Pearl Jam Concerts 2000s

2000

April 12, 2000 Ed Sullivan Theater, New York City, NY (The Late Show with David Letterman performing Grievance)

05/10/00 – Mount Baker Theatre: Bellingham WA (supported by C Average)

set: Of the Girl, Grievance, Breakerfall, Nothing as it Seems, God’s Dice, Light Years, Thin Air, Do the Evolution, Black, Red Mosquito, Daughter/(Hold On), Faithfull, Dead Man (Ed and Jeff only), MFC, Evacuation, Immortality [NOTE: since we are in album blackout, these are guesses based off of lyrics & a copy of the printed setlist we saw after the show.] enc 1: Corduroy, Wishlist, Insignificance, improv/jam, Go enc 2: Soon Forget, Yellow Ledbetter notes: After ‘Light Years,’ Ed says “Thank you Mount Baker,” and “What a fine dump. It’s the nicest practice space I’ve ever had.” At the end of ‘Thin Air,’ he notes, “Well, those were all the good songs.” Following ‘Black,’ there is a mid-stage conference. Stone says, “We’re already fucking up the setlist,” and Ed responds that that’s OK but fucking up the songs is not. ‘Hold On’ is a Tom Waits song. ‘Faithfull’ has two notable lyric changes: “the woman upstairs” and “what’s a human to do.” Jeff comes out with the standup bass and a bow and he and Ed do a beautiful version of ‘Dead Man.’ ‘Evacuation’ is introduced as, “This song was written by Matt Cameron”; it seems to take a toll on Ed’s voice, as afterwards he’s out of breath and comments, “Great song, bitch to sing,” and asks the crowd to thank Matt for playing tonight.. Before the encore, there were no “Eddie” chants … rather “Pearl Jam” chants! ! After ‘Insignificance,’ there’s another mid-stage pow wow and Ed comments on how he hasn’t had a drink for a while (since 1:30 that morning) and he’s getting a buzz from the wine. Jeff is having bass trouble after Ed announces ‘Go’ and they go into a fairly involved improv, similar in feel to ‘Roadhouse Blues’ by the Doors; it falls apart after Mike takes an appropriate solo but then cracks up at the end. Ed returns to the stage alone for the final encore, holding a wireless ukulele behind his back. He tell us he is going to play one of the greatest songs in rock and roll history, and then revises (realizing some folks might not have gotten the sarcasm) and says, no, actually, it sucks. He asks the crowd to be quiet — “I know you’re gonna wanna yell out during this one” — as he doesn’t want to “make a mistake,” and then pauses to ask the crowd if the ukulele doesn’t make him look taller. He plays a lovely, intricate song – “Soon Forget” (which VERY much reminds us of ‘Blue, Red and Grey’ by the Who). ‘Ledbetter’ is a wonderful version. The flying V is back for Mike, as well as a brand new baby blue SG.

05/11/00 – Commodore Ballroom: Vancouver BC (supported by C Average) set: Long Road, Last Exit, Hail Hail, Breakerfall, Grievance, Nothing As It Seems, Light Years, Corduroy, Even Flow, Elderly Woman, Thin Air, Of The Girl, Insignificance, Not For You, Off He Goes, Wishlist, Evacuation enc 1: Animal, Do The Evolution, Daughter/(The Wrong Child)/(Androgynous Mind), Last Kiss enc 2: Soon Forget notes: After ‘Hail Hail,’ Ed mentions “We have a new record … it came out yesterday,” prompting shouts of “Tuesday” from the crowd. “Oh, it doesn’t come out till Tuesday. Let’s just play it then.” Before ‘Even Flow,’ Ed says “Let’s test out this spring loaded floor.” He changes the ‘Not For You’ lyric to “small my table, fits just one.” Ed throws a bottle of water into the crowd and then gives a teasing “take a bottle drink it down, pass it around.” Mike rotates between a heavily worn tobacco sunburst Fender Strat, a 57 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop, a Flying V with glow-in-the-dark stickers all over it, a silver-sparkle Gretsch Les Paul-style guitar, a white Fender Tele, and and red hollowbody (another Gretsch?). Ed plays one of the new Fender Telecoustics (same as for ‘Grievance’ on Letterman) for the most part, switching to a white telecaster on a couple tunes … and, of course, the ukulele (“it’s pronounced ookelele” -Eddie) which he faked a guitar smash on before leaving the stage. All members of R.E.M. were in attendance since they were recording in Vancouver, hence ‘The Wrong Child’ tag on ‘Daughter.’ About 50 fans waiting around outside were let in, for free, approximately 1/4 of the way into the show.

May 23, 2000 Restelo Stadium, Lisbon, POR (supported by The Vandals)

May 25, 2000 Palau St. Jordi, Barcelona, SPA (supported by The Vandals)

05/26/00 – Anoeta Velodrome: San Sebastian, SPA support act: The Vandals set: Release, Given To Fly, Do The Evolution, Corduroy, Insignificance, Of The Girl, Jeremy, Light Years, Nothing As It Seems, Even Flow, Faithfull, Daughter/(Hold On)/(Love Me Two Times), Breakerfall, Rearviewmirror, Better Man, Go enc 1: Last Exit, Hail Hail, Immortality, State of Love and Trust, Alive enc 2: Whipping, Last Kiss, Improv, Smile, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Another fantastic crowd helps the band deliver another fantastic performance. ‘Jeremy’ surprises everyone with its intensity, Mike hopping up and down, exhorting the crowd to jump, Ed with vintage 1992 headshakes and gestures, Stone also jumping up and down to match Ed’s intensity. Ed breaks a string during ‘Light Years’; Mike’s ‘NAIS’ solo is intense, polished. ‘Even Flow’ features more classic hand gestures on the “butterflies” lines. Stone fucks up the beginning to ‘Daughter’ – of all things – TWICE – prompting Ed to introduce him formally: “Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Stone Gossard!” The band returns for the first encore: “What a day, what a place. I have to admit, we went surfing earlier… as soon as we got in the water, this tornado came … from Seattle, it was lookin’ for us.” Ed thanks the crowd for singing, and then introduces the band (of all things), specifically Stone: “This is Stone Gossard, his guitar fucked up earlier, *not* him; he’s a professional, he came to San Sebastian to rock you in a very professional way…” and then the professional rips into a scorching version of “Last Exit.” “Hail Hail’ has a lyric change: “Hail hail the lucky ones, I hope you are in love.” Ed forgets the words to the beginning of ‘Immortality’ again and looks to the crowd for cues. The crowd starts singing ‘State’ before the band kicks in; ‘Alive’ features yet another band fuckup, prompting Ed to say: “So much for being a professional band…” They return for the second encore with the crowd chanting, and Ed singing along with Matt providing an accompaniment. Ed then says, well, since we fucked up so badly tonight, we’ll just keep playing to make up for it, but you have to promise not to tell anyone, okay? and then asks the crowd to vote: ‘Last Kiss’ or ‘Whipping’. ‘Whipping’ wins hands down, but we get ‘Last Kiss’ anyway. After Stone and Jeff switch instruments for what’s obviously going to be ‘Smile’, Stone has bass problems, prompting Eddie to comment sarcastically, “Maybe it is Stone’s fault…” and they go into another short bluesy jam like they did in Bellingham.

May 29-30, 2000 Wembley Arena, London, ENG (supported by The Monkeywrench)

June 1, 2000 The Point Depot, Dublin, IRE (supported by The Vandals)

June 3, 2000 Scottish Exhibition & Conference Centre, Glasgow, SCOT (supported by The Vandals) set: Sometimes, Breakerfall, Corduroy, Hail Hail, Animal, Dissident, Grievance, Nothing As It Seems, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Daughter, Untitled, MFC, Habit, Better Man Present Tense, State Of Love And Trust, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Brain of J, Do The Evolution, Light Years, Elderly Woman, Last Kiss, Once enc 2: Soon Forget, Yellow Ledbetter notes: “We’ve been here once before but that was a long time ago and its great to be back.” The band start *again* with ‘Sometimes’ before launching into a blistering ‘Breakerfall.’ Ed raises one of the Bugs t-shirts after ‘Animal,’ and wipes his sweaty brow with it. The crowd are perhaps the most ‘lively’ yet but too many people are crowd surfing and too many in the crowd surge right and left and are hurting people, which prompts Ed to say after the first chorus of ‘GTF’, “How ya doin’?” which prompts everyone to cheer. He responds, “I didn’t mean for you to yell, but I think that somebody’s underneath you all.” ‘Habit’ is introduced as a quiet little number, ‘Present Tense’ and ‘Once’ make a very welcome appearance and turn a very good show into a great one. Ed is in fine story telling form, with references to a little old lady he met, how songs have messages and sometimes become prayers, and talking about Mike Scott (from the Waterboys – Irish band – see: ‘Whole of the Moon’ tags from 1998), which gets a great reception from the crowd. The band play two encores, with the reception on the second occasion prompting Eddie to say ‘Be careful, that’s enough to give a guy a big head.’ Mike makes a rare appearance at the mic at the close of the show and in his very best Scottish brogue says, “Bye Scotland.” For the encores, Ed comes back out and tells us all a great story about the last time they were in Glasgow when he met a cleaner called Mrs. Mop who he dedicates ‘Soon Forget’ to. Worth note is that he says, “The last time we were here, which was a long time ago…” and is interrupted by a lot of playful booing (it was 23rd February 1992 so Glasgow was mildly pissed off about that) and he answers by hanging his head in shame then telling how he had a lot of laundry to do and how much of a mess his house was.

June 4, 2000 Manchester Evening News Arena, Manchester, ENG (supported by The Vandals)

June 6, 2000 Cardiff International Arena, Cardiff, WAL (supported by The Vandals) set: Nothing As It Seems, Breakerfall, God’s Dice, Animal, Red Mosquito, Insignificance, Corduroy, I Got Shit, Alive, Given To Fly, Better Man, Leatherman, Light Years, Pilate, Daughter/(WMA), Do The Evolution, Once enc 1: Go, MFC, Elderly Woman, Black, Immortality, Spin The Black Circle enc 2: Even Flow, Smile, Yellow Ledbetter notes: “125 minutes and breathtaking.” The UK run comes to an end, with perhaps the best show of this part of the tour. ‘NAIS’ opens, followed by ‘Breakerfall’ and ‘God’s Dice’ – both of which are quickly becoming live staples. A quiet crowd suddenly becomes alive from ‘Animal’ onwards. Eddie senses this, telling the crowd “you’re singing as good as me.” Stone wryly notes that he can’t believe they got through ‘Pilate’ – check out Matt on back-up vocals! – without a hitch. ‘Once’ provides a fitting close to the show, before the encores, Eddie crashing the microphone stand to the stage floor. ‘Spin the Black circle’ ensures the momentum is kept up during the second half, with the inclusion of ‘Smile’ (“a going away song”) and (“one more?”) Yellow Ledbetter at the show’s end providing a fitting finish. A very good show in a comparatively small venue.

June 8, 2000 Palais Omnisports de Paris Bercy, Paris, FRA (supported by The Vandals)

06/09/00 – Rock Am Ring Festival: Koln, Germany set: Sometimes, Corduroy, Breakerfall, MFC, Grievance, Animal, Given To Fly, Nothing As It Seems, Even Flow, Not For You, Wishlist, Better Man, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror, Timeless Melody, Alive, Daughter/(WMA)/(Behind Blue Eyes), Do The Evolution, Once enc 1: Elderly Woman, Go, State Of Love And Trust, Light Years, Black, Last Kiss, Fuckin’ Up enc 2: Yellow Ledbetter notes: The crowd is rough at the start but more peaceful and relaxed after ‘MFC.’ Mike seems to loosen up during the ‘Even Flow’ solo. Ed takes Mike’s cigarette from his mouth and takes a drag, later saying, “That’s Mike McCready.” Ed grabs for the e-bow but then throw it to the back during ‘Wishlist.” Ed introduces ‘Timeless Melody’ with “This one is dedicated to Noel [Gallagher], who couldn’t be here…”, likely referring to the fact that Liam played without Noel before PJ’s set. Mike plays most of the ‘Alive’ solo behind his head, then running off the stage while Ed does some sort of gymnastics centerstage. Ed introduces ‘Last Kiss’ as “This is a campfire sing-a-long.” He tries some German: “Wie fühlt….Ihr Euch ?” [How do you feel?] “Ihr seid spitze” [You're great.] and “Danke” at the end. Big cheers every time. He told of his “German lesson,” and asked how to say “Fuck you” in German, being told “Hmm, well, we say, errr, ‘fuck you.’” Big cheers leading to ‘Fucking Up.’ When the return for the encore, Ed says, “Ha, we’re easy … sometimes.” There was heat lightning (that was insane) behind the crowd, and a half moon — both of which Ed exhorted the crowd to turn around and take a look at. The band, while on fire still, was much more reserved than at any of the previous shows.

06/11/00 – Rock Im Park Festival: Nurnberg, Germany [120m] set: MFC, Habit, Corduroy, Breakerfall, God’s Dice, Animal, Nothing As It Seems, Dissident, Even Flow, Given To Fly, Wishlist, Alive, Off He Goes, Leatherman, Better Man, Once, Lukin, Insignificance, Improv/New Song, Rearviewmirror enc: Black, Spin The Black Circle, Do The Evolution, Light Years, Elderly Woman, Leaving Here, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Prior to PJ taking the stage, Liam Gallagher dedicates ‘Wonderwall’ to “my Pearl Jam friends,” most likely referring to hostile PJ fans in the front row. ‘MFC’ is a surprise opener, the first rocking opener of the tour, and is followed by ‘Habit,’ which again features no “Speakin as…” line. During ‘NAIS’ Ed comments “It’s beautiful,” referring to his view of the crowd. Ed flubs the ‘Even Flow’ lyrics, but it doesn’t matter, the whole band is totally into it, Jeff bouncing all over the stage circa 1992, and Mike’s solo is absolutely AMAZING and extended once again. At the end of ‘Wishlist,’ Ed steps to the mic to add a tag, but instead just plays the chords with his eyes closed, totally into it, and then says “danke.” After ‘Alive’ Ed tells how he remembers “playing it perfectly at a small club in Hamburg on Jeff Ament’s birthday, March 12, 1992… Also the last time I took a shower.” ! He then goes on to ask for the rain or the moon before starting ‘Off He Goes.’ Matt Cameron absolutely rules ‘Leatherman,’ with Stone singing along again. Afterwards, Ed says, “Played that one tonight cause it was written by a German. Uh, about a German… by a Dutchman. This one’s about a young Republican,” leading into ‘Better Man,’ which has Ed doing several Townshend windmills. Mike does the behind the head solo during ‘Once,’ and Ed is completely barking the words to ‘Lukin.’ Ed points out that the moon has broken through the clouds prior to ‘Insignificance,’ and then on the “full moon is their skin” line, he stares directly at it, and the song just rocks, a PERFECT version. The improv or new song prior to ‘RVM’ is a beautiful slow song, with lyrics about kissing a girl on the moon. (If anyone definitively knows what this song is, please let us know. We have the sound file.) After an on fire ‘RVM’, Mike fakes throwing his flying V out into the crowd. The ‘Black’ solo is shortened but still beautiful, and ‘Spin the Black Circle’ is a nice surprise. For the second night in a row, Ed alters the ‘DTE’ lyrics to “I am the first man to shit my pants.” ! ‘Light Years’ is just beautiful, definitely one of the best versions ever. ‘Leaving Here’ makes it first appearance of the tour after several soundchecks, introducing it by saying “this song is dedicated to all those German women soccer players.” No one in the band knows who is supposed to solo first, but they just laugh it off, and the rest of the song is right on the money. ‘YL’ closes again, Ed changing the lyrics to “I’d like to stay” and “I’m so glad you stayed.” A very intense and focused performance, much more than some fans expected from a festival, with a very happy and peaceful crowd.

06/12/00 – Pinkpop Festival: Landgraaf, Netherlands [91m] attendance: 60,000 set: Corduroy, Breakerfall, Animal, Hail Hail, Rival, Jeremy, Nothing As It Seems, MFC, Habit, Light Years, Lukin, Even Flow, Brain of J, Insignificance, Better Man, Rearviewmirror, Once, Fuckin’ Up enc: Black, Leaving Here notes: Ed is wearing another Tivoli shirt, like the home-made one in 1992. The band is in a very good mood and Ed is dancing a lot. Ed says, “Is it okay if I speak English, because the only thing I know in Dutch is how to order pot in a cafe. It is nice to be back and thanks for having us. It is much more beautiful then I remember it. [smiles] It is also nice to be out of America for the last couples of weeks … in America what we do for fun, because we have some kind of advanced culture … [the crowd boos, Ed smiles] so we have some very futuristic ways of handling our overpopulation problem and that is we give each other guns and kill one another – because it is fucking fun! [Ed makes a shoot sound]. Anyway, here are a couple of songs about killing one another. This is called ‘Rival.’” Ed dedicates ‘Light Years’ to Diane Muus from Sony Music. (She died in 1997 at an age of 33 and knew the band very well.) “So that was about a friend who is fucking up and there is nothing you can do about it! And you just watch’em go down down down. And then, other times you have got friends that don’t fuck up at all and are great people. And then you just lose them for some reason. They are of the planet and you never had a chance to say goodbye. I only mention this because there was a person we used to know here and that was Diane and ah, we never got a chance to say goodbye. This is goodbye!’ Before “Fucking Up,’ he is telling the crowd that Gomez will play in the tent next to center stage and that Moby is coming later. He says, “I’ve been told that there is another Ed (Ed Kowalczyk from Live) walking around here, but I’ve been told that I give better Ed than he does” [smiling]. He smashes two tambourines with his head during ‘Fuckin’ Up’ and tosses one to the crowd, and takes photos of the crowd at the end of the song. Later he’s smiling and says, “Ha, we’re easy … sometimes” likely referring to the fact that they do an encore for a festival. He asks, “Hey, Brett. Are you there? Can you hear me? Do you have the tape from last night?” Brett responds through the PA and says the tape is probably on the bus. Ed rants about the tape as he needs it because they want to leave right after the show. “Well, if he had the tape I would tell you to pass me over there, so I could get the tape and back again to the stage … I think I can trust you guys to do that. But oh well … as you don’t have the tape maybe next time. Oh, there is no next time! Oh, well. This song is called ‘Black.’ Say hello to all my friends in Utrecht.” The last 35 minutes of this show was. Dutch FM radio broadcast ‘MFC’ through ‘Black’ and featured an interview with Mike.

June 14, 2000 Peagas Arena, Prague, CZR (supported by Dismemberment Plan)

June 15-16, 2000 Spodek, Katowice, POL (supported by Dismemberment Plan. This date was originally scheduled for the Petiofi Csarnock in Budapest, Hungary)

June 18, 2000 Residenzplatz, Salzburg, AUT (supported by Dismemberment Plan) set: Throw Your Arms Around Me [EV solo] Sometimes, Breakerfall, Grievance, Corduroy, Animal, God’s Dice, State of Love and Trust, Nothing As It Seems, Alive, Daughter/(ABitW)/(WMA), Once, Lukin, Not For You, Light Years, Leatherman, Improv, Present Tense, Rearviewmirror, Go enc: Do The Evolution, Insignificance, Even Flow, Wishlist, Better Man, Elderly Woman, Thin Air, Black, Rockin’ In The Free World notes: Ed performs ‘Throw Your Arms Around Me’ solo before Dismemberment Plan’s set. This beautiful venue is in the middle of the city square and the band clearly loves it. People were watching the show from upper windows and roofs of houses in the area. During the first part of the show, Ed waves to them and makes jokes about them – he also noted that he could see “some older folks” too in the windows and gives them a special wave and greeting. During ‘Daughter,’ Ed animates the crowd to sing along to the ‘Another Brick’ improvisation: “So … don’t be shy. Sing with me!” The ‘WMA’ tag lyric is changed to “white male Austrian.” Someone throws something on stage for Mike and he places it on his amp. Ed asks the crowd if they can see the moon (it is a full moon tonight!) because the band cannot see it as it is behind the stage. The improvisation before ‘Present Tense is very cool (lyrics: “I left home 3 years ago..when I came back I was all alone…”) and is just Ed and Mike solo. (It was suggested this is ‘I’m a Boy’ but the lyrics don’t match up with the Pete Townshend song … we’ll have to wait to hear it.) ‘Present Tense’ is also started solo by EV and Mike, then the band joins in. Ed drinks from a red wine bottle and sprays some of it into the first rows after ‘Go.’ Ed is wearing the monkey mask again during the first song of the encores. Before ‘Even Flow,’ Ed comments about the political situation in Austria, saying that many people had suggested that it would be better for them not to play there and that they weren’t even going to mention it [we knew this was coming] as the message is in their songs, but to not play in Austria would be unfair to those who didn’t support the government and he proceeds to give a “double fuck you” pointing both middle fingers out! ‘Thin Air’ is introduced as, “I guess this one is particularly nice under the warm evening sky.” Ed smashes the tambourine on his head during ‘RITFW’ and smashes the mic stand onto the stage at the end of the song. He returns at the end, taking photos and thanks everyone for coming. A great outdoor performance!

June 19, 2000 Hala Tivoli, Ljubljana, SLN (supported by Dismemberment Plan) set: Corduroy, Breakerfall, Hail Hail, Animal, Brain of J, Faithfull, Light Years, Untitled, MFC, Habit, Nothing As It Seems, Given To Fly, Spin The Black Circle, Red Mosquito, Black, Insignificance, Grievance, I Got Shit, Wishlist, Do The Evolution, Alive enc 1: Last Kiss, Better Man, Sleight of Hand, Daughter, Rearviewmirror, Porch enc 2: Soon Forget, Indifference notes: The event actually starts a few hours before the concert, with PJ and crew members playing table tennis right outside Tivoli Arena. The crowd is cheering, clearly amused by Ed’s entertaining play. At show time, the crowd is great, clearly hungry for PJ who are in Slovenia for the first time. Some crowd surfing, one fight, three girls falling unconscious due to lack of air, but overall none of this drew PJ’s attention who are focused on the music. Before ‘NAIS,’ Ed announced, “… here is a sad song for you … I guess it’s just right after that loss,” referring to Slovenia’s 1-0 loss to Spain the night before. At the second encore, Ed appears along with something covered by a white cloth, teasing “anyone know what this is? No one?” He uncovers a tambourine and continues, “A friend of ours just graduated from college and it’s a big thing for her … it’s a big thing for anybody … so here is our graduation present for her.” He asks the crowd for silence, starts ‘Soon Forget,’ stops, motions with his finger to his mouth, and continues again, messing up the lyrics in the second verse but the audience loves it. ‘Porch’ and ‘Indifference’ make their 2000 tour debut!

June 20, 2000 Arena, Verona, ITY (supported by Dismemberment Plan) set: Long Road, Grievance, Corduroy, Hail Hail, Animal, Nothing As It Seems, Pilate, Given To Fly, Even Flow, O’ Sole Mio, MFC, Habit, Wishlist, Daughter/(Beautiful Way), State of Love and Trust, Once, Lukin, Immortality, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror enc 1: In the Coliseum improv, Black, Breakerfall, Do The Evolution, Elderly Woman, Better Man, I Got You (Split Enz), Alive, Last Kiss, Porch enc 2: Soon Forget, Yellow Ledbetter notes: There is a wide gulf between the audience and the stage, which seems to make Ed uncomfortable. During ‘Hail Hail’ he steps in front of the monitors to sing, and then falls backward as he walks back. =) Ed does not talk to the crowd until after ‘NAIS.’ “The last time that we played in Italy, I can’t remember if it was Rome, Milan — we’ve had two records in between, we’ve got some stuff to catch up on,” and that his plan was, since there was so much space between them and the audience, they would play some extra songs to make up for that space. During ‘Even Flow,’ Ed and Jeff do a jump in unison! ‘O Sole Mio’ is not a full version, just Ed fooling around and even singing at the end, “three pounds in a kilo.” This leads to ‘MFC,’ which is introduced as “This is a song written in Italy, with Italians.” Stage lights are blinding Ed during ‘Habit’ causing him to eject “FUCK IT!” and then the band goes into a speeded-up version of the ending. ‘Wishlist’ is the lighter song and it is just beautiful. ‘Daughter’ features Beck’s ‘Beautiful Way’ (“The searchlight’s on the skyline; around the bend …”). At the end of ‘Once,’ Mike runs to the side of the stage and plays it to a fan sitting in a wheelchair. In the middle of ‘Insignificance,’ all of the lights go off, and at the same time, the band stops playing for three or four seconds, and then restart at precisely the same time. When they return for the encore, Ed makes a comment about being thrown to the lions, and the band vamps into the improv, a spontaneous little ditty about “being in the coliseum,” based on Tom Waits’ ‘In the Colosseum.” Ed has the monkey mask again at the start of ‘DTE.’ Mike solos behind his head during ‘Alive.’ ‘Porch’ features the Black Sabbath ‘Paranoid’ riff. Prior to ‘Soon Forget,’ Ed says that he’s sure a lot has happened in the coliseum in the past, and he’s sure blood was involved, but he didn’t think that anyone had ever played a ukulele in the coliseum before; he’s not even sure that he could play the ukulele, but that he’d try. During Mike’s very extended solo at the end of ‘YL’ (including the Black Sabbath riffs), Stone throws a guitar pick at him to let him know it was time to leave! :-) At the very end of the show, Ed walks to one end of the stage and then the other end of the stage to say goodbye; while he is doing this (it took a while), Mike is behind his amplifiers, playing hide and seek – he’d jump up and down, peeking out from behind the amps.

