Set List: Release, Hail Hail, Save You, Cropduster, Love Boat Captain, I Am Mine, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Off He Goes, Light Years, Green Disease, Grievance, Present Tense, Daughter, Bu$hleaguer, Alive, Rearviewmirror;
1st encore: Arc, Corduroy, Small Town, Better Man, Crazy Mary, Do The Evolution;
2nd encore: Down, Rocking In The Free World w/Idlewild, Yellow Ledbetter

Fantastic show tonight in Chicago...unbelievable crowd...I mean, UNBELIEVABLE crowd...I am biased a bit because I live in Chicago, but the Chicago crowd will definitely be hard to beat, as it was in 2000 at the Allstate Arena. Perfect opener with RELEASE...always very moving. HAIL HAIL and SAVE YOU absolutely rocked...Save You is a classic...CROPDUSTER was done very well...it seems the band is really working this into the set almost nightly now...LBC and I AM MINE were very beautiful but the show finally took off with GIVEN TO FLY, which I feel is a magnificent crowd pleasing classic, for sure. Some more highlights included GREEN DISEASE, PRESENT TENSE (awesome surprise), and of course BUSHLEAGUER...thankfully no one booed this wonderful Stone/Ed masterpiece. To close the first set, ALIVE and RVM really made for a turbulent, buzzing atmosphere...you really feel like you're at the perfect rock concert because of songs like these. Further, I can't emphasize enough how lucky I was to observe Eddie perform ARC live tonight. He recorded layers of vocal melody and compiled them together, live, for us...and THEN he sang live to his own voice(s) as accompaniment. The man is one of a kind.

Staples like CORDUROY, SMALL TOWN, and BETTERMAN followed, which Eddie let the crowd sing the entire first verse. Great PJ moment. CRAZY MARY, once a "rarity" but now an exciting regular, absolutely provided the perfect setting for Mike and Boom to tear apart their respective tools of choice in genius fashion. DO THE EVOLUTION closed the 1st encore and of course...it kicked major ass (thanks mostly to Stone) For the 2nd encore was DOWN, one of the best PJ B-sides ever...RITFW (with the guys from Idlewild NOT Neil Young..but oh well...are we really complaining anyway?!), and YELLOW LED...a flawless show...

Thank you Ten Club for the fantastic seats among fantastic fans...thank you fans for making the night much more of a blast, and thank you Ed, Stone, Mike, Jeff, Matt, and Boom for being the best band in the world, for being Pearl Jam

Eddie said it best. The place that Michael, Dennis and Phil built. What a great place to play. and they turned out one of the best performances I've seen. What a show! Pearl Jam is the best. They really know how to get a show started. The place erupted when they came out with Release and then followed up with Hail, Hail. I was ecstatic. I have seen them over a have of a dozen times and I swear each time I see them they get better and better. The way Eddie got the crowd to sing Better Man was electrifying. He walked up to the stage and said "now it's your turn. You start," and in unison the whole crowd sung about half the song with just Eddie playing guitar. And then the rest of the band started in and Eddie soon joined and it was great. They came back and asked if we wanted more and of course we did. Eddie's asked 1....2....3? Then said "ok two." And they still played three anyway. Rockin in the Free World was great. Idlewild came out and joined then and the place was jumping. What a great show. Thanks ten club

Greg from Oshkosh

Well, I just got back from the show at the United Center in Chicago. This is my second show out of six for this tour, the first being Albany, NY. I flew out from Rhode Island the night before to check out the show. I decided to make a little vacation out of it, but this would definitely be the highlight of this trip. We got to the United Center @ 6:45, the tickets were 20th row on the left side.

Idlewild opened up the show at precisely 7:30. I was not to familiar with this band, but I thought they were decent. They played a 45-minute set. Then at 9:00 pm local time, Pearl Jam hit the stage. They opened up with a great version of Release. Probably one of the best songs that they can open up….just building with energy to start the show.

There was great crowd energy at the show & the band was definitely feeding off of it. The first 8 songs were nothing out of the ordinary, but there was a nice mix of old & new in there. During that time Eddie said it was great to be back to Chicago, since he is from the area. He also mentioned that a special guest was in the audience tonight, his grandmother.

There were a few songs that I was pleased that they played during their opening set, especially Off He Goes & Present Tense. And of course, Mike ripped through Even Flow like a man processed. Looking over past set lists, I noticed that they play Bu$hleaguer at the previous show, so I certainly wasn’t expecting them to bust that one out. Unfortunately there was no Bush mask, but it still was a pleasant surprise.

The 1st encore opened up with just Eddie singing Arc. He was kneeling down on the stage and what looked like he was listening to headphones while performing this one. The highlight of the 1st encore for me was Crazy Mary. During the jam in the middle of the song, Mike went back over to Boom & they both were jamming out for an extended period of time. What a great version of that song.

The 2nd encore began with the B-Side, Down. Then they brought out the members of Idlewild since it was there last date on the tour, and they rocked out to Rocking In The Free World. They had the house lights on, and the whole place was rocking in unity at the United Center. It was great. During the song, Matt Cameron actually came out from behind the drumkit & was playing Jeff’s bass for a bit. Then the members of Idlewild left the stage & they decided to close the show with Yellow Ledbetter.

Overall, this 2 hour & 20 minute show was very good. Not the best Pearl Jam show I have been to, but nonetheless, still a great time. See everyone in DC on July 1st.

Peace,
Chris Breault
Riverside, RI