Ed solo before opening bands: Don't Be Shy, You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
Set list: Release, Last Exit, Hail Hail, Save You, Do The Evolution, Dissident, The American in Me by The Avengers, Insignificance, Untitled, MFC, Given To Fly, Even Flow, (Howard Zinn introduced, comes on stage, and says "Stop the war") Down, Jeremy;
1st encore (acoustic): Low Light, Masters of War, Small Town, Last Kiss, Crazy Mary;
2nd encore: Love Boat Captain, Better Man, Bleed For Me by Dead Kennedys, Blood;
3rd encore: Alive

Well, I am back from my first Pearl Jam concert in over a year, and once again, they did not disappoint. The last show I was at was the acoustic marathon for the 3rd in final Boston show of last September. This time the show was at the Fleet Center, a place I have yet to see Pearl Jam play.

We got to our seats just before 7:30. Being spoiled from getting my tickets through the Ten Club for last year's shows (6 in total), my seats weren't as good as I have been accustomed to. Believe me, I am not complaining, I am just happy to be in the building. We were sitting in the upper deck on the right side of the stage (Stone's side). Shortly after 7:30, EV came out and played Don't Be Shy by himself. Then I saw him pick up the harmonica and thought, is he really going to play another song...and yes he did. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away. That's the 1st time I can remember him playing 2 songs before the opening band.

The first opening band, Gob Roberts, was pretty good. I found out later that actor/patriot Tim Robbins is a member of that band. It's a play on his movie "Bob Roberts." Most of their songs in their 20-25 minute set were politically charged. Then came Death Cab For Cutie. That was the first time I have seen them, thought they were good. They played from 8:20 until 9:00.

Then after a 45 minute wait, Pearl Jam hit the stage. They started off slow with Release. Once the energy was built up, with a raucous set including Last Exit, Hail Hail, Save You, Evolution...They played a cover of The American in Me which is a song I have never heard of, but appropriate with all the political nonsense that is going on these days. EV started to introduce Mike McCready's song Down, when he started talking about Howard Zinn, the person who influenced the creation of this song. He came out on to the stage, says "Stop the war." and heads off as the beginning guitar riff for the song begins. They ended the hour opening set with a great version of Jeremy.

After a brief break, in which EV called a "Piss break for you guys", they came out and played an acoustic set. Hands down the best song of the night was the apropos cover of Bob Dylan's Masters of War. It sounded AMAZING! There was barely a peep from the 17,000+ audience. They just stood there and listened intently. Did I mention it was AMAZING? Oh yeah, I did, whoops. Before they played Last Kiss, they all turned around and played for the people whose seats were behind the stage. Very cool idea. They ended the 35 minute first encore with Boom wailing away on the B3 organ playing Crazy Mary.

The second encore started off just like the first one ended, Boom starting off Love Boat Captain. That 25 minute encore ended with a fury, Bleed For Me by The Dead Kennedys and Blood. Then after a brief break, with the house lights on, EV came to talk about the West Memphis Three. Proceeds from tonight's show was going to help them out. Please refer to the website for more info. (www.wm3.org) Then with the house lights on, they ended the night with Alive. It ended at midnight with the crowd buzzing.

It was a great show. I can't wait to go tomorrow (Wednesday) night. I will also be at the Friday show in Reading, PA. See everyone there.

Peace,
Chris Breault
Riverside, RI

I am freaking exhausted, and there are bound to be typos abound, but I'll do a little mini-review.

The show was outstanding. Nothing super rare. Low Light was a nice treat, and Masters Of War was amazing...probably better than Benaroya. They played it ferociously.

From the opening notes of Release, the band seemed to have a great connection with the crowd. The whole place sang along w/ Eddie during the chorus and high notes of the song, and then they tore into a frenetic pace of songs w/ Last Exit, Hail Hail, etc.

Highlights:

The Dead Kennedy's cover. Man, that was intense! I knew it was a DK song, but I didn't know the song very well. They tore into it like they had something to prove. Stone looked like he was loving it.

Jeff was very animated, which is unusual. Mike was all over the place as usual, and Stone was grooving a lot too. Stone also was jumping up and down a lot, which to me is the sign of a good show for him.

Ed's pre-set. Always a treat. We got to our seats *right* as Ed came on stage. I kept saying I didn't think Ed would do a solo set because of 2 opening bands, but I had a little nagging voice inside of my head that kept saying "he might want to get people to their seats for Tim's band." Thank god I was right.

Matt double bassing the ending jam of Blood...right on. That kicked ass!

At the end of the first encore (Crazy Mary), Ed did the whole 'goodnight, goodbye, you were great', etc etc. I kept thinking we were going to see Yellow Ledbetter and the show would end. Nope! 4 more songs and an encore. Oh man!

Dare I say it: A YELLOW LEDBETTER-FREE SHOW!!! I love the song and all, but I've seen it end WAY too many shows. Alive was a nice treat instead. Hah, I guess you could say the only problem with Alive as an encore is that it gets you pumped up wanting more.

Playing Last Kiss to the rear seats. What a good idea! I thought it was amusing when Ed turned around and sang to the front for a few seconds (like he normally does to the back seats throughout the whole show)...kind of like a reversal of roles.

I would say the show was absolutely fantastic, but for those of you who were bumming you might have missed a show with tons of rarities/etc...fear not. You missed a great, long show, but nothing like a Dirty Frank emergence or Undone. It was just a good, solid show.

Well, I am having trouble keeping my eyelids open. I got back around 2. My alarm went off at 6:05, and now I am at work. I get to do it all over again tonight, and I wouldn't trade it for the world...but my brain is running on fumes right now.