June 22, 2000 Fila Forum, Milan, ITY (supported by Dismemberment Plan) set: Of The Girl, Corduroy, Grievance, God’s Dice, Animal, Given To Fly, Rival, Elderly Woman, Even Flow, Not For You, Thin Air, Light Years, MFC, Present Tense, Daughter/5 minute chant with crowd, Jeremy, Go enc 1: Nothingman, Sleight of Hand, Better Man, Wishlist, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror, Do The Evolution, Garden, State of Love and Trust, Black enc 2: Smile, Rockin’ In The Free World notes: Excellent show — the band is on — Stone is more animated tonight. Not quite on fire, but definitely on. INCREDIBLE audience. Ed is sporting the striped jacket at the start of the show again. At one point, a soccer ball reaches the stage and Ed plays a bit, with Jeff being the goalkeeper and blocking the ball with his bass. Much singing, much hand-clapping in the middle of songs, many lighters held up, and much yelling “hey, hey, hey” and such. In fact, the audience takes the ‘Daughter’ tag away from Ed. Just as he is getting ready to sing something, the crowd starts singing/yelling “hey, hey, hey.” Ed is taken aback but delighted. He goes with it and starts singing various sounds to see if the audience will repeat, and they do! Then he decides to have a little fun with it and sings at a higher and higher key until the audience cannot follow along. The extended tag ends with Ed dropping to his knees as if to pay homage to the audience. After ‘Not For You,’ Ed says, “… of course it was not for Italy, this is for you…if you are in love.” ‘Not for You’s’ slow ending (played only by Ed and Jeff) leads gracefully into ‘Thin Air.’ ‘MFC’ is introduced by Ed saying that the last time he was in Italy he fell in love: “She was beautiful and small … she had four wheels and was called ‘mini’. This is a song about my love for her.” ‘Present Tense’ is played with only Mike and Ed, Stone appearing before the second chorus, and Jeff and Matt after. Ed takes maybe four audience polaroids immediately after returning for the first encore. He then holds up the pictures and says, “These are pictures of the best singers in the world. If you are still good, we will play a lot more. Get comfortable.” Ed introduces ‘Sleight of Hand’ by saying it is a new song that the audience might not know very well. Introducing ‘Wishlist,’ Ed says that this is one of the best times he has had here. Awesome jamming moment during the ending distortion of ‘RVM.’ Ed says, “Since this is the fashion capitol of the world, let’s try this on,” leading to ‘Garden.’ Before “Smile,” Ed comments, “This is how we are gonna feel.” Ed throws a harmonica to a specific person in the crowd at the end of ‘Smile.’ The wrong person apparently gets it and Ed attempts to interfere but then backs off looking satisfied. (The fan who gave up the harmonica got a pick.) He says that it’s a long story but that he just saw something beautiful happen. A great version of ‘RITFW’ ends the show.

June 23, 2000 Hallenstadion, Zurich, SUI (supported by Dismemberment Plan) set: Of The Girl, Corduroy, Breakerfall, Grievance, Hail Hail, Animal, Dissident, Nothing As It Seems, Alive, Thin Air, Light Years, Untitled, MFC, Habit, Wishlist, Off He Goes, Sleight of Hand, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror, Porch enc 1: Brain of J, Given To Fly, Do The Evolution, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Nothingman, Leatherman, Leaving Here enc 2: Soon Forget, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Last night in Milan was all about the crowd, so it would be inevitable that this crowd would be different. The scent of marijuana was in the air and thus a very subdued audience. Mike seemed to be back on tonight. Matt’s drum tech, Greg, can be seen playing bongos during the set opener ‘Of the Girl,’ and even though this is a mellow opener, the crowd are noticeably quiet. Ed makes several comments about this “You guys are really quiet”, he says, “it’s really nice.” The “man” trilogy appears again. ‘Off He Goes’ is “dedicated to a friend of mine who is here tonight.” Stone’s guitar is out of tune at the start of ‘NAIS’ which prompts the song to stop before Ed sings “All this funny tuning”, says Stone, smiling, “when we play it next time it will be so much better.” True to his word, Ed introduces ‘NAIS’ after ‘Dissident’ saying “A song you might have heard before, like four minutes ago.” ‘Nothingman’ is introduced by Ed, but that appears later when they decide to play ‘Sleight of Hand’ instead. During ‘Soon Forget’ Ed tells the crowd that this is the ukulele’s first visit to Switzerland so it’s very excited, sitting over there, interrupting him saying “play me, play me” during the show. !) Jeremy featured on the setlist but was not played.

June 25, 2000 Freiluftbuehne Wuhlheide, Berlin, GER (supported by Dismemberment Plan)

June 26, 2000 Alsterdorfer Sporthalle, Hamburg, GER (supported by Dismemberment Plan) set: Breakerfall, Corduroy, MFC, Go, Faithfull, Even Flow, Rival, Given To Fly, Elderly Woman, Light Years, Evacuation, Grievance, Present Tense, Daughter/(I Believe In Miracles), Porch, Black, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Crazy Mary, Soldier of Love, Do The Evolution, Once, Smile, Better Man, Baba O’Riley enc 2: Yellow Ledbetter notes: Highlights from the first set include the audience singing the high notes at the end of ‘Black’ and an outstanding ‘RVM’ with an excellent solo by Mike. In fact, Mike is very much alive, running around like crazy with his flying V, throwing poses and grinning. The encores are stunning, with them returning and Ed saying, “I don’t know what it is about this town, but it’s always been very good to this band.” He wishes that it could be Jeff’s birthday again, referring to the show they gave on Jeff’s birthday in Hamburg in 1992. (He seems to reference this every time they play in Germany.) The crowd starts singing ‘Happy Birthday’ (misunderstanding and thinking it IS Jeff’s birthday) with Ed joining in. The band members hug Jeff and congratulate him. Ed continues by saying that since it is such a special occasion, they will do a song they haven’t done in a long time, leading to a lovely ‘Crazy Mary.’ Ed says the next song is a song for dancers (‘Soldier of Love’), leading to ‘DTE’, what Ed also says is a song for dancers. After an amazing ‘Baba O’Riley,’ the band leaves the stage while Ed is taking photos of the crowd, takes a photo of himself and tosses the polaroid into the audience. The crowd doesn’t stop shouting for more so Ed tells the crew to get the rest of the guys back onto the stage. The lights are turned on and a full band version of ‘YL’ is the last song of this wonderful and magic evening.

June 28, 2000 Naval Museum, Stockholm, SWE (supported by Dismemberment Plan) Ed’s solo set: Last Kiss, Trouble, Deadman, Parting Ways, Throw Your Arms Around Me set: Corduroy, Grievance, God’s Dice, Animal, Given To Fly, Rival, Elderly Woman, Even Flow, Not For You, Thin Air, MFC, Habit, Present Tense, Daughter/(The Wrong Child), Jeremy, Once, Go enc: Do The Evolution, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror, Wishlist, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Garden, State Of Love And Trust, Rockin’ In The Free World notes: Ed does a solo set prior to Dismemberment Plan’s set! For ‘Last Kiss,’ one of the crew (Shawn) comes on stage and pretends to sing, but it is actually Ed singing from the side of the stage ;) [Ed wanted to do this because he remembered doing it in '92 and thought it would be a cool thing to repeat. Shawn only had 5 minutes advance warning and didn't really know the song well.] Eight parachutists pass by the venue, doing arial tricks while the entire band watches. Ed interrupts ‘Jeremy’ with a “happy landings” and comments ‘Jeremy’ must be the “freeloaders” favorite song so they waited to come in then. ‘Go’ includes a snippet from Iron Maiden’s ‘Run to the Hills.’ Before the encore, Ed says that Iron Maiden is still in the house and asks the crowd to yell “Goodbye Maiden,” and the crowd complies. Ed comments, “There’s two Eddies in town,” referring to the Iron Maiden mascot, also called “Eddie.” A large Nokia air balloon passes by during ‘RVM’ prompting Ed to change the lyrics to “I seem to look away, when advertisements are flown my way.” He acts like he is shooting them down with his guitar, with Matt accompanying with two or three rapid drumrolls (like a machine gun), and tells the crowd that it was their parents checking up on them and directs a “they’re fine … go to hell … or heaven” to those in the balloon, followed by mumbling something about “which ever one is closer.” ‘Garden’ is dedicated to the space around the venue. Ed says it is the fourth time they’ve played at that venue; the crowd says it was three times. For ‘RitFW,’ it is noted that the last time they played there, it was with Neil Young, and the speaker caught on fire! [On the encore setlist and not played: 'Black' (after 'SoL&T'; probably skipped because Mike had guitar problems) and 'Yellow Ledbetter']

June 29, 2000 Spektrum, Oslo, NOR (supported by Dismemberment Plan) set: Sometimes, Breakerfall, Corduroy, Hail Hail, Animal, Red Mosquito, Given To Fly, Nothing As It Seems, In Hiding, Insignificance, Grievance, Wishlist, Evacuation, Alive, Spin The Black Circle, Daughter/(In the Mood)/(Hold On)/(Androgynous Mind), Better Man, Immortality, Last Exit, Porch enc : Sleight Of Hand, Do The Evolution, Once, Elderly Woman, Timeless Melody, Black, Fuckin’ Up notes: Totally different from Stockholm, indoors and a slower setlist. ‘Immortality’ and ‘Black’ are standouts. Mike is in a great mood, “threatening” to hit his tech with the guitar and flexing his muscles. Ed is watching Mike during each solo appearing to be totally amazed by him. ‘Daughter’ is followed with snippets from Robert Plant’s ‘In the Mood’ (“I’m in the mood for a melody I’m in the mood for a melody, I’m in the mood”).

06/30/00 – Roskilde Festival (orange stage): Copenhagen, DEN set: Corduroy, Breakerfall, Hail Hail, Animal, Given To Fly, Even Flow, MFC, Habit, Better Man, Light Years, Insignificance, Daugther/(Hold On)/(Androgynous Mind) notes: The show ends early when a crowd surge on wet ground causes the death of nine people.

07/02/00 – Werchter Festival: Brussels, BEL (cancelled)

07/03/00 – Sportpaleis Ahoy’: Rotterdam, NED (cancelled)

August 3, 2000 GTE Virginia Beach Amphitheater, Virginia Beach, VA (supported by Sonic Youth)

08/04/00 – Blockbuster Pavilion: Charlotte, NC (supported by Sonic Youth)

set: Sometimes, Breakerfall, Corduroy, Hail Hail, Animal, Nothing As It Seems, Light Years, Given To Fly, Untitled, MFC, Habit, Even Flow, Wishlist, Better Man, Grievance, Present Tense, Black, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Go, Do The Evolution, Once, improv, I Got Shit, Last Kiss, Porch enc 2: Yellow Ledbetter notes: Ed says, “Hello, it’s nice to be here, really.” He says, “If you had asked one of us up here including the crew if we felt luck … how we felt a month ago, the one thing we wouldn’t have said was lucky. But today, having Sonic Youth play with us here, I think today we do feel lucky.” ‘Given To Fly’ is particularly intense, the whole band is into it, playing to each other, and it sets the tone for the rest of the show. Ed sings “… 23 minutes or so” in ‘Untitled’ (a nod to Michael Jordan?). ‘Untitled’ includes two extra verses. Ed messes up the first two lines to “Wishlist” and closes it by singing, “I wish I had a little house on a little street in North Carolina, North Carolina …” Ed intros ‘Present Tense’ as “… we don’t play it that often … it would be good just to hear it.” Looking at the crowd and pointing to himself, “I need to hear it.” Ed gets emotional during ‘Black’ and can’t sing, looks at the crowd, and they all start singing the “doo doo doo doo doo” part. When Ed returns for the amazing first encore of ‘Go’/'DTE’/Once’, the crowd is pogoing and Ed starts pogoing. During ‘Go,’ Mike is playing behind his head, and Ed starts dancing wildly. The improv is very lovely, starting off with, “There are one of us; there are two of us …” and later: “And sky is wide, and the sides are wide. And my life is wide, and my eyes are wide. And my hands are wide, and my life is so tired and “’cause it’s a new year and I don’t know where else it could feel like this. It’s a big blue world but I’m glad I’m here, and I’m glad I’m not someone else …” For the intro to ‘I Got Shit,’ Ed speaks about Mirrorball: “There was a record where Neil Young asked everybody in the band to be his band. Figured he’d use us and steal our youth and we’d use him and steal his wisdom … although he’s probably younger than we are wise …” ‘Porch’ is punctuated with many Daltrey mic swings. After ‘Yellow Ledbetter,’ Ed says goodbye by saying, “Y’all watch the moon on the way home.” Amazing show. setlist scan

08/06/00 – Coliseum: Greensboro, NC (supported by Sonic Youth) set: Of The Girl, Corduroy, Insignificance, Brain of J, Evacuation, Nothing As It Seems, Jeremy, Daughter/(improv based on It’s OK)/(Androgynous Mind), MFC, Whipping, Wishlist, Better Man, Leatherman, Grievance, Even Flow, In My Tree, Black, Spin The Black Circle, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Light Years, Crazy Mary, Do The Evolution, State of Love and Trust, Last Kiss, Breakerfall enc 2: Soon Forget, Smile notes: After ‘Evacuation,’ Ed says, “It’s nice to be in North Carolina; it’s been two days … feels like years.” He jokes about how the last song was written by Matt, and that drummers usually don’t like the singer, hence the reason for it being so hard to sing. “… I wrote the lyric part, so … maybe I just don’t like myself.” The ‘Daughter’ improv tag consists of modified ‘It’s OK’ lyrics read from Ed’s notebook. (“… I wish I could light the path that leads to a life of no mistakes … and keep you from the damage done … living out of safety, safety. I remember still the child in you, as if only yesterday. And it was easy to break through, but you … had to go … and change your ways … and change your ways … and hurt my face … my life … my legs … my time.”) In ‘Wishlist,’ Ed changes the lyrics to “15 million hands upraised in North Carolina.” After forgetting two consecutive “I wish I was …” lines, he says, “I’ll get the next one!” Ed says, “This is gonna be another number that we haven’t tried for quite a while. I’m gonna take a sip of wine for courage and give this a try,” and he takes a swig from his wine bottle and they launch into ‘In My Tree.’ ‘Rearviewmirror’ is extended, powerful and awesome, with Mike including riffs from ‘You Really Got Me’ (a Kinks song more recently popularized by Van Halen). Ed tosses his guitar 10-15 feet in the air and carefully catches it. After ‘Light Years,’ Ed requests that the houselights be turned on, and he points out a guy in the front who’s been holding up a tape recorder for the whole show. Ed then tells him that the next song is a romantic song, and he’ll need both hands so he can put his arm around his girlfriend, so why doesn’t he put the tape recorder up on the stage. Ed takes the recorder, speaking into it (much like he did during several 98 shows) and places it next to his microphone, before launching into a FULL, complete version of ‘Crazy Mary.’ Mike tries to end it with Zep’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’ solo, but it’s cut off. He later mocks the guy for thinking that the band would give the recorder back, providing much comic relief and the recorder is returned before the first encore. ;) Mike inserts a riff from David Bowie’s ‘Ziggy Stardust’ in ‘SOL&T.’ Ed breaks two strings during ‘Breakerfall’ and ends the song by ripping the other four off, seemingly close to smashing it! Before ‘Soon Forget,’ Ed is rambling about how he’s not good at math, but he “… wants to ‘thank you’ and put absolute value around that.” He also says that he hopes he can get through the song without fucking up. “Just don’t clap or anything, OK?” But he still ends up messing up the song in exactly the same place he did in Bellingham (on the ‘Light Years’ b-side). A “full-on” show including Matt breaking a giant crash cymbal and Mike tossing out a big handful of Stone’s picks with “Mike” written on the back with a black marker! A teenage boy in a wheelchair with an oxygen mask was brought to the back of the stage with his mother. Ed went over to him a few times and touched him and hugged the mom, gave him some things and Matt gave him some drumsticks – very moving.

08/07/00 – Philips Arena: Atlanta, GA (supported by Sonic Youth) set: Release, Corduroy, Insignificance, Animal, Hail Hail, Nothing As It Seems, Rival, Given To Fly, Light Years, Do The Evolution, Even Flow, In Hiding, Daughter/(The Wrong Child)/(Androgynous Mind), (Romanza)/Better Man, Nothingman, Leatherman, Grievance, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Once, Breakerfall, Immortality, Crazy Mary, Elderly Woman, Porch, Fuckin’ Up enc 2: Yellow Ledbetter notes: Prior to ‘NAIS,’ Ed greets the crowd (with bottle of wine in hand), “Toast to Atlanta.” He takes a sip and proclaims, “It’s good tonight.” After ‘Rival,’ he turns around to say hello to the fans seated behind the stage comparing them to the “b-side” of a record. ‘DTE’ lyrics are changed to, “I’m Ted Turner and this is my choir.” After a great version of ‘In Hiding,’ the lights are on the crowd enough for Ed to comment on the set up of Phillips Arena saying, “It looks like these people are free (pointing to his right) and these people are in prison (referring to the luxury boxes that are stacked on top of each other like prison cells). He says that Ted Turner must sit right in the middle of all the “prison cells” and calls it the “king’s crotch,” unzipping his pants! He also talks about a new planet discovered yesterday and that Ted has already made an offer. Continuing, “This seems like a nice building and we’re happy to play here. And he (Turner) owns it but he doesn’t own us.” ‘Better Man’ features Ed’s short classical guitar intro titled ‘Romanza’ (or ‘Spanish Romance’). [The author is anonymous; Canadian guitarist Liona Boyd probably has the best known recording for those interested.] The gender roles are reversed in the ‘Nothingman’ lyrics. During ‘Grievance,’ a light is shined on the American flag at the top of the arena on the first “I pledge my grievance to the flag.” After ‘Breakerfall,’ Ed says they finished up their last record here in Atlanta with Brendan O’Brien and how he likes Atlanta, and that “we spent enough time here where we know streets and we know names and we know gay bars (laughing) …” Ed has trouble with the start of ‘Immortality’ and Stone comes over and helps out laughing, “vacate is the …”. During the full and beautiful “Crazy Mary,” Ed jumps down to the barricades and “passes around” his bottle of wine with many people in the front row. An absolutely beautiful, fitting moment. The entire encore is amazing, capped off by ‘Fuckin’ Up’ when Ed smashes the mic stand with his tambourine. Ed takes more polaroids before ‘YL’ and Matt leads the crowd in clapping during Mike’s solo.

08/09/00 – Mars Music Amphitheatre: West Palm Beach, FL (supported by Sonic Youth) set: Oceans, Corduroy, Grievance, Animal, Brain of J, Red Mosquito, Nothing As It Seems, Even Flow, Faithfull, Dissident, Thin Air, Lukin, Not For You, Present Tense, MFC, Improv, Habit, Breakerfall, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror enc 1: State of Love And Trust, Do The Evolution, Better Man, Elderly Woman, Go enc 2: Leaving Here, Rockin’ In The Free World notes: After ‘Red Mosquito’ Ed addresses the crowd, saying it’s a beautiful night, beautiful day – he’d forgotten he had to work that evening, “but this doesn’t feel like work.” He thanks someone for driving him around all day, looking for waves that apparently didn’t exist. “The only thing that was breaking was my heart.” Before ‘Even Flow,’ Ed says “This is a song called ‘Paralyzed Big Baby.’” The crowd is singing along with ‘Not For You’ and Ed changes it to “small my table, seats just one …”. A bright, long-lasting shooting star is sighted by many in the crowd during ‘MFC,’ resulting in loud cheering. The improv before ‘Habit’ which relates to ‘Habit’ the way ‘Untitled’ relates to ‘MFC’: “I’m paralyzed, I’m in your eye. I’m not afraid of dying, ’cause I’ve got time …” The “speaking as…” break in ‘Habit’ is “sending a message to the surf gods.” During ‘RVM,’ Jeff and Ed do an extended forward lean into each other [did anyone get a photo of this?!]. Ed throws his guitar in the air and misses catching it on the way down, but it doesn’t land hard. When they return for the encore, Ed toasts the crowd, and says the band is fortunate to have this many people who want to listen to their music. During ‘Go,’ Mike plays the guitar behind his head and Ed swings the mic, which is becoming as normal as him fucking up the words to ‘Even Flow’ (which he does tonight). During ‘RITFW,’ someone throws a tshirt onstage and Ed puts it on. It reads: “No Bush 2000.”

08/10/00 – Mars Music Amphitheatre: West Palm Beach, FL (supported by Sonic Youth) set: Of The Girl, Breakerfall, Corduroy, MFC, Once, Animal, God’s Dice, Given To Fly, Evacuation, Pilate, Daughter/(WMA)/(On A Rope)/(Androgynous Mind), Even Flow, Wishlist, Timeless Melody, Off He Goes, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Nothingman, Leatherman, Porch enc 1: Last Exit, Do The Evolution, Black, Crazy Mary, I Got Shit, Last Kiss, Baba O’Riley enc 2:Yellow Ledbetter notes: Before ‘Pilate,’ Ed has the lights put on someone in the 15th row, saying “… he was the only guy fully rocking out to Sonic Youth … I love you,” and he makes a reference to him coming back to his hotel room later. He continues, “This next song was named after a 12-foot eagle ray that was spotted off the coast of West Palm … oh, it’s the next song – sorry” (and that song turns out to be ‘Even Flow’ and he further explains that the ray is a member of the shark family). The ‘On a Rope’ snippet within the ‘Daughter’ tag is a Rocket from the Crypt song. Ed goes off on a little story about how no one knows much about ‘Timeless Melody’ and how it was written by the La’s “… out of England in the mid 80s … the words are great.” Ed holds the last note in ‘Better Man’ for what seems like forever. During ‘Porch’ Ed appears to be lighting, or attempting to light, the cork on his wine bottle; he then takes the cork and blacks out under and above his eyes, and across his nose. To finish off the song, Ed slams the mic stand on the stage. Introducing ‘I Got Shit,’ Ed says, “Here’s one we like to do with Neil Young, but we like to call him ‘Young Neil’.” Introducing ‘LK,’ he says, “This is a little sing along … pretend we got a big campfire and pretend that no one’s dead.” Introducing ‘Baba,’ Ed indicates that the audience should be doing some singing on this one. Stone has a good night tonight, and Mikey is a maniac, really going for it with a very extended ending to ‘YL,’ breaking into Van Halen’s ‘Dance the Night Away’. The audience is MUCH better than the previous night.

08/12/00 – Ice Palace: Tampa, FL (supported by Sonic Youth) set: Interstellar Overdrive, Corduroy, Grievance, Last Exit, Animal, God’s Dice, Tremor Christ, Nothing As It Seems, Jeremy, Evacuation, (Romanza)/Better Man, Lukin, Light Years, Daughter/(Another Brick In The Wall)/(Androgynous Mind), Even Flow, Sleight of Hand, Elderly Woman, State of Love and Trust, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Do The Evolution, Hail Hail, Garden, Immortality, Soldier of Love, Porch enc 2: Soon Forget, Indifference enc 3: Rockin’ In The Free World notes: Towards the end of ‘Tremor Christ,’ Ed sings, “Even the east coast can get big, big waves!” He pays a lot of attention to the seats behind the stage, taking Polaroids, and addressing them: “We really wanna say good evening to south Tampa in the back. Glad you could make it. Watch our backs.” During ‘Daughter,’ prior to the tag, Ed says that he is seeing signs requesting songs, and if we didn’t do what he wanted us to do, he sure wasn’t going to do what we wanted to do. “Do you want to sing?” “Yeah!” responds the crowd. “I’ll pick something that you know…” and goes into ‘ABiTW,’ and then into “hey hey it’s okay” (which is ‘Androgynous Mind’ by Sonic Youth, NOT ‘It’s OK’ by Dead Moon as done at VA Beach). During “State,” Ed does a forward lean into Mike’s back left shoulder. Stone is especially animated tonight — just amazing toward the end of ‘RVM’. Ed ends ‘RVM’ with about three or four Townshend-style jumps. Introducing ‘Garden’ he says, “OK, you fulfilled our request so we’re gonna fulfill someone over here’s.” Before ‘Soon Forget’ Ed takes a Polaroid of himself and tosses it out into the crowd. The third encore is a total surprise as Ed has said goodnight, the band is gone, people start leaving and the crew picks up gear. The band returns to play a scorching ‘RITFW’ with the arena lights full on and the crowd going nuts, arms clapping overhead at Ed’s instructions. To end, Ed does a somersault at center stage – wine bottle in hand – complete with a running start. An amazing show!

08/14/00 – New Orleans Arena: New Orleans, LA (supported by Sonic Youth) set: Long Road, Grievance, Last Exit, Given To Fly, Hail Hail, Rival, Wishlist, Insignificance, Corduroy, Elderly Woman, Nothing As It Seems, Evacuation, In Hiding, Daughter, Even Flow, Off He Goes, Better Man, Animal, Once, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Go, Do The Evolution, Jeremy, Crazy Mary, Black, Porch enc 2: Last Kiss, Sonic Reducer, Yellow Ledbetter notes: This show is more tight and solid than a full out, let loose show. The crowd seems somewhat non-responsive to the newer songs. ‘Rival’ is unbelievable and Ed speaks afterward, saying it is nice to be in New Orleans and strums a bit of the ‘Release’ intro on his guitar. He thanks Sonic Youth and talks of how wishes sometimes come true, leading to ‘Wishlist.’ During the “50 million upraised hands” the crowd slowly raises their hands and Ed laughs and comments, “Right.” ‘Elderly Woman’ is introduced as a little song with a long title. Jeff has a new, big standup bass for ‘Daughter.’ No tag, but Ed is holding notes for an incredibly long time. At the top of the encore, Ed comes out talking about how they are sorry for taking so long, but they had a fight (about what songs to play). “The good news is that was the first fight I’ve gotten into while I was here this time.” After “DTE,” he mentions the Democratic convention: “I think Clinton was gonna speak tonight, and he was gonna say: ‘My fellow Americans. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit …’” and urges people to study the issues and to vote. ‘Jeremy’ is powerful and includes a great crowd sing along. ‘Porch’ is slowish and has a bluesy feel. Ed speaks of Bukowski and quotes, “What matters most is how you walk through the fire …” and thanks the crowd for their support, leading to ‘Last Kiss.’ ‘Sonic Reducer’ is a nice surprise.

