Set List: Long Road, Grievance, Oklahoma improv, Corduroy, Save You, Given To Fly, Dissident, Even Flow, I Am Mine, Love Boat Captain, 1/2 Full, Not For You, Off He Goes, Small Town, Untitled/ MFC, Happy Birthday, Driftin', Get Right, Deep, Blood;
1st encore: Better Man, Daughter/(War by Edwin Starr), Do The Evolution, Rearviewmirror;
2nd encore: Alive, Yellow Ledbetter

What an unbelievable night of kick-ass rock 'n roll! Pearl Jam and Sleater-Kinney put on an amazing show that I will never forget. I'll try to fill in as many details as I can, but you know how it is, you kinda had to be there.

I drove down from Kansas City to stay with some friends who live in Norman, OK. My buddy is also a huge Pearl Jam fan, and was able to see them play in Oklahoma City in 1993 when Urge Overkill opened up for them. He told me about the show, and I was so jealous! UOK and PJ? 1993? Wow, how much fun would that have been! I've seen PJ play once in Kansas City in 2000 during the Binaural tour. Awesome show, and I was hoping for more of the same tonight. Of course, as it would turn out, I was totally blown away by PJ's live performance. I can't say enough about the hard work the whole crew and the band goes into to give back to the fans. Thanks everyoneŠwe really appreciate it. More than you'll ever know. Anyway, as Eddie would say, "FUCK IT!" Lets get to the good stuff...

Sleater-Kinney did a wonderful job opening for Pearl Jam. They were upbeat, fun and sounded amazing! It's hard to believe that 3 people can get up on stage in such a large venue and make that much noise. They did though, and it was very, very good. They played 3 or 4 songs off their new record, ONE BEAT, that I recognized. Sorry, don't remember the names of the songs. They also played some tracks off of ALL HANDS ON THE BAD ONE and some other material that I didn't recognize. All of it was great. Very tight, loud and lots of fun too. Towards the end of their set, they asked if we were excited to see PJ play...of course the crowd just erupted. They said they were excited too! After they went off, I saw them watching PJ's set from the side. It's nice to hear and see honesty from a band you already respected, and respect that much more now. It's kinda rare these days. Anyway, during the performance SK said "We want to invite our friend Matt to come up." Of course, it was Matt Cameron. He played tambourine on a song with them. Very cool. It only gets better...

Pearl Jam opened up the show with Long Road. One of my personal favorites. It's such a great song to use as an opener. It really sets the mood for the whole evening. Grievance was rockin as usual, and especially interesting, considering the times we are living in. I noticed that some people were holding up an American flag up during the length of the show. It was a touching moment to hear your favorite band say "I pledge my grievance to the flag," and then see some people supporting our country at the same time, while holding the flag up. That's a lot to think about, let's just say that I love my country and I love Pearl Jam too. By the way, agree or disagree with the song Grievance, but I'll tell you this. I sang the shit out of it with every one else. A good rock song is a good rock song! Very moving moment. Then they followed up with the Oklahoma improv. I'm not sure if it was part of a "state song" or what, but it was a nice gesture by the band. It was short and sweet, but still thoughtful and not overlooked. Corduroy and Save You were awesome. Corduroy got a big round of cheers when it began and a huge ovation at the end. They really did the song justice. Save you was great. I think its one of the best songs they do live. It just seems like it was written to be performed on stage alone, and not shelved away on someone's CD to be played whenever. Great songs back to back. Given to fly was warmly welcomed and sounded great as usual, with Dissident being a nice follow up touch. Then came Even Flow, I Am Mine and Love Boat Captain! What a line up! Everyone sang along with Even Flow and I Am Mine. The whole time I was looking around at other fans, trying to take in their experience, as well as mine. During these songs, believe me, everyone was on their feet and singing along. Everyone I talked to or sat by, were really nice people, and seemed to be really into the music. You could see the excitement in people's eyes. I don't know who she was, but a girl sitting to my right, was bouncing up and down all night singing along to every verse! I had as much fun watching her get off on the music and I did watching Ed. Thank you to her. Love Boat Captain was great with Boom on keyboards. Boom played keyboards on 4 or 5 songs that I noticed. More than I thought he would. He's big guy, with long silver hair! He makes Jeff Ament look small. Well, maybe not small, but Boom is a big guy. Some of the highlights are listed below, I'm getting tired of typing! I can't remember everything and exactly at what point in what song it happened, so just bare with me. If you need that level of detail, we can both go buy the bootlegs.

1. During the end of one song, Eddie made a gesture like he was holding the weight of the world on his shoulders. He then pretended to take the "weight of the world" and throw it out to the audience. I took it as a gesture of him saying, look, we have problems in this world right now and PJ cant solve them alone, we need the help of all of you, as a group, and then we can all make a difference together. A wonderful gesture by Eddie, and one of the coolest things about this show that I saw. I hope some other people saw it too. It was one of the most moving moments I've ever had at a concert. Thanks.

2. We sang happy birthday to Eddie's brother, who's birthday was that same night. His name is Christopher. Then we sang happy b-day to Keeley, the lighting tech, who's b-day was the night before. Very fun for everyone. We sang along loud and proud. That will be cool on the bootlegs.

3. Eddie made talked about how we can all make a difference in these times if we work together and mentioned the people who walked out of the Denver show. He said that he felt a little misunderstood about that situation and wanted everyone here to know that PJ supports and loves the troops and just wants to bring them back. Eddie said "With this haircut, how could we not support the military!" That got a big laugh. He was very sincere and let every one know that PJ loves their country, but that they just don't agree with some of our leaders policies, and that we have to keep them in check from time to time. He also said, if you have a different opinion, PJ respects that and you dont have to sing along with next song. Which was WAR by Edwin Starr.

4. Eddie mentioned they haven't played this song in a long time. It was Deep, and it was fucking awesome! I would by the bootleg just for this alone. What a great job they did with this song.

5. Mike had problems with his gear, so Eddie talked for awhile about what a great word "FUCK" is...He said you can use it so many ways. Fuck you, fuck off, fuck this shit, and then he ended with "Wanna fuck?" That's not exactly what he said, but its close and it was hilarious!

6. The encores were great with rearview mirror and alive really standing out. They did the extended jam on rearview mirror and I swear it just went forever. The place erupted when Alive was played and I thought that was gonna be the closer. Of course, they then played Yellow Ledbetter, which was beautiful.

7. The band had lots of energy all night. Eddie was doing The Who twirl with the mic, Mike was doing his flying jump scissor kick, Stone was rocking back and forth hunched over, Matt was drummin hard and tight, Jeff was all over the place, and Boom played on quite a few songs. Really nice job everyone. Thanks for the memories! They played for about 2 hours and fifteen minutes and I loved every minute of it. There was no mask or Bushleaguer or Jeremy, but who cares when you get Alive, Deep and some wonderful commentary from Ed. Wow! Can't wait to see you guys in Kansas City!

Thanks,
Shawn