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Pearl Jammin'
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April 29, 2003 - Zeb "Better Man" Snyder (Columnist)
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Wait, who the hell are THESE guys? |
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As many of you know, I’ve been in Erie, PA since February except for a few weekends here and there. Erie’s not a bad town. That being said, I’ve pretty much exhausted every entertainment option in town – well, the legal ones anyway. So, as luck would have it, Pearl Jam came to Pittsburgh on Saturday, April 26. Luckily I’d noticed that Pitt was on the itinerary back in February and ordered tickets through the Ten Club, PJ’s fan club. So I headed down to Pitt Saturday afternoon with my buddy Geoff from my training program, set to hear some good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll. I was not disappointed.
Geoff and I picked up our tickets and entered the Mellon Arena at around 6:30pm. The Mellon Arena is known as The Igloo during hockey season, and is home the Pittsburgh Penguins – sworn enemies of my beloved, but ill-fated Washington Capitals. So upon entering the building and seeing Penguins crap everywhere, I nearly had a heart attack and a stroke at the same time. The only thing that kept me from stroking out right there was that I knew PJ was coming up shortly. So I stabilized myself with an overpriced beer and headed for my seat. Turns out the seats were about ten rows from the stage – as Geoff said, “these seats are tits!” Indeed.
A band called Sparta opened the evening’s festivities. I’d heard of these guys when I worked at the Goody, and I knew three of the guys had been in a band called At The Drive In. I’d seen ATDI open for Rage Against the Machine at the Baltimore Arena, and while they were loud and energetic, they sounded terrible. Needless to say I was rather skeptical. Thankfully, they came out and rocked. They have sort of a punk-with-melodies-and-harmonies sound, and it is really really slick. Some songs sound like early Foo Fighters. On others, the vocal are almost reminiscent of Robert Smith of the Cure. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the band is the keyboard work, which at times sounds like something from NIN’s The Fragile or perhaps some Radiohead. And on a couple tunes, they even sounded like one of the better “emo” bands but with balls. Check out their album Wiretap Scars if you get a chance, you’ll be impressed.
Now, on to the main attraction. Pearl Jam hit the stage at about 8:45, and opened up with “Elderly Woman Behind a Counter in a Small Town.” What a great way to open a show. When the lyric “I just want to scream HELLO!” was sung, the house lights went up, illuminating some 15,000 fans singing along word for word. Very cool. The band was basically saying “hi, we’re back, good to see you, let’s get it going.” They did just that with their next tune “Hail Hail” and didn’t look back. “Save You” from Riot Act was amazingly energetic. They played an extended version of “Even Flow” which was incredible – Mike McCready was definitely on. The band played some less common tunes as well, like “Insignificance,” “Blood,” “Faithful,” “Immortality,” and “Whipping.” Very cool. They played a good sampling of songs from all of their albums, with No Code and Binaural being the least represented (rightly so in my opinion). One of the cooler moments, in my opinion, was when Vedder played his version of The Beatles’ “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” solo – handling guitar, harmonica, and vocals himself.
Best of all, they looked like they were having a lot of fun, and I can’t say that was necessarily true in the case of the other two PJ shows I’d seen the band. They seemed to be in a very good mood. They jammed out on several tunes, which I’d really never seen them do before. They were really into the tunes, and it made for one of the best rock performances I’ve ever seen. Mike McCready played behind his head a la Hendrix. Eddie Vedder and McCready leaped about like it was 1992 all over again. Matt Cameron banged the hell out of his kit. Stone was grooving all night. Jeff Ament pounded the bejesus out of his bass during “RearViewMirror” – I thought he was going to break that thing in half. Speaking of “RVM,” they jammed that out for eleven minutes. One of the coolest things I’ve ever seen the band do. Vedder was really on. He gave it all on every song, and his voice was just as strong at the end of the night as it was at the beginning. Personally, I think it was the bottle of red wine that he downed during the show that kept him going strong.
This was a great show, in case you couldn’t tell.
It must be an amazing feeling to write a song and then go play it in front of a sold out arena. But when Vedder stepped out the front of the stage strumming the chords to “Better Man” but not singing, and the crowd of 15,000 sang in his place, word for word, without missing a beat – well, I can’t imagine what that must feel like on his end. It’s a hell of an experience as a member of the crowd, that’s for sure.
As I look over these words here, I’m realizing there’s not much I could ever say to truly capture the evening. It was just spectacular. I’ve probably seen fifty concerts or more over the years, and this was easily in the top five, quite possibly number one. It simply blew away the other two Pearl Jam performances I’ve seen. It was incredible. Anyone who has acquired a diminished view of the band over the years as their album sales have declined needs to have seen this show. They need to hear this show. After seeing this show, there is no denying that Pearl Jam are still one of the most relevant rock bands in the world, and that they are still capable of putting on one helluva rock show.
For those of you who weren’t there, I have good news. Being the cool guys that they are, Pearl Jam records every show they play and then makes that recording available for purchase immediately afterwards. So, you can go to www.pearljambootlegs.com, click on the Pittsburgh 4/26 show, and buy this concert. If you’re a Ten Club member you’ll pay about $12 plus S&H. Non-members will only pay a few bucks more. Two and a half hours of great music for under $20 – what a bahgin!
Here is their set list from Saturday night:
1. Small Town
2. Hail Hail
3. Save You
4. Corduroy
5. Insignificance
6. Crop Duster
7. Daughter
8. Even Flow
9. Faithful
10. Whipping
11. Immortality
12. Blood
13. Down
14. Love Boat Captain
15. Wish List
16. Better Man
17. Go
18. Encore Break 1
19. Last Kiss
20. Breakerfall
21. Once
22. Alive
23. Footsteps
24. RVM
19. Encore Break 2
26. Hide Your Love Away
27. Know Your Rights
28. Do The Evolution
29. Porch
30. Yellow Ledbetter
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