08/15/00 – The Pyramid: Memphis, TN (supported by Sonic Youth) set: Of The Girl, Last Exit, Animal, Grievance, Corduroy, Tremor Christ, Nothing As It Seems, Wishlist, Can’t Help Falling In Love With You (Elvis!), Given To Fly, In My Tree, Even Flow, I Got Shit, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Black, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Breakerfall, Do The Evolution, Thin Air, Nothingman, Elderly Woman, State of Love And Trust, Go enc 2: Footsteps, Baba O’Riley notes: Very enthusiastic, but not sold out crowd. Right before ‘NAIS’: “It’s great to be here – it’s great to be anywhere.” After ‘Wishlist,’ Ed says, “I need a jacket for this next song … something nice,” and puts on a striped jacket, and then sings ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love With You,’ starting slowly, and then the rest of the band joins in, working up to a somewhat fast, punky version. During ‘DTE,’ Ed does this karate move aimed at Stone during his solo (probably imitating Elvis’ karate fixation), and then he puts on Graceland souvenir gold Elvis sunglasses during the “hallelujah”‘s. He changes the lyrics to, “I’m a thief, I’m a liar, I’m the king, and this is my choir.” Right before ‘Thin Air,’ Ed says something about how “the big E-man” (Elvis) would have liked this one. Ed messes up the words to ‘State.’ During ‘Go’ the sunglasses reappear, and he does the Elvis kneel down and shake move, ending the song with more of the pseudo karate moves. Right after ‘Footsteps’ Ed says he wanted to thank the crowd for the great reception they gave Sonic Youth. The next song is dedicated to “a friend of mine who I’m only going to meet for the first time tomorrow. He’s from West Memphis,” leading to ‘Baba’ — Stone doing some semi-Townshend moves, Ed exhorting the great crowd to sing along – tearing the house down. The band is on FIRE!

08/17/00 – AmSouth Amphitheatre: Antioch, TN (supported by Sonic Youth) set: Sometimes, Breakerfall, Corduroy, God’s Dice, Do The Evolution, Red Mosquito, Wishlist, Elderly Woman, Untitled, MFC, Given To Fly, Daughter/(Wrong Child)/(Androgynous Mind), Even Flow, Present Tense, Animal, Once, Of The Girl, Better Man, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Last Exit, Go, Jeremy, Smile [duet with an audience member], Leatherman, Soldier of Love, Porch enc 2: Yellow Ledbetter notes: After ‘DTE,’ Ed says: “Hello to the rest of Tennessee. Three degrees hotter, we’d think it was hell. Least it ain’t Arkansas.” He fucks up the words to ‘God’s Dice’ and starts singing the words to ‘Red Mosquito’ early, prompting Stone to shake his head in amusement. Before ‘Wishlist’ people start chanting “Eddie, Eddie,” to which he responds, “Hey, don’t piss me off this early.” During ‘Jeremy’ Ed keeps holding his throat as though it is hurting, and exhorts the audience to sing at the end. There is a fan in the front row on crutches. Ed has been watching him through the whole show and invites him onstage. Ed and the fan talk for a while, while the rest of the band looks on, amused; he then introduces him as “Andy, from Cookeville,” and they work through the song a little. Ed says, I left my mind in Tucker, Arkansas. It’s in prison there on death row.” [a reference to his visit to the West Memphis 3]. Ed shares some wint with Andy and the crowd starts chanting “Andy, Andy.” At first Ed looks pissed, but then he realizes it’s an “Andy” chant and not a “Eddie” chant and breaks into this big smile. Eventually the band start playing and Ed and Andy trade verses on the song, Ed playing harmonica while Andy sings. In the middle of ‘Porch’ Ed says, “It’s 120 up here … it’s 180 degrees in here … to all those offended, I’m sorry … I’m burning, burning, burning,” referencing the unbearable heat. When they return for the second encore, Ed starts reading signs in the crowd. He sees one that says ‘Mankind’ and says, “Stone, Mankind? Throw your arms around me? Sorry, sweetie. Maybe next time.” He spots one for ‘Hunger Strike’ and says, “Sorry, Chris isn’t here.” He sees one for ‘Baba’ and responds, “Sorry. Baba O’Riley we played last night.” As at prior shows, Mike works snippets of Van Halen into ‘YL.’ Ed sings, “It’s too damn hot to stay.”

08/18/00 – Deer Creek Music Center: Noblesville, IN (supported by Sonic Youth) set: (Interstellar Overdrive)/Corduroy, Grievance, Spin The Black Circle, Dissident, Brain of J, Animal, Given To Fly, Nothing As It Seems, Even Flow, Pilate, Lukin, Light Years, (Romanza)/Better Man/(Save It For Later), Leatherman, Not For You, Black, Insignificance, Go enc 1: Throw Your Arms Around Me [Ed solo], Do The Evolution, State of Love and Trust, Crazy Mary, Elderly Woman, Last Kiss, Rearviewmirror enc 2: Indifference, Rockin’ In The Free World notes: During ‘Corduroy,’ Stone breaks a string, starts ripping his strings and is doing the weird skipping backward step. At the end, Mike is holding his ears as though the crowd is too loud. After ‘STBC,’ Ed addresses the crowd: “Thanks a lot … last night in Nashville it felt like hell, and so Indiana feels like heaven.” Ed is smoking on stage (bad Ed!) After ‘Dissident,’ Ed drinks some wine, and then motions to the guys like he’s saying “mix it up” and they go into ‘Brain of J.’ Someone is holding a sign up front and Ed shakes his head, laughs, and motions to put it down. Ed once again forgets the ‘Even Flow’ lyrics, and Jeff and Ed alternate jumps. Everybody in the crowd really seems to like ‘Lukin’ responding by breaking out into a mass pogo. Stone is very into the ‘NFY’ solos. To start the first encore, Ed walks out by himself and says, “It’s much too beautiful a night to leave yet.” He makes some reference to “the back 40″ and mentions how he was up there during Sonic Youth, and toasts them with his wine. “My brother’s here tonight, and I hadn’t seen him yet, since we got back from Europe. I’m gonna dedicate this song to him, because life is short. It’s beautiful, but it’s short sometimes,” and goes into a beautiful version of ‘TYAAM.’ Before ‘Crazy Mary’ Ed says, “This is a song we’ve been trying as of late. But before we start it — I don’t know if you can see the moon …” (and there is a beautiful big moon which he motions everyone to look at it). “We play this one right here in Indiana because we know there’s lots of them,” leads to ‘Elderly Woman.’ “All right, here’s another car song, only this one doesn’t wreck,” prefaces ‘RVM.’ During the second encore, Ed comes out and takes two signs from people in the front row: one says “Believe You Me,” the other says “Free World.” They play ‘Indifference’ and then close with ‘RITFW,’ altering the lyrics to “there’s a thousand points of light for the re-pub-li-cans.”

08/20/00 – Riverbend Music Center: Cincinnati, OH (supported by Sonic Youth) set: Of The Girl, Breakerfall, Corduroy, Go, God’s Dice, Even Flow, Faithfull, Nothing As It Seems, Grievance, Untitled, MFC, Habit, Wishlist, Better Man, Rival, Sleight of Hand, Insignificance, Porch enc 1: The Kids Are Alright [Ed solo], Given To Fly, Do The Evolution, Jeremy, Once, Black, Soldier of Love, Rearviewmirror enc 2: Soon Forget, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Early in the show, someone in the audience hands Ed an infamous Who bootleg titled Tales From The Who. Ed looks really pleased and deliberately goes and shows it to the rest of the band. During ‘Even Flow,’ Ed pours wine into two fan’s cups (and even onto a shirt tossed on stage). He acknowledges screwing up the lyrics: “Summer’s on it’s way [screws up] Dealing, fucked up the words already.” During Mike’s solo in ‘NAIS,’ Ed comes over to him, picks up his cigarette from the floor, takes a few drags, then puts it back in Mike’s mouth. ‘Untitled’ is extended with a second verse. Ed is flexing his biceps sarcastically during many of the songs–partically in ‘Rival,’ when he also performs a number of crotch-grabs (notably while singing “well hung”). During ‘Porch,’ Ed ventures out into the crowd like he did in 98. For the first encore, Ed comes out and talks (his first time addressing the crowd this night) about how when they came onstage earlier … he suddenly remembered the venue … the last time they were there was with Soundgarden. He also mentions how that the name “Cincinnati” came up before “for some difficult reasons, but I’m gonna play this nex one because of our new bond,” leading to ‘The Kids Are Alright.’ At the end of ‘TKAA,’ Ed does a Townshend jump and a bunch of windmills. During ‘Jeremy,’ he sticks one arm through the other arm of his shirt making a gun shape with his hand. During one of Mike’s solos, he had a piece of paper that says “thank you!” that an audience member had handed him in his mouth. He holds it there for a minute, then sucks it in and starts eating it, then gets a disgusted look on his face and spits it out. At the beginning of the second encore, Ed introduces the ukulele to the audience: “Ukulele, I’d like to introduce you to Cincinnati. Cincinnati, this is ukulele.” Mike includes snippets from Van Halen’s ‘Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love’ and Ted Nugent’s ‘Stranglehold’ in the final ‘YL’ solo, while Stone, Jeff and Ed are cracking up. Instead of the Polaroid (which Ed says he left back in the hotel), he captures the audience with a small video camera.

08/21/00 – Polaris Amphitheater: Columbus, OH (supported by Sonic Youth) set: Breakerfall, Whipping, Spin The Black Circle, Hail Hail, Corduroy, In My Tree, Dissident, Given To Fly, Nothing As It Seems, Grievance, Light Years, Daughter/(Hold On)/(Androgynous Mind), Lukin, Wishlist, Off He Goes, (Romanza)/Better Man, State of Love and Trust, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Present Tense, Last Exit, Once, Elderly Woman, Leatherman, Nothingman, Porch enc 2: Last Kiss, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Ed talks about how there are a lot of schools in that part of Ohio and how they are happy to “be playing for a crowd full of intellectuals …” ‘Lukin’ is jokingly billed as ‘another sing along’. As with other shows the “quarter to ten” line in ‘Off He Goes’ again is exactly at a quarter to ten. Before ‘Insignificance,’ Ed takes off his button-down shirt to reveal a sleeveless Dead Moon tshirt, showing off his arms. After the main set, thousands of lighters are lit in the crowd, and remained lit during the entire time before the band returns for the encore. When they walk out for the first encore, Ed says, “Jesus Christ, there’s a lot of you! … “This many people, you could start a revolution,” and holds up a shirt someone threw up that says “McCready for President.” He says it would be good to have a president who could play Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and Van Halen; “It would put touring on hold and recording would take a back seat to the country’s needs, but what the fuck.” He then points to a Ralph Nader shirt and says it’s a little more likely. “… it would be great if everyone voted because if you don’t vote, then you can’t like bitch about it after … politics and beer, it goes great together … speaking of the president elect … we’re gonna start a song together here and it’s dedicated to all those out there who might find themselves on the wrong end of a losing streak,” leading to ‘Present Tense.’ Before ‘Elderly Woman’ Ed speaks of how the next stop is New York City “… and we’re not gonna play this song there.” He mentions that New York is great because that’s where Sonic Youth is from and how Sonic Youth played to the most beautiful sunset (that he videotaped) that evening. Ed forgets the last verse of ‘Leatherman’ and sings, “la la la la” instead. Ed puts Mike on his back for the end of ‘Porch,’ carrying him to the other side of the stage and setting him down near Stone. Mike mixes some of Black Sabbath’s ‘Children of the Grave’ and Van Halen’s ‘Unchained’ into the ‘YL’ ending.

August 23-25, 2000 Jones Beach, Wantagh, NY (supported by Sonic Youth)

08/27/00 – Saratoga Performing Arts Center: Saratoga Springs: NY (supported by Sonic Youth) set: Breakerfall, Whipping, Spin the Black Circle, Hail Hail, Corduroy, In My Tree, Dissident, Given to Fly, Nothing As It Seems, Grievance, Light Years, Daughter/(Beginning to See the Light)/(WMA)/(Androgynous Mind), Lukin, MFC, Wishlist, Better Man, Even Flow, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Sleight of Hand, Do The Evolution, Once, Timeless Melody, Elderly Woman, Leatherman, Porch enc 2: Soon Forget, Black, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Excellent show, great sound quality (perhaps only near the front?) in a beautiful venue. Ed is wearing his “champagne breakfast club” shirt (which he points to at the appropriate point in ‘Grievance’) and Mike is in the sleeveless “Queen” shirt. Ed mentions how the last time they were in Saratoga was eight years before, opening for Soundgarden, and that he was wearing the same shirt as that night. After ‘Light Years’ (Ed says, “So it’s ‘Lamp Years’ tonight”), Ed talks about the inventor of the lava lamp (Ed Walker) who died at age 82 and how he’d been an avid nudist his whole life. “… there’s a nice cycle of life in a lava lamp. Something grows, it reaches, it breaks up. Falls back to the bottom, then grows again …” He turns to Matt (perhaps an analogy to his early drumming with members of PJ, the Soundgarden breakup and now returning). Then he trails off, laughing. Before ‘Wishlist,’ Ed tells a story about having worked with some primates three summers before and learning about language research with the animals. He explains how this next song, “even a monkey could play.” He proceeds to mess up a line in the song and breaks off, laughing at himself, adding “You know, even the apes have trouble with the words sometimes.” Stone’s chuckling too, and Mike’s shaking his head and grinning. Ed has guitar troubles and switches from his black Rick to his black Tele. ‘RVM’ is outstanding with an extended Sonic Youth-inspired noisejam in the middle and a thundering finale. Mike throws some ‘Voodoo Chile’ riffs into ‘Porch.’ Ed stands in the front row for part of ‘Porch,’ grabbing as he grabs a fan’s hand. Pete is holding Ed and Ed rubs Pete’s bald head. A 30-second “Daltrey” mic swing at the end of ‘Porch’ is awesome, although he misses the catch, and the mic skips over the front of the crowd! Messy clapping on ‘Soon Forget’ prompts Ed to get the crowd clapping on the beat: “You’re all clapping off time. It’s nice to have the support, but you’d like the support to be, you know, on time.” As ‘YL’ is winding down, Ed, Stone and Matt walk off stage, waving and thanking the crowd. Mike however, sticks around, holding the solo and ripping into a scorching piece of electric acrobatics, sampling Zep’s ‘Nobody’s Fault But Mine’ with Jeff laughing hysterically. He goes on for a good 90 seconds or so before finishing, throwing his pick out and joining the others offstage. A strong show, with excellent energy levels and a lot of joy in the air.

August 29-30, 2000 Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts, Mansfield, MA (supported by Sonic Youth)

09/01/00 – E-Center: Camden, NJ (supported by Sonic Youth) set: Sometimes, Last Exit, Animal, Red Mosquito, Grievance, Light Years, Dissident, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Wishlist, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Present Tense, Corduroy, Spin The Black Circle, Daughter/(Androgynous Mind)/(Hold On), Black, Insignificance, Go enc 1: Breath, Tremor Christ, Once, Elderly Woman, Jeremy, Whipping, Do The Evolution, Crazy Mary, Porch enc 2: Yellow Ledbetter notes: PJ plays through the first few songs and Ed stops to tell the crowd, “There’s only four shows left and the throat’s starting to go. So help me out when you can.” Ed is sporting a tshirt from Hickam AFB in Hawaii. The setlist obviously changed a few times as Ed walks over to the rest of the band making changes. Numerous ‘Breath’ signs were evident and Ed, seeming displeased that people are holding up the signs during the first three songs, tells the crowd he’ll be taking requests later. In ‘GTF,’ intead of “Well fuckers, he still stands,” Ed sings “Well fuckers, you know the rest.” ‘Even Flow’ includes a Mike, Ed and Jeff jump, totally in synch. The ‘SIFL’ tag is extended and composed of completely different lyrics (“Don’t run away. Why’d you have to run away? I shouldn’t be here. I swore I’d never leave you alone and then I get back and you’re not home …”). ‘Corduroy’ is introduced as “a song written about a brown jacket.” During the ‘Daughter’ tags, Ed grabs a mirror and reflects the spotlights out into the crowd. ‘Breath’ makes its 2000 tour debut, prompted by Ed returning for the encore, smiling and cursing the crowd for wanting more and saying, “OK, fuckers,” reaching to the crowd, grabbing a sign out of the front and holding it up to the band and the crowd, saying “It’s not gonna be perfect, but let’s give it a go.” At the “all these reaching hands” part, Ed reaches down to touch the outstretched hands of the first row. As ‘Breath’ hits its peak, Ed turns the mic stand upside down while raising it slowly, and then after balancing it for a moment, lets it swing and crash back down onto the stage. A few lyrics are neglected, but at the end, Jeff says, “Not too bad” towards Stone. Before ‘Elderly Woman,’ Ed speaks of a small town east of the west coast in California, but north of the border, and says that he and Matt “didn’t know each other as delinquents, but we’re making up for it now …” Ed lets the crowd carry the ‘Jeremy’ chorus, keeping the beat by humming the tune into the microphone with the crowd filling in the words. Mike plays the opening riffs from ‘Voodoo Chile’ during ‘Porch.’ Before ‘YL,’ a fan up front gives Ed a Flyers jersey with “Vedder” and the #10 on the back of it. Towards the end, Ed says “There is a party in Stone’s room tonight,” and the crowd goes nuts. Someone tosses up an Iron Maiden shirt and Stone picks it up and puts it on Mike’s amp during ‘YL’ (which includes an extended snippet of Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘Crazy Train’ and Iron Maiden’s ‘Number of the Beast’). The lawn is chanting “Mike, Mike, Mike!” seeming to drive him on. A great vibe and the band is very responsive; Stone is very animated, duck walking and skipping. Matt is driving things home and each time he adds a different fill, Stone glances toward Matt and then Jeff and they break into big smiles. ‘Rearviewmirror’, ‘Evacuation’ and ‘Hail Hail’ were on the setlist but not played.

09/02/00 – E-Center: Camden, NJ (supported by Sonic Youth) set: Ed solo before SY: Dead Man, Parting Ways Of The Girl, Breakerfall, State of Love and Trust, Hail Hail, Do The Evolution, Faithfull, Nothing As It Seems, Corduroy, Untitled, MFC, Habit, I Got Shit, Off He Goes, God’s Dice, Even Flow, Rival, Animal, Nothingman, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Soon Forget, Better Man, Last Exit, Given To Fly, Footsteps, Last Kiss, Porch enc 2: Baba O’Riley notes: After ‘DTE,’ Ed says, “Is this Philadelphia or is this New Jersey? All I know is it’s Saturday night … Make yourselves comfortable, we’re going to be here a while.” ‘Habit’ is described as “about a friend who was having some problems. And if you have a friend who’s having some problems, don’t look away. Give ‘em some help.” After ‘I Got Shit,’ Ed says its a song that they wrote with “young Neil.” He then talks about a few of the band members saw Neil’s play during the break between Boston and Philly and that Neil told him to say “Hello” to Philly. He says that the Pope also asked them to say “Hello” to Philly and that the Pope is “a warm human being … we’re friends but never writes ya back.” He changes the ‘Even Flow’ lyrics to include, “Praying out to the Pope who never writes him back.” When they return for the first encore, Ed says that the front section is placing orders for songs and, “Yeah, we’ll play that. Would you like fries with that? How about an apple pie?” He gives some “rock ‘n’ roll trivia” before ‘Soon Forget,’ noting Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath wrote all of their songs on a ukulele. “We’re carrying on the rock ‘n’ roll tradition here.” He messes up ‘Soon Forget’ twice, both times shouting “Fuck me.” After the second time, he says that it’s “Two these two girls who keep flashing their tits … it’s really hard to concentrate.” Before startingo ‘Better Man,’ Ed cruelly teases ‘Release’ by playing the opening notes. Ed brings out the harmonica for the beginning of ‘Footsteps’ and Mike’s solo is cut short. Someone tosses a Who t-shirt on stage when the band walks out for the second encore, Ed puts it on and they go right into ‘Baba O’Riley,’ a perfect ending with the entire crowd singing – Ed stops and lets the crowd carry it. Ed is in a great mood, tossing lots of picks to the crowd tonight.

09/04/00 – Merriweather Post Pavilion: Columbia MD attendance: 19,000 support act:Sonic Youth did not play tonight due to a personal emergency set: Ed preshow: Trouble, Dead Man, Parting Ways (with Steve, Lee and Jim from Sonic Youth!) Sometimes, Breakerfall, Corduroy, Grievance, Dissident, Do The Evolution, Nothing As It Seems, Given To Fly, Untitled/MFC, Habit, Daughter/(Androgynous Mind)/(It’s OK), Lukin, Not For You, Even Flow, (Romanza)/Better Man, Black, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Leaving Here, Insignificance, State of Love And Trust, Wishlist, Crazy Mary, Porch enc 2: Soon Forget, Indifference, Rockin’ In The Free World notes: Unusual start with Ed’s solo set and the SY guys joining him for ‘Parting Ways.’ When it is announced that Sonic Youth would not play and that PJ would start early, some people cheered. Ed comments on Sonic Youth’s emergency and absence: “Sometimes it’s kind of difficult to play music, believe it or not … and tonight’s kind of like one of those nights, but because of your presence here, it doesn’t allow us any option but to play … we’d probably listen to music to get through itanyway, so might as well listen to it together and play.” ‘Insignificance’ is described as a song about “being small” and Ed motions above his head. ‘Wishlist’ is dedicated to a friend who isn’t there and the mirrorball is lowered. For the second encore, Ed introduces the ukulele, holding it up and saying, “One of the original instruments of rock ‘n’ roll – and more importantly, heavy metal.” He thanks people for registering to vote. He says that if people don’t see the need for revolution then they aren’t looking and mentions some corporations (dissing Bill Gates and Microsoft, saying ‘Soon Forget’ was written for him). He makes an analogy about the start of the Republican party and how they got Lincoln elected (and the slaves were freed) and the Green party, and apologizes: “enough from me.” ‘Soon Forget’ is performed perfectly, after Ed asks the crowd to be quiet so they can hear the words. ‘RITFW’ gets a huge crowd reaction and Ed tosses out two tambourines, ending with crashing a third over the mic stand.

09/05/00 – Post Gazette Pavilion at Star Lake: Pittsburgh, PA attendance: 23,126 set: Ed pre-show: Trouble, Dead Man, Parting Ways, Naked Eye (both Naked Eye and Parting Ways w/Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley, and Jim O’Rourke) Even Flow, Hail Hail, Animal, Corduroy, Grievance, In My Tree, Nothing As It Seems, Light Years, Daughter/(Bull In The Heather}/(Androgynous Mind), Leatherman, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Sleight of Hand, Given To Fly, Last Exit, Rearviewmirror, I Got Shit, Black, Porch enc 1: Breakerfall, Go, Once, Mankind, Elderly Woman, Crazy Mary, Wash, I Got You, Insignificance enc 2: Baba O’Riley notes: The ‘Daughter’ tag (Sonic Youth’s ‘Bull in the Heather’) is a surprise. (This hasn’t been tagged on ‘Daughter’ since the ’96 tour and is more extended.) Ed runs off the stage during ‘Daughter,’ returning with a sheet of lyrics that he uses to sing the tag. The band is very manic tonight. Ed lets a fan in the front count off the “1,2,3,4″ to open ‘Porch’ and Mike smashes a guitar. He tosses it up into the air, and then after it crashes to the ground, he picks it up and then smashes it to smithereens against a speaker. Ed throws himself full speed at the same speaker. Before the first encore, Ed says that it’s usually the second to last show of the tour that’s the best, but not this time — the last show of the tour is the best one. During ‘Go’ Ed is running around centerstage backwards in a circle. Lots of glowstick throwing. Ed throws one from the stage to the upper half of the pavilion. Both Mike and Ed have their fun kicking beach balls into the crowd. Stone before ‘Mankind’: “All right, I’m gonna sing one!” ‘I Got You’ includes two band huddles, where they all strum each of their guitars trying to figure out the right notes for the song. After the first one, Ed says “I think we got it”, only to have to meet again because they don’t have it. Ed comes back, spreads his arms and says, “What the fuck?” At the conclusion, Stone quips, “Nothing like a little improv.” He also says it had been a tough tour, but the fans are making it tough for him to quit. Members of Sonic Youth help out with ‘Baba,’ ending with Ed doing multiple Townshend jumps and windmills. The Wash Story: Just before ‘Crazy Mary,’ Ed says that they are getting to the part of the show now where they were going to get a little crazy, “or to borrow from another Seattle band, they are going to go ‘Crazy On You’” (a nod to Heart). Ed then mentions that there is a woman with a white umbrella, and he wants security to find her and to bring her down to the side of the stage. “She’s OK; let her come on down.” After ‘Crazy Mary’ Ed asks if they found the person with the umbrella (which they did – Pete went out to find her). So then the person (hi, Amy!!) is brought out from sidestage, and they have a private conversation, after which Ed says, “Hey everybody, this is Amy … I asked her how many shows she’s been to,’cause we’ve seen her at like the last 12 or 15. She said over a hundred. Oh my God (hugging Amy). And then Ed proceeds to take Stone’s stool, and puts it down right next to his microphone, and sits her on that stool and they play ‘Wash.’ After the song, Ed introduces her to all of the band members; Mike hugs her, Stone kisses her and she has a brief chat with all of them.

