Vivek’s Blog

So I went to see Pearl Jam yesterday. This happens to be my first concert experience in the US and boy did it blow me away.  Pearl Jam are amazingly good with their live performances and they played almost all of the songs I wanted them to play! They even played “Once” which is undoubtedly my favorite.

My Morning Jacket was the opening band and they were prompt - started playing at exactly 7:30pm and went on for about 45 minutes.  They’re a good band and worth checking out - especially the songs “Wordless Chorus” and “The Way He Sings.”  Then there was a bit of a break to get PJ’s stuff setup.  Right before they came on, the intro music to Once started playing.  Me and my friend thought, OMG!!  They’re starting with Once.  Unfortunately that was just an intro.  They actually started off with Severed Hand from the new album and some funky laser stuff.  The crowd was pretty vocal with everyone singing along and clapping.  Other songs they played included World Wide Suicide, Even Flow, Jeremy, Dissident, Not For You, Army Reserve, etc.

They went off and then came back for the first encore.  They started it with slow songs but then broke away into Once which happens to be one of the 3 songs they first wrote as a band.  Man that was freakin’ awesome!  And then they followed it up with Alive which had the entire audience swaying and singing and clapping.  They came back for a second encore which was also great and they wrapped up the concert with Indifference.

A lot of times, they were playing songs where everyone seemed to know the lyrics and we were standing there trying to figure out which song it was.  At the midway point of Even Flow, Mike McCready took his guitar, put it behind his head and was playing it with armsbehind his head.  Later on, Eddie Vedder took his guitar and reflected light onto the crowd.  He went around the entire arena - it was great!  He was drinking wine all the time and was pretty drunk by the end of the concert but this is what he does all the time - it certainly has no negative impact on the songs.  I think the wine helps him keep up at this age and stay energetic throughout the concert.  They are a high-energy act even after 15 years.

All in all, it was a terrific experience.  They played for almost 2.5 hours and add to that the time My Morning Jacket was on and you have a 3 hour concert.  Although, it could’ve been Tool whose concert would’ve been my first, PJ were an amazing first concert.  I still hope I can get Tool tickets when they come back for the second leg of the tour.  Until then, PJ is the best concert I’ve ever been to.