Set List: Of The Girl, Corduroy, Insignificance, Brain of J., Evacuation, Nothing As It Seems, Jeremy, Daughter/(?/It's OK), MFC, Whipping, Wishlist, Better Man, Leatherman, Grievance, Even Flow, In My Tree, Black, Spin The Black Circle, Rearviewmirror;
1st encore: Light Years, Crazy Mary, Do The Evolution, State of Love and Trust, Last Kiss, Breakerfall;
2nd encore: Soon Forget, Smile

Before I get into this, let me say that it's long. I understand if you don't wanna read the whole thing. I have a tip for concert goers at the bottom along with a little message for all the Jamily, so if you don't read everything, please read those.

Okay, so here's my story...
After a two hour drive from Fayetteville to Greensboro, I walked around for about thirty minutes trying to find the Ten Club ticket counter. After asking five members of security and getting four wrong directions, we finally found the counter. No lines... no problems. I felt special seeing my name on the list... I dunno, it's just special. So we picked up the tickets and went in. Since we got there early, we (oh, by the way, "we" means me and my boyfriend, Matt)... so we went to check out the merchandise. I got a sleeveless green t-shirt with a keyhole and "Pearl Jam" (in the special spacey Binaural font), and Matt got the tour shirt with the places on the back. Anyway, then we went to go find our seats... I knew we would get pretty good seats, but oh my God.... we were dead center in the twelfth row. Close enough to see everything (and be seen and heard by the band), but far enough away so that Ed didn't spit on us. This was my first PJ concert (and only my second concert ever), so the spitting thing was weird at first, but then I didn't care. I don't remember what PJ opened with, check the set list on Synergy. There were a few special moments, of course, so let me tell you about those before this gets way too long.

Special moment #1 : I really wanted them to play "State of Love and Trust" because it's an awesome song, and it's Matt's favorite. So this guy behind me started yelling out "Love and Trust." Then Matt and I did it, and they played it! Woo-hoo!!! That was one of the best six minutes of my life....

Special moment #2 : First of all, let me say these aren't in the order they happened, they're in the order I remember them. It's 2:37 am, I just got home, and I'm exhausted and excited all at once. Anyway, on to the special moment. They played "Black," which by itself is awesome, but it has a special meaning to me. When Matt introduced me to Pearl Jam about a year ago (?), he put a CD in my CD player, skipped it to a song, and said "This is Pearl Jam and the song I told you about... It's called Black." After that I got hooked. It also has a lot of emotion in it, and it reminds me of an emotional time in my life. So I sang loud and with as much emotion as I had in me...

Special moment #3 : They played Wishlist and broke out the disco ball... Eddie messed up a couple times and after the second line he missed in one verse, he goes "I'll get it next time." :o) He also broke out the ukelele for "Soon Forget" and towards the end when the line is supposed to go "He's stiffening" Ed goes "He's pissing - no, wait - he's stiffening" and laughed his cute little laugh. It's the imperfections that make it all worth while. I want this bootleg sooooooo bad!

Special moment #4 : For the very last song (after saying "okay, one more" four times), they played "Smile." It was a perfect last song because the chorus is "I miss you already - I miss you always," so it was like the fans and the band were singing the song to each other... that will always be a special song to me now.

Special moment #5 : Towards the end, Ed stops and says something along the lines of "okay, I've noticed this all night... there's this guy right here (he points down in the front) who has a tape recorder, which is cool... (cheering)... but in order to get a good tape, he's been holding it up in the air all night. It's funny because every now and then, he goes to put his arm around his girlfriend, but he's really still holding the tape recorder in the air. So I'm gonna do you a favor, and I'll take your tape recorder and put it right here on the stage and play some romantic songs for you so you can put your arm around your girlfriend. (takes the recorder, looks at it and laughs) The funny thing is, he thinks I'm gonna give it back... no, really, I will, I'll just set it right here on the stage." It's not word for word, but it's pretty close. It was a great moment.

Special moment #6 : well, actually, every moment was special. There was an incredible energy in the coliseum like I have never felt before... it was amazing. People jumping up and down, screaming, singing every word of every song... I can't wait for the next show. It would really take me forever to describe the whole thing... I feel like I've written too much already, but oh, God... it was incredible.

TIP: Okay, so here's a tip from me to you... During guitar solos and stuff, plug your ears. It sounds funny, but you can hear every single note so clear without the background noise (cheering and everything). I'm not saying do it through the whole show, because the screaming fans are a huge part of the experience, but every now and then, try it. It's surprising how great it all sounds. MIKE McCREADY KICKS ASS!!!!!!

Thanks for reading all this (or some of it... I know it's long...) It was the best night of my life - I have never experienced anything like it. PLEASE let them tour again soon... I will be waiting impatiently for the next tour, as I know many of you have been for this one. Let me just say that I love you guys... I am very proud to be a part of the Jamily... it's the best family I could hope to be a part of... You guys are great. *sniffle*

Love,
Manda :o)