09/23/00 – Key Arena (Ralph Nader Rally): Seattle, WA set: Soon Forget, I Am A Patriot [both solo acoustic] notes: Ed’s set comes after the general speakers (including Michael Moore) and just before Ralph Nader’s speech (whom Ed introduced as “an American who’s not for sale.”). He prefaces the songs by saying that he’s never done one of these before, because he never had anyone he could believe in. He also notes that he was watching the people walk into the arena tonight and that “the one thing they all had in common is that they looked like they gave a shit.” Patriot’ has the “I was walking/with my boyfriend” lyric change.

10/04/00 – Molson Centre: Montreal, Quebec, Canada attendance: 20,000 support act: Supergrass set: Of The Girl, Corduroy, Whipping, Grievance, Animal, God’s Dice, Nothing As It Seems, Given To Fly, Wishlist, Pilate, Last Kiss, Do The Evolution, MFC, Improv/Habit, Light Years, Better Man, Even Flow, Porch enc 1: Off He Goes, Breakerfall, State of Love and Trust, I Got Shit, Elderly Woman, Leaving Here enc 2: Fuckin’ Up, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Mike OWNS ‘Corduroy,’ completely reworking the solo. Ed swaps the second and third verses of ‘Whipping.’ Ed mentions how happy he is to be out of the states for a while. He discusses how boring the debates were last night and talks about Bush and Gore’s “lifeless eyes,” arguing about topics nobody cares about. He mentions that if “little George Dubya Bush” wins, the band is applying for Canadian citizenship. Ed dedicates ‘NAIS’ to Bush and Bore for their “lack of inspiration.” Stone is having a lot of technical problems early on (he later switches guitars THREE TIMES during one song!) and he sits out almost all of ‘Grievance.’ Ed says, “You know what’s ironic? Stone was the most excited about playing tonight.” ‘Last Kiss’ is played while Andy (Stone’s tech) tries to fix his gear; Ed sings the song to the fans behind the stage. A *rawkin’* ‘DTE’ with Stone getting major props for his solo. The improv prior to ‘Habit’ runs approximately three minutes and features a repetitive bass note and some mind-bending fills from Matt. (Described by one who heard it as “way too rehearsed for it to be some random sonic experimentation. It sounded like a somewhat louder, crunchier ‘Of The Girl’ … it had an almost droning quality.”) Problems are evident with Matt’s kit as well, in particular the hi-hat. Mike has a lot of trouble getting through ‘Light Years.’ He is cracking up insanely, and even misses a few bars because he is doubled over with laughter. Ed messes up the lyrics in ‘Wishlist’ and replaces the last line with “I wish I was the verb to trust I hope I didn’t just let you down.” Mike has a very “on” night, with the ‘Even Flow’ solo going on and on and ON. ‘Porch’ is amazing, with an extended jam, and Ed exchanging notes with the crowd before the climax. Stone is having a lot of technical problems tonight, which prompts Ed to joke, “Between Stone’s hair and his pants, I could fuck him.” Ed falls over catching a Rangers jersey during ‘Fuckin’ Up’, but makes the catch, and tucks it into his pants. Mike throws in the opening riff of Thin Lizzy’s ‘Jailbreak’ into the ‘YL’ outro.

10/05/00 – Air Canada Centre: Toronto, ON (supported by Supergrass) set: Sometimes, Breakerfall, Corduroy, Grievance, Brain of J, Animal, Dissident, Nothing As It Seems, Given To Fly, Insignificance, Daughter/(Androgynous Mind), Better Man, Mankind, Immortality, Even Flow, Black, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Sleight of Hand, Crazy Mary, Once, Do The Evolution, Wishlist, Leatherman, Baba O’Riley enc 2: Indifference notes: Early in the show, Ed comments that the last time they were in Canada, they played for this many but that they were all sprawled out on a hill (referencing Barrie ’98). He notes that this venue is new and asks if they still “name these things after beer?” He answers, after conferring with Jeff, saying, “No, this one is named after an airplane. I guess that’s good ’cause things are really starting to take off.” A small lyric change in ‘Insignificance’: “Turn the jukebox up I said.” Stone has an extremely extended solo prior to the ‘Daughter’ tag – a very on night for him. Ed breaks a string during an intense ‘Better Man’ jam and Stone steps up saying, “We don’t play this very often,” kicking into ‘Mankind.’ A powerful ‘Immortality’ is proceeded by a short intro by Ed and at the end, he animates his strumming to manipulate Matt’s cadence. ‘Even Flow’ has a renewed vibe to it, with Mike jamming his heart out for nearly two minutes. The entire band sits back, giving him the spotlight in the same vein as ‘YL’ as he goes off, including some Hendrix riffing. At the beginning of the first encore, Ed introduces Matt and mentions Wellwater Conspiracy, saying that everyone should check them out: “It’s better than the crap we’re playing tonight.” Ed remarks that “now that we’re loosened up, this is the part of the show where we take requests, starting with this guy right here” pointing to someone in the front with a ‘Sleight of Hand’ sign. Prior to ‘Wishlist’ Ed talks about scientist Stephen Hawking and how he discovered that humans were only going to live a thousand more years on the planet. He says, “I’m trying to figure out what that means. Do we go fucking nuts for the next 1,000 years?” (Strumming rapidly on his guitar for a few seconds with his head back, freaking out.) “Or are we careful who we vote for?” In ‘Wishlist,’ Ed changes the lyrics to “I wish I was as fortunate, as fortunate as Geddy Lee.” (Geddy Lee, from legendary Canadian band Rush, was sitting stage left for the entire show). The end of ‘Wishlist’ is changed to “I wish that it would stop after a thousand years,” referencing the prior anecdote. ‘RVM’ includes a wonderful bridge with Ed frantically using his ebow. Ed passes his wine bottle to fans in the front row during ‘Crazy Mary.’ Before ‘Baba’ Ed mentions that they had been to see a band the other night that had been around for a long time and that there is a tribute disc being made for them and that while most tribute discs suck, this one has the chance of being really, really good. He says they are recording this song tonight, and in Chicago, to appear on the tribute record, telling the audience, “If you’re better than Chicago, you’ll end up on the record.” At the raging finish of ‘Baba’, the whole place starts clapping very fast in unison, the band gets into it and starts speeding up the end. Ed, with a huge smile on his face starts clapping along and Mike throws his arms up in a “V” and bows to the crowd twice, smiling. The lights had been turned on before ‘Baba’ (like it was expected to be the final song), but the crowd was so enthused that PJ produced a soothing ‘Indifference’ to appease the crowd. The entire band is very animated, seemingly enjoying the venue and great audience.

10/07/00 – The Palace at Auburn Hills: Auburn Hills, MI (supported by Supergrass) set: Go, Corduroy, Grievance, State of Love and Trust, Tremor Christ, Elderly Woman, Insignificance, Last Exit, Animal, In My Tree, I Got Shit, (Romanza)/Better Man/(Save It For Later), Even Flow, Daughter/(WMA), Thin Air, Jeremy, Given To Fly, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Nothing As It Seems, Last Kiss, Spin The Black Circle, Crazy Mary, Parting Ways enc 2: Fuckin’ Up notes: ‘Go’ is a huge surprise for an opener and Mike wastes no time posing and interacting with fans in the front. Between ‘Tremor Christ’ and ‘Elderly Woman’, Ed makes a comment to the effect of “these are two songs about being small, in a small town, it doesn’t really apply to Detroit, but maybe the outlying areas.” Right before ‘Daughter’ someone in the crowd was holding up a sign. Ed sees it and says that he can’t see it, can they hold it up. He reads it: “Esther’s here and she’s sick… hi Esther, now we’re all going to be sick, thanks.” During the ‘Daughter’ tag, Ed gets out his trusty mirror and tries doing some reflecting without much success. ‘Jeremy’ is intro’d as “the song that we played a few times, a dozen times, a few dozen times, a few hundred dozen times … if you could help me out with the middle part, that would be great.” Mike busts a string during ‘RVM’ and throws the guitar down at the end, but picks it right back up. When the band returns for the encore, Ed starts talking about how Detroit has been great to them, they’ve played Masonic Temple, and St. Andrew’s Hall twice (and another list of Detroit venues). During ‘NAIS,’ there was a complete lyrical screwup which caused the whole band to wonder where they were musically, and after the song Ed raises his hand and says, “It was me, it was all my fault, I had the biggest fuckup of the tour.” ‘Last Kiss’ is dedicated to Ralph Nader. Right before ‘Crazy Mary,’ there is someone standing on their seat in the fifth row waving at Ed. He sees them, comes over, walks to the end of the stage, and motions at the person. Ed starts taking off his red, white and blue wristband. He was giving it to the person who was on the chair, and he was motioning to give something back to them, and it turned out this person had their own red, white and blue wristband, and they switched. Tonight is the live debut of the full band playing ‘Parting Ways.’ It starts out with just Ed with the rest of the band coming in after the first two verses. Ed dedicates ‘Fuckin’ Up’ to “number 10, who’s responsible for a lot of those banners up there,” gesturing at the ceiling of the Palace. [#10 being Dennis Rodman, who was in attendance.]

10/08/00 – Alpine Valley: East Troy, WI (supported by Supergrass) set: Of The Girl, Hail Hail, Breakerfall, Whipping, Corduroy, Animal, Elderly Woman, Dissident, Given To Fly, Faithfull, Even Flow, Untitled, MFC, Light Years, Off He Goes, Insignificance, Black, Jeremy, Porch enc: Wishlist, State of Love and Trust, Go, Better Man/(Save it for Later), Daughter/(The Wrong Child), Smile, Rearviewmirror notes: “Welcome to the ice bowl,” comments Ed after ‘Hail Hail.’ ‘Whipping’ is an excellent, tight version. Ed fucks up the beginning lyrics of ‘Corduroy,’ so he changes the lyrics in the middle of the song indicating it is “too fucking cold to sing.” After ‘Animal’ Ed starts talking about how when people listen to the boots later on, in order to understand how cold it is, if they work in a restaurant they should open the freezer, and if they live in Antarctica they should just open the screen doors. He mentions that if anyone who actually lives in Antarchita hears this, this song can be for them because it’s about a small town, leading to ‘Elderly Woman.’ Stone pogoes the entire ‘Even Flow’ solo, seemingly to keep warm. The extended version of ‘Untitled’ includes additional lyrics, including something about getting to somewhere warmer and then memories and forgiveness. During ‘Jeremy,’ Ed falls backwards over the monitor at the end. The bridge in ‘Porch’ includes several lines from Dead Moon’s ‘It’s Okay.’ When the band returns for the encore, Ed is holding a “Let Ralph Debate” sign and tapes it to the front of his monitor. He also mentions that it is going to be a very memorable show, referring to the weather. Mike has guitar problems at the start of ‘Go’ and Ed changes one of the first lyrics to “where’s Mike McCready?” At the end of ‘Daughter,’ Ed starts chanting at a rapid pace: “Thunder road, thunder road, thunder road” (a nod to Bruce Springsteen). Ed makes a joke about No Code sales before ‘Smile,’ saying that the guy who wrote the lyrics in his notebook (Dennis Frog, who is side stage) receives 2/3 of a cent for each copy of the album sold … “so that comes to (laughing) well … No Code … like $20 (laughs), no $200?” He turns to Stone, “How much money?” and Stone says “$2000.” Matt is on the large screen (and seems to know it) while the stage is darkened for ‘RVM.’ He exhales in unison with his kick drum, which draws a laugh from the crowd since everyone can see his breath. How cold was it? Mike is bundled up in a hat and scarf (scarf around his face all night); Stone has a hat on; Ed doesn’t remove the jacket the whole show; Matt is wearing a long sleeve shirt. Cold (28 degrees by show’s end). ‘Oceans’ was on the setlist as the opener but not played.

10/09/00 – Allstate Arena: Rosemont, IL (supported by Supergrass) set: Release, Corduroy, Grievance, God’s Dice, Animal, Red Mosquito, Nothing As It Seems, Given To Fly, Wishlist, Elderly Woman, In Hiding, Even Flow, Light Years, MFC, Lukin, Not For You, Better Man, Leatherman, Nothingman, Do The Evolution, Insignificance, Black, Parting Ways enc 1: Sleight of Hand, Soldier of Love, Crazy Mary, Jeremy, Rearviewmirror enc 2: Soon Forget, Baba O’Riley notes: A raucous crowd and a band in great spirits, Mike covering his ears during ‘Corduroy’ signifying the loud crowd. Lots of between chat among the band. ‘Even Flow’ is phenomenal, with Stone nudging Ed to look over while Ed is looking at Matt, with Matt and Mike playing off of each other toward the end, almost like a “who can top this” thing and Stone and Ed applauding them both at the conclusion. Matt starts off ‘Light Years’ and Ed talks for the first 12-16 bars and it is restarted when he’s finished. He tells how the song is about a person native to the Chicago area and how that person made the sun brighter for the people of Chicagoland. Lyrics are changed to “for they still miss you here” rather than “you seemed to like it here.” Ed talks about the Alpine show the night before: “Waking up this morning, it was hard to believe that last night actually happened.” Later he says he thinks the temperature (26 degrees) matched the number of thousands of people that braved the temperature. ‘Lukin’ (intro’ed as “another quiet one about a guy who likes to drink beer”) and ‘NFY’ are practically one song. ‘Parting Ways’ is a very pleasant surprise, closing the long, long set that Ed earlier notes “it’s not a set in a stone, concrete process, but we usually go about 17 songs or so before taking a break … it seems, by my count, that we’re at about 22 right now … are you guys still with us?” He notes that after surviving last night, they just want to keep playing. Ed passes his wine bottle around with the crowd during ‘Crazy Mary’ and Mike throws a few bars of Jimmy Page’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’ (Zep) solo into the song. ‘Rearviewmirror’ is an unbelievable extended version. Ed gives a long exhortation before ‘Soon Forget,’ urging fans to attend the Nader rally the next day (they were even selling tickets to the rally at the show) and he’s sporting a Bush/Cheney sign with a huge black X through it on his monitor. He discusses the debates and how “one here and one here” are really coming from the same place but Nader provides an alternative He says the next song is for the “richies … like the ones in the sky boxes” pointing to a sky box in the middle right, continuing, “I see there is alike a light blue neon light in the sky box … they must have a lot of cocaine in there (laughing).” Ed stops the song because of the clapping (again), hushing everyone so “the rich would get the full effect” and imitates bad clapping by clapping his hand against his leg and stomping his foot off-beat saying, “See, the rich can’t even keep time.” And ‘Baba’? Light full up, whole crowd visible and screaming, Stone goes nuts, Jeff does an Irish jig for Mike, Ed breaks a tambourine and gives it to someone in the front, gets another one and tosses it to those behind the stage. Band is full on and the crowd is wild, up and loudly singing with every song.

10/10/00 – UIC Pavilion, University of Illinois-Chicago (Ralph Nader Rally): Chicago, IL set: I am a Patriot, The Times They Are A-Changin’ [both solo acoustic] notes: Ed is introduced by Michael Moore as an individual who (along with his bandmates) has stood for his beliefs regardless of the consequences. Ed plays ‘Patriot’ and talks about how he wanted to write a song for Ralph but had yet to come up with anything, but how he’d found a song written 30 years ago that seems “… as pertinent and valid today as it’s ever been … we’ll mention it’s played with permission of the author,” leading to Bob Dylan’s ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’.

10/11/00 – Riverport Amphitheatre: Maryland Heights, MO (supported by Supergrass) set: Of the Girl, Go, Hail Hail, Brain of J, Insignificance, Whipping, Light Years, State of Love and Trust, Given to Fly, Animal, Elderly Woman, Wishlist, In My Tree, Even Flow, Daughter, Better Man, Footsteps, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Breakerfall, U, Do the Evolution, Porch, Parting Ways enc 2: Sonic Reducer, Last Kiss, Yellow Ledbetter notes: “We’re in no hurry to leave,” Ed assures the crowd after ‘Of the Girl.’ ‘Hail Hail’ features the rapid clapping during the bridge that Ed was so fond of in 98. During ‘Daughter,’ Ed is so into the vocalization he is doing during the tag zone (singing melodies at the crowd and letting them sing it back) that he loses his balance, falls over backward, and twists his ankle. This changes the dynamic of the show in that it’s clearly hurting him and he’s limited to how he can move around onstage (limping and hopping, not kidding). “The last song is about the whole world being different, the next song is about how hard it is to change things,” intros a powerful version of ‘Insignificance.’ ‘Whipping’ features Mike playing the guitar bending over, one arm through his leg, and Ed finishing up with a lovely PT windmill. At the end of ‘State,’ Ed notices the sign language interpreter (Kim) who was working at the side of the stage, signing the songs to the audience. He goes over, pulls her up from the security pit to the stage, and has a brief chat. “I’m curious what the next song sounds — I mean, looks like,” and it’s ‘GTF.’ Ed then adds to the interpretation with his own visual interpretations. At the end of the song, he moves over to the interpreter and dances with her as the song closes. Ed lets the crowd sing the last chorus of ‘Animal.’ Another killer version of ‘RVM.’ First encore, Ed tells us they’re going to try something that hasn’t been done before – “It’s actually a Prince song,” he jokes, as we are treated to the world premiere version of ‘U.’ After ‘Porch,’ Ed proceeds to inform the audience that the Cardinals won, mass pandemonium ensures. He then tells the crowd that he was lying, they actually lost, and weren’t they glad they were here instead. Also some chat about the debates, and the obligatory Nader chat, and “Thanks for letting us mention that.” “The next song is *not* called ‘Maggot Brain’,” intros ‘Sonic Reducer’ and is in referenced to one of many in a sea of request signs.

10/12/00 – Sandstone Amphitheatre: Bonner Springs, KS (supported by Supergrass) set: Release, Do The Evolution, Corduroy, Grievance, Lukin, Light Years, Given To Fly, In Hiding, Nothing As It Seems, Even Flow, Spin The Black Circle, Rival, Once, (Romanza)/Better Man/(Save It For Later), Insignificance, Nothingman, Animal, Jeremy, Black enc 1: Sleight Of Hand, Untitled/MFC, Elderly Woman, U, Rearviewmirror enc 2: Rockin’ In The Free World notes: Tonight Mr. Stone Gossard rules the stage, starting with a fiery solo during ‘DTE.’ The band is much more tight and focused tonight and Ed demonstrates no visible ill effects of yesterday’s ankle injury. The first five songs charge right into each other with no time for talk – amazing. After ‘Light Years,’ Ed greets the crowd. “Hi! We’ve been here before, right? Yeah, I remember… the first band was the Murder City Devils, from Seattle; tonight we had an import from Oxford, England, called Supergrass,let’s thank them.” ‘NAIS’ is killer, ‘Even Flow’ has Stone right at the front of the stage, as he was all night, walking back and forth, playing to Jeff, making silly faces at Mike, having little side conversations with Ed between songs (including one where he tells Ed he wants to play ‘Mankind’ next, and then after the next song, steps to his mic and clears his throat, looking quizzically in Ed’s direction; apparently it was on the setlist but never played tonight.) ‘Once’ starts by Mike leaping into a kick split and is punctuated by many more throughout the show. The ‘Save It For Later’ tag is really enthusiastic and lengthy. ‘Jeremy’ is intro’d: “This next song is called, Love Amongst The Dead.” Ed fucks up the words in the second verse and lets the crowd sing it back to him to get his place. Some apparently insensitive person decided that a sign campaign for ‘Alive’ was appropriate for some stupid reason and the band returns for the first encore to a halfhearted sea of signs. Ed tries to make the point by talking about many other things, and when the signs didn’t go away, he finally says, “I see the signs; it’s good to know that you can organize yourselves to support something, even a song; please put the signs down and vote for Ralph Nader.” [In other words, NO.] ‘Untitled’ is extended and Ed’s going to arrive in “58 minutes” tonight (a nod to the late and popular Kansas City Chief’s linebacker Derrick Thomas who died after injuries from a car accident); a tighter version of ‘U’ (Ed joked, “This one’s hard to find…it was a b-side … you can find it on Napster… hey, that’s where we found it!”) surfaces for the second night in a row. A super-intense ‘RVM’ followed by an incredibly ferocious ‘RITFW’ close out a brilliant performance.

10/13/00 – Madison Square Garden (Ralph Nader Rally): New York City set: I Am A Patriot, The Times They Are A-Changin’ [both solo acoustic], People Have The Power [group jam/finale] notes: Similar to the previous appearances, this night also features various other performers including Ani DiFranco, Ben Harper and Patti Smith. Ed performs the same songs as at the Chicago rally, with the same details: he had permission from the author to perform the Dylan tune, that he thought he’d be able to write a new song for Ralph, but that it seemed as relevant as ever, even after 30 years. Ed also appears in the ‘all-star’ jam at the end, which was Patti Smith’s anthem, ‘People Have The Power.’

10/14/00 – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion: Woodlands, TX (supported by Supergrass) set: Long Road, Breakerfall, Corduroy, Whipping, Hail Hail, Animal, Dissident, Nothing As It Seems, Given To Fly, Untitled, MFC, Habit, Wishlist, Better Man, Evacuation, Mankind, Jeremy, Black, Porch enc 1: Last Exit, State of Love and Trust, Sleight of Hand, Even Flow, Improv/Cover, Last Kiss, Rearviewmirror enc 2: Soon Forget, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Ed says that Houston “feels like Hawaii” (after playing in the cold up north) and someone throws a bunch of Hawaiian lei’s onstage and Ed picks them up and hands one to Mike, Jeff and Stone. Mike and Stone put them on around their faces and wear them like that for a while. He introduces ‘GTF’ saying he thinks it was written in Hawaii. ‘Wishlist’ is dedicated to Ed’s nephew; he holds up a photo and tells the audience he’s a Texan. Mike fucks up ‘Mankind’ so badly they have to start over again; he holds up his hand, admitting the error. Ed says, “Here’s one guitar player sabotaging the other one, this is called infighting, and it’s the biggest problem with our government.” ‘Porch’ has some kind of brief improv tag during the bridge:

“Some people give; some people take I know to give; I know what I make Some peope love; some people give I’d rather give, but; …?”

‘SoH’ is introduced as “this is a song about what happens over here, while you’re looking over there.” Ed mentions that it was ’91 or ’92 that they were last in Houston and played with Soundgarden for a few dates and “we played Houston, Dallas, Austin, and … uh … Beaver Creek!” He introduces Matt and plugs Wellwater Conspiracy. Someone has a sign for ‘Rats.’ Ed acknowledges it saying, sorry. Someone else has a sign for “Out of My Mind” and Ed says that it’s more annoying than the “Rats” sign and that they’d only played it once and made it up that night. Someone else has a sign that says “Loosegroove” that is apparently annoying people, because Ed tells Stone that if he’d acknowledge the sign, the person would probably put it down. ‘Even Flow’ is introduced as “Buried Alive.” The improv is something new, a little shot at Bush, Ed laughing as he comes up with the lyrics:

My son was…running for president I taught him…everything he knows I know this (eddie laughs) cause I know what he knows and…he’s slow (eddie laughs) I used to be able to…go outside and breathe but i can no longer…because of the companies its the way it goes…my son is slow

At the start of the second encore, Ed says something like “Houston, Texas … more millionaires per square mile than …” He says that Keith Moon said that and talks about Keith for a while. A string breaks during ‘Soon Forget’ and Ed just stops and says, “It broke!” The crowd cheers and starts banging on the seats, Ed shakes the ukulele, looks at it, pauses and then just picks up where he left off.

10/15/00 – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion: Woodlands, TX (supported by Supergrass) set: Oceans, Corduroy, Grievance, God’s Dice, Animal, Red Mosquito, Given To Fly, Faithfull, Elderly Woman, Lukin, Not For You, Daughter/(The Wrong Child), Off He Goes, (Romanza)/Better Man/(Save It For Later), Insignificance, Nothingman, Even Flow, Go, Parting Ways enc: Do The Evolution, Whipping, Once, Footsteps, Crazy Mary, Rockin’ In The Free World notes: Ed is wearing an “uncle Eddie” t-shirt. Before ‘Red Mosquito,’ Ed shows his arm and says, “Can you see this? It’s not track marks … it’s mosquito bites…” ‘Better Man’ is introduced as “this a sad song, but a true song” and Ed was rocking so hard that he could barely transition into the ‘SIFL’ tag, really only getting the “don’t let me down” part. ‘Parting Ways’ ends with Ed doing huge windmills, and they jam out the end increasing the tempo. Ed thanks the crowd for the past two nights, and they all agree and clap for the crowd. At the beginning of the encore, Ed comes out and points down in the pit and talks about two people down there through the whole show that were sitting down, acting like they were bored … “When we went to the room backstage we all said “did you see those two people down in the front just sitting there!?” I’m glad they’re gone. Earlier I was smelling some pot up here, then I smelled something REALLY disgusting … I was thinking maybe it was the pollution … but I think it was THEM!” Beautiful venue, great crowds with just about everyone on their feet through the whole show and the band really on.

