Set List: Long Road, Corduroy, Brain of J, Last Exit, Given To Fly, Animal, Dissident, Jeremy, Daughter/(Mother by John Lennon), Even Flow, In Hiding, I Got Shit, Better Man, Do The Evolution, All Those Yesterdays, Alive; 1st Encore: Wishlist, Rearviewmirror, Hail Hail, Black, Small Town, Fuckin' Up; 2nd Encore: Soldier of Love by Arthur Alexander (1962)

DPJR24@aol.com:
From home run king in Jersey to the crowning achievement of last night where I think Eddie should now be dubbed KING OF NEW YORK. I can't even begin to tell u guys how sweeeetttttttt their debut was at THE MECCA. From Mookie Blaylock club band to headliners at the Garden Pearl Jam delivered a slam dunk performance traveling a loooooooooong road indeed. Ben Harper and Juan "the b.b. king of bass" kicked up the jams once again and u could tell he felt privileged to be opening for the boyz- he was pumped, even mentioning waking up that morning & checking out if the hairs of his beard were all in place. Being careful not to offend any particular causes or concerns that represents beards or bearded people. ( nice dig there Ben). Ben is the second-coming of Jimi!!!!

Now it was time to get down to some serious rockin' bizniz as me & my boy Buh sparked up as the guys entered & the lights went down. We were sitting SECOND ROW babeeeeee. After Long Road, Ed says "you know we have been around the world and back again traveling through like fifty countries but you ain't shit until you play the garden." Ain't it the truth!!! (hehehe) And with that Eddu says "lets go and --pow-- they rip into corduroy. intense.........sitting so close you can see how much eddie was feeling it. i especially enjoyed what seemed to be another lil story with jeremy followed by daughter where ed ended saying something about mother and father and that everything would be all right. leading appropriately into i got id (yeah i love this tune more than anything- i didn't know neil wrote this?!?) and better man. the gossard two-step was in full effect and the demon-on-guitar-formerly-known-as-mike mccready was in top form, wearing a van halen shirt i might add!! r u guys reading this stuff or what ??!! during all those yesterdaze buh noticed some eye exchanges between eddu & stoney where i think mccready's guitar f**ked up --hint hint-- or something and stone tried to pick up the lead. as he was getting himself more into a mess eddu was just looking at him like --ok what are u gonna do now there pal--. pretty funny.

Now for the encores. Here is where Ed earned his championship belt. Some C.I.A looking dudes brought out all these boxes mimicking Ken Starr's' PIECE OF CRAP!!!!! Once again Breath signs were everywhere even more than the previous night with Ed responding "you guys are even more organized than jersey." Ed then looked at the boxes and said "let's take a look shall we..... oh this one has stuff bout cigars and masturbation, this other one has some actual physical evidence which might also be the name of some band i know (hehehehe) it's getting late again. ed was like "if we could only get past this & get to some real issues that like matter." with that the boyz begin wishlist where ed says at the end "I wish I could change things if I could." from there they power into a furious version of rearviewmirror (very symbolic) with an extended jam at the end that knocked the roof off the garden. they dedicated neil young's fuckin' up to another tune they played earlier --wink wink-- and for the final encore mike began the riff to yellow ledbetter. ed stopped him and said didn't we play that in jersey, let's do something new. mike was like "my bad." so they capped off a terrific memorable night with soldier of love ......ed saying "I love you guys thanks for coming." bbbbeeeeeeeeaaaaauuuuuttttiiiiiiffffffuuuuulllllllll.

What more can I say but I hope I can see them tomorrow, if anyone has tix let me know. And this is just a passing thought but Hard to Imagine, Crazy Mary, U, Sonic Reducer and Baba O'Riley have not been heard in a while soooooooooooooo... not that I am suggesting anything. Far be it for me to tell the KING how to rock :)~

(Later) PS - just woke up to remember a few extra tidbits .... during the middle of the set Eddie walked towards the stage with the microphone stand behind his neck and his arms over it on either side.... is he a martyr or what??!! (hehe haha). Anyway he then asks the crowd if they want to see him break a microphone stand for Jesus sooo with that that Eddu used his superhuman strength to bend the frigging thing -- didn't break it though. He then says in his best preacher voice "praise the lord, praise jesus," he then pauses for a sec rethinking that and says "hail satan." YEAH!!! I forgot to say as well that at the beginning of the concert Ed was like "i'm sure you guys are happy to be here no matter how got your tickets. well we don't f**kin care either." The boyz are really developing a sense of humor - good to see. But F**K ticketmaster for making us slaves to those hurting surcharges!!!! At the end of the show, (the MTV video awards were on tonight) Ed comes up to the mic just before he leaves to say "we don't need the mtv!!! veeeerrrrryyyyyyyyy coooooooooolllllllll.

