Set List: Of The Girl, Do The Evolution, Hail Hail, Grievance, Corduroy, Off He Goes, Given To Fly, Nothing As It Seems, Evacuation, Wishlist, Untitled, MFC, Habit, In My Tree, Daughter/(WMA), Insignificance, Better Man, Black;
1st encore: Go, State of Love and Trust, Even Flow, Small Town, Whipping, Rearviewmirror;
2nd encore: Yellow Ledbetter, Rockin' In The Free World

Oh man, Albuquerque was so great! First off because I was in the front row, center! The Ten Club seats were awesome and I still can't believe I was up there. It was strange hearing stuff like Matt's drums, but just hearing them from the stage, not coming all loud through the PA. That's how close we were! It was so cool making eye contact with the band and watching them watching all of us up front. Thanks, Ten Club!

Photo credit: James Bowers

The band opened with Of the Girl, which sounded good. I wasn't a big fan of this song when the album came out but have grown to like it quite a bit. Then straight into Evolution which rocked as always. They played a few more fast ones, then brought it down with Off He Goes. This was on my personal list of "songs I really really want to hear live" so I was so happy when they started playing it. I was singing along to the whole song (all the songs actually), and at the end, when they're about to stop, I said "Here we go" when Ed said it, and he was looking at me. He put his guitar down, came to the edge of the stage, and personally handed me the pick he was just playing with. I was the first person of the night to get a "gift." It was so cool!

Evacuation sounded tight and powerful, didn't expect to hear that one. Wishlist (another one I was happy to hear) was complete with the big ol' disco ball. Ed forgot the whole "I wish I was a messenger" all the way through the "off your Camaro's hood" part. He filled it in with something from the first verse, then laughed it off. At the end he sang something like "I wish I was the singer who didn't forget the words...I wish I wish...I guess it could be worse." Then they did the "Untitled" intro to MFC, but it was much longer than the version on Two Legs...maybe even longer than MFC itself.

In My Tree was a total surprise! I did not expect to hear that, but it was awesome. Matt nailed the drums, it sounded so precise and right on. Daughter had WMA tagged on and something else I didn't make out. Insignificance was awesome, and Ed was looking at me through a lot of this song. They closed with Betterman and Black, 2 crowd favorites.

Photo credit: DCPearl@aol.com

For the encore, I made a sign that said "Thanks for the seats" and my friend Steve held it up till Ed saw it during Go and gave us an "ok" sign. Mike saw it and kind of went "OK, sure" and smiled and shrugged his shoulders. I held up another sign after that that had RVM on one side and Smile on the other. I was hoping they'd do RVM, but it wasn't in the first set so I put it on the sign... SOLAT was great... Small Town was cool and all of us in the front screamed "Hello!" After that, Ed went to Stone and told him something, he changed guitars, then he went to Jeff and said something. Jeff said "Right now?" and changed basses. Then they ripped through Whipping which was another surprise I haven't heard live since '95. I didn't realize Ed plays guitar on that one. After that, straight into RVM. I don't think they played it because of my sign, it didn't seem spontaneous like Whipping, but I know Ed saw my sign--he was looking right at me while he sang the whole first verse and chorus, and of course, I was singing back. We even did the little "Hey Hey!" together and then he smiled.

Second encore (and I figured last song) was Yellow Ledbetter. I think it's become kind of a predictable way for them to end a show, but after seeing Ed dance with that girl in Lubbock, it has sort of brought a renewed interested to the song for me. But of course, this being Pearl Jam, they're not predictable. After the song, which I figured was the end, Stone played a couple notes of Rockin' and Eddie said "Do it!" So they went into that and it was awesome to hear it again (they played here in '98 too). During the song Ed handed his mike stand to someone in the audience, then went to the other side of the stage and pulled this 9 or 10 year old kid up on stage. I had noticed the kid earlier in the night, and so did the band I think. Ed gave his wristband or something to the kid's mom. Ed got him onstage, said something in his ear, brought him to the center, and the kid just started bouncing, with his hand above his head in the "rock on" signal--index and pinky sticking up. The crowd went crazy: I looked behind me and the whole front section was making that gesture too! Then Ed put the kid on his shoulders and bounced around, then ran him around the stage to the drums, took him down and gave him a drum stick and the kid played Matt's cymbals! It was just too funny! Then Ed sort of collected his thoughts again after the song and as he thanked everyone one last time, he looked right down at those of us in the front row once more.

One more thing--a friend of mine Eric is a designer and designed a prototype CD case out of recycled materials. Since Pearl Jam always uses unusual cases for their CDs, he thought he would give it to them in case they wanted to use it for a future album. Although he was sitting in the 13th row, he gave it to us in the front and my friend Steve next to me managed to hand it up to Eddie during the encore. He put it down by the wine and stuff, and at the end of the show, walked off with his wine and the CD case!

I've seen Pearl Jam six times now (Albuquerque 93, 98, and 00, Las Cruces 95, the Bridge School last year and Lubbock 2 days before here)... it's hard to say which one is the best because every time is great and they play so much different stuff each time. But I don't think I have ever had, or could ever have, a better experience than this one. Being right there in the front, making eye contact with the band and singing with Ed was just incredible. I can't think of any band that comes close to taking care of their fans as good as this one. Even their security guy was great at the show. It was just the best concert experience I could get, and we got some great songs to go with it! Can't wait till the next tour...and for the bootleg of this one to come out next year!

Thank you Pearl Jam and Ten Club!

Eli Vigil, Albuquerque
eliasvigil@yahoo.com