10/17/00 – Smirnoff Music Center: Dallas, TX (supported by Supergrass) set: Sometimes, Breakerfall, Grievance, Corduroy, Animal, Given To Fly, Nothing As It Seems, Even Flow, Elderly Woman, Rival, Jeremy, Daughter, Insignificance, I Got Shit, Brain of J, Black, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Wishlist, U, Better Man, Do The Evolution, Porch, Leaving Here enc 2: Smile, Baba O’Riley notes: There’s a big state fair behind the venue, visible over the lawn, and Ed refers to it a few times, dedicating ‘GTF’ to it and most notably when the band return for the first encore, he says, “We’re not leaving until the ferris wheel stops.” Mike came alive with another blistering ‘Even Flow’ solo and is then on fire. After ‘Rival,’ Ed notes: “That one was written by Stone Gossard, and also goes by the title ‘Growing Up Gay In Littleton,’ which is where the Columbine High School is … this next song ['Jeremy'] has a tie in to that, because it happened in Richland, Texas.” [Actually, it happened in Richardson, TX and Ed is toying with the crowd.] ‘I Got Shit’ is referred to as being written with “Neil Young, young, Neil. Neil Young.” ‘Brain of J’ is introduced as “a song that was written on a grassy knoll.” Ed, in a chatty mood, points out a guy who has been to all the Texas stops, holding the same “Bush Sux” sign, leading to a ramble about Bush’s daughter hating him (or something along those lines). ‘RVM’ features the incredible tight jam with the group backlit and cast in all shadows. Jeff finally brings them down from the jam, the lights go full and the group kicks the rest of the song’s ass, closing the first set. ‘Better Man’ has one line of “don’t let me down” from ‘SIFL’ played. Ed introduces ‘Leaving Here’ as “a song about empowerment of women.” He calls out to the crowd to beat a wife beater, referencing hitting a home run in New York and going home and beating the wife afterwards (perhaps David Justice). Great solos by each of the guitarists, including Jeff. ‘Smile’ is played by request and the harmonica given to the requester. Great audience and the band in good spirits and high energy with Ed taking several photos at the conclusion of the rousing ‘Baba’ with the crowd singing along loudly with the “don’t cry” section, bringing down the house and Ed handing out two tambourines.

10/18/00 – United Spirit Arena: Lubbock, TX (supported by Supergrass) set: Interstellar Overdrive/Corduroy, Breakerfall, MFC, God’s Dice, Animal, Dissident, Nothing As It Seems, Given To Fly, In Hiding, Lukin, Not For You, Daughter/?, Elderly Woman, Do The Evolution, Even Flow, Parting Ways enc 1: Hail Hail, Everyday [Buddy Holly!!], Insignificance, Black, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Crazy Mary, Porch enc 2: Fuckin’ Up, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Numerous small town type references from Ed, the best of which is the nod to Lubbock native Buddy Holly with his cover of ‘Everyday.’ He also made several mentions of how much he likes being away from the “industrial pollution” of the big cities and how he’s happy to be somewhere with tumbleweeds. Someone tosses a white Texas Tech cowboy hat up and Mike wears it for a while. Ed wears a cowboy hat a bit also, and Stone also dons one during ‘Black,’ keeping it on until the end of the show (quite the fashion statement with the plaid pants) ;) . ‘Crazy Mary’ is introduced as “There’s got to be someone in Lubbock like this.” ‘Porch’ is the only song that really features a full-fledged jam session. A fan (Jamie) is brought up onstage during the ‘YL’ solo, Ed dances with her, sits her on his monitor, takes a polaroid, then they watch Mike close the show out together and Ed gives her a photo and his bottle of wine.

October 20, 2000 Mesa del Sol Amphitheatre, Albuquerque, NM (supported by Supergrass)

October 21, 2000 Desert Sky Pavilio, Phoenix, AZ (supported by Supergrass) set: Long Road, Corduroy, Grievance, Animal, State of Love and Trust, Dissident, Nothing As It Seems, Given To Fly, Wishlist, MFC, Timeless Melody, Even Flow, Insignificance, Thin Air, (Romanza)/Better Man, Lukin, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Once, Do The Evolution, I Got Shit, Crazy Mary, Elderly Woman, Baba O’Riley enc 2: Soon Forget, Yellow Ledbetter notes: A very chatty evening, and just when you thought Stone Gossard couldn’t top the fashion parade, he takes the stage tonight in the famous plaid pants and a very natty cream-colored (with leopard accents) cowboy hat. (NOT kidding.) Another very Stoney evening. “How is everyone… hi. How’s everyone in the back is what we really want to know.. do you still like Seattle back there? Beautiful night for a concert. Be careful up there.” Ed greets us after ‘Dissident’ (it was pouring rain up until PJ took the stage). ‘Wishlist’ is dedicated to “Uncle John, who taught me everything I knew up until age 14, which is quite a bit, if you think about it…then my Uncle Fred, he taught me how to smoke pot, and I forgot everything Uncle John taught me… no, it was good stuff that got me through to that age, so thank you.” Ed takes the Rickenbacker and introduces ‘Timeless Melody’ as a song taught to them by Matt Cameron in Barcelona. “This next one is called ‘Gutter Punks and Whiskey’,” introduces a cranking ‘Even Flow,’ with such a dynamic solo by Mike that Stone stands there laughing and shaking his head. Ed gets the words to both ‘Wishlist’ and ‘Even Flow’ tonight, but the jury is still out as to what he sang for the first three lines of ‘Lukin.’ A small political speech begins the encore: “We’ve never thought it was our place to suggest who to vote for, but in this case – fuck it. You should vote for Ralph Nader.” Ed mentions that tomorrow’s show is the 10th anniversary of the first Pearl Jam show, “not that it’s a big deal or anything … so 10 years ago tonight we were in a basement drinking beer … Rainier beer, right?” ‘Yellow Ledbetter’ is tagged with both ‘Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love’ and ‘Eruption’ by Van Halen.

October 22, 2000 MGM Grand Arena, Las Vegas, NV (supported by Supergrass)

October 24, 2000 The Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, CA (supported by Supergrass)

October 25, 2000 San Diego Sports Arena, San Diego, CA (supported by Supergrass)

October 27, 2000 Selland Arena, Fresno, CA (supported by Supergrass)

October 28, 2000 Glen Helen Blockbuster Pavilion, San Bernardino, CA (supported by Supergrass)

October 30, 2000 Sacramento Valley Amphitheatre, Marysville, CA (supported by Supergrass)

October 31, 2000 Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, CA (supported by Supergrass)

November 2, 2000 Rose Garden, Portland, OR (supported by Supergrass)

11/03/00 – Idaho Center: Nampa, ID support act: Supergrass set: Of The Girl, Go, Corduroy, Grievance, Last Exit, Tremor Christ, Elderly Woman, Insignificance, Animal, Nothing As It Seems, I Got Shit, (Romanza)/Better Man/?, Even Flow, Daughter, Light Years, Jeremy, Given To Fly, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Don’t Be Shy (Ed and Jeff), Black, Crazy Mary, Do The Evolution, Spin the Black Circle, State of Love and Trust, Parting Ways enc 2: Rockin’ In The Free World notes: Great show, great crowd and Ed is obviously very pleased. Two-thirds of the people were in their seats for Supergrass! Mike is doing some serious flirting and mugging for the people in the front during ‘Last Exit.’ At one point, he gives a mischievous grin, takes a running leap on top of his monitor and falls back immediately. This is followed by another grin and he did a great butt-rock jump-kick, then falling back, laughing. Ed addresses the crowd for the first time after ‘Tremor Christ.’ “Good evening, Boise, Idaho … it’s funny because you go around meeting other bands and you know other bands, and you’re part of this musical community and they say ‘well it really great you guys have been playing 10 years, congratulations and all that and then they say, ‘God, you must have played Boise” and you go “Uh” (Ed looks off, rubbing his chin) I don’t think we did. I think we skipped them a couple of times, we cancelled (boos from the crowd). Ed continues, “That was when Mike McCready was doing the bookings, so blame him. So now they find out that you’ve never played here and they say ‘you’re not even a band’ So thanks for hanging in there with us.” Ed introduces ‘Elderly Woman’ as being about Moscow, Idaho. He draws half a heart on his chest with his finger. ‘Better Man’ is intro’ed as “a sad song to make you feel better.” Ed breaks a string and gets really into the song, jumping around until the string breaks off completely. The tag has “I know” repeated and something about being lonely or alone in the lyrics. The ‘Daughter’ tag is a echo-song; Ed sings “ooohhhh” and the crowd responds immediately and loudly. After a few oohh’s and awww’s he sings, “You’re beautiful” with the crowd responding several times and Ed smiling. Then he sings “I feel beautiful” with the crowd singing back. Very moving! ‘Light Years’ features the incredible Stone solo (and his groovy plaid pants). At one point, a guy named Ben makes it on stage and walks up to Ed. Ed asks him what his name is and how he got up there. He says he’s from Utah and promptly gets escorted off by security. To start the encore, Jeff sits with his stand-up bass, Ed sits down with his acoustic and says, “It’s uh, you just don’t know what it’s like to be at the end of this, well you probably do know what it’s like to take up a challenge and accomplish it. We’re almost home and I just hope that, after this kind of intense year it would be great to end on a great show, so I just that Seattle is at least as good as this.” He introduces ‘Don’t Be Shy’ as a song they found to help them get through hard-core depression. The wine bottle is passed to the crowd during ‘Crazy Mary’ and features a lengthy ‘Stairway to Heaven’ tag by Mike. ‘Parting Ways’ is beautiful with Matt really shining. Ed and Mike are leaning against each other, playfully pushing during ‘RITFW.’ Ed says that they would never not play Boise again. setlist scan

11/05/00 – Key Arena: Seattle, WA attendance: 17,000 support act: Supergrass, Red Hot Chili Peppers soundcheck: Crown of Thorns, State of Love and Trust, Timeless Melody x 3 (with Supergrass), Parting Ways (w/string section) pre-set: Throw Your Arms Around Me (Ed solo, before Supergrass set) set: Long Road, Breakerfall, Corduroy, Whipping, God’s Dice, Animal, Given To Fly, Nothing As It Seems, Daughter/(Bull In The Heather)/(Beautiful Way), MFC, Lukin, Wishlist, Better Man, Even Flow, Crown of Thorns, Black, Do The Evolution, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Timeless Melody [with Supergrass], Light Years, Elderly Woman, Last Exit, State of Love and Trust, Spin The Black Circle, Last Kiss, Porch enc 2: Parting Ways [with April Cameron and Justine Foy], Yellow Ledbetter notes: The first homecoming show. In ‘Long Road’ Ed sings, “And the skies are always grey…” Ed also mentions that sometimes it’s nice to play a show with your house key in your pocket. He later talks about how the typical Seattle weather seemed to follow them around the tour, mentioning Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Diego. ‘Crown of Thorns’ (once again, to everyone’s surprise) is introduced as “a song that’s older than me.” Ed and Jeff were playing this game all night, they have been doing all these jumps in tandem for the past couple of shows, but tonight they kept trying to psych each other out and pretend one was going to jump, but then they wouldn’t, and start laughing. Someone had brought a huge “VOTE BUSH” banner and hung it from the 200 level; it was removed by two industrious fans before PJ took the stage. Between ‘DTE’ and ‘Insignificance’ Ed acknowledges the previous existence of the banner and said that he couldn’t believe it, and that “Just for tonight, I hope they took them out back and roughed them up a little.” The members of Supergrass were brought out and thanked, and Gary and Ed trade verses on ‘Timeless Melody.’ WARNING – X-rated notes ahead: Afterward, Ed says, “I have a bigger cock than Flea and Patrick Ewing combined, but I don’t want to brag.” Mike illustrates this by holding his hands out to give us a visual. (This was referencing a comment Flea made earlier about how he heard that [new Seattle Sonic] Patrick Ewing had the biggest cock in Seattle, except that now he was in town.) April Cameron and Justine Foy are brought out (with hugs from Ed) to perform the string arrangement for ‘Parting Ways.’ After “Parting Ways,” Jeff grabs Ed’s wine bottle, takes a LONG swig, and then hands it over to Matt, who does likewise. ‘Ledbetter’ is lavishly tagged with ‘Little Wing’ (and there is a Jimi Hendrix photo, torn out of a magazine, taped to Mike’s amp). Really strong, powerfully played show. On the setlist but not played: ‘In Hiding’ and ‘The Kids Are Alright.’ show announcement encore setlist scan soundboard setlist scan – both sets

11/06/00 – Key Arena: Seattle, WA attendance: 17,000. packed to the fuckin’ rafters. support act: Wellwater Conspiracy, Red Hot Chili Peppers soundcheck: Parting Ways (w/strings), others we can’t think of right now Ed with Wellwater Conspiracy: Red Light Green Light, Felicity’s Surprise set: Release, Corduroy, Grievance, Rearviewmirror, Hail Hail, Evacuation, Dissident, Nothing As It Seems, In Hiding, Leatherman, Better Man, Nothingman, Even Flow, Jeremy, Lukin, Not For You, Daughter/(Androgynous Mind) enc 1: Off He Goes, Light Years, Parting Ways, Go, Once, Crazy Mary, Immortality, ALIVE!!! enc 2: Soon Forget, The Kids Are Alright, Baba O’Riley enc 3: Yellow Ledbetter notes: Ed sings two songs with Wellwater Conspiracy, dressed very dapper in that block stripe suit jacket he’s fond of. “Felicity’s Surprise” is from the forthcoming WWC record, on which Ed tells us he’s singing, before he leaves the stage. Ed then switches to a blue Eisenhower jacket for the main set. The audience is absolutely deafening, the place is packed to the rafters. Mike is doing running leaps onto his monitors during ‘RVM.’ ‘Evacuation’ is perfect, just nails the vocals. After ‘Dissident,’ Ed addresses the crowd: “Hello,” he says, waving. (Huge cheer.) Well, Seattle, this is it. One last show. We’ll never play again,” he says, with a sarcastic smirk. “Well, at least for quite a while … at least you’re better than the crowd last night.” He addresses the huge security presence down front and asks them to lay off, “Stop poking people in the shoulders after every song, they’re all right, just leave them alone.” During Mike’s ‘NAIS’ solo, the wine bottle is uncorked. “It’s been about three months now” sings Ed in ‘In Hiding.’ Tonight’s Section 8 (see: 104 in chicago and U19 in vegas) is 117, and a “Jeff, Jeff” chant arises after ‘Leatherman.’ “What??” says Ed. “I can’t hear you.” Jeff blushes madly and Ed goes over and hugs him. He uses this cue to mention about how Las Vegas was the 10th anniversary “of the first time we played the off ramp … we professed our appreciation publicly for Jeff and Stone’s long term relationship …” He then informs us “the next song was written when I was sitting on my bed when I was this tall,” and goes into ‘Better Man.’ ‘Daughter’ has an long, extended vocalization call-and-response with the crowd (like in Milan ’00). ‘Off He Goes’ is dedicated to Anthony Hurley (one of the Roskilde victims). The strings come out again for ‘Parting Ways.’ The emerald green strat is the latest McCready victim at the end of ‘Go.’ ‘Crazy Mary’ has the solo from Zep’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’ overlaid at the end. ‘Immortality’ has the best Matt Cameron drum solo ever, which leads into ‘Alive;’ it seems to be more emotional for the audience than it does for the band with lots of smiles and they seem okay with it. Ed returns for the second encore alone, picks up the ukulele and says, “We’re gonna play one original and then go into ‘Heavy Metal Hits of the 70s’,” and then proceeds to play Black Sabbath’s ‘Iron Man’ on the ukulele (I know it’s late and we’re way freaked out but I am so not making this up). He then mentions how the song is written about some local folks, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, and goes into a surprisingly short rant on that subject. Following that song, Ed gives a pretty long political speech urging people to vote, but also focusing on local politics, telling the audience that the city of Seattle imposed draconian conditions on the concert being at the Arena, including tripling the band’s security costs. He ties this into the Teen Dance Ordinance and dedicates ‘TKAA’ to the people fighting it. This goes into ‘Baba,’ and then Ed thanks the Chili Peppers, Matt Cameron, the other 3/4 of Soundgarden, Wellwater, and then says: “See you at the voting booth tomorrow … if you don’t vote, let them put that on your fuckin’ gravestone: ‘John Smith, he didn’t vote’.” ‘YL’ is a total band hugfest onstage, and features the ‘Little Wing’ tag again.

11/27/00 – Royal Albert Hall, London, England (Ed with the Who) set: I’m One, Getting In Tune, Let’s See Action [Ed with the Who], See Me, Feel Me/Listening To You [with ensemble] notes: Stunning show, all the guests bad aside from Ed and Paul Weller (who he played ‘So Sad About Us’ with). With Ed, it was with John, Pete, Zak and Rabbit, ie no Roger, for ‘I’m One,’ then duetting with Roger on ‘Gettin’ In Tune.’ Later in the show, we got ‘Let’s See Action,’ and Ed looked like a little kid, having a great time, taking it all in, smiling, watching everyone, with a lovely, heartfelt ‘Thanks Pete’ spoken at the end.

2001

04/02/01 – St. James Theatre: Auckland, New Zealand (Ed appearing with Neil Finn and others) [150m] attendance: 1,500 soundcheck: Not For You (multiple times, especially the bridge), Parting Ways, Around the Bend, Paradise (Ed on a ukulele with Lisa), History Never Repeats (x2), I Got You (x2), I See Red set: [only songs that included Ed] Stuff and Nonsense, Around the Bend, Not For You, History Never Repeats, I Got You, World Where You Live encore: Parting Ways, Paradise (on ukulele), Weather With You (Ed on tambourine) notes: This is the first show of this tour, and Ed is a member of an all-star lineup including Tim Finn, Ed O’Brien and Phil Selway from Radiohead, Johnny Marr from the Smiths, Lisa Germano and Sebastian Steinberg. A beautiful venue; hardly a bad seat in the place with great sound. The odd person in the crowd yells “Where’s Eddie?” with many sharp replies from Neil. “Eddie Veddy’s really ready, ready to take you on mate! He’ll take on any man in Auckland!” to which a girl yells “Will he take on a woman??” Ed joins Tim Finn sporting a new, short, “blow-dried Russell Crowe at the Oscars” type of haircut and the blue celebration shirt. Tim plays piano while Ed sings ‘Stuff and Nonsense.’ Neil directs, “That was ace!! That was choice!!” at Ed with a big sly smile, who replies with ‘You’re looking for a fight … where’s the guy that wants to fight me? Where’s the WOMAN that wants to fight me??” Tim mentions how good it is to have Ed back in New Zealand, and how the last time he was there he apparently “saved” Ed (referencing the publicized near drowning incident). That got blown a little out of proportion.” The rest of the band (Radiohead guys, Neil, Lisa/others) join Ed, who flubs the verses in “Around the Bend,” which is a little sloppy but really nice to hear. Neil plays piano during this song. ‘Not For You’ has massive crowd singalongs, despite the messy bridge. Neil asks Ed at what age did he first hear a Split Enz tune. “Ummmm … a tasteful 13.” Neil responds, “Tasteful 13?? there is no such thing!” Ed slightly off mic with a cheesy grin: “yes there was, it was me!” Neil brings out his son’s band (Betchadupa) to play along with Ed (as he has done previously on this tour) for ‘History Never Repeats’ and ‘I Got You.’ They have the time of their lives and completely nail each song. Ed and Neil trade verses in both songs. ‘World Where You Live’ has Neil on keyboard and Ed singing the entire song. ‘Parting Ways’ has an added and extended bridge after the first verse, and Neil joins Ed in the second verse. Lisa Germano does a wonderful job on strings. Ed then joins Lisa to play duel ukulele’s to ‘Paradise.’ Both start the song in an exaggerated pose, pointing the ukulele’s outward. Ed plays tambourine on ‘Weather With You’ to end the show. A long and fun show. They can only get better as the week goes on. Not a whole lot of talking from Ed though, who would have been trying not to upstage anyone else there.

04/03/01 – St. James Theatre: Auckland, New Zealand (Ed appearing with Neil Finn and others) attendance: 1,500 soundcheck: Better Man (x2) set: [only songs that included Ed] Take a Walk, Better Man, Stuff and Nonsense, Not For You, History Never Repeats, I Got You, World Where You Live, Paradise notes: Ed joins the band much earlier tonight, singing ‘Take a Walk’ five songs into the first set. He strolls out carrying a notebook and a beer. Both Ed and Neil sing in this song. The call from Neil for Ed to come out seems to catch him off guard, as he comes out with a freshly lit cigarette. He gives it to someone in the front row. ‘Better Man’ closes the set with Neil on piano/backup vocals and played “by request.” Before the song, Ed mentions that “since the election last year, (he) hasn’t played, so it’s all been brewing up inside. I’d like to dedicate this next song to little Damien, Omen 2. But then I’d have to change the lyrics to ‘can’t find a bigger asshole.’” ‘Stuff and Nonsense’ is played ‘for a friend,’ and is as beautiful as the previous night. ‘Not For You’ has a MUCH tighter bridge, but Phil Selway messes up the end by not stopping where he obviously should have. Neil’s son Liam and his band join Ed once again for ‘History’ and ‘I Got You,’ once again playing superb versions. Seeing him front Liam’s band is amazing – these guys are only about 16 or 17 and Ed is just totally rocking out with them. During ‘History,’ Ed removes his shoes and dances in his socks. ‘World Where You Live’ rounds off the three crowd pleasers. Ed once again plays ukulele for ‘Paradise,’ and has a lot of fun playing it. Neil calls everyone on stage after the last song for a group hug and they receive a standing ovation. For the time that Ed wasn’t on stage singing, he was behind the speakers drinking (Stella beer), smoking and having a blast. He picks up a tambourine for ‘Weather With You’ and bangs along to a HUGE crowd clap-along. He really enjoyed himself tonight. Tonight’s crowd was MUCH better than the night before, and there were rarely any ‘EDDIE’ calls from the crowd, obviously due to him coming out so early in the set. Full house again tonight.

04/04/01 – St. James Theatre: Auckland, New Zealand (Ed appearing with Neil Finn and others) attendance: 1,500 soundcheck: Corduroy (x2) set 1: [only songs that included Ed] Take a Walk, Better Man set 2: Stuff and Nonsense, Corduroy, History Never Repeats, I See Red enc: World Where You Live enc 2: Soon Forget, Paradise notes: The first set tonight is nearly identical to last night. Ed is sporting the Champagne Breakfast Club shirt when he comes out to sing ‘Take a Walk.’ Before ‘Better Man’ begins, Ed says, “Neil was kind enough to invite me down, and on the premise of singing some Neil and Tim songs, which I could have done with the left lobe of my brain tied behind my back … but you get down here and he has all these different ideas.” Neil: “We’re subverting the process Eddie, drawing you out.” Ed: “Well since Neil’s a visionary, I’ll go with it … this was one of his ideas.” Neil: “This was PHIL’s idea!” Ed: “Oh … well we have a lot of visionaries up here!” [with laughter from the crowd]. ‘Better Man’ has a tag with the lines “you were my first, I was your first, I won’t be the last, and the best are always last. I will love you forever, don’t wanna hate you forever.” It was popular opinion that this was THE best ‘Better Man’ we have heard. Ed completely took charge of the band and led them in a totally different direction. Any nerves that were there in the beginning have disappeared completely. ‘Corduroy’ starts with a VERY experimental intro (with a strong Radiohead influence); Ed Vedder on e-bow with Ed O’Brien/Johnny messing around with various effects. There is one messy mistake near the bridge, which causes Ed to laugh while trying to sing. The end is also slightly messed up but it makes everyone laugh. Liam and others join Ed once again for ‘History Never Repeats.’ They play a false intro to ‘I Got You,’ stopping after a few seconds. Ed pretend to be annoyed with Phil’s drumming saying “Jesus Christ … one time, kick it! You’re gonna kick it with a tasty groove. Are you ready?? Kick it!” (likely a reference to Tenacious D’s ‘Kick it with a Tasty Groove.’) With that they kick into an amazing rendition of ‘I See Red.’ Easily the most energetic/intense song of the night. The guitarist broke a string but proceeded to play a solo without it. Tim Finn runs on stage to the surprise of Ed to play a short piano solo. Ed ends the song by throwing his mic stand high into the air. He walks off stage holding a cell phone (?). ‘World Where You Live’ opens the first encore. Ed comes out alone to begin the second encore with ‘Soon Forget.’ He pulls out a newspaper article he has been carrying around which is a quote from Steve Case about the AOL/Time Warner merger. “I’ve been keeping it to brighten my day … it was this statement that said ‘our brands, services and technologies have already touched millions of people … we will embed the AOL/Time Warner experience more deeply into their lives.’” (he shudders) “That’s fuckin scary!” Clapping messes him up completely, and it causes him to screw up quite a few times during the song. Once again Ed plays uke during ‘Paradise.’ The crowd tonight was a bit more trouble than previous nights. Lots of beer around and ‘I only want to see Eddie’ fans. Full house once again.

