Set List: Love Boat Captain, Grievance, Corduroy, Brain of J, Save You, Cropduster, Given To Fly, Nothing As It Seems, Even Flow, I Am Mine, Green Disease, Wishlist, Daughter/(Hey Hey Improv), Lukin, Insignificance, I Am A Patriot (reworked), 1/2 Full, Porch;
1st encore: Don't Drive Me (SUV Improv), Thumbing My Way, Small Town, Black, Evolution, Spin The Black Circle;
2nd encore: Crazy Mary, Know Your Rights by The Clash, Fortunate Son with Sleater-Kinney, Rockin' In The Free World with Sleater-Kinney

Pearl Jam visiting the soul-full city of New Orleans will always be a special occasion for me. A city so enriched in culture and music history; it's a blessing to be graced by their appearance tour after tour (sans 98). This show didn't disappoint. I got to the venue at around 1:30 in the afternoon. The weather, for New Orleans, was pretty cold, windy, and wet. Luckily the relatively small amount of Fan Club members kept us in welcome protection against the rain next to the venue's Ticket Office. I met a wonderful couple from New Jersey who had seen the band dozens of times before. I had planned on fooling around with my Gameboy Advance until the window opened, but the company of Pearl Jam fans passes the time nicely. Ticket window opens around 4 pm, 8th row Stone and Boom's side! Excellent!

Love Boat Captain is an amazing opener. It's hard to describe the feeling when Ed first grabs the mike with his soft opening lines, the first chords are struck lightly, the song gets going. Every element is in there. The band played hard through the early set, Eddie not talking much. I'm wondering if he is trying to avoid controversy early in the tour. He seems more reserved then compared to the Denver show. Maybe he's just being respectful to opposing opinions. Whatever the case, the band continues to exhibit high energy throughout the show.

The crowd seemed pretty receptive to the Riot Act material, which was a welcome surprise. The band got plenty of middle fingers during Save You. This will probably join the Pearl Jam concert activities ranks along with screaming hello during Small Town, 5 against one finger move during Animal, raised hands during Wishlist et cetera. Ed announced Lukin as a sing-a-long, always fun.

For me the highlight was near the end of 1/2 Full, when Eddie asks "won't someone save, the world?". He takes a large reflective dish, spotlight shown directly on him, and waves the dish around, beaming light into the crowd. Slowly he starts at one side of the arena scanning the crowd eventually getting to the opposite side, building speed, moving wildly, the beam of light is everywhere. "Who will save the world?", "Is it you?" Ed's going crazy, the light is everywhere, he quickly stops the light on a young woman in balcony to the right side of the stage. She's wearing a homemade t-shirt that says "Bush for Sale." Ed says "It's you." The arena goes crazy with applause as the song dies down. You can really tell they love playing 1/2 full live.

The SUV improv got some people laughing, although I don't think everyone really understood what Ed was talking about. I'm thinking Crazy Mary is becoming a New Orleans tradition, we've gotten it at every show since 93 I believe. Also in a strange move, the band mirrors the close of Houston's second encore with Fortunate Son and Free World with Sleater Kinney. I didn't mind at all though. Simply amazing. Everyone was having so much fun.

Thanks for reading this, I know it was long. I wish everyone a safe tour. Enjoy the shows!

Pearl Jam is still the best band in the world. They put on one hell of a show. They started with Love Boat Captain, which was awesome. "All you need is love." They did a real long version of porch which was one of the highlights of the night for me. Boom Kasper was a great addition to the band and did an awesome job with Crazy Mary. During the second encore they brought back out Sleater-Kinney to help them with a few songs including Fortunate Son (by CCR) and man that girl had a set of lungs on her. I forget her name, but she was great. They were all great. I definitely got my moneys worth plus some. They finished with Rockin' in the Free World with Sleater-Kinney and was awesome. This was only my second show, but this year thanks to the fan club I had great seats. Thanks to everyone. I had a blast. What a natural high. Ill never forget it.

First off I want to thank everyone responsible for a great show. The crew, Ten Club, Sleater-Kinney and Pearl Jam you all rock! Special thanks to the Ten Club for the 6th row dead center seats. We drove from Pensacola in the rain and wind but I didn't complain once until I got on those horrendous streets of New Orleans. The show was moved to the more quaint arena of the University of New Orleans. Nothing lost there. Sleater-Kinney was good and very entertaining. I had no idea who they were so it was a surprise to see that they were a 3 piece female band.

Pearl Jam came out with LBC. Great tune to start things off. From there they threw down with Grievance and Corduroy, two of my all time favorites. Brain of J and Save You went off. I believe it was somewhere around Brain of J where the person in front of me gave in. He sat down and never lifted his head from the seat in front of him. A little too much pre-concert spirit. Lesson learned I would think. You missed a hell of a show dude. Everything rocked tonight. It seemed to be the "hardest" show I've been to yet. Ed invited us to sing along to Lukin. I tried but it's not easy. Wishlist was awesome. Ed admitted to stealing the mirrorball from Cher. The SUV improv was funny because it seemed as though Ed wasn't getting the tune just right and had a hard time getting started with it. He pulled it off though. Small Town and Black were fabulous even though Ed did botch the lyrics on Black a little. Mike was golden all night. His stage antics and solo's can never be duplicated in my opinion. We love you Mike. Happy Belated Birthday!!

At some point in the show, I believe it was at the beginning of the 2nd encore, Ed mentioned that they were going to Alabama. Mike played the riff to Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd and the place went crazy. Ed and Stone started laughing and then they all started talking amongst themselves as if they were going to try it. Man I wish they would've tried. It would have been classic. Mike kept saying, " I don't know it, I don't know it." Oh well maybe he'll learn it now. Also at one point during a long instrumental, hell I can't remember which song, Ed had a mirror and held it over his head focusing a beam of light into the crowd. He shined it all around and got around to a person on the left of the stage wearing a homemade "Bush for Sale" t-shirt. He held the light on her for a minute or so and she turned around showing us the back which said something like "Plus Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfield and ? Powell I think ? at no extra cost." Great shirt dude!! Well, there was Crazy Mary and three covers to close. Ed passed the bottle around. Sorry it didn't get to me, I was thirsty. The Clash, CCR and Neil!! WOW!! What a show guys. Thanks again! See you in Atlanta!

Brad Sauers