Set List: Severed Hand, World Wide Suicide, Life Wasted, Animal, Marker In The Sand, Do The Evolution, Whipping,1/2 Full, I Am Mine, Even Flow, Gone, Insignificance, Better Man, Save It For Later by English Beat (part), Down, Garden, Inside Job, Lukin, Why Go

1st encore: Wasted Reprise, Man Of The Hour, Footsteps, Once, Alive
2nd encore: Last Kiss, Last Exit, Glorified G., Small Town, Crown Of Thorns (by Mother Love Bone), Rockin' in the Free World (by Neil Young), Yellow Ledbetter

BEST PJ SHOW EVER?

For those of you who did not see the mushroom cloud rising above Chicago last night..Pearl Jam dropped a sonic bomb and blew the roof off the United Center. I have no idea how to begin and if words can explain this, but here we go...(and a reverse MAMASAN TRILOGY!!!!!!!) The show opened with taste of the new. "It's ok, do you want some more?" Ed sings while the band lifted off with "Severed Hand." "World Wide Suicide" and "Life Wasted" followed with similar ferocity. Last night was...it was ok...but tonight is what "we were looking forward to" was Ed's only quote in the beginning of the show. This was all the crowd needed to hear. Matt began a drum intro to "Marker in the Sand" but the band seemed a bit off cue, so they launched into "Animal" for what amounted to a great save!!! The crowd had their spirits lifted up as they belted "Why would ya wanna hurt me!!" Last night I had a lot of focus on Mike, but tonight was the night for the 'silent warriors.' Jeff and Stone are just an amazing core for the band. Stone had his mind set to go off from the first notes of the evening, and Jeff was just a bouncing jumping fool! He kept the crowd going with his enthusiasm for the moment.

The band came back to the aborted song and continued with "Marker in the Sand" Definitely one of the great standouts from the new album in the live forum. "I'm calling out, calling out, calling out to you" as the crowds cheers kept increasing. A repeat from the first night in "Do The Evolution" followed and then with a little noodeling from Mike, Matt and Stone just blasted out the chords for "Whipping." The hand gestures from the crowd to mimic Ed, and follow the words to the song just made it all the more intense. "Don't need a helmet, got a hard, hard head" as people banged on their head and shook their fingers in the air as if telling the band, 'hey we threw out helmets, feel free to pummel our heads tonight!' The end of the song was just rocked out as Stone laid the framework for Ed to repeat with thunderous vocals "they're whipping, they're whipping, they're whipping" which in retrospect is a great metaphor for the asshole who writes for the Chicago Sun Times (review from night 1). Next was a double barrel blast from the Riot Act album. First off was the not too frequent "1/2 Full" followed up with a powerful "I Am Mine" which just soared through the building and from the looks of the faces around me at least, surprised many people as to how much they enjoyed the song, like they had forgotten it or didn't bother to pick up the album form the get go. The last chorus stuck with me and rang out with a great cryptic message "and the meanings that get left behind, all the innocents lost at one time, we're all different behind the eyes, there's no need to hide" followed up by a sweet complimentary solo by Mike.

Another repeat from the 1st night followed, with "Even Flow" that was actually jammed out to a crazy length and Mike played the first minute or so of the end guitar jam with his instrument behind his head just plowing away at it. "This American dream, I am disbelieving" as the opening lines to "Gone" made for the first of much political banter. The mood and message of the song really calmed things down from the previous tune, but hit hit the target right on. After some chatting from Eddie about being in Seattle where they make bombs, the band dropped one on the crowd by exploding into "Insignificance" (from the very underrated Binaural album.) As Stone fired away and Eddie sang "when I heard the band start playin on the lip late take off...bombs, droppin down, overhead, underground.." the earth shook as the guitars open the cracks and then Stone juts led everyone down a bit with the brief picking that slow the song for brief moments. It was incredible! "Betterman" which again was a repeat from last night came next and the crowd sang with all their power the first 2 verses with no peep from Eddie except nodding his head in approval of the a cappella choir he and the band had enlisted to carry the song. The first performance in 2006 of English Beat's "Save It For Later" which I think many people are not too familiar with so it lost some meaning with the crowd overall, but a nice treat. "This next song is for Howard Zinn" which was the cue for "Down." I'm just such a fan of this tune, and the 2nd verse was key as the audience yelled "Rise!! life is in motion, I'm stuck in line..."

