Set List: Sometimes, Corduroy, Hail Hail, Brain of J., In Hiding, Even Flow, Given To Fly, MFC, Not For You, Wishlist, Jeremy, Do The Evolution, Dissident, Present Tense, Spin The Black Circle, Rearviewmirror, Go; 1st encore: Small Town, Better Man/Save It for Later, Daughter/(I must not think bad thoughts), Alive; 2nd encore: Baba O'Riley

Nelson Bae (nelrock@webtv.net)
Words cannot describe what happened tonight at the Forum here in Los Angeles. After seeing countless rock shows over the years here as part of an L.A. audience, I have never seen a crowd as passionately vocal and enthusiastic as tonight's. From the very beginning, the crowd embraced Pearl Jam and sustained a fever pitch over the course of 2+ hours, unlike the Las Vegas crowd on Sat. night that ran out of steam due to the heat. Let's talk about the many highlights:

After a surprisingly grooving "Sometimes" to start off the show, the band rocked into "Corduroy". They have developed a pause/skip in the jam stage of the latter part of the song that is sheer brilliance. They have gelled so amazingly well over the past few months. Big props to Matt Cameron - an amazing drummer. The crowd sang along to "Even Flow" and "Given To Fly" - when a crowd knows every word and sings at top volume, the anthemic community of musical harmony is awe-inspiring. I haven't seen anything like tonight since U2 in the late 80's and early 90's. But I digress....

An unexpected "Not For You" was phenomenal. When "Jeremy" was played, the band OWNED the crowd. Eddie's vocal jamming at the close of this song has shown that there are way great things ahead of us. He's become a terrific singer/frontman - not because of past intensity, but the subtle power of presence and conviction. Again, I digress...

Both "DTE" and "RVM" were both noticeable improvements over the Vegas show. RVM has been a great live song; it may now be approaching classic status. Great spectacle at the end of the song was Eddie spinning Mike around on his back like a top. Haven't heard "Go" in awhile, so it was pretty intense seeing the band rip through this one. Mike "Hendrix" McCready decided to play a final solo with the dental portion of his body. Impressive.

For me, the best part of a perfect concert came in the final four encore songs. The crowd sang Better Man so loud - Eddie's voice was practically drowned out. "Save It For Later" by the English Beat was added as the closer for this song. Excellent choice. Eddie also does a Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan impression at the close of this one - a very good one, in fact. Daughter is then played as another big crowd singalong. Didn't recognize what was being covered at the end of Daughter. Then, a song that was played with the house lights on, "Alive". Talk about a night of crowd participation; this is one time where band and audience became one. The crowd became part the song. Finally, one last encore - "Baba O'Riley". I've seen the Who in '89. They would be extremely proud of Pearl Jam's rendition. Another crowd singalong.

Let's be honest, this band has become one of the great live bands of our time. This is a Hall of Fame-type of band. Largest of props to Pearl Jam. After seeing them five months ago in Maui, I am floored at how good they've become since. And they were DAMN good back then. I don't think there's any way they could do much better than tonight. Not one flaw in the show. But let's go to the second show tomorrow night and find out......

If anyone comes across a boot of tonite's show......
Thanx to Lori for the tix and Steve, Todd and Alexi for experiencing quite a with me.

DblR DblT@aol.com
I am still pretty much numb. Thanks to the Ten Club, we were on the front row, section B, literally ten feet away from the band. No mosh pit allowed at the Great Western Forum, though. The security guys were a pretty intimidating bunch. But once PJ hit the stage, they backed off big time and at least let us stomp and make a lot of noise!

For the record, I caught a pick from one of the two guys who played before X (Tenacious D). They played about three or four songs - the audience responded politely, I thought.) X was okay, but since I didn't know any of their tunes, they all sounded a lot alike.

I think Pearl Jam hit the stage sometime after 9:00. I had my little recorder ready to go. (Which I completely forgot about because I was so into the music. No telling how long it had been shut off before I remembered to turn the tape over. This was my first attempt at bootleggin'). I also had my cheap little throw-away camera from Sav-on, which wasn't working too well. At one point I snapped a picture of Eddie, and he was looking straight at me. I thought he was gonna be pissed, but he gave me an a-ok sign. At least that's what my girlfriend said later. I thought maybe he was flipping me off. Which still would've been okay!

My girlfriend also wanted me to add that Eddie smiled at her. That's what's so great about seeing Pearl Jam right now. They seem to be having such a great time playing live! At one point, Eddie pushed Mike down and grabbed him by the legs and twirled him around. By the way, I've never seen Mike wearing a skirt and fish-net stockings before!!!

I didn't get to catch a pick from any of the PJ guys, but I was told one from Stone flew over my head. I musta missed that. Towards the end of the concert, Eddie threw a home-made cloth sign back into the crowd that I, along with the guy next to me, caught. Since we didn't know who it was fair to let keep it, I said we should give it back to the girls who first threw it up on stage, who were standing right behind us in the second row. It seemed the right thing to do.

The band came back for two encores, and they ended the show with Baba O'Riley , the great Who song. Eddie said something about they were happy to get to play the Forum, that we ALL got to play the Forum together, then he said that the next song (Baba O'Riley) was played here at the Forum by another group a few years earlier. During the long instrumental break, Eddie did a slide across the stage that would've made Pete Townsend proud.

I could go on and on. Other songs like Daughter and a rough-starting Present Tense were a couple of stand-out favorites. Also, Spin The Black Circle sounds Soooo good live. All in all, a fantastic, fantastic experience. I'll really be happy if my Sav-on piece-of-crap camera was working okay. I won't know that 'til tomorrow. But for now, I am one happy camper. Thanks again, Ten Club. You guys really know how to treat the fans!!!

CAPTCARDIO@aol.com
Once again the band managed to put on an absolutely amazing performance. Not one person left the Forum unsatisfied. The band played roughly half the songs of their new album "Yield". They all sounded great. Things seemed to change pace as they always do at a PJ show. It is like being on a roller coaster ride for two hours. The best part of the ride last night was the very end. They played the best version of Alive that I have ever heard. And believe me, I've heard many different versions. Then for their second encore I finally had the pleasure of hearing Baba O'reily live. Eddie then brought the show to a close by smashing his guitar in two. All in all it was another fantastic Pearl Jam show. Hopefully, they will mix in some different songs tonight for all the die hards who are attending both shows. I think LA needs to hear some Leatherman or Dirty Frank. See ya at the next show.