04/05/01 – St. James Theatre: Auckland, New Zealand (Ed appearing with Neil Finn and others) attendance: 1,500 set 1: [only songs that included Ed] Take a Walk, Better Man/(Save It For Later) set 2: Stuff and Nonsense, I Got Shit, I Got You, I See Red enc: World Where You Live, Not For You, Paradise notes: The first set is once again, very similar to the two previous nights. Before ‘Better Man,’ Ed asks the audience if they want to hear his New Zealand accent. “I only know two words … Iddie Vidder.” ‘Better Man’ closes the set once again, and has a verse of ‘Save It For Later’ tagged on, with Ed singing “run away, run away” as fast as he can. ‘Stuff and Nonsense’ gains a few more people in the crowd singing along tonight. Betchadupa join Ed for ‘I Got You’ and another crowd pleasing ‘I See Red.’ Tim again runs out on stage to the surprise of everyone, but this time he grabs a mic and goes completely crazy. Singing while jumping around, making drastic dance moves and even trashing a mic stand, he has everyone in the place smiling and gaining a standing ovation from the audience, and all of the band in their lounge area behind some amps. Neil remarks “I’m scared!” (of Tim) once he returns on stage. Ed gives his cigarette to someone in the front row to hold for him while he sings. “I want it back though!” ‘I Got Shit’ was a total surprise for everyone, and despite some understandably sloppy moments (including Ed flubbing lyrics) it is well-received. ‘Not For You’ is MUCH tighter tonight, the band are really understanding each other’s looks/signals. Johnny mentions beforehand that this is his favourite song (sound?). The “with no power, nothing to do” part is sung a capella, except for drums. Lisa and Ed play a nice duel solo on their ukes during ‘Paradise.’ Packed house again.

04/06/01 – St. James Theatre: Auckland, New Zealand (Ed appearing with Neil Finn and others) [160m] attendance: 1,500 soundcheck: Golden Years, Timeless Melody (x4) set 1: [only songs that included Ed] Take a Walk, Better Man/(Save It For Later) set 2: Stuff and Nonsense, I Got You, History Never Repeats, I See Red, World Where You Live enc: Golden Years, Timeless Melody notes: This show was webcast in real time and rebroadcast 12 hours later. Thirty minutes into the show, Neil introduced Ed and he takes the stage, jumping around for ‘Take a Walk,’ and hands his beer to someone in the front row. He leaves and later returns saying, “I’d just like to publicity thank Neil for inviting me to Auckland, (crowd claps) inviting me to meet his family and his friends and you. And uh for some reason, I … at some point felt the way to get closest or know someone really close or be intimate with them was to have sex with them (crowd laughs, and someone yells, “get to know me”) from an adolescent viewpoint, but um this week I kinda realised that actually playing music is one of the most really nice ways to get to know each other intimately, and I just wanna thank everybody up here for um just how I’ve really enjoyed sleeping with you.. (crowd laughs) um, I mean playing with you all.” This leads straight into “Better Man’ with the crowd singing along loudly and a lovely, long tag, amazing energy and very touching lyrics: “I wannna sleep, I wanna dream, but I can’t sleep and I can’t dream without you next to me …” Ed delivers ‘Stuff and Nonsense’ with his eyes closed, total concentration and his hair slicked back giving him an old Split Enz appearance. The magic continued into ‘World Where You Live’ after which he announces, “Here’s a band; they’re called Betchadupa,” and they take the stage to tightly rock through ‘I Got You,’ ‘History Never Repeats’ and ‘I See Red,’ with Tim Finn charging out again, knocking Sebastian’s mic over! Ed’s vocal capabilities are realized in how ON he is with ‘I See Red.’ [Compare his singing with the studio version; it's amazing.] Ed returns for the encore: “Neil, come on. This setlist is 33 songs long. My favorite number is 33 1/3 so let’s do 1/3 of this next song,” leading to a surprising, short version of David Bowie’s ‘Golden Years.’ Ed introduces a surprise number, ‘Timeless Melody.’ After Neil’s final number (an amazing ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’), the whole ensemble returns to the stage for a group bow and standing ovation.

04/11/01 – The Independant Theatre: Sydney, Australia (private/secret Ben Harper show) attendance: 200 set 1: Indifference [only song that included Ed] notes: This was a Ben Harper show in a very small intimate venue with an audience comprised of Virgin Records and Triple J contest winners. The setting is just Ben and his guitar and a second chair is brought out and it is announced that Ben will be joined by “a special friend” and Ed comes out. He makes a funny little speech about Nader and the election. Then they played ‘Indifference,’ both sitting with acoustic guitars, trading verses.

05/01/01 – Touring Band 2000 DVD and VHS video released

07/09/01 – The Showbox: Seattle, WA (Ed with Wellwater Conspiracy and Supersuckers) attendance: approx. 750 set: Red Light Green Light, Felicity’s Surprise (with Wellwater Conspiracy); Poor Girl (with the Supersuckers) notes: This, quite possibly the longest concert in Seattle history, was a charity benefit organized by Jack McDowell, a longtime friend of Ed’s. Ed joins Matt and a bass-player-less WWC for the two numbers listed above. Then later in the show, after an affectionate introduction by Eddie of the Supersuckers (talking about the really cool things they have gotten to do as a band, recording with Eddie Vedder being one of them), Ed walks onstage, notebook in hand, and they just tear into a searing, kick-ass version of ‘Poor Girl.’ Also on the bill: Stickfigure (Jack McDowell’s band), Pete Droge, Marcy Playground and Mudhoney. Funniest moment of this very long evening had to be at the end of Mudhoney’s set. A bunch of silly drunk people (who missed Ed’s appearances earlier because they were in the bar) start chanting “Eddie, Eddie,” not realizing that Ed is standing in the crowd right behind them. He manages to quiet them down and then gets them to start a chant of “Mudhoney, Mudhoney,” instead, which brought that band back for another song. Ed looks very tan, short hair, very trim and rested-looking. Jeff was spotted riding his bicycle past the venue earlier in the day. Matt looks like, well, Matt. Ed’s lyric sheet for ‘Poor Girl’

08/04/01 – Rose Garden (Ralph Nader Rally): Portland, OR attendance: approx 7,500 set: Soon Forget, Gimme Some Truth [John Lennon], Patriot/People Have the Power notes: Ed’s acoustic performance follows the general speakers and is prior to Ralph Nader’s speech. Ed’s lyric sheet for ‘Gimme Some Truth’ Ed’s lyric sheet for ‘People Have the Power

08/24/01 – The Casbah: San Diego, CA (Ed with Wellwater Conspiracy) set: Red Light Green Light, Felicity’s Surprise notes: In the third show of Wellwater Conspiracy’s excellent west coast mini-tour, Ed joins them singing vocals for two songs.

Sept 1, 2, 3, 2001 – Brad plays three dates at the Breakroom in Seattle. Shows feature Stone Gossard, Shawn Smith, Regan Hagar and Mike Berg.

Sept 8, 2001 – Mike McCready appears at San Diego Street Scene and performs on ‘Machine Gun’ (featuring original Band of Gypsies members Buddy Miles and Billy Cox).

09/21/01 – America: A Tribute to Heroes (Ed and Mike) set: Long Road notes: In this widely televised tribute to victims and families of the horrendous WTC and Pentagon attacks, Ed and Mike appear to deliver a beautiful semi-acoustic ‘Long Road,’ accompanied by Neil Young on organ and backing vocals. Ed & Neil screenshot

10/19/01 – Shoreline Amphitheater: Mountain View, CA (Bridge School Benefit) (acoustic) soundcheck: I Am Mine (new song), Drifting, Low Light, Last Soldier (new song), Crazy Mary, The Kids are Alright, Gimme Some Truth, new song

10/20/01 – Shoreline Amphitheater: Mountain View, CA (Bridge School Benefit) (acoustic) set: Long Road, Of the Girl, Elderly Woman, Lost Soldier (new song), Daughter/(Where Do The Children Play), Better Man, Drifting, Crazy Mary, Give Me Some Truth, Indifference (with Ben Harper), Last Kiss notes: Not a drastic departure from previous Bridge appearances, but a few surprises and touches. ‘Last Soldier’ is a new song, penned by Mike, with a somewhat R.E.M.-type sound. The ‘Daughter’ tag is a section from Cat Stevens’ ‘Where Do The Children Play’ (“I know we’ve come a long way; we’re changing day to day; tell me, where do the children play?”). The ‘Better Man’ tag is similar to ‘Save it for Later’ but lyrics more like Ed’s New Zealand shows with Neil Finn earlier this year. Ed says that ‘Drifting’ was written on the way down from Neil’s place and that no one can come out of Neil’s, even an insurance salesman, without becoming a songwriter. It includes the full band, with Stone helping out on vocals. ‘Gimme Some Truth’ is a big standout, with the whole band in good form. Ben Harper helps out with ‘Indifference,’ giving Ed a kiss when he walks out on stage. ‘Last Kiss,’ like ’99, is dedicated to Maricor (a Bridge School student).

10/21/01 – Shoreline Amphitheater: Mountain View, CA (Bridge School Benefit) (acoustic) set: The Kids are Alright, Wishlist, I Am Mine (new song), Low Light, Nothing As It Seems, Last Soldier, Black, Gimme Some Truth, Indifference (with Ben Harper), Soldier of Love notes: Pearl Jam play considerably earlier tonight, allowing time to travel to the Groundwork Benefit the following night. Ben Harper had brought his mother out during his performance to sing a song with him. Ed takes note of this, saying that Ben had created a “difficult situation” as his mother was also in attendance and he knew she’d want to sing. [Karen Vedder was indeed in attendance.] ‘Wishlist’ lyrics are modified to “I wish I was the neutron bomb, the one that didn’t go off.” Another new song debuts tonight, this one seemingly an Ed song and with him playing guitar. He gives a long speech before ‘Last Soldier’ about the Bridge kids (particularly noting Alan and Maricor), noting that since their last appearance, Maricor had graduated from the Bridge School and was now a sophomore at Berkeley. Ed polls the band members as to how many years they attended college, and how difficult it is. “What I’m trying to say is that, Maricor, you’re fucking amazing!”

10/22/01 – Key Arena: Seattle, WA (Groundwork 2001 Benefit) [50m] soundcheck: I Got Shit, Insignificance (with a different middle), Grievance, new song, Gimme Some Truth, Nothing As It Seems, new song (not played at Bridge) set: Gimme Some Truth, Grievance, Insignificance, Given to Fly, Light Years, Nothing As It Seems, I Am Mine, Better Man, Do the Evolution, Long Road (with Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan) notes: This benefit for hunger was webcast. Opening with Lennon’s ‘Gimme Some Truth’ and then strongly accelerating through ‘Grievance’ and ‘Insignificance,’ it appears that PJ is ready to plug in after the prior two night’s acoustic shows! Ed sets the guitar aside halfway through ‘Insignificance,’ grabbing it and taking an ebow to it in the modified midsection breakdown. There’s a bit of a false start to ‘Light Years,’ but it’s ‘GTF’ with ‘Light Years’ following. Ed holds a high note for a long time during ‘Better Man’ and the whole band picks up during the jam at the end (with the “This is one of those times, you’ve got to try; won’t you please, be mine … don’t let me down …” tag). ‘DTE’ just kicks ass-wow! Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan vocalizes halfway through ‘Long Road,’ and he and Ed share a long embrace while Ed plays out on guitar to close the song and the set. Very touching moment. During R.E.M.’s set (following PJ’s), they play about 1/3 of ‘Better Man’ (jury is out as to whether it was affectionate or mocking) and then during a fiery ‘People Have The Power’ inserted into the middle of ‘It’s the End of the World As We Know It,’ Ed comes running behind the drumkit from stage right to a microphone set up for him stage left. Ed sings backing vocals and takes a verse and imitates Michael dancing when they go back into ‘ITEOTW,’ and even sings a few bars, and the two hug for an extended period of time (both wearing little fedoras) at the end. Unexpected and surprisingly intense ending to tonight’s show. The original setlist from tonight’s show (from the soundboard): Grievance, Given To Fly, Insignificance, Light Years, Nothing As It Seems, I Am Mine, Better Man, Gimme Some Truth, Do The Evolution, I Got Shit, Long Road

10/23/01 – Crocodile Cafe, Seattle, WA (EV solo with R.E.M.) set:(only songs that included Ed) Long Road, Begin the Begin, It’s The End of the World As We Know It/People Have The Power notes: This surprise R.E.M. show at the Croc was billed as a Minus 5 benefit for the Washington Wilderness Coalition, and sold out right about the time people started to notice all members of R.E.M. present as well as one Mr. Ed Vedder, introduced by Michael as “Humbert Humbert, Jr.” (See Lolita if you need the literary reference.) ‘Long Road’ is about fourth or fifth in the set and has Ed playing acoustic guitar – it’s kind of rough but nice to hear. A few songs later, Michael starts asking what happened to his drink, and the next song, Ed comes out onstage with a tray of drinks and serves everyone in the band. He repeats this a few numbers later and somehow ends up kissing Peter Buck. When the band come out for the encore, they are led in a conga line by Ed, with his tshirt tucked up into the collar exposing his stomach (when was the last time we saw Vedder’s stomach onstage? Anyone??), wearing a cowboy hat, and carrying another tray of drinks. “Do you guys have any idea how fucking cool Eddie Vedder is?” asks Michael Stipe, as he launches into a lyrically dubious version of ‘Better Man’ (“she dreams in circles”? eesh) He finishes the song and announces, “Welcome to my shower – there it is.” There is some discussion on the stage and Michael is heard saying, “Are you sure? I don’t even think I know the lyrics …” and a minor riot ensues when R.E.M. start up ‘Begin the Begin’ (from Lifes Rich Pageant) and Ed and Michael trade verses, with Ed seeming to know the words better than Michael does (but with fuckups along the lines of “she dreams in circles” so I guess they’re even). The evening is finished off with the ‘It’s The End of the World As We Know It’/'People Have The Power’ mix, with Ed taking more of an active vocal role in both songs, verses and choruses of PHTP and the backing “It’s time I had some time alone” line from ‘ITEOTW.’ During the instrumental break, Ed grabs Michael and starts dancing with him, some weird cross between ballroom dancing and swing dancing.

Nov. 26-Dec. 2, 2001 – Brad plays a mini five-date west coast tour finishing up in Seattle. Shows feature Stone Gossard, Shawn Smith, Regan Hagar and Mike Berg with Thaddeus Turner and Elizabeth Pupo-Walker.

2002

01/26/02 – Spin Alley Bowling Center: Shoreline, WA (Ed and C-Average appear at a private party) [90m] attendance: 150 set: [solo acoustic] Heaven (Talking Heads), Drifting, You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away, Last Kiss, Satellite (new), Elderly Woman, I Don’t Wanna Grow Up (Tom Waits), Better Man, Happy Birthday (to Rob Glaser) [electric set] Watch Outside, Running Out of Time, Driven to Tears, Love -> Building on Fire, Corduroy, The Kids Are Alright, Soldier of Love, Against the 70s, I Don’t Wanna Grow Up (Tom Waits) notes: On the occasion of Rob Glaser’s (CEO of Real Networks) 40th birthday, Ed performs a solo acoustic set, including a new song, followed by a set with C-Average. Inside sources report the following: “Ed and Rob Glaser are good friends, going back to their mutual involvement in the West Memphis Three case. Ed sang the entire set alone first, with Jon and Brad of C-Average joining him later … at which point he invited everyone to commence bowling as he said: ‘You guys can keep bowling, but I’m just going to play a few more songs, if you don’t mind.’ Ed also sang ‘happy birthday’ to Rob and gave Rob the ukulele. He was wearing jeans, a tan shirt and a fedora, he said when Ed took the fedora off he had like a mohawk or something that resembled it. It was originally only supposed to be one set but it ended up being two.”

setlist scan (Jon’s) setlist scan (Ed’s)

02/26/02 – Wiltern Theatre: Los Angeles, CA (Concert for Artists’ Rights) attendance: 2400 also on bill: Mike Ness, Beck set: If It’s Monday Morning [Lee Hazelwood cover, with Beck and Mike Ness], Drifting, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Dead Man, Parting Ways, Can’t Keep [new song - uke], You’re True [new song - uke], I Am Mine [slightly different lyrics], Thumbing My Way [new song - guitar], Broken Hearted [new song - uke], Sleepless Nights [Everly Bros. cover w/Beck] Ed and Mike McCready come on later with Mike Ness to perform ‘Ball and Chain’ (by Social D) Ed with Beck: Little Hands [Skip Spence (Moby Grape) cover, EV on guitar and vox], Evil Things [vox only] All artists come on to sing ‘Sweet Virginia’ (Rolling Stones cover) to close the show notes: The show opened with Beck onstage, alone, singing ‘If It’s Monday Morning.’ He gets to the second verse, and Ed walks out – “it was like Beatlemania.” Third verse, Mike Ness walks out. Ed’s set was next. He’s got a fedora on, covering the mohawk. The overwhelming tone of the set was very dark and pretty heavy – this wasn’t a “light” show. Early in the set, he is adjusting his harmonica, and he takes that hat off for the first time. The crowd goes nuts. Ed gets that evil grin on his face and says, “You like it?” And then makes the now famous comment that he’s keeping his hair like that until we stop killing people overseas. Ed’s ukulele playing is incredible. ‘Dead Man’ is stunning. The new songs are great. ‘Thumbing’ is about hitchhiking: “I’m thumbing my way back to heaven.” Later in the set, Ed comments that Sunday night, when he was getting ready for the show, he had the TV on, and he saw Bon Jovi at the Olympic closing ceremonies. “I realized that a 40 year old butt rocker with an American flag around his neck was America’s symbol to the world, and I felt better…” Lots of “EDDIE I LOVE YOU” screamers in the audience, which Ed smacked down nicely: “I thought with the $50 tickets, this would be a classy crowd,” and “You should have been at soundcheck so we could have worked on your tone.” Instruments: Red Vox, Martin acoustic, ukulele. The new song titles are from the setlist, so they are 100% correct (at least as of tonight, who knows if Ed will change his mind later!).

03/15/02 – Royce Hall, UCLA: Los Angeles, CA (All Tomorrow’s Parties LA2002) set: Soon Forget, Happy Birthday, Can’t Keep, new song, Broken Hearted, Satellite, Thumbing My Way, I Am Mine, You’re True, Longing To Belong [new song], Parting Ways encore from tribute set: No Fun notes: Someone throws a joint onstage as Ed enters; he catches it, proffers it and says, “I’ll get busted at the border going back to Seattle.” After ‘Soon Forget,’ someone screams “It’s my cousin’s birthday!” and Ed says, “Point well taken,” and asks for the birthday boy’s name. The answer was unintelligible, but Ed then sings ‘Happy Birthday’ with the uke. Ed mentions that this is an experimental festival, and as such the next number is representative of a very small genre of music: “Speed thrash ukulele… a genre so small I think this is the only song,” leading to ‘Can’t Keep.’ After the song’s end, Ed says something about promising to not say anything political tonight: “My political statement is to play love songs all night … apparently Lydia Lunch spoke here last night and she apparently said it all.” He also relates a conversation with Mike Watt where they both talked about how in order to grow something good, you need a lot of manure, and there would be a lot of good art coming out of the recent period. The next song, a new one, is another song of lost love – “I’ve got our love to remember… the sun is shining, there’s no sun in my eyes, because I know that this is goodbye.” ‘Broken Hearted’ begins with a mistake, Ed winces – “I’m like a band, and we’re arguing right now.” (The ‘just just just’ at the end of the Wiltern version of this song was a mistake as it’s not present tonight.) Ed says,”There’s a guy in Arkansas who’s on death row … a lot of people, including me, don’t think justice was served,” and then talks about how this individual (one of the WM3) had gotten into a relationship while in prison. “I was writing a song about something that was more – personal, and I ended up writing about their relationship.” He introduces the song by name – the infamous ‘Satellite’ from the Bowling Alley show (and given the WM3 connection, now it’s easy to understand why it was played that night). Moving to guitar for a stellar ‘Thumbing My Way,’ followed by ‘I am Mine’ and then ‘You’re True.’ A story next: “I met a guy a few months back – 30 yards off the continent down here, in the waves. I heard he played a four stringed instrument too – his was the violin. I don’t know how old he is, but we’ve been practicing “after school.” This is James,” and the young violinist comes on the stage. The next song is another love song (“I’m falling further than I’ve ever fallen before… I dream of circles perfect”). ‘Parting Ways’ is a raucous, totally punked out version, ending with dual jumps from James and Ed. Ed later walks on during the encore of the awesome Mascis/Asheton/Asheton/Watt Stooges tribute, performing ‘No Fun.’ An amazing performance and a great moment, Ed does Iggy proud !

07/09/02 – The Showbox: Seattle, WA (Ed popup at Neil Finn show) attendance: sold out enc 1: The Kids Are Alright, Watch Outside, History Never Repeats notes: As anticipated by many, given their previous musical forays, Ed shows up at Neil Finn’s packed Seattle appearance, joining him for the first of three encores. A splendid performance by Neil, including a cover of ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’ (Neil covers Neil!) and Ed blowing the roof off the place.

07/11/02 – Chop Suey: Seattle, WA (Ed at John Entwistle tribute) set: Heaven and Hell, Can’t Explain, Substitute, Tattoo, Young Man Blues, A Quick One, I’m A Boy, My Wife, My Generation enc: Summertime Blues/See Me Feel Me notes: This tribute show for John Entwistle (at the former Breakroom in Capitol Hill) featured “The How” (Kurt Bloch, Mike Musburger and Rusty Willoughby from The Fastbacks) followed by “The Low Numbers” (Jon and Brad from C-Average, with Tim Brown on bass, plus Ed). Ed brings cognac out to the band during The How’s set, in honor of John, chasing it with a Korean beer, Hite (“I wonder if John would approve?”). Highlights include Kurt and friend doing ‘The Kids Are Alright,’ an absolutely smoking ‘YMB’ and all musicians doing the 15-minute long encore together with Ed smashing tambourines and tossing them to the crowd. Ed, in good spirits, but cannot complete a mic toss for anything. !

Aug 15-19, 2002 – A handful of Brad warm-up shows and in-store appearances take place in Boulder, Denver, Seattle and Portland in anticipation of their tour supporting the Welcome to Discovery Park album.

Sep 6-7, 2002 – Promotional videos of the band performing a handful of songs from the upcoming Riot Act album are filmed at the Chop Suey in Seattle. The videos were directed by James Frost while promotional photos were taken by Danny Clinch. (The videotaped songs that were eventually released included 1/2 Full, Love Boat Captain, Save You, Thumbing My Way and You Are.)

09/18/02 – The Cane Show: K-ROCK: NYC [45m] set: I Am Mine, Save You, You Are, Baba O’Riley notes: Radio interview with the entire band (first time in 10-12 years) with cuts from Riot Act played. (No live, in studio performance.) They say the tour will start in the spring (nothing confirmed yet), with plans to play some benefits before the end of the year in Seattle, and opening for The Who in Chicago next week. They discussed the collaborative songwriting/recording process for the album and confirmed that no contract decisions had been made yet. Said the rarieties album would be released sometime next year, that it would be a double album and would include the fan club singles and a whole variety of things (they had been “cleaning house”). Response to the single’s initial release via AOL’s First Listen: Ed said, “What the F IS that?” and Stone clarified, “We knew about that; someone told us.” Ed said they played last week and it was filmed to send to Europe since they wouldn’t be playing there on this outing (sorry).

09/23/02 – House of Blues, Chicago, IL (benefit for the Maryville Academy; opening for The Who) [47m] soundcheck (previous day): Better Man, Insignificance, Grievance, You Are, Save You, I Am Mine, Not For You, Leaving Here, Yellow Ledbetter, Can’t Keep, Green Disease, Love Boat Captain, one other new song (9/22/02 soundcheck not in correct order) soundcheck: Last Kiss, Grievance (2X), Green Disease, Insignificance, Leaving Here set: Last Kiss, Insignificance, Grievance, I Am Mine, Love Boat Captain, Green Disease, Not For You, Better Man, Leaving Here, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Originally this benefit was to feature Ed plus C-Average opening for The Who, but PJ (minus Stone, who had a prior commitment with Conservation International) opened. In a funny twist, a near life-sized cardboard cutout of Stone wearing a gold glittery jacket and holding Pete’s Gibson is brought out on the stage. (Ed quips about Stone being very “one dimensional” tonight.) Boom, a native Hawaiian friend of Ed’s (who plays on some of the forthcoming Riot Act tracks), fills in on keyboards. Jeff, in an obvious nod to the late John Entwistle, wears a skeleton t-shirt. Ed notes at one point during the show that Boom flew in from the islands just for this show. ‘Leaving Here’ is nailed and a a hit with The Who fans. ‘Yellow Ledbetter,’ with modified lyrics (referencing Entwistle), closes the set with Ed noting it “takes a lot of balls” to play on the stage that The Who are about to come out on. A quick set with the band cheerful and a mix of songs to play to that particular crowd, de-emphasize Stone’s absence and introduce a few new ones.

09/25/02 – United Center: Chicago, IL (Ed only at Bruce Springsteen show) notes: During the encore of Bruce’s Chicago show (after ‘Dancing in the Dark’), Bruce introduces a “hometown boy.” Much to the surprise of most of the crowd, Ed takes the stage, joining Bruce for ‘My Hometown.’ They trade verses and a visibly nervous Ed struggles with lyrics, but Bruce helps out.They exchange a hug and Ed takes off. Very cool !

11/12/02 - Riot Act is released

Oct 12-Nov 11, 2002 – Brad does a short North American tour in support of the Welcome to Discovery Park album.

11/14/02 – Ed Sullivan Theater: New York, NY (Late Show appearance) [5m] set: I Am Mine notes: PJ makes their fouth band appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman playing ‘I Am Mine,’ the first single from recently released, Riot Act. Boom lends a hand on the keyboard.

