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

Heather Larson (ularsh01@umail.ucsb.edu)
The Forum show was 10 times better than Vegas! which I thought would be impossible. Memorable Highlights:
-X, of course
-towards the end of Spin the Black Circle, Ed tackles Mike to the ground...Mike keeps playing guitar while Ed spins him around on the floor by his feet....those crazy guys :)
-After an incredible Not for You, Vedder says: That was not for you. (audience chuckles) but this is....(Wishlist is performed) "I wish I was as fortunate as fortunate as you."
-Better Man turns into a rendition of the 80's song Save it For Later...the crowd goes NUTS!!
-During Daughter, Vedder's voice is hardly detectable under the layers of voices from the massive audience....you HAD to be there!!
-Vedder flies through the air to catch a t-shirt that has flown up to the stage...What a catch! The crowd goes nuts AGAIN! This is followed by numerous things flying up to the stage...another t-shirt included which ED looks over and then wipes his, shall I say, bum, and throws it back into the audience...Later in the show, Vedder throws his tambourine as well.
-The two encores completely made the concert! From Ed pouring water on the stage and then sliding across it sychroniously with the end of a song to his absolute destruction of a guitar to close the show....This was the best show I've ever seen.
-The whole band was alive and literally kicking. They seemed very comfortable throughout the entire show...Thank you Pearl Jam for another incredible show!

Bub22292@aol.com
Well, let's start off with how my day started. Even though this is my first, and most definitely not the last Pearl Jam concert, I wasn't really excited because I had this impending doom thing surrounding me (Thanks to Laura). I went to pick up my friend at his college and then we made our way over to the Forum. As we were heading over there, we hit 3 accidents and the Dodger game. Traffic made us slightly late... needless to say. But, we still got there at 8:00. As soon as we got there, I had a few items I wanted to put in my trunk and as I am putting them in there, my friend closes and locks the doors. Keys, tickets, and wallet all being inside. I freak and am just about ready to kill him when I see a "Mobile Assistance" truck pull by. I flagged him down and after about 45 minutes he gets the car open (Thank you Cass). So we run inside thinking we have missed something, besides half of X's show. We find out that we didn't miss much but a small portion. Then it hits me. I need to pee. I head down to the herd area and as I am peeing, what do I hear.. The opening chords to Sometimes. I scream and run upstairs to my seats.

As I got back to my seat, they were starting Corduroy. So I finally got to sit down and take a good look at Pearl Jam. Eddie looked real happy, Jeff looked the same, Stone...well, he looked like Stone would, Mike was jumping up and down, and Matt, he looked like he found a new home. After playing pretty pumped-up versions of Hail, Hail, Brain of J, and In Hiding they go into the classic Even Flow. This was my highlight of the evening. The whole crowd chanting "Thoughts arrive like butterflies" just moved something in me.The light show they had going with this was awesome. Everyone ate it up. It was a real powerful version of this song. Ed talked about how long it had been since they had been to the Forum and they had written some new stuff.

Then comes Given to Fly, which I know some people are tired of. The way that they played it tonight though, every single fan felt like they were flying in the air with Ed and CO. Stone must have gotten into it as well because Eddie told him to shush in the beginning. They go into an OK version of MFC, one of my favs, but it lacked power. Not For You came next and after that Ed says "That one wasn't for you, but this one is.." The band starts Wishlist and the arena erupts. During the song, a mirrorball came down (Perhaps some sort of homage to Neil Young??), and it made the song a little more subdued. Looked nice.

Jeremy started right after Wishlist and the whole crowd got into the whooing part of the song. The part where Eddie goes off in the end was so tight the crowd just screamed after he did it. Everyone do the Ed... uh I mean Evolution. Do the Evolution was next and Ed did some pretty awesome dancing during this song. Swaying his hips (The next Elvis???), swinging his arms. He looked like he really was enjoying himself.

The whole night my friend was asking me if I thought they were going to play his favorite song. I told him be patient, it'll come along. So, as Dissident starts, my friend stands up on his chair and starts to scream his brains out.

My personal highlight of the evening (didn't I already have one) was when the much-left-out-and-only-reason-I-believe-to-have-been-put-in-was-because-of-the-Los-Angeles-Times-article Present Tense started. I have had this song help me get rid of so much past problems...it was great hearing it live. Eddie starts talking about how great we have been so far and then the band slams into Spin the Black Circle. Hard, raw, and powerful is all I can say about it.

And, I can also say that about Rearviewmirror. Awesome version of this song with a nice, but short jam session near the end. And I can say the same for Go. Pearl Jam walked off the stage after this one and the crowd instantly started screaming Eddie, Eddie, Eddie.

The band comes out and Ed introduces the next song as a song that isn't about Los Angeles, more like a small town like Reseda, and that this is the longest song title Pearl Jam has. Elderly Lady Behind the Counter in a Small Town begins. It is a little too loud, so it lost some of it's beauty, but I still liked it. They do a good version of Better Man followed by Ed totally going off in the Save it for Later part of the song. Daughter is all right followed by I have no idea except for Eddie singing "Mustn't think bad thoughts, I must not think bad thoughts." It sounds so familiar but I can't quite place it. Opening chords to Alive... arena explodes. The guitar solos at the end were so powerful. The crowd loved that one.

The band then left and came back on for the final song: Baba O' Riley. Before the song, Eddie mentioned how it was performed by a band who had performed at the Forum 25 years ago. After the extremely long and powerful ending, the band left the stage, and shortly thereafter, the house lights came up. I was sad, but then I thought "Hey, I'll be back tomorrow." Until then...