Soundcheck: New Song, Insignificance, Light Years, MFC, New Song, In Hiding, Red Mosquito, Rival, Even Flow (Instrumental), ? (Maybe Parting Ways), Thin Air x2
Set List: Of The Girl, Grievance, Breakerfall, Nothing as it Seems, God's Dice, Light Years, Thin Air, Do The Evolution, Black, Red Mosquito, Daughter/(Hold On by Tom Waits), Faithfull, Dead Man (Ed and Jeff), MFC, Evacuation, Immortality; 1st Encore: Corduroy, Wishlist, Insignificance, (Impromptu Jam), Go; 2nd Encore: Soon Forget (Ed solo w/ his ukelele), Yellow Ledbetter

Judd Hall (K2downhil7@aol.com):
Pearl Jam coming to Bellingham? WHOA. I've lived in Bellingham all of my life, and have been a PJ fan for 8 years of that. I've never made it to a show but ever since I heard Live On Two Legs in ‘98, I knew I had to see the guys. Just two days before I heard about the Bellingham show I was fortunate enough to break the phone lines at CFOX in Vancouver and win two tickets to the exclusive show by “naming that riff”. I was ecstatic that I was going to get to see the band perform their brand new material at such a small venue. But then I heard about May 10th...

I got home from work at about 2:30 on Thursday, April 27. There was a message from a friend of mine that said he heard Pearl Jam was playing a show at the Mt. Baker Theater. Tickets were to go on sale at 4:00 and only a handful of people knew anything about it. I grabbed my cell phone and jetted down to the box office to find what; about 25 people in line! I was amazed. It was 2:45 and no one knew anything about the show. I called all of my friends who were around and we waited until 4:00. People started showing up sporadically, and at 3:55 the local radio station that was hosting the show played “Better Man” to precede their big announcement. 4:00 they give the word on air and bracelets were handed out to the first 550 people. Each wristband was worth 2 tickets (1100 total seats) which we had to show up for on Friday at 8:00am to buy. My friends and myself received numbers 76, 77, and 78 and we ended up in the seventh row. Unbelievable.

Now it's Wednesday May 10th and I can hardly focus in classes. At six o'clock I head out for food and then to the show by seven. The doors opened at 7:15 and everyone went through the good old security check. They wouldn't let me bring my camera in (don't ask me why) so I had to ditch it. I was a little upset about this, but I figured oh well, I'm still seeing Pearl Jam. Inside I picked up a GREAT T-shirt that says Pearl Jam Start on the front, and Vancouver, BC and Bellingham, WA on the back (along with graphics). I snagged my seat with my three friends and sat there in awe at how close I was. Seventh row just off of right center isle. If you haven't been in the Mt. Baker Theater before, it is an old style theater with about 1100 floor seats and 400 balcony. The interior design of the wall and ceiling art is a beautiful sight and is accented by a large round stained-glass chandelier about fifty feet up. Sitting there waiting for 8:00 was nearly impossible, but I managed to get through it by talking about the band and what might be played that night.

Showtime hits and who opens the concert? C-Average. Those guys have major skill. They played thirty minutes of loud and heavy rock then kindly exited for the crew to get ready for the main attraction. At this point there were still many empty seats and I started to wonder what the deal was, but all the seats became filled by the time the band came out. The lights in the theater dimmed, stage was at half light and the fellas could now be seen entering stage left. They came on with hidden smiles and somewhat of a “let's do this” air to them.

Ed was clad in his black leather jacket with clay cargos and a brown button up revealed later. Mike wore a light blue v-neck sweater. Stone had a standard sweater and jeans look. Jeff started out with a jacket and ended up with a maroon T and Matt had a plain white T and shorts on. Of course the entire theater went nuts right from the start. We all stood cheering and didn't take our seats until we hit our cars. The main set opened with all new songs, ripping through almost the entire new album: Sleight of Hand (I think), Grievance, Breakerfall, Nothing As It Seems, God's Dice, Light Years, and Thin Air. I won't give much away on any of these as I know many people don't want spoilers, but as far as I'm concerned Binaural is going to be a spectacular addition to the Pearl Jam library. The band was really on top of their game on all of these songs and it seemed like they were having a great time sharing them with us.

The set continued on into Do The Evolution, Black, Red Mosquito, Daughter, and Faithfull. Don't let Ed know I said this, but he blanked on part of the second verse of Black. I guess that's what happens though when you play a song for nearly ten years. It just helped to remind me that they were human too, and it was no biggie, almost comical how he played it off; looked to the crowd for help. Somewhere in this set Ed made a comment about the theater, “What a f------ s---hole... Actually this is probably the nicest place we've ever had a practice in.” And later he made a toast to the Mt. Baker Theater for its wonderful atmosphere and acoustics. They liked the sound so much in the theater that we were privileged enough to get an unplanned performance of Dead Man and in the second encore a rare singing of Soon Forget.

Next, MFC was played, and then Matt Cameron's song Evacuation. Matt did a great job on this song. I thought it was a sharp ripping tune, and Ed shared that “It's a great song, but a bitch to sing” with much smiles and then thanked Matt for all his work with the band. Mike and his near flaming guitar strings rounded out the main set with an intense performance of Immortality and then they were off... until the encore that is. After six minutes of waiting, clapping, whistling, yelling, and screaming the band came back out and electrified us with Corduroy.

A pleasing mellow Wishlist followed, and then they decided to play yet another new song. Ed said something along these lines, “Well if we do play this, we've played just about the entire album, so if you taped this you can go out and sell it... for free or something” and then he let out a sharp comedic whisper, “NAPSTER!” Insignificant was stunning and they were on fire performing it for us. It was the first time it had been played for a live audience and their performance told us they were ready to show it off. An on the spot Jam “Good” led us into Go and the end of the encore.

It took a little audience coaxing, but then Ed came out again with something behind his back. He said he was going to sing the best rock song ever, so we needed to be quiet so he didn't mess up, because he was going to be playing on this... He revealed a ukulele and proceeded to perform the song. It was Soon Forget, it was a really special moment to me as we were all silent while Ed sang and the only light was the spotlight on his face.

Ed was in great spirits and happy to sing for us, and after the song he brought the rest of the guys out to finish the show with an astounding presentation of Yellow Ledbetter. The house lights were turned on and we all sang together. At the end, the band sat around the stage as Mike closed things up with his stinging guitar. A perfect end to a wonderful show. Everyone waved as they walked off the stage, but before Ed took off he went to the front, handed a lucky teenager a wrapped copy of Binaural, and shook a few hands. What a guy. The concert was a full success and a wonderful opportunity to stand in place and really soak up the absolutely exquisite sound of Pearl Jam.