11/15/02 – Ed Sullivan Theater: New York, NY (Late Show appearance) [5m] set: Save You notes: A PJ first, doing a two-night appearance on The Late Show. However, both performances were taped on 11/14, with ‘Save You’ airing on 11/15. Dave jokes about “Hope you slept well last night.” ‘Save You’ is a more lively showing that the previous night’s airing, with Ed substituting “cuff” for the “fuck” lyrics.

12/05/02 – The Showbox: Seattle, WA attendance: sold out support act: NEO soundcheck: Blood x2, You Are, Save You, Can’t Keep, I Am Mine, Down set: Can’t Keep, Save You, Get Right, Green Disease, Grievance, Cropduster, I Am Mine, Love Boat Captain,1/2 Full, Nothing As It Seems, You Are, Given to Fly, Insignificance, Blood enc 1: Last Kiss, Wishlist, Black, Down, Do The Evolution enc 2: All or None notes: The first of two warm-up/club shows. Setlist provides a run-through of the new album with ‘Blood’ as a big suprise (except to those who heard the soundcheck or saw the setlist). Ed completely blanks out during ‘All or None,’ apologizing for people having paid $36 to watch the band rehearse. Some of the revenues from tonight’s show will go to help build a park for children in Hawaii. There is an Ames Bros poster for the four Seattle shows (artwork is the same but one is red; one is blue). poster

12/06/02 – The Showbox: Seattle, WA support act: Steve Earle soundcheck: Thumbing My Way, Daughter, Elderly Woman, Off He Goes, Ghost x2, Rearviewmirror, Last Exit, Bushleaguer, Don’t Believe in Christmas set: Elderly Woman, Off He Goes, Thumbing My Way, Thin Air, Breakerfall, Green Disease, Corduroy, Save You, Ghost, Cropduster, I Am Mine, Love Boat Captain, Gods’ Dice, 1/2 Full, Daughter/(War), You Are, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Bushleaguer, Insignificance, Better Man, Do The Evolution, Yellow Ledbetter enc 2: Soon Forget, Don’t Believe in Christmas (The Sonics) notes: True to form, the band is more relaxed and has a much better energy the second night. Unusual opening with ‘Elderly Woman.’ ‘Daughter’ is tagged with Edwin Star’s ‘War,” which turns into a crowd chant (“War! What’s it good for? Absolutely nothing! Say it again …”) Ed dons a Bush mask upon returning for the encore, leading to ‘Bushleaguer.’ A Bill Gates mask is evidenced during ‘DTE.’ A uke in a telecaster shape comes out for ‘Soon Forget’ and lyrics are a struggle (for many of the songs). ‘Don’t Believe in Christmas’ is a cover, originally by the old Tacoma punk band, The Sonics. setlist scan poster

12/08/02 – Key Arena: Seattle, WA support act: Brad, Steve Earle soundcheck: Black, Insignificance, Love Boat Captain, You Are, Even Flow, Light Years, I Got Shit, Blood, Save You x2 set: Elderly Woman, Black, Thumbing My Way, Nothing As It Seems, Given to Fly, Save You, Hail Hail, Ghost, Corduroy, Grievance, Green Disease, I Am Mine, Love Boat Captain, You Are, 1/2 Full, Even Flow, Wishlist, Blood enc 1: Gimme Some Truth, Bushleaguer, Insignificance, Down, Better Man, Do The Evolution enc 2: Yellow Ledbetter notes: First of two shows at Key Arena benefitting a large list of charitable organizations PJ supports. The fan club offered a number of good tickets to members via a lottery. Ed takes the stage and tries to lead the crowd in singing ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’ as this is the 22nd anniversary of John Lennon’s death. ‘Black’ pops up early on the setlist, slowed down a bit with Stone on acoustic guitar. Ed quips about a slow start on a Sunday night and asks if the crowd wants to know how “The Sopranos” ended (that Sunday night being the season closer). He’s in a good mood, cracking jokes about the media and discussing politics. Mike smashes a white guitar after ‘Blood.’ Big, high energy night for Mike. The Bush mask is back for ‘Bushleaguer.’ Many lyrical flubs. Ed is sporting a Ramones shirt and modifies the ‘DTE’ lyrics: “Admire me, admire my clone, admire my son, admire the Ramones” ;)

12/09/02 – Key Arena: Seattle, WA

support act: Brad, Mudhoney set: Release, Breakerfall, Save You, Gods’ Dice, Cropduster, Green Disease, Lukin, Not For You, Black, I Am Mine, Love Boat Captain, Daughter/(War), Even Flow, Thumbing My Way, Light Years, You Are, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Last Exit, Brain of J, Bushleaguer, I Got Shit, Elderly Woman, Do The Evolution enc 2: Yellow Ledbetter, Don’t Believe in Christmas notes: Good energy tonight with Ed smashing his blue SG guitar at the end of ‘RVM.’ Lots of political ranting, the Bush mask and plenty of red wine lead to ‘Bushleaguer.’ Much improved version of ‘YL’ compared to the previous night’s version.

2003

Jan. 2003 – Brad does a short Australian tour supporting the Welcome to Discovery Park album.

02/08/03 – Entertainment Centre: Brisbane, Australia

support act: Johnny Marr and The Healers soundcheck: Not For You, Last Exit, Habit x3, SOLAT (setlist probably incomplete) set: Can’t Keep, Go, Save You, Hail Hail, Cropduster, Corduroy, I Am Mine, Nothing As It Seems, Given to Fly, Green Disease, Even Flow, Daughter/(War), 1/2 Full, Wishlist, Better Man, Black, Blood enc 1: The Kids Are Alright, Elderly Woman, Bushleaguer, improv, Whipping, Rearviewmirror enc 2: Crazy Mary notes: The 2003 tour kicks off for a revved-up Australian crowd — the first Oz tour with Matt drumming. An anti-war theme runs through the show. Chairs provide seating on the floor section that is typically the open/pit area for shows at this venue. Seven Riot Act songs on the setlist but old favorites like ‘Corduroy’ get the loudest reception from the crowd. ‘Can’t Keep’ opens with a modified guitar intro. Boom is playing keyboards for this tour, and is most noticeable on ‘Save You,’ ‘I Am Mine’, ‘Black’, ‘Bushleaguer’ and ‘Crazy Mary.’ The ‘Daughter’ tag hints at Fugazi’s ‘Give Me The Cure’ (“I never thought too hard on dying before”) before Ed’s improv (“I’m an American so I always want war, but please believe me … a lot of us that don’t have nothing to do with the people on TV … on the news”) leading to the War tag a la the Seattle 2002 shows (“War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothin.”). There are some rough edges and flubs. ‘Wishlist’ is plagued with forgotten lyrics, Ed forgetting twice and saying “It’s so nice that you came to our practice … by the time we get to Sydney, it’s gonna be polished, tight and boring.” ‘Wishlist’ includes the lowering of the mirrorball and ends with, “I wish I was the president … stop the war. Easy … negotiate, communicate … isn’t that what leaders are for?” ‘TKAA’ is dedicated to Pete Townshend (a show of solidarity for him) and how he was working to expose the exact thing he was arrested for (access to child pornography). Ed again has the Bush mask for ‘Bushleaguer,’ combined with a shiny, silver jacket. ‘Crazy Mary’ is an amazing long version including Mike’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’ outro. Ed is smoking and drinking red wine, sharing it with the crowd, as in prior shows, during ‘Crazy Mary’ (“Take a bottle, drink it down … pass it around.”) This is the first show where mp3s were made available for download via the Ten Club for members who ordered the CDs. The sound files were available the day following the show. [Merchandise note: some new items include a program, "no war 2003" dog tag, skateboard deck and there is an Ames poster with a surfing theme (limit 1/person).] poster

02/09/03 – Entertainment Centre: Brisbane, Australia

support act: Johnny Marr and The Healers set: Of the Girl, Breakerfall, Corduroy, Save You, Ghost, Nothing As It Seems, I Am Mine, Love Boat Captain, Given To Fly, Lukin, Not For You, Thumbing My Way, You Are, Even Flow, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Free Jazz, Do the Evolution, Last Exit, Elderly Woman, Better Man, Once enc 2: Soon Forget, Last Kiss, Rockin’ in the Free World notes: Tonight’s show has more of an “old school” vibe with a better energy and enthusiasm all around and a solid setlist … especially the opening songs. Mike is doing the Townshend scissor kicks and Jeff is doing his jump in the air with both his legs horizontal to one side. After a false start (dismissed as “It’s beginning of the tour you know, hey!”), ‘You Are’ unfolds with layered guitar effects, Matt’s fine drumming style and nice lighting. The first encore begins with “a little something we’ve worked on … we’d like to debut it here …” leading to something called ‘Free Jazz’ that seems to need a little more work. Ed relates a tale about how Jeff’s brother was taking photos for the Vs. album artwork and he took a photo of a woman who “looked pretty good for 45.” They didn’t get her permission, the record came out and she was upset as being the “Elderly Woman.” She sued and they settled. Ed extends ‘Better Man’ with a little addition: “Let’s do that part together” and he tries to get some audience singing participation going. The mini-Telecaster ukulele accompanies Ed for ‘Soon Forget’ and he talks about how the Americans try to clap and they do it off tempo; he asks the crowd to get the tempo right or not clap. Half through the song he tells them he cannot hear the uke and to clap more quietly. Upon finishing, he apologizes: “I was the one with the tempo problem tonight!” Ed has two tambourines for ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ (which was requested “on the street”),banging them together and busting the skin of one. poster

02/11/03 – Entertainment Centre: Sydney, Australia attendance: 12,000 support act: Betchadupa, Johnny Marr and The Healers soundcheck: Sometimes, Light Years, Love Boat Captain, Spin the Black Circle, Thin Air, State of Love and Trust, Indifference pre-set: Dead Man, Thumbing My Way, You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away (Ed solo, before Betchadupa) set: Long Road, Grievance, Corduroy, Save You, Get Right, I Am Mine, Immortality, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Wishlist, Thumbing My Way, You Are, Breakerfall/Not For You, Untitled/MFC, Do The Evolution, Spin The Black Circle enc 1: Love Boat Captain, Better Man, Down, Black, Rearviewmirror enc 2: Indifference notes: Ed provides the first preset of this tour, with ‘Thumbing My Way’ incomplete due to a guitar tuning problem. ‘Grievance’ is a highlight with Ed enjoying it (“… don’t give blood and fuck me”) and Mike jumping. ‘Get Right’ is played for the first time on this tour, but sounds a little rough. ‘I Am Mine’ is a crowd favorite. Ed greets the crowd and speaks to the issue of three shows in one venue. Then, “This is one we haven’t played in a while and it’s called Immortality,” with an early placement in the setlist and quite lovely but not full on. Great crowd reaction to ‘Given To Fly’ and ‘Even Flow.’ ‘Wishlist’ is a clapalong song with “65 billion hands upraised” and a jam in the middle (including a little ‘Beast of Burden’ and a hint of ‘Waiting on a Friend’). “Actually I tried this one earlier for some of you so …” leads to a full ‘Thumbing My Way.’ Stone’s solo during ‘DTE’ is modified. Upon returning for the encore, Ed wisecracks: “All right we’re just gonna play one more cause we have two more shows to do the next two nights so …” (crowd boos). Oh, fuck those guys the next two nights!” (big cheers) Actually we did enjoy Brisbane … deal with it. And in Brisbane we insulted New Zealand, too … that always goes over well.” He brings Mark Richards (surfer) up to the stage for a glass of wine, calling him a hero. Ed finishes his cigarette (“This is the only place in this building you can smoke without getting a $500 fine.”) He notes that it is hard to quit smoking “when there’s a Bush in office”; that he should have quit when Clinton was in office. He further comments that it seems like Australia’s prime minister is giving George Bush a blowjob (crowd cheers) with your (the Australian’s) lips. After ‘Better Man,’ Ed notes, “We’ll give you a cold appetizer … this is a B-side off our last record,” leading to a lovely version of ‘Down.’ A beautiful ‘Indifference’ closes this pleasing setlist ending, “How much difference does it make? It makes a difference … be strong.” poster

02/13/03 – Entertainment Centre: Sydney, Australia

support act: Betchadupa, Johnny Marr and The Healers preset: Dead Man, Thumbing My Way (Ed solo) I See Red (Ed with Betchadupa) set: Sometimes, Go, Last Exit, Insignificance, Nothing As It Seems, Cropduster, Even Flow, Corduroy, I Am Mine, Love Boat Captain, Jeremy, Habit, Light Years, Off He Goes, 1/2 Full, Grievance, Do The Evolution, Save You enc 1: Last Kiss, Daughter, Elderly Woman, Once, Blood enc 2: Soon Forget, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Ed takes the stage before Betchadupa, playing ‘Dead Man’ and ‘Thumbing My Way’ “in appreciation of all the people who turned up early.” He also joins Betchadupa for ‘I See Red’ with Liam introducing, “This is a song about an uncle and tonight we’re gonna play it with another uncle.” At the end, Liam says, “Thanks, Uncle Ed.” ;) A hybrid version of ‘Jeremy’ surfaces for the first time on this tour and the band tries to get a little enthusiasm from the crowd (with some success). Ed tells the crowd they can go to the bathroom as they are going to play a quiet one about a “friend who just won’t stick around” leading to a sweet ‘Off He Goes.’ ‘DTE’ features some great dance moves … Ed even pulls off the moon walk. He sings, “I am the first man to have PMS.” His voice is strong and he’s having a great time. At the top of the encore, Aussie surfer Mark Richards comes to the stage again to share some wine with Ed. Instead of a ‘Daughter’ tag, there’s a mini-jam (‘Get Off Of My Cloud’) leading to a call/respond thing (similar to Milan 2000). Ed introduces Stone before ‘Elderly Woman’ and Ed seems to get a little lost during the song. Ed is smoking on stage and people are cheering because he is breaking the no smoking rules. Ed tells them that Mike deserves the cheers because he has quit smoking, which leads to more cheers and a “quit, quit, quit” chant directed at Ed. Ed dons the Bill Gates mask, then places it on Jeff’s mic for ‘Soon Forget.’ He talks about Charles Darwin’s birthday and creationists, saying that apes evolved from creationists. He struggles with ‘Soon Forget’ (“I’ve never been this close to Bill Gates before – it makes me nervous … it’s not coming to me at all”), but finds the chords and lyrics and finishes the song. ‘Yellow Ledbetter’ caps the show, the first playing of this song this tour. poster main and encore setlist scans working setlist scan

02/14/03 – Entertainment Centre: Sydney, Australia

support act: Betchadupa, Johnny Marr and The Healers preset: Patriot, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away (Ed solo) History Never Repeats (Ed with Betchadupa after he videotaped some of their performance) set: Can’t Keep, Save You, Hail Hail, Corduroy, Grievance, Ghost, Cropduster, Dissident, Given To Fly, Even Flow, I Am Mine, Love Boat Captain, Wishlist, Thumbing My Way, Better Man, Lukin, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Bushleaguer, Daughter/(War), Black, Do The Evolution, Alive enc 2: The Kids Are Alright (Ed solo), Yellow Ledbetter notes: This show was relayed to Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne radio (similar to the third Melbourne show in 1998). Although described by those who took in all three Sydney shows as more powerful, a few songs (‘Thumbing My Way’ and ‘Ghost’ for example) are still not really delighting all fans. A powerful start but the momentum lags with ‘Cropduster’ followed by ‘Dissident.’ After some guitar noodling and Ed’s commenting that he can’t hear his guitar, he introduces ‘Thumbing My Way’ as a song about hitchhiking your way through a broken heart. The whole band is on, even Stone really getting into his solos, and seemed a bit flat the first two nights. Humorous changes to ‘DTE:’ “Those ignorant Maoris got nothing on me” and “I am the first man to play my penis!” The silver jacket and Bush mask are back for ‘Bushleaguer.’ Introduced with, “Ah, we just got an idea here,” ‘Alive’ finally makes the setlist, bringing everyone to their feet. Ed starts to bag on Adelaide at the top of the second encore, then speaks of that weekend’s worldwide peace marches and how George Bush and the Republican administration doesn’t represent the band. He shows the crowd the surfboard that Mark Richards gave him and says that if it is crowded surfing and someone gives him a wave, he’ll give them backstage passes. Ed talks again about Pete Townshend, what an inspiration he’s been, the child porn allegations and how they’ll get sorted out, leading to ‘TKAA.’ poster

02/16/03 – Entertainment Centre: Adelaide, Australia attendance: 10,097 support act: Johnny Marr and The Healers soundcheck: Oceans (partial), In Hiding, Help Help, Gimme Some Truth (x2), Nothingman, Smile, Bushleaguer set: Love Boat Captain, Corduroy, Save You, Hail Hail, Help Help, Even Flow, I Am Mine, Better Man, You Are, Green Disease/Not For You, Thumbing My Way, Given to Fly, Elderly Woman, Insignificance, Go enc 1: Bushleaguer, Do the Evolution, Last Kiss, Black, Crazy Mary, State of Love and Trust enc 2: singalong, Soon Forget, Yellow Ledbetter, Rockin’ in the Free World notes: Unusual ‘LBC’ opener debuts before a capacity Adelaide crowd leading to a stellar ‘Corduroy’ that gets the crowd going. After ‘Hail Hail,’ Ed expresses his emotions regarding the 100,000-people turnout at the anti-war protest just hours earlier in Adelaide’s Victoria Square: “What a great day! I think this is one of the greatest weekends in my lifetime … in our lifetimes. This weekend the biggest protest since the Vietnam war went down. You’ve got maybe 8 million people in over 600 countries coming out to protest the war. That’s something to be toasted to and thankful for … you should be very proud.” ‘Help Help’ makes its debut, similar to the album version but no Stone backing vocals. Again, Ed lets the crowd sing part of the first verse of “Better Man.’ ‘Not For You’ is amazing (“small my table, seats all of us; got so crowded but you we trust”). During the middle part, Mike rolls on the floor and stays there, jamming, joined by Ed soon after! ‘GTF’ lyrically references a female (“she” and “her”) rather than a male persona. Ed sings the first verse of ‘Elderly Woman’ twice, commenting “Did I fuck it up?” ‘Insignificance’ is introduced as a song about a small town “near where we come from” with a plant where a lot of people work making planes (Boeing).The Bush mask is again worn by Ed during ‘Bushleaguer’ and a a blasting ‘Do The Evolution’ follow. The band turns around for ‘Last Kiss,’ playing for “… those less privileged people, those people in the back.” Ed’s wine bottle is passed around the front rows during ‘Crazy Mary’ and, after constant requests all night, ‘State’ appears for the first time this tour. Ed returns alone to attempt a crowd singalong of John Lennon’s ‘Give Peace a Chance.’ Ed is wearing a sleeveless shirt with a photo of Bush and John Howard on it. Ed introduces “Luke the Uke” to Adelaide, then struggles with ‘Soon Forget’ again, but provides Townshend-style windmills and jumps. ‘Yellow Ledbetter’ sees the house lights on, and, to everyone’s amazement, the band jumps straight into ‘Rockin In The Free World’ (thanks to Stone), the crowd going nuts, Ed jumping on speaker stacks, Mike running around the back and Matt tossing out drumsticks. Very up show with Ed dancing and Stone lively and laughing. poster main and encore setlist scans

02/18/03 – Rod Laver Arena: Melbourne, Australia support act: Johnny Marr and The Healers soundcheck: Get Right, Tremor Christ, Leatherman, ? (Clash cover?) set: Better Man, Go, Save You, Tremor Christ, Given To Fly, Corduroy, Get Right, Even Flow, I Am Mine, Love Boat Captain, Wishlist, Jeremy, You Are, Whipping, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror enc: Off He Goes, Elderly Woman, Last Kiss, Black, Leatherman, Do The Evolution, Baba O’Riley notes: Unusual ‘Better Man’ opener; the crowd gets to sing the first verse. Animated Mike with solos behind his head for ‘Go,’ flicking out picks to the crowd, jumps and kicks throughout the show. Ed gets a great response to his “No War No Way” t-shirt early in the set when he shows it to the crowd. Ed makes a point of introducing Matt to the Melbourne crowd as being his first time here (with PJ), and later introduces Boom to the crowd. The mirrorball drops down for ‘Wishlist,’ with stars as a backdrop on the screen behind the band. Ed sings, “I wish I were the sound of so many protestor’s hands upraised toward the sky,” and there’s a little extended guitar ending. ‘Tremor Christ’ is a surprise. Emotional version of ‘Off He Goes’. Apparently members of Anthony Hurley’s family were stage right throughout the show. After ‘Elderly Woman,’ Ed acknowledges those in the back with the “big fucking poster with writing on it.” (The sign says, “drop the leash”.) He continues, “We’re only pointing them out because it’s good to see there’s still dreamers alive in the year 2003. Don’t remember the chords … don’t remember the words … remember the feeling.” After an emotional ‘Black,’ Ed and Stone applaud Mike’s solo. Ed introduces Mike, Stone and the “still victorious Jeff Ament.” Then he mentions that Mike and Jeff are at the same level … they are both victorious, leading to a song that sounds like it could be about a guy from Australia: ‘Leatherman.’ An audience member invades the stage during ‘DTE.’ Security tries to remove him but Ed encourages him to sing along, places the mask on him and Ed attempts to dance with him. He falls to his knees in mock embarrassment, Ed promptly jumps on his shoulders and he holds Ed up for quite a while as Ed sings. He “throws” Ed off and Ed responds with mock wrestling moves. Ed pushes him back on his knees and sings into his face. At the end of the song he leaves after hugging Ed, Jeff and Mike; Ed quips, “I hope they feed you in jail.” (A number of others try to invade the stage but are stopped by security.) This seemed to bring up the energy for Baba to close with full house lights up. poster

02/19/03 – Rod Laver Arena: Melbourne, Australia support act: Johnny Marr and The Healers soundcheck: Sleight Of Hand, Rival, Breath, misc riffs, Throw Your Arms Around Me set: Elderly Woman, Interstellar Overdrive/Corduroy, Save You, Given To Fly, Cropduster, Nothing As It Seems, Even Flow, I Am Mine, Love Boat Captain, Lukin/Not For You, Light Years, You Are, Daughter/(Another Brick In The Wall), I Got Shit, 1/2 Full, Once, Blood enc 1: Bushleaguer, Sleight Of Hand, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Do The Evolution, Spin The Black Circle enc 2: Throw Your Arms Around Me, Alive, Fuckin’ Up notes: ‘Lukin’ is introduced as a song about “a guy from Seattle;” Ed says, “… in Seattle, there is no mayor of Seattle, just like you don’t have a prime minister … you have a prostitute” (crowd cheers). ‘Not For You’ has changed lyrics: “Small my table, hotel room. Got so crowded, room 302.” ‘Light Years’ is introduced as a song they don’t play that often. The ending is modified with additional lyrics: “Ah, we remember you … every day we remember you … remember … we remember you.” The long ‘Daughter’ tag starts out as an Ed call/crowd response chant leading to ‘Another Brick In The Wall.’ A nicely done ‘I Got Shit’ makes a welcome return. Ed speaks to getting out of the city and listening to the voices in nature, leading to ’1/2 Full.’ Mike really gets into the solo and Ed signals to Matt, Jeff and Stone to extend it out so Mike can continue while the others watch. After ‘Bushleaguer,’ Ed asks, “Think we’re being too hard on him?” The crowd yells, “No” and Ed says, “I don’t either.” Ed requests his lyric book, leading to a lovely ‘Sleight Of Hand.’ ‘Better Man’ has a full ‘Save It For Later’ tag. Upon returning for the second encore, Ed says that his blue SG is named “Rebecca,” and then says it isn’t but he has a friend named Rebecca who is there and he wanted her to hear her name. Then he says it will be called “Rebecca” from then on. ‘Throw Your Arms Around Me’ is just Ed and Boom playing. Solid show with a good vibe between PJ and the crowd. poster

02/20/03 – Rod Laver Arena: Melbourne, Australia support act: Johnny Marr and The Healers set: Can’t Keep, Breakerfall, Save You, Ghost, Dissident, Elderly Woman, Corduroy, Even Flow, Love Boat Captain, I Am Mine, Thumbing My Way, Wishlist, Better Man, Rival, Whipping, Insignificance, Porch enc 1: Do The Evolution, Know Your Rights, Breath, Footsteps, Rearviewmirror enc 2: Soon Forget, Yellow Ledbetter notes: PJ’s last night in Melbourne finds the band in good form. Super version of ‘Ghost,’ nice jam in ‘Corduroy’ and wonderful ‘Even Flow’ guitarwork with good interplay between Mike and Jeff. ‘Wishlist’ has some lyrical changes (including, “I wish I was the full moon shining off your electric car’s hood”) and is extended: “I wish I was the president, keep us out of war, that’s what friends are for, that’s what leaders are for, that’s what love is for …” The crowd really gets into singing ‘Better Man,’ prompting Ed to praise the audience. He says he got a call from John Howard (Australia’s prime minister) and that he had a “deep desire to perform oral sex on myself …” and that he apparently has a thing for American men lately, leading to ‘Rival.’ ‘Whipping’ is introduced as something our president needs. ‘Porch’ closes the main set, with a long jam and a call/respond thing with the crowd. Ed is wearing the silver jacket and Bush mask, removes it during ‘DTE’ and has a smooth wrestling mask beneath. ‘Know Your Rights’ (“This is a public service announcement … with guitar!!!”, a Clash song from Combat Rock) seems fitting and sounds like it must just tear up Ed’s voice; very nice rendition musically. Followed by ‘Breath,’ ‘Footsteps’ (outstanding) and ‘RVM,’ this is one great encore. For the second encore, Ed returns with the uke, saying it is a ukulele disguised as a Fender stratocaster, leading to ‘Soon Forget,’ and the show closes with ‘Yellow Ledbetter.’ poster setlist scan encore setlist scan

02/23/03 – Burswood Dome: Perth, Australia attendance: 19,000 support act: Johnny Marr and The Healers soundcheck: Breakerfall, Habit, You Are, Get Right, All Or None, Down, Smile, Throw Your Arms Around Me (x2; Ed with Mark Seymour) set: Long Road, Save You, Gods’ Dice, Corduroy, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Get Right, Cropduster, Jeremy, Elderly Woman, I Am Mine, Love Boat Captain, MFC, improv/Habit, You Are, Wishlist, 1/2 Full, Insignificance, Go enc 1: Do The Evolution, Better Man, Daughter, Crazy Mary enc 2: Throw Your Arms Around Me, Alive, Fortunate Son notes: Ed addresses the crowd after ‘Corduroy’ and notes that Perth is the last stop on the Australian tour and “save the best for last.” There are several lyrical changes, customized for the local crowd. Ed asks for a little help singing along for ‘Jeremy.’ ‘Elderly Woman’ is dedicated to anyone from Yallingup (a small southwest Australia town popular with surfers). A new intro/improv leads to a rocking ‘Habit’ with growling vocals. At the start of the first encore, Ed mentions a friend of his (Luc Longley, pro basketball player) working to save Ningaloo Reef from development and how to provide support and help. This leads straight into ‘DTE’ which includes a verse with the John Howard mask on and a crotch grab. Trying something not on the list: ‘Crazy Mary,’ a clean, long version with first Boom and then Mike soloing. Ed passes his wine bottle to Longley, and then along the front row. The second encore sees a first time meeting with Ed and Mark Seymour of Hunters and Collectors. Ed says he had been singing one of his songs around the campfire forever. With Mark on acoustic guitar, they perform a duet, ‘Throw Your Arms Around Me,’ a very different, slower version with nice harmonies. ‘Alive’ brings the house down; it is cut a bit short due to apparent time constraints. Johnny Marr joins takes the stage for ‘Fortunate Son,’ a classic Creedence Clearwater Revival song with fitting lyrics for the times, bringing the Australian tour to a close.