After the song was done, a strange drum into began with riffs via Stone and I could not make out the song until Eddie in a very intense and gentle voice sings "The direction of the eye, so misleading, the defection of the soul nauseously quick..." and in truth I think my head along with many other just burst with joy to hear "Garden." It was not exactly the same song because the progression was different during the verses but the chorus was perfect! As the song wrapped up and Eddie and crowd sang to the heavens with thousands of arms outstretched, in unison the last chorus "I WILL WALK, WITH MY HANDS BOUND..I WILL WALK WITH MY FACE, BLOOD..I WILL WALK WITH MY SHADOW FLAG, INTO YOUR GARDEN, GARDEN OH..." repeated the chorus again and gave a knockout blow to the audience before Mike laid down a brief face melting solo to close out the song. Plus seeing as how the band left it off sets from 1996 - 2000 made it quite a number to hear. Just when you think the set is done, Mike comes out with the double neck guitar and for those of you who have yet to hear it live, put on your seatbelt for "Inside Job." The song opened with a very ethereal sound, reminiscent of Floyd intros, with green laser beams lightly shaking above the band. The song is simply put...amazing. With no warning, Eddie leads the charge on guitar, and screams "drive down the street, can't find the keys to my own fucking home..." in the very inaudible tone that accompanies none other than "Lukin." The song just amps a crowd for a brief moment of pure hard rock before just halting to a crushing stop. It's always funny to see people try and sing the song, when the words are so totally not understandable, unless you study the lyrics on your own time. To top off the set, as if there was any energy left in the head Jeff begins the bass solo and the band grabs the audience and delivers a pile-driving finale of the long lost "Why Go?" which has been getting frequent playtime this year. It did not disappoint! The end of the song was the kind of rock & roll moment you love experiencing a whole arena singing Why go home, why go home, why go home, mother, mother yeah) why go home and the audience is drained! Emotionally beaten, the band takes a much deserved rest ending the set and taking break so the crowd can get it all together themselves.

The encore began with a simple "Wasted Reprise" and then into the Big Fish tune "Man of the Hour" which is such a beautiful song. Then it happened! For all those who know about this, an amazing feat was about to occur. The legendary 'MAMASAN TRILOGY' (do your Google research to find out more, hard to explain) was developing but it would come in a reverse order. Eddie came to the mic as Jeff sat with the standup bass, and Ed had a harmonica handy. "It doesn't get much older than this song" and with that "Footsteps" was delivered with passion from the band and delight to the fans which was followed up by "Once" and "Alive." The songs each were amazing with the energy levels turned up to full blast! I don't want to extend longer than this novel is but I have yet to find an American play list with these in order, let alone reversed. ..(actually I did see... 4/26/03 in Pittsburgh) I do know they played a few shows in Italy in '92 but fucking wow!!!!!!! What a way to end the encore!

The second encore I had no idea how it would top the 1st but true to form it did! "Last Kiss" started things off with Eddie pulling a Bono type move going to the back of the arena and singing on a pedestal. He sang to his band mates from the other end of the arena!!! It was quite a showing. This was only topped by a 2 minute delay as he rushed back to the stage and the band flew into "Last Exit." Can never get enough of "LET MY SPIRIT PAAASSSS!!" The next tune hit the century mark for times played. Last night marked the 100th documented time for "Glorified G" which was an amazing surprise as well. This lifted the crowd up as they launched through the strange gem from the Vs. album. "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter In a Small Town" created the perfect sing along for the crowd who just screamed like they could not get enough, song after song, after song. "We don't play this one too often and we save it for very special occasions, we just want to thank everybody for coming here and being of a part of this thing" which was touching and heartfelt move by the band to show love to the other city that helped spawn the band. A delicious "Crown of Thorns" hit the spot for the fans starving to hear more gems that the band could pull out. The lights came on, and the band fired into "Rockin' In The Free World" and then in true moment of love and generosity, stayed again to finish with "Yellow Ledbetter."

I'm not a New Yorker, and I know they are known for pulling some amazing shows when they hit the Garden, but I tell you after a lot of shows in a a lot of cities, this one rivals the best of them, and in my opinion may just be the best show they have ever played. The setlist was very mixed, and you can never have all the songs you want, but I'll be damned if the band didn't try to take the whole arena into the stratosphere!

Thanks Guys!!!!