gig review: pearl jam @ bill graham civic auditorium

[rone]

It seems like forever ago when my big bro at my fraternity, Chuck Shattuck, handed me a copy of Ten and said, "Dude, these guys are gonna be huge," and this was before "Alive" hit MTV.  He also said that about the Smashing Pumpkins' Gish.  So, yeah, he knew his stuff.  He drank at least a 12-pack of Coke a day.  Anyway, digression over.  The point was that, other than me listening to Ten and not being especially impressed at the time, once it grew on me, i've been avidly listening to Pearl Jam and greatly enjoying almost everything they've done.  But until last night, i'd never seen them live.

Before the show, Kim and i headed to the Mediterranean joint where we lunched with erikred and matrushkaka three months ago to the day.  It's gone.  I blame erikred for eating them into bankruptcy.  We settled instead on eating at Mangosteen, where the food is tasty and plentiful but lonesome; i ordered a spicy chili chicken and i got a large plate with 2 or 3 portions of chicken and nothing else.  So make sure to order exactly what you want.

Mi esposa tan hermosa...

I joined the Ten Club (the Pearl Jam fan club) back when the tour was announced and snagged tickets in an online fanclub sale.  After we picked up our tickets from the box office, one of the ushers cut us in ahead of the plebes in line.  Ah, privilege.  We found some nice seats upstairs, just off center, to the left of one of the GIANT COLUMNS that obstructed the view for many seats.

The swath of empty seats corresponds neatly with the inability of an occupant to see the stage.  Very poor design.

At 19:15, the people that were sitting on the floor all got up and moved towards the stage; it was very interesting to see the people move like that, not unlike watching a flock of birds all suddenly turn in the same direction. At 19:30 sharp, Ed Vedder comes out alone to warm up the crowd for Sonic Youth with "I Am Mine".  Sonic Youth came out soon after that and started off with "Incinerate", one of the few songs of theirs i recognize and think is decent.  The show, though, went badly off the rails at that point (despite my already lowered expectations) and we were treated to some unbearable Kim Gordon vocalization (to call it "singing" would be a crime) and buckets of self-indulgent feedback.  The last song of their mercifully fast 35-minute set was OK, though.

Then it was time for Pearl Jam.  Set list:

• Release
• Life Wasted
• Severed Hand
• Hail, Hail
• World Wide Suicide
• Untitled [this was longer than the version on On Two Legs]
• MFC
• Unemployable [after this was over, Stone urged people to not press forward; i saw security carry one girl out of the crush before then, probably half-drunk, half-fainted]
• Sad
• Light Years
• Big Wave
• Even Flow [DRUM SOLO]
• Do the Evolution
• In Hiding
• Down
• Present Tense
• Why Go
  
  Encore
  
  
• Wasted Reprise
• Man of the Hour
• Crazy Mary
• Comatose
• Alive
  
  Encore
  
  
• Last Exit
• State of Love and Trust
• Leash
• All Along the Watchtower
  
  The band was done, but Mike McCready wasn't done, and he insisted on playing one more song.
  
  
• Yellow Ledbetter [the band starts taking off their gear as Mike finishes the song by himself, but instead of wrapping up, he throws in...]
• The Star Spangled Banner

What more can i say?  It was a fantastic show; great band energy, excellent musicians and showmen, awesome music.  We ran into Kim's brother while there; what are the odds?  We had to put up with some total stoner in front of us who applauded at the strangest times during Sonic Youth's set and who smoked weed throughout the entire concert.

Comments

[ratphooey.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for the recap!

Just Even Flow and Alive would have made my night. To throw in State of Love and Trust? Gah!