I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 9, 2024] Pearl Jam

After Saturday’s show we were pretty psyched to do it all again on Monday.  We wound leaving almost an hour later than Saturday night, because we saw how small the GA section was.  And even if we were in the back of it we’d still be damn close.  BUt heck, I guess everyone else had the same thought on a Monday night because we arrived and not only scored the same spot, but I was able to grab this cool poster.

And our new friends Greta and Molly were there again.  So we hung out with them and enjoyed Glen Hansard and were super psyched when the lights went down for Pearl Jam.

For this show I wanted to be a little closer to Mike and I think it was a bad choice.  The group around us was really loud and really pushy.  So the crowd was less enjoyable but the band was on fire.

We have seen Pearl Jam open with a banger, but mostly they tend to open with a slow building song like tonight’s Of the Girl (which I can’t believe we hadn’t heard live before).

We were delighted to get Elderly Woman in which everyone gets to scream Hello!   And speaking of screaming, a whole room of people singing the opening of Corduroy is pretty intense. 

For this show I was a lot more aware of the crowd around and to the side of us.  I couldn’t quite get into that magical headspace of the first night where I felt like I was seeing them in a club.  But the setlist was fantastic, and the songs made up for it.

When they ripped through Mind Your Manners, my wife and I were ecstatic.  They threw in a couple different new songs that they didn’t play on Saturday but their version of Dark Matter may have been even better tonight.  Then they slowed things down with In My Tree.

When they played Even Flow, during Mike’s solo, Eddie went into the audience to talk to someone with a sign that it as their 100th Pearl Jam show.  He signed a tambourine for them, I believe.

The crowd sang along for Betterman.  It sucks when the one guy who really can’t sing is right near you–this was especially true for Wishlist, one of my wife’s favorite songs.  No one needs to hear it ruined by a loud guy who can’t sing.

I was particularly happy to hear Dance of the Clairvoyants.  It was on the setlist when we saw them in Camden, but for one reason or another they substituted something else.  It’s such an unlikely Pearl Jam song that I really wanted to hear them play it live.  And it was great.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was finding out that we’d only seen them play Once one time before.  It was great to hear it in the middle of the crowd.

Pearl Jam has always loved playing Philly (so they say) and someone at the show gave them a flier from the first time they played there (which they’ve mentioned on several occasions).  It’s a place called J.C. Dobbs and they joke how everyone in Wells Fargo Center was there that night.

They showed a piece of the wall of the Philly Spectrum where Pearl Jam had signed their names.  Someone had saved that patch of the wall when it was demolished.  As a tribute, they played a song from that era that was never released (until Lost Dogs) called Alone.  Shockingly for me it’s the second time I’ve seen them play it!

Then Jeff pulled out his fretless bass and started Jeremy and the crowd went nuts.  And went more nuts when the played Porch to end the set.  During the ending jam of the song Eddie came over and took someone’s phone and took a selfie on it.  I took a picture of him holding a selfie of himself out to the person, which is pretty meta.

For  the encore, Eddie came out with his acoustic guitar and he (along with Boom and Josh) played the beautiful Just Breathe.  Then he called out Glen Hansard.  The two of them shared some wine, made some joked and then sang Glen’s Song of Good Hope, a song that Eddie says got him through some rough patches.

They had one new song for us, the cool Waiting for Stevie and then the rather frequently played cover Crazy Mary (sometimes I think they need to add in some new cover songs).

But they made my night by playing Animal and then they made everyone’s night by playing a request.  These folks on the side of the stage were holding up the letters of RATS and Eddie said he’d ask the band if they wanted to play it.  And  they did!  I was so surprised and delighted.

And tonight was a night with three big sweeping ending songs–when it feels like they just don’t want to end the night.  Not only Alive, but also Rocking in the Free World (in which all of Glen Hansard’s band came out to sing along).  And then a crowd-high-fiving Yellow Ledbetter.

It was exciting and exhausting to be that close to such a huge band.

I honestly don’t know if we can ever see Pearl Jam again since we were so spoiled by this show.  How do you go back to the nosebleeds after you’ve ben within ten feet of the band.

Well, if we do see them again, here’s a few songs that I hope to see:

• Grievance
• Light Years
• Dissident

 

	9/9/2024 (Wells Fargo Center Philly)	9/7/2024 (Wells Fargo Center Philly)
	Of the Girl ß	Long Road ϖ
	Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town ≠ (3)	Low Light ∇ (3)
	Corduroy ♦ (5)	Why Go ‰ (4)
	Mind Your Manners √ (5)	Brain of J ∇
	Scared of Fear ♣	React, Respond ♣
	Dark Matter ♣ (2)	Dark Matter ♣
	In My Tree Ø (3)	Given to Fly ∇ (4)
	Wreckage ♣ (2)	Wreckage ♣
	Even Flow ‰ (7)	Even Flow ‰ (6)
	Better Man ♦ (3) (with Save It For Later tag)	Do the Evolution ∇ (6)
	Wishlist ∇ (with The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood” tag) (4)	MFC ∇ (2)
	Dance of the Clairvoyants ⊗	Red Mosquito Ø
	Once ‰ (2)	Won’t Tell ♣
	Upper Hand ♣	Black ‰ (with “We Belong Together” tag) (2)
	Alone ¿ (2)	Breath § (4)
	Jeremy ‰ (4)	Running ♣
	Porch ‰ (5)	Rearviewmirror ≠ (5)
	encore	encore
	Just Breathe ⇐ (Eddie, Boom and Josh only) (2)	I Won’t Back Down (Tom Petty cover) (Eddie solo) (2)
	Song of Good Hope (Glen Hansard cover) (with Glen Hansard) (dedicated to West Memphis 3)	Daughter ≠ (with Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’” tag) (3)
	Waiting for Stevie ♣	Last Exit ♦ (2)
	Crazy Mary (Victoria Williams cover) (3)	Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns(Mother Love Bone cover) (2)
	Animal ≠ (5)	State of Love and Trust § (4)
	Rats ≠	Alive ‰ (6)
	Alive ‰ (7)	Baba O’Riley (The Who cover) (2)
	Rockin’ in the Free World (Neil Young) (4)	Indifference ≠ (2)
	Yellow Ledbetter ¿ (3)
	Note:” Insignificance” and “Sonic Reducer” were on the setlist but “Once” and “Rats” were played instead.	Note:“Alone” was on the setlist but replaced with “Breath”.