith Richards was a PJ fan, and knew how many notes were on every album. Then he asked him how many were on Ten.

I can only say that unfortunately, this was definitely a crowd that came to see the Stones. The stadium was not even half full when PJ began to play. In my section, there were maybe 3 sets of PJ fans clapping. People were finding their seats, going to get food, talking loudly (to be heard over the music), etc. It was very distracting and very annoying. My kids reported the same in their seats elsewhere. I felt sooo badly for PJ. They were kicking ass, playing their hearts out, and very few were paying attention. And during the last song, "Black", people were getting even more restless, throwing beach balls around, etc. Very disturbing, and I hope they aren't discouraged from playing the other 3 shows.

The sound was generally good, but I felt EV's mic should have been louder...missed alot of soft, subtle things he did. They didn't use the Stones' big video screen, but there were two smaller ones at each side, thank god, because they looked like ants up there.

EV looked dapper in a pink & white striped jacket and combat pants, with pretty short hair (shorter than Tibet festival). The cameras never settled on anyone else for long enough to tell.

My favorites were Last Exit, Corduroy, SOLAT and Better Man, Given To Fly. Very short, but sweet set. All I can say is Eddie sang like the old days, with great phrasing, tone and feeling. Sorry I can't report much on the other guys, but I am obsessed. Jack was rocking - he seems to get more and more adventurous and intricate as time goes on. Mike played his usual great solos.

The stage looked like Barbie's Dream House.

The Stones were, I must say, very, very good. When they played some of their earlier songs, I remembered why I used to like them so much. At times, they had 55,000 people on their feet, dancing away. That's not easy to do. First part of their set was fantastic, then it bogged down. Last few songs were great, too. I loved Satisfaction, Gimme Shelter, and a kick-ass version of 19th Nervous Breakdown. I enjoyed them, but it was too long, and I don't think I'll stay and see them on Tues.