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)

Thaxtn2776@aol.com:
I've been to a handful of PJ shows, 5 to be exact, and this had a great feel to it. It seemed that they had a lot of excitement right from the get go, because they were playing MSG for the 1st time. One of the first things Eddie said was along the lines of "i don't care if you have sold over 30 million cd's, your not shit till you play msg" So after I guess like 6 years of being a band, maybe they still had something to prove to themselves. I think most of their fans sensed that too. They did not disappoint me.

There was a lot of energy on the stage. Eddie was breaking the stage floor by slammin' mic stands with big overhead chops. At one point he bent the mic stand so far, that after the song he ask the crowd "do you want to see me break this for jesus".....the crowd went wild of course, and he broke it and made several, praise Jesus, hallelujah & let the healing begin, remarks.

Stoned screwed up a guitar solo, for I believe the end of All Those Yesterdays, and Eddie remarked something along the lines of....Welcome to Madison Square Garden, where PJ is playing its 1st show and can't finish a guitar solo. Stone leans into the mic and gives an apologetic wave, and says...."i fucked up"..... But he sure knew how to make everyone forget about it real quick. He jumped right into Alive....and the crowd ...well you know ...

They came back for a strong encore, where everyone held up those Breath signs......again. Breath? good song but ...with that kinda effort let's get something better like...Footsteps...whatusay? When Eddie saw the signs he said, "this crowd is those 2nd most organize crowd next to new jersey." (In NJ...it seemed like every single person held up that sign, but in MSG...it was like every 4th person).

Before they came out for their second encore, they had 18 boxes placed on the stage...a la...Ken Starr Investigation. Eddie came out and gave his opinion on the matter. He made comments like....does anyone really give a fuck what Clinton did, Is it really our business to dive so far deep into his personal life.....stuff like that.

He introduced the song by going.....this is our last one and one of our favorites....the band started Yellow Ledbetter...but Eddie right away stopped them and said....no, no .."we ended with that one last time" He then gave us some background on the last song which they were going to cover. It was from 1962.....

Real Great Show....Still waiting for a replay of Randall's Island Sunday show..... Not sure if that will ever happen ;)

Dave Carroll (dcarroll@discovernet.net):
Reading all the reports from various shows on the tour made me totally pumped for the show at the Garden last night and Pearl Jam did not let me down-a tremendous show from what is unquestionably the finest rock band around right now. The only other show I had seen prior to last night was the 96 "rain" show at Randall's Island-a good show but not on the same level as what I saw last night.

The band seemed to really be enjoying themselves-the energy coming from the stage was unbelievable and the band was smoking-Mike in particular was just playing the shit out of his guitar, jumping around all night wailing away. Eddie was in good voice. One of the many highlights of the show was his singing on In Hiding- a great version. The Mother coda at the end of Daughter was a nice salute to John Lennon and Neil Young was referred to several times during the show. After playing I Got Shit Eddie talked about when him and Mike played at the Garden once 6 or 7 years ago at the Bob Dylan tribute and how Mike was still drinking a lot in those days and probably didn't remember but he would remember tonight...and of course the version of Fuckin Up during the encore.

The encore started off in a bizarre way with a couple of Secret Service guys (as Eddie called them) carrying white cardboard boxes and stacking them up in front of Matt's kit. When the band came out Eddie said since they had a day off between shows and had time on their hands they had gotten a copy of the Ken Starr report and said he was going to read it to us. Instead he proceeded to tell us what he thought of what was going on and then started tossing the (empty) boxes into the crowd before the band went into Wishlist-Eddie changed on of the lines to "i wish i was the president"!

I wish I was going to another show before the tour ends but I am glad I got to see them at the Garden and the rest of you that will see them between here and Florida are in for one hell of a great time-Hail Hail !

Matt Brozowski (BadLettuce@aol.com):
Review of an awesome night: My friend Becca and I arrived at MSG around 7:00, just as they were opening the doors. I couldn't believe that the months of waiting for the Pearl Jam show were finally over. We had decent seats, less than 100 yards from the stage. Around 8, Ben Harper came out and played for about 45 minutes, with a better crowd response than I had expected. I was totally impressed with the bass player, who had about a 5 minute solo near the end of their set.