Cori941@aol.com:
I just got back from the Pearl Jam show at Madison Square Garden in New York City. What an unbelievable show! By far, the best I've ever been to. As far as I'm concerned, nobody has ever or will ever rock like this band. MANY thanks to the Ten Club (I love those guys) for offering members tickets. We were in the second row, center stage. I just could not believe how great these seats were! Eddie was no more than fifteen feet away from us for most of the show! Ben Harper opened & was his wonderful, talented, funky- sounding self! I can't remember the entire set list, but Pearl Jam started off with a beautiful rendition of "long road", a song which has special meaning to me since I lost my dad last spring. Some of the other songs played were Even Flow, Daughter, Alive, I Got Id, Do the Evolution, Wishlist, Jeremy, Elderly Woman, Hail, Hail, Better Man, Corduroy, Black, Rearviewmirror, Animal, to name just a few. The band REALLY rocked.

During the show, one of the guys in the band beaned me with a green guitar pick (much to my delight) & I retrieved it as a souvenir. At one point, some security guys brought out a bunch of boxes marked 'files', to goof on Kenneth Starr's investigation of the president. Ed expressed how he feels that the president's private life should be kept just that, and asked the audience if anyone agreed with him. Well, of course, lots of them did. They way they went about it was pretty funny. For the last encore, Mike started to play the first couple of chords of Yellow Ledbetter, but Eddie said "no" they couldn't play it tonight (sniffle, sniffle). Instead they played this cool old song from the sixties about laying down arms. Tonight's show was so much fun to be at! It just so happens that it was five years ago this week that I purchased my first Pearl Jam record. Since then, they have been my favorite band & I listen to them every day. They just get better & better! -Cori from Toms River, NJ-

LKG (lkg@phantom.com):
MSG, Thurs 9/10...Wowza, wowza, wowza.

I was at a loss for words, but now...well, WOW!

Mike looked good (though I wouldn't want to see him any thinner), was smokin' like a fiend (his performance and ciggies). So into it, he was way out there, playing behind his head, running back and forth across the stage, communing with the geetar gods, face-up, eyes closed. He and Stoney did this African drumdance kinda thing, facing each other across the stage and shimmying toward each other while they played. Jeff was jamming serious too. Matt was awesome, steady, powerful, having a good time.

And Eddie? Voice in good form, and he was Mr. Full of Love and Affection, it seemed to be just pumping out of him. And an "i love you" at the end to show he meant it. Even 10,000 stupid "breath" signs got a laugh and a complement on organization, and pretending they might play the song. He made a serious effort to touch hands with the *entire* front row.

Now, don't flame me, but the man was also Mr. Rump Shaker himself tonite--a very good dancer! (A little Elvis Pelvis and some Tina Turner too.) Never thought I'd see him boogie like that...twas fun and trey cool. With his overall physical freedom, the laughing and chatting with band and audience, he's seeming very comfortable in the skin he's in, and with his place in this idolatrous world, and still like very real people.

Set list: can't do it. Was too blown away, keeping track not an option.

At the end, a real nice early 60's R&B about put down your arms and love me, a real sweet song that could be taken romantically and/or politically. I liked it so much I stopped being disappointed at no Yellow Ledbetter. They taunted us with the YL opening licks, and the guy in front of me was heartbroken about never hearing it live yet.

At one point Eddie says: "we were here 6-7 yrs ago, right mike?" Mike is like, "i guess so." Eddie: "mike was drinkin kind of heavy back then, so he might not remember..." Mike went for a ciggy, with smile.

Before the encore, the did a very funny thing. (I hope they realize it was appreciated, Eddie seemed to say maybe he was imposing his views on us.) Two large guys in suits and badges brought a shitload of file boxes on the stage. Eddie said he traded backstage passes to Prosecutor Ken Starr for a copy of the Clinton/Lewinsky report. He said one box was marked "cigars and masturbation," and might contain physical evidence. Then he made a short, intelligent speech about the ludicrous waste of the country's money, time and attention that could better be used on real issues. He talked about how our attention is drawn to the nasty details, in such a seedy way. He said what the persecutors were doing is like some kind of flag-burning. Then he threw the boxes (empty) into the crowd.

Great speech, great props - I'm writing Eddie in for prez in 2000! (Is he old enough, is 35 the minimum age?) (I'll do it anyway!)

He trashed a mic stand, said "do you want me to bend this for jesus?" He did, and made a cross out of the old and new mic stands and said "hail satan!" (Later he thanked Jesus, I think, at least mentioned the word again.) Then he gave the bent mic stand to a lucky dog of a fan.

Sorry for not being more informative on the songs, order, etc., but I don't necessarily know them by their correct titles, and someone else will do a great job on that I'm sure...I CAN say, not one dud in the bunch. (I especially liked Why do I keep Fucking Up, Alive, Wishlist, Rearviewmirror, Better Man, oh crap, they were all great!)

Ciao fun!