Set List: Oceans, Corduroy, Grievance, Animal, Brain of J., Red Mosquito, Nothing As It Seems, Even Flow, Faithfull, Dissident, Thin Air, Lukin, Not For You, Present Tense, MFC, Improv into Habit, Breakerfall, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror;
1st enc: State of Love and Trust, Do The Evolution, Better Man, Small Town, Go;
2nd enc: Leaving Here, Rockin' In The Free World

Ok, so you read about everyone else and what they saw/heard at their Pearl Jam concert and finally... its your turn to see... and to share..... so here it goes...

Having had the opportunity to order my tickets through Ten Club, I choose Tampa knowing that Pearl Jam would be playing in West Palm, so I was very excited when August FINALLY rolled around, but today I found myself a bit to anxious and so I decided at 1:00 PM to make the two and half hour drive south to see the show....so here it goes..

To say it was warm would be a major understatement!! IT WAS HOT!! 20,000 + packed into the Mars Music Theater to see the show tonight and if they left unsatisfied then all I can say is that they were not seeing the same show that I did.

As the sun was setting on the Florida coast, Sonic Youth opened to a pretty good size crowd, but you could tell that everyone was ready for Eddie and the boys to take the stage and when they did it was crazy!

I could tell you what songs they played but I am sure that you can read that at the top but I will say that it was nice to hear them play live and outside. I have been to many shows, but I will say that the crowd was very loud tonight and at one point Eddie was a bit taken back by the applause after their first set.

Pearl Jam played for well over an hour before Eddie toasted the Florida crowd and continued jamming for another 30 minutes. (A bottle of wine.. of course!!)

My highlights would be the overall crowd and everyone singing along, enjoying the same music all at once. I know that some concerts can seem that way but tonight was like everyone had a mic in their hand and that is what I will remember the most from this concert. THERE IS NOTHING LIKE A PEARL JAM CONCERT LIVE!!

Thank you to everyone that has written over the past few months as I have enjoyed reading about everyone's experiences. I am now really looking forward to Tampa and finding out where exactly my seats will be! THANK YOU TEN CLUB!!

Adam Zions (freland@earthlink.net):

Photo credit: David Feeley

Pearl Jam is the most amazing band I have ever seen live. Last night was no exception. Last time I saw them at West Palm Beach in '98 they played a very fast, energetic show. However, this time they played a groovier, more relaxed, extended jam filled set. Ed said that they had been in the water all day long and looking for good waves; all that water must have put them in a mellow state of mind. I could tell this was going to be a great show when I heard an instrumental version of Baba O'Riley begin to play and then the guys came onstage. They opened with Oceans, perhaps influenced by the amount of time spent in the ocean that day. It was played with both beauty and grace, an excellent way to begin the very hot and muggy evening. Oceans was one of my favorites they played last night, along with Present Tense and Not For You, where Ed changed the lyrics to "...small my table, seats just one" and said "gotcha" right after that because he heard the entire amphitheater singing along and I guess decided to mess with us a little. ;) Other songs like Red Mosquito and Faithfull were executed without flaw and were also very blues-ey.

Even though the guys played in a more mellow tone, they still pummeled the crowd with their amazing raw power on songs like Go, DTE, RVM, Animal, Habit and Lukin. In Habit Ed changed the lyrics to "Sending a message to the surf gods" instead of "speaking as a child of the '90's." RVM was a crowd pleaser as usual. At one point Jeff and Ed were leaning into each other, holding each other up near the end of the song...very cool. However, the coolest part of the show was during Go when Mike put the guitar behind his head for a little while...to amazing to describe. Mike was definitely the most animated of the group last night.

The guys played a good selection off of Binaural. Insignificance and Grievance blew my mind. They are both excellent on the album, but live they are even better. Insignificance and Grievance are just two great songs...destined to become trademark PJ. Other great songs played last night were Nothing As It Seems, Leaving Here, SOLAT, and Rockin' in the Free World. All in all, it was a glorious evening. However, I have only seen PJ twice and I would have loved to have hear Breath, Black or Yellow Ledbetter. I guess I'll have to wait until the Tampa show to see if they play any of these great tunes. Thanks to PJ for another magical night.