Set List: Long Road, Last Exit, Hail Hail, Breakerfall, Grievance, Nothing As It Seems, Light Years, Corduroy, Even Flow, Small Town, Thin Air, Of The Girl, Insignificance, Not For You, Off He Goes, Wishlist, Evacuation; 1st encore: Animal, Do The Evolution, Daughter/(Wrong Child by R.E.M.), Last Kiss; 2nd encore: Soon Forget

Poster credit: jonb_18@hotmail.com

Rob Kirkham (Kathryn_Kirkham@bc.sympatico.ca):

After waiting infront of the CFOX community cruiser at UBC for 4hrs to win tickets to see Pearl Jam at the Commodore and listening to pleading fans on the radio, I understood the lengths that PJ fans such as myself would go to in order to see this band perform live, especially when its free. I will get right to the performance as that is probably what those of you who did not attend tonight's show are curious about.

Well the opening band, C-Average, was one of the cooler bands I have seen in a while. These guys could really play, with a style similar to that of the Melvins except they just had guitar and drums, no vocals. They dedicated a song to the members of Rush, and may have even played a Rush cover however I am not familiar enough with the music of Rush or C-Average to be able to tell the difference. Nevertheless, they really kicked ass.

Finally, at about 10:45pm, Pearl Jam took the stage to the screams of the packed house at the beautiful Commodore Ballroom. Without a word they began with Long Road, one of the best written songs in the Pearl Jam catalogue from their Neil Young days. Then the huge drum intro to Last Exit started up the crowd so that the whole spring board floor of the Commodore was bouncing up and down as the sea of people jumped around. The band took notice and really got into an energetic mood, especially Mike who was going crazy for most of the show.

After Hail, Hail Eddie stepped up to the mic and said "some of you may have heard that we had a new album that just came out the other day," but was corrected when the audience informed him that it actually comes out on Tuesday the 16th. With a laugh, he then said, "Well then let's play it." and they launched into Breakerfall, a really kicking punk tune from Binaural. From there they proceeded to play the majority of Binaural including Nothing As it Seems, Grievance, Light Years, and Insignificance (one of the best of the night), among many others.

During Light Years, Ed messed up the middle portion on guitar and the band erupted in laughter while they played on, and Stone, with a big grin on his face waited for Ed to find his place before he came back in. Ed seemed to be forgetful this evening, although he did not let that bother him, as he forgot the lyrics to Even Flow and let the crowd sing for him while he laughed and danced. You could tell Ed was enjoying the energetic crowd as at one point he said, "We've never been in the Commodore Ballroom before so let's test out this spring board floor" and with that Matt launched them into Even Flow.

The highlight of the night for me was a wonderful rendition of Off He Goes. The whole band just relaxed and played, and Ed's voice was at its best on this night for this song. It is a great little story he tells in that song.

They opened the first encore with a fairly wimpy version of Animal (with the exception of Mike's rippin guitar solo) and then more than made up for it wonderfully with "Do The Evolution," some of Ed's best lyrics. "Last Kiss" was an unexpected treat that included the whole audience singing along with every word. Then Ed looked around with a satisfied look and said, "Okay we're gonna call it a night, thanks to all of you and what you had to do to get a ticket for tonight, thanks" and they left the stage. However, with a little coaxing from a crowd that was dying for more, Ed came back out to a really cool song on the ukelele called "Soon to Forget."

So, yes, I must say that this was a great evening of music and I must hand to the boys of PJ for not allowing any media in to review the show because that would mean less room for the fans. Reviews like these, from the fans are the only ones that have any merit anyways. Kudos to Pearl Jam!