02/28/03 – Izumity 21 (Sun Plaza): Sendai, Japan

set: Of The Girl, Immortality, Insignificance, 1/2 Full, Cropduster, Nothing As It Seems, Even Flow, Save You, You Are, Love Boat Captain, I Am Mine, Better Man, Lukin, Brain Of J, Grievance, Blood, Do The Evolution enc 1: Bushleaguer, Thumbing My Way, Black, U, Last Kiss, Rearviewmirror enc 2: Soon Forget, Corduroy, Crazy Mary, Porch notes: Unique venue with seats slanted like a steep movie theater and a center walkway splitting the upper and lower areas. The upper level was completely empty and there is a very small crowd (between 800-1,000). Unusual setlist, i.e., ‘Immortality’ as a second song and ‘Corduroy’ in the second encore. A rare quiet opening few songs with very little chat but some different guitar arrangements toward the end of ‘Of The Girl’ and ‘Immortality.’ Ed thanks the crowd in Japanese (“arigato”) at the end of ‘Cropduster’ and introduces Jeff and Mike. The crowd shouts out various things (probably requests) and Ed tries to hear them and says they don’t understand that much Japanese. After ‘Black,’ Ed says, “This is probably the least amount of people we’ve played to in quite a long time; it’s also the best it’s felt in quite a long time.” He adds, “Soundcheck didn’t feel good at all but once you guys were here, it’s been great.” And, noting it is the first show in Japan, “We forgot how early you’re supposed to start so we feel like we should play up until about 11:30 … and I think some of the folks must have come from work ’cause I see more ties than usual. I think if you wear the same clothes tomorrow, you’ll be all right. They won’t even notice.” The crowd provides absolute silence for the start of ‘Soon Forget,’ which is near-perfect. Boom takes a big solo in ‘Crazy Mary.’ ‘Porch’ is a big closer, with Ed chanting, “Hey, ho – let’s go,” near the end. Technically well-executed, performance before a crowd that may seem somewhat reserved in terms of making noise (and following the no smoking, no screaming, etc. rules), but make up for it with movement to the music. poster

03/01/03 – Pacifico Yokohama: Yokohama, Japan attendance: approx. 5,000

set: Love Boat Captain, Even Flow, Save You, Cropduster, Corduroy, I Am Mine, Rival, Given To Fly, Wishlist, Jeremy, You Are, Untitled/MFC, Whipping, I Got Shit, State of Love and Trust, Grievance, Go enc 1: Last Exit, Do The Evolution, Down, Elderly Woman, Daughter, Alive enc 2: Indifference, Baba O’Riley notes: After ‘Corduroy,’ Ed thanks the crowd for lining up in pouring rain for the show. (Seats were reserved; the doors opened late.) Ed’s voice in excellent form. Tonight’s ‘Wishlist’ car is “Toyota” and Ed does a really lovely playout to finish. ‘Untitled’ has a verse filled with different lyrics: “I wanna see your passenger she smiles; that’s going on have to be anywhere for a while; walk the mile with me I said; run the mile with me I said.” This venue is very high with two balconies. Ed makes a toast to the people in the second level and dedicates ‘I Got Shit’ to the people in the third level: “This song is called I Got Shit … like you got shit seats.” He comments on a higher level where the lighting trusses are (“I got a shit job.”) and asks them to light the stage. “Give us some light or you’re fired … I’d like a spotlight on me for the beginning of this song.” The lighting guy doesn’t understand, but after a short time, the spotlight hits Ed and the song begins. ‘DTE’ is a bit troubled with Stone totally missing his solo and Ed sings, “I am the first man to fuck up twice.” Stone quips after the song ends, “Can we sing in the choir now?” and there is much amusement among the band. This leads to the “b-side,” ‘Down,’ and the band seems to be having a lot of fun with this one. ‘Baba O’Riley’ closes the show, with the crowd singing the chorus. poster

03/03/03 – Budokan: Tokyo, Japan [140m] attendance: approx. 8,000 set: Release, Can’t Keep, Even Flow, Save You, Hail Hail, Dissident, Love Boat Captain, Elderly Woman, Given To Fly, Lukin/Not For You, Daughter/(War)/(Androgynous Mind), You Are, I Am Mine, Better Man, Corduroy, Do The Evolution, Blood enc 1: Bushleaguer, Know Your Rights, Go, Black, U, Breath, Rearviewmirror enc 2: Don’t Be Shy, Soon Forget, Last Kiss, Yellow Ledbetter, Alive notes: Much anticipation over this appearance at the legendary Budokan and the show doesn’t disappoint. A stunning ‘Release’ flows into the next few songs with a great energy, Ed’s voice in good form and little chat until the end of a fast ‘Hail Hail,’ when Ed tries out some Japanese he’s obviously worked on since the previous two shows. He also throws in a humorous, “Hablas Español?” The transition from a snappy ‘Lukin’ to ‘Not For You’ is beautifully seamless. ‘Daughter’ evolves into some chanting, the ‘War’ tag (including a repetitive call out and respond of “no war”); then the “Hey, hey, it’s OK” part of Sonic Youth’s ‘Androgynous Mind’ followed by, “please let it be OK.” Ed’s effort at getting crowd singalongs going (most notably at the start of ‘Better Man’) are unsuccessful. He introduces the band members and adds (laughing), “Soundgarden, Budokan – no. Matt Cameron, Pearl Jam, Budokan – yes.” The first encore begins with everyone on stage except Ed, who arrives with the mask and silver jacket. He impales the mask on the mic stand, finishing the song by placing his cigarette in Bush’s mask and dumping copious amounts of wine down the mouth. He grabs the mask, gives it a long kiss, turns the mic stand upside down (with the mask on it) and uses his foot to scrape the mask off. For ‘Know Your Rights’ (which no one in the crowd seemed to recognize), Ed unfurls a scroll and begins, “This is a public service announcement …” reading as if a town crier. He refers to the scroll several times (obviously for lyrics) during the song, finishing with, “Joe Strummer said that.” Ed starts off the second encore with a lovely solo performance of Cat Stevens’ ‘Don’t Be Shy.’ A ‘Hungerstrike’ riff is followed by ‘YL,’ which, is not the closing song … ‘Alive’ surprises everyone with an extended jam. Charged show with great energy from the band and from an unusually orderly, polite crowd. poster

03/04/03 – Koseinenkin Kaikan: Osaka, Japan [150m] attendance: 2,400

set: Oceans, Love Boat Captain, Do The Evolution, Ghost, Even Flow, Grievance, Off He Goes, Wishlist, 1/2 Full, Once, Nothingman, Leatherman, Better Man, Insignificance, Go, I Am Mine, Thumbing My Way, Faithfull, Porch, Save You enc 1: Breakerfall, Corduroy, Thin Air, Elderly Woman, State of Love and Trust, All or None enc 2: Last Kiss, Smile, Alive notes: A heartwrenchingly beautiful ‘Oceans’ opens. The entire band converges and chats between songs, making up the setlist as they go and creating one that is unusual. ‘Wishlist’ has an outstanding extended ending with added lyrics. The “man” trilogy is introduced by Ed in Japanese. Porch is a highlight with the long jam in the middle and Ed throwing in a bit of an improv (call/response with audience then, “hey, ho, let’s go) … then really getting into the last verse (though missing the lyrics). While this would normally end the set, Ed runs around to the others as they’re taking off their guitars imploring them to stay for one more. Feeding off the now frenzied crowd, they rip through a great version of ‘Save You.’ Fans near the back shout for ‘Daughter’ with Ed saying, “… like ‘Daughter” leading to ‘Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town.’ A rocking ‘State of Love and Trust’ follows, with ‘All or None’ next, killing the momentum. To open the second encore, Ed takes the stage and says the next song is for someone he met at the train station that day. This leads to a solo version of ‘Last Kiss,’ but Ed has trouble as the guitar is not plugged in fully. A tech runs out and pops the plug in much to Ed’s chagrin, and he restarts the song. Ed introduces Jeff as “Stone Gossard” and Stone as “Jeff Ament” (they have changed positions with Jeff on lead and Stone on bass), leading to ‘Smile.’ Mike plays a few bars of ‘Jumping Jack Flash,’ providing time for Jeff and Stone to get back to their regular spots and guitars, leading to ‘Alive.’ poster

03/06/03 – Nagoyashi Kokaido: Nagoya, Japan

set: Given To Fly, Last Exit, Brain of J, Insignificance, Even Flow, Love Boat Captain, I Am Mine, Get Right, MFC, Improv, Immortality, You Are, Light Years, Green Disease, Daughter, Lukin, Spin The Black Circle, Save You enc 1: Bushleaguer, Whipping, Better Man, Footsteps, Crazy Mary, Down, Rearviewmirror enc 2: You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away, Alive, Yellow Ledbetter, Rockin’ in the Free World notes: The most intimate venue of this tour … much more of a small venue feel than Sendai, on a college campus and not even sold out with many empty seats in the balcony circling the main floor. ‘Given to Fly is a bit of a shock as the opener, but it works rather well. Given that opening, the band takes off running, hardly coming up for air the first six songs. After ‘Even Flow,’ a woman (Chino?) takes the stage to translate Ed’s comments to the crowd in Japanese. A haunting instrumental improv, nearly 6 minutes in length, follows ‘MFC.’ There is some speculation that this was to give Ed a break as he seems to be having vocal problems. ‘Immortality’ is jammed out differently toward the end. ‘Light Years’ starts off in the wrong key but they gradually get it worked out. Ed’s voice seems really rough during ‘STBC’ (and later during the intro to ‘Better Man’). After ‘Bushleaguer,’ Chino translates again, much to the crowd’s pleasure. A few notes of ‘Hungerstrike’ are played; then the band launches into ‘Whipping.’ Boom again has a big solo during ‘Crazy Mary.’ Chino speaks again at the start of the second encore. Ed calls out to her again after “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” and she translates more, leading to a singing of ‘Happy Birthday’ to Jeff and Stone giving him a small cake. ‘Alive’ doesn’t have as long a jam as the previous shows, the lights are up for ‘YL’ (with some different lyrics) and everyone is surprised when ‘RITFW’ follows.Good show with some surprises and outstanding slow songs (improv, ‘Immortality,’ ‘You Are’ series is great), but less energy than the other Japan shows … yet a moody atmosphere. That concludes the South Pacific shows. One final note: during many of the shows, one of the techs would hold up a sign with a “$” on it toward the band. Some speculate that this meant that song was a “good take” for the video that was obviously being made (there are numerous cameras). Perhaps another DVD … a few live clips are appearing on the video section of the Ten Club site already. poster setlist scan

04/01/03 – Pepsi Center: Denver, CO attendance: 12,000 support act: Sleater-Kinney

set: Love Boat Captain, Hail Hail, Save You, Corduroy, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Thin Air, Help Help, You Are, I Am Mine, SUV improv/Green Disease, Wishlist, Better Man, Insignificance, Do The Evolution, Porch enc 1: Thumbing My Way, Black, Bushleaguer, Daughter, Go enc 2: Soon Forget, Crazy Mary, Rockin’ In The Free World notes: Ed jokes after ‘Even Flow’ about how this is the opening date of their “farewell tour” in Salt Lake City and how it was good to see the support for the opening band. He says that Stone wrote the next one and the original title was “Falling in Love at 6,000 Feet.” The improv before ‘Green Disease’ is very short and starts out with, “Don’t drive me, I’m an SUV …” Ed talks about someone who was in the armed forces during Vietnam and how Ed asked him how he felt about the current world situation. He is interrupted and says, “Did somebody say “shut up”? I don’t know if you heard about this thing … it’s called freedom of speech. It’s worth thinking about cuz it’s going away. So in the last year of being able to use it, I’m sure as fuck going to use it.” Then he continues to relate about the woes of war and how his friend didn’t feel like we’ve evolved at all and how we need to come together in a good way, leading to ‘DTE.’ A bit of Sleater-Kinney’s ‘Dig Me Out’ is worked into ‘Porch.’ The Bush mask takes a familiar throttling during ‘Bushleaguer.’ (A few people left during or after ‘Bushleaguer.’ The press made a huge issue of it.) Quite a lot of wine consumed and that, combined with the “shy uke” and high altitude, lead to a rough ‘Soon Forget.’ Ed asks if the crowd is allowed to drink and he says he feels better when they reply affirmatively ;) The lovely ‘Crazy Mary’ gets the wine bottle passed around and a stellar ‘RITFW’ closes the opener of PJ’s North American tour. poster setlist scan

04/03/03 – Ford Center: Oklahoma City, OK

support act: Sleater-Kinney

set: Long Road, Grievance, Jools and Jim (Pete Townshend), Corduroy, Save You, Given To Fly, Dissident, Even Flow, I Am Mine, Love Boat Captain, 1/2 Full, Not For You, Off He Goes, Elderly Woman, Untitled/MFC, Happy Birthday, Drifting, Get Right, Deep!, Blood enc 1: Better Man, Daughter/(War), Do The Evolution, Rearviewmirror enc 2: Alive, Yellow Ledbetter notes: The ending of the Pete Townshend song ‘Jools and Jim’ (from the Empty Glass glass album, where Pete sings “Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Oklahoma, O-K”) is played before ‘Corduroy.’ After ‘Save You,’ Ed speaks:

“Glad you could all be with us tonight. There’s a lot of “fucks” in that last song. And it’s fucking great to be here. And “fuck” is a great fucking word. And it seems like ten years ago, freedom of speech, it all had to do with whether you could say “fuck” or not. Cuz it is, it’s a word that’s worth fighting for, ya know, ya say fuck him, fuck her, fuck me, fuck! Then great ways to say it: “That’s fuckin’ beautiful.” Fuck. I personally can’t say I ever said it this way, but I’m sure you could say, “Let’s fuck.” But now freedom of speech it has, uh, it has a lot to do with much bigger issues. And uh, somehow, we played a show last night and it’s been misconstrued. They said, uh, 24 people left because they were upset at a, uh, anti-Bush administration remark. [crowd boos] You’re booing the story, right, not me? Let’s clarify that. You know you could have written that story differently and you could have said 11,972 people cheered and applauded at what the singer said … we pledged our support and love to the troops. Ya know, how could we not be for the military? Look at this fuckin’ haircut. [cheers] So, uh, no matter what it is, no matter how you feel, I think it’s important for people to be able to protest, say what they feel, and put public pressure, put pressure on politicians and government just so that they will do a better job. There’s nothing anti-patriotic about that. Because their job affects our families, our safety, our security, our relatives who are in the military, our friends, it affects everyone, so we have a right to be a voice and be part of that, I would think, as part of a democracy. That’s all we wanted to say, this is ‘Given to Fly’.”

Due to technical problems (“Mike apparently blew up one of his guitar amps”), we get the uke early for ‘Happy Birthday’ to Chris (Ed’s brother) and again for Kille instead of ‘Soon Forget,’ followed by a little guitar and uke noodling (including Jeff doing a ‘Satan’s Bed’ riff). Ed says ‘Drifting’ was written while flying over Oklahoma. ‘Deep’ is a surprise; hasn’t been played at a show in more than seven years. Mike’s solo during ’1/2 Full’ is amazing. ‘Elderly Woman’ is dedicated to the folks in Chickasaw, which isn’t that small of a town, but still a nice sentiment. Tons of windmills by Ed throughout the show and jumping up and down with Jeff. Before the ‘Daughter’ tag, Ed speaks of how Edwin Starr (who wrote ‘War’) passed away the previous day. After ‘Alive,’ Ed asks that the light be brought up to make sure that no one has “stormed out of the exits … for the record.” The band is very on, minus the technical problems.

encore setlist scan

04/05/03 – Verizon Wireless Amphitheater: Selma (San Antonio), TX attendance: 12,219 support act: Sleater-Kinney soundcheck: Of The Girl, Black, U, Animal, Jeremy set: Of The Girl, (Interstellar Overdrive)/Corduroy, Last Exit, Love Boat Captain, Cropduster, Happy Birthday, Even Flow, I Am Mine, Wishlist, Lukin/Grievance, Animal, Given To Fly, Faithfull, Black, Insignificance, Save You, Spin The Black Circle enc 1: Last Kiss, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Crazy Mary, Happy Birthday, improv, Do The Evolution enc 2: I Am A Patriot, Alive, Yellow Ledbetter, Baba O’Riley notes: After ‘Cropduster,’ Ed tells San Antonio “howdy” and recognizes Mike’s birthday, playing ‘Happy Birthday’ on the uke and everyone singing. Ed modifies ‘Wishlist’: first, “… thousands of Texans hands upraised …” and a beautiful, extended ending:

“I wish I was the radio song the song that said whatever it wanted this is a free country … you should hear what you wanna hear … there’s nothing that you shouldn’t hear land of the free and the home of the brave, when the brave will be someone who’s not afraid to say, to say, to say anything … what he feels, and believes what he knows what he thinks who he loves what he loves and who he loves and what he loves … I love you .. and I love this country too.”

The extended ‘Wishlist’ glides right into ‘Lukin’ and, with a bit of Matt’s snappy drumming, transforms into ‘Grievance.’ The crowd helps sing ‘Animal.’ ‘Crazy Mary’ is played for their special guest, Ben. A second ‘Happy Birthday’ is performed for Mike, Ed calling it a “ukulele punk rock version” starting off with a 1-2-3-4 — absolutely hilarious. Jeff smashes a birthday cake into Mike’s face (and licks some off). Next is a slight improv (really more of an intro to ‘DTE’) with the lyrics: “Spinning, the world’s spinning; clouds upon it …” A fitting ‘Patriot’ is just Ed with Matt. Ed cautions “be gentle” when someone who tries to get on the stage gets hauled out by security during ‘Alive.’ Then it’s “Kille, you know what to do” and “thank you” to all the various areas of the venue, leading to ‘YL’ with a verse modified quite a lot: “I’d like to see him, just looked at the photograph today; looked so good in his uniform, I remember him other ways … and I’ll never forget the phone call …” poster

04/06/03 – Cynthia Wood Mitchell Pavilion: Woodlands (Houston), TX

support act: Sleater-Kinney soundcheck: Breath, Rival, Leatherman (including Stone doing a couple of Ticket to Ride riffs) set: Can’t Keep, Grievance, Save You, Hail Hail, Even Flow, I Am Mine, Thumbing My Way, You Are, Whipping, Insignificance, Breath, 1/2 Full, Elderly Woman, Immortality, Do The Evolution, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Love Boat Captain, Better Man, Black, Go enc 2: Soon Forget, Fortunate Son, Rockin’ in The Free World notes: After the first encore, that ends in the band tearing up ‘Go,’ Ed returns to the stage alone for the second encore. “Whoever said you were a hick town with more millionaires per square inch, it wasn’t me. I just wanted to say while we’re playing Houston, fuck Dallas. [big cheers] We don’t really feel that way, it’s just freedom of speech … it’s just fun. I think we have to come back and play Dallas (laughing).” He requests the Bill Gates mask and tell the crowd that they’re going to witness what it looks like to impale something on a stick in a ritualistic manner (quoting the Denver newspaper review) and he sets the mask on the mic stand. “You gotta watch close, cause it happens fast. You go like this … total impalement! It’s an insane sick ritual that I invented cause I’m a sick fuck and a celebrity.” The absurdity of the whole thing is hilarious and the crowd is laughing through much of ‘Soon Forget.’ All three members of Sleater-Kinney join PJ for ‘Fortunate Son’ and ‘RITFW.’ Great energy with the lyrics changed slightly on ‘Fortunate Son’ to “… hate me, I ain’t no president’s son.” poster

04/08/03 – UNO Lakefront Arena: New Orleans, LA

support act: Sleater-Kinney set: Love Boat Captain, Grievance, Corduroy, Brain of J, Save You, Cropduster, Given To Fly, Nothing As It Seems, Even Flow, I Am Mine, Green Disease, Wishlist, Daughter, Lukin, Insignificance, I Am A Patriot, 1/2 Full, Porch enc 1: SUV improv, Thumbing My Way, Elderly Woman, Black, Do The Evolution, Spin the Black Circle enc 2: Crazy Mary, Know Your Rights, Fortunate Son, Rockin’ in the Free World notes: After ‘GTF,’ Ed greets the crowd and talks about how a “very public figure” was staying in the same hotel as the band and that it wasn’t a breach of security to say it was Dick Cheney and suggests it was he who was blasting AC/DC’s ‘Highway to Hell’ over and over. Prior to ‘Wishlist,’ Ed speaks of how the band has never been greedy, but the one material possession they really, really wanted to the point of embarrassment and guilt was the mirrorball. He continues that they had to bargain with Cher to get it and she threw in the shiny jacket. It is brought out and he says it is “like Mardi Gras.” He spins in circles at the end of the song, like a human mirrorball. The ‘Daughter’ tag consists of the call and respond chanting with the crowd, including a bit of “Hey ho, let’s go.” ‘I Am A Patriot’ is another reworked version, this one slower with the full band. During ’1/2 Full’ Ed uses a large mirror on his head to deflect a spotlight around various spots in the crowd, asking “won’t someone save the world … you? you? you?” pausing long on a fan wearing a “Bush for Sale” shirt. At the conclusion, he notes a “Shave Your Bush in 2004,” laughs and says, “That man’s got a right to freedom of speech … and we got it to and with that, I’m gonna say this …” leading to ‘Porch.’ Ed has a complete lyrics blank during the second verse of ‘DTE,’ saying “I know this part” just before the first instrumental section ;) Ed sings a bit of ‘Song X’ a capella at the start of the second encore, followed by Mike playing some ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ licks when Ed mentions they’re headed to Alabama so they may as well stay a little longer. The band seems to ponder playing it until Mike insists he doesn’t know it. Sleater-Kinney again help out on ‘Fortunate Son’ and ‘RITFW.’ ‘Glorified G’ was on the written setlist but not played. poster setlist scan

04/09/03 – Oak Mountain Amphitheatre: Pelham (Birmingham), AL

support act: Sleater-Kinney soundcheck: Habit, Leaving Here, Soldier of Love set: Go, Save You, Spin The Black Circle, Even Flow, Daughter/(Androgynous Mind), Better Man, Not For You, Elderly Woman, Love Boat Captain, Corduroy, You Are, Thumbing My Way, Given To Fly, Wishlist, Animal, Do The Evolution enc 1: Last Kiss, Black, Alive enc 2: Soldier of Love, Leaving Here, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Weather is very cold. Ed suggests that if people get the CD of the show and want to relive the experience, get “… three really big fans, a small chair, open the freezer and refrigerator, put your feet in a bucket of ice, put the headphones on and let it rip.” After ‘You Are,’ Ed asks how people’s health is (he seems to be sick, blowing his nose a lot). He passes a Kleenex into the crowd to see how far it gets by the end of the song. He asks for the lights and apparently there is little left; he says, “I need a bigger Kleenex,” laughing. ‘Wishlist’ lyrics are ‘I wish I was a neutron bomb and I could refuse to go off” and “I wish I was the full moon shining off your tractor’s hood.” Boom gets introduced … “He’s freezing his Hawaiian ass off.” Ed refers to the show as the “second coldest show we’ve ever played.” Mike tags some Hendrix on the end of ‘Alive.’