Set List: Sometimes, Breakerfall, Corduroy, Hail Hail, Animal, Nothing As It Seems, Light Years, Given To Fly, Untitled, MFC, Habit, Even Flow, Wishlist, Better Man, Grievance, Present Tense, Black, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror;
1st encore: Go, Do The Evolution, Once, ?, I Got Shit, Last Kiss, Porch;
2nd encore: Yellow Ledbetter

Photo credit: Elmer Roy Spratling

We were sitting in our seats making conversation with some other fans who had come in from Boston and Atlanta, respectively. There was a girl there who may be as big a fan as I am. But I'm not sure. She had seen the guys play multiple times. She was also a hottie! But I digress.....Anyway about twenty-five minutes or so before Sonic Youth takes the stage, security comes up to the six of us and informs us that we are going to have to be relocated! We ask what's going on and they tell us that there was a mix up and that our seats had actually been sold TWICE! Apparently since the other people had actual tickets and all we had were these orange pass slip things, we were going to have to move. They escorted us back to row Q where we were shown our seats. I must admit that I was outraged and furious at the band themselves at first because I couldn't quite comprehend why this was happening. But thankfully some of the other people who were moved were calmer than I was and explained the whole situation about how the fan club ticket offer works to one of the head guys at the venue. He then went to talk to someone and we were FINALLY allowed to take our seats back in the third row. The disaster was averted.

Fast forward again to the end of Sonic Youth's set. I've never been a big fan of Sonic Youth, but they did groove on a few songs, all of which were new to me. Around 8:45, Pearl Jam finally took the stage and all eighteen thousand fans were on their feet screaming at the top of their lungs. The band looked just like I remembered them from the David Letterman show, except for Eddie who was sporting a beard. The band kicked off with "Sometimes" which sounds fragile on CD but it had energy when it was being done live. To be honest, I can't even remember which order they played the songs because it was all such a frenzy to me. But I do remember that the first half hour of the show flew by. We were only into the first few songs of the setlist and we'd already been hit with the likes of "Go" and "Corduroy." It was insane. The whole crowd was drenched with sweat and jumping up and down. Simply amazing. I won't go into the whole setlist but needless to say it was amazing. "Once" was possibly the highlight. Or maybe it was "Nothing as it Seems" Who knows. By the end of the show, Eddie was smiling from ear to ear and jumping around, swinging his mic and even dancing! Have you ever seen Ed dance? It's great! The band finished the show with "Yellow Ledbetter" and the last thing the crowd saw was a spotlight shining down on The Cready as he went into his big solo at the end. He played the song perfectly, then took a bow before tossing his pick to a lucky audience member. Ed wished us all a safe trip home and a good night. Pearl Jam left the stage. It was a truly beautiful night. And I just want to say to whoever, got us our seats back, THANK YOU from all of us. It just wouldn't have been the same from row Q.

JAHITT@aol.com:

Photo credit: Elmer Roy Spratling

WOW, What else can one say about this band. I have seen them 3x and they are always right on. The show was full of intensity, emotion, raw power. They played many of the classic's, Black, Even Flow, Go, Animal, Corduroy, Better Man, Porch, Once. Nothing As It Seems, and Breakerfall off of Binaural were excellent. The surprises were "Present Tense" off of No Code as a tribute to the tragedy in Europe, Ed said "This one we don't play that often; I thought it would be good just to hear it." Other surprises were Last Kiss and Yellow Ledbetter (Mike, was awesome on guitar). Matt Cameron is the best drummer they have had and it shows, Stone and Mike are just incredible, Jeff is the rock, and Ed is a rock icon. If YOU have a chance to see this band do it !!!!!