"the color red" began to play, and everyone jumped out of their seats. The group came out on stage to a very loud crowd, then went into their first song of the night, "long road". This was probably the first time I have heard the entire song, and like most people around me, I didn't know the words. I told Becca that I would know the words to every song they played, but right away I knew that was false. Corduroy was next, and the place erupted! A friend of mine went to their NJ show two nights ago and said Corduroy was the best one they did live...and I might have to agree with him. Matt's drumming was excellent, the whole song just sounded perfect. I think Eddie summed up the feelings of everybody in the crowd with the first line, "the waiting drove me mad".

They went right into Brain of J next, which seemed to quiet everyone a bit. Last Exit began to play, and the crowd remained somewhat quieter. After that was over, Eddie spoke..."for this next song, let's pretend there's no roof on this place." I saw clouds on the video screen in the background, then Given To Fly started (which brought the volume level up again). Mike seemed to have guitar problems a few times during the song, but that didn't affect how great he can play! Becca heard the beginning of Jeremy a bit later, and went nuts! She was loving every second of it. Daughter came up next, with an extended solo near the end, where "mother" was played. Better Man came up a bit later, which brought the crowd to the loudest point so far in the show. Mike's work is just incredible.

All Those Yesterdays (one of my favorites) was played right after Do The Evolution. Once the first few notes of Alive were played, the place erupted once again! That became the loudest point of the show (so far). The band walked off stage, while "secret service" walked on stage, carrying boxes. Around 18 were stacked up, then the band came back out. Noticing lots of "breath" signs, Eddie commented on it. He said that it hadn't been played in years, and told us that "it's the best organization he had seen since new jersey". Eddie then pointed to the boxes, and said that Ken Starr traded the boxes for backstage passes...where he began speaking his mind about the whole issue. After he spoke a bit, he asked the crowd if we really cared about the whole thing, then said they were there to play and not talk...Wishlist started at that point. Becca and I watched the mirrorball descend slowly, and listened to the song. Eddie messed up a bit on the lyrics, repeating a line or two. The last few lyrics were "i wish i wish i wish i wish, i would change things if i could". Rearviewmirror was next, which raised the decibel level up a bit. At that point, I couldn't believe I was actually at a Pearl Jam concert, and had a huge smile on my face (which Becca said I had all day)! Black began to play a few minutes later. Probably my favorite Pearl Jam song, I was loving every second of it :) I think this was the loudest that crowd had been all night. After 2 more songs, the band walked offstage for a few minutes...then came right back out. :) Mike played the first few notes of Yellow Ledbetter, when Eddie cut him off....and said "no no, we played that the other night...let's do this one"..."this is a song..about how we feel", so they played Soldier Of Love....very excellent song (even though it was recorded in 1962, lol)

There really is no feeling like being at a concert, with thousands of people singing their hearts out. It is definitely something I cannot explain; you must experience it. I can only wait until they tour again in the area, it's a show that I will not want to miss!!

Scott (Hubba1@aol.com):
Well this show was great!!! They opened with Long road which sounded really good, then went into Corduroy. They did In Hiding finally, its the first time I got to hear it this tour! Eddie sounded really good- the band was into it and Mike was his usual amazing self! The guitar solo at the end of Black is just INCREDIBLE! That was probably the best version I've heard of it this tour, and the crowd was great- being indoors, at MSG with all those people- it was soo loud when we all sang the songs, especially Black! They came out for the 1st encore and had some guys dressed like secret service men carry out like 15 file boxes and piled them up, Eddie came out and went on and on about the Clinton\Starr thing and basically how he didn't care, then he looked in one of the boxes and said "it says something about a cigar and masturbation in box #3....and there is even some physical evidence...there has to be, i mean 15 boxes full of paper, what did they do- describe every little detail?? at 8:02 am.... " and he went on for a good 10 minutes when he finally started throwing the boxes in the crowd and started Wishlist. (I wish I was the president... was used in the song).

They ended the 1st encore with Fuckin' up which was great!! I was hoping to hear that but didn't expect it at all!! Then the 2nd encore, they came out and said they were going to do one more, Mike starts Ledbetter and Eddie stops him about 5 seconds in and says Wait, wait, wait... (Mike says oh I fucked up!), we just did that one the other night, we got another one we're gonna do... and then told us it was Soldier of Love, played it and they left- getting everyones hopes up about Yellow Ledbetter then not playing it! heh heh. Over all one of the better shows I've seen, it was great!! Hoping tonight's is just as good, if not better- still waiting for Footsteps!