Set List: Spin The Black Circle, Hail Hail, Brian of J., Given To Fly, Corduroy, MFC, Habit, Even Flow, Jeremy, Daughter/Noise of Carpet, Immortality, I Got Shit, Rearviewmirror, Nothingman, Wishlist, Alive, Go; 1st encore: Do The Evolution, Better Man, In My Tree, Black, Porch; 2nd encore: Yellow Ledbetter

charlesh@i-cafe.net
I've never sweat more at a concert.

For being presented at a venue not-so-lovably referred to as Echo Arena (due to the venue's lousy acoustics) on an evening which didn't seem to be too much cooler inside than the 100-plus degree temps outside, PJ managed to make it all worth it. I never thought I'd see them on a hotter day than that infamous 94 degree June afternoon in SF's Golden Gate Park three summers ago when Neil Young pinch-hit for a stomach flu-ridden Ed, but then again, hardly anything with Pearl Jam is ever predictable.

X didn't disappoint, and after the lukewarm reception Neil got in GG Park that day, I was wondering how positive the Sacramento crowd's response would be to another older (albeit legendary and influential) act. Fortunately, there were only a couple scattered "You suck!"s throughout their 45-ish minute set. Billy Zoom, the X guitarist who looks more like a tennis pro who happens to wear a black leather jacket and play guitar, sported constant permagrin the whole time onstage, even sticking around to snap some photos of the crowd after the house lights went up. When was the last time you saw an opener do that?

For its sports arena ambiance and GA policy (not to mention its relatively low $23 pricetag), this particular show was sort of a throwback to an earlier concert era. With the exception of the mirror ball which did its thing during Wishlist, PJ played with the sparest of set designs: A simple white curtain backdrop, five elevated candles in front of that curtain, a Charlie McCarthy doll on Mike McCready's amps, and some phony crows perched on a lighting rig center stage.

No subtle Release or Sometimes intros this time. The first nine numbers brought a barrage of typical PJ energy: Black Circle, Brain Of J. and Habit were the speediest of the bunch...Hail Hail, MFC and Even Flow provided the mid-heavy tempo thump which, like it or not, is still the PJ you either love or don't...and the anthemic stuff of yore within Given To Fly, Corduroy, and Jeremy. Last night's Corduroy cemented its status as my fave live PJ tune (to date), but Given and Hail are about as inspired and inspiring as big-rock gets these days. Fill-in drummer Matt Cameron provided a healthy thud in place of Jack Irons...but Jeff Ament tire of having to learn to groove with a new drummer just about every other year.

It's pretty clear that the band doesn't see it as necessary to re-arrange certain older material as they were doing in '95/'96. Sac's versions of Jeremy, Porch, Black, et al were fairly faithful to the originals you know and...yeah...as opposed to the near-unrecognizable version of Jeremy they were playing quite often a few years back, including at their last Sac show (June '95). I'm thinking it's due to the fact they're more at peace with those tunes getting the greatest crowd reaction to this day, still. Of course, that translates to less set time devoted to the weirder PJ stuff (Who You Are, Satan's Bed, etc. etc.) which I tend to dig...I mean, I think I've heard Black and Porch enough since 1991. At least they played Do The Evolution, which is wonderfully weird (for PJ anyway) and anything but straight-ahead big-rock.

Daughter's coda included a bit of Broken Face, Immortality couldn't get any better than how it came across last night, I Got Id/Shit/Whatever was nice to hear (Ed prefaced it with an explanation that "It's not about me, or you...it's about a crazy guy"), and Rearviewmirror is still the mother of all driving riffs from hell after hundreds of performances. Nothingman was a cool surprise-- unless you look at this webpage every now and again and see it being played here and there at prior shows.

Wishlist was a beauty, complete with that killer little middle solo by McCready. Alive got the big crowd reaction and was actually a damn fine version if I do say so my damn self...but at this point, in 1998 after many a PJ show, I think I'd rather hear Present Tense or Off He Goes. (But I guess you gotta play the MTV hits. Fortunately PJ don't have MTV hits anymore.) Go, today as in '93, thumped.

Long break between set and encore.

The couples here and there slow-dancing to Better Man (the first half of it, anyway) amazingly proved that you can get romantic to just about any depressing song about dysfunctional relationships. Nonetheless, a gem. In My Tree, from the great sorta-forgotten PJ album that's still not even two years old (?!), was an even better surprise than Nothingman earlier. At that point I was hoping for something a bit riskier than the three old stand-bys that got brought out of the '91 closet and dusted off...but if that's my only complaint about last night's show-- they played the *wrong* great songs!-- then I think we're doing pretty well.

Not as memorable as at Berkeley's Greek Theatre on Halloween '93, but still a hell of a show. Good grief, it's Pearl Jam. Duh.

MIA: In Hiding, Sometimes, Dead Man, Long Road, Off He Goes, Not For You, Present Tense, Fuckin' Up. And of course, Gremmie Out Of Control.

Jennifer Colamonico (jencola@flash.net)
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for touring this year! I have been waiting a very long time to see Pearl Jam headline a show (I've seen Bridge School and that show that they played with that other band, the Stones), even if it did have to be way up in Sacramento. But I got to leave work early - I declared it a Pearl Jam holiday.

I won't go into intimate detail about every song because they all completely rocked. The first six songs just blew me away, putting me on a high that is only just wearing off. Black always gives me the chills - that is the best getting-dumped song that ever has been or will be written. Alive was truly electrifying - it felt like it took them a while to bond with the crowd, but as the band jammed at the end of this song, Ed just looked around and took in the adoration of the masses. Adoration that was radiating from every inch of my body.

Thank you for playing the hits - the songs that I can close my eyes and sing along, and then open my eyes and remember that Ed is right there, spitting distance, singing to me (I can dream). Thank you just as much for the insider tunes - Immortality, Rearviewmirror, In My Tree - when the performance brings a whole new context of appreciation. Kind of like when I heard Corduroy at the Bridge School Benefit - it was never again just another song.

The only bummer of the evening was the significant number of "bro-rockers" who just overwhelm everyone around them with their violent, selfish celebration. But it was worth it - worth just about anything - just to be there. Oh to be able to get close to the stage without getting knocked upside the head ... but I just tried and tried to forget everyone around me and focus on the energy coming from center stage -- the energy for which I have been yearning for months.

Thank you just for being good to the fans - the web site really makes the lowly fans feel like a part of the bigger momentum -- momentum that left me enraptured for almost 2 hours last night, and leaves me just plain punchy today at work as I sit here writing this (OK, maybe it is the lack of sleep). Even though I was just another face in the crowd, I felt so connected to the band, to the music, to the power of inspiration - theirs and mine.

Next time I think Pearl Jam should entertain the idea of playing a little intimate show at a small venue. My backyard will do - hell, I'd even donate the proceeds to a charity of their choice (CHOICE, as in pro-, being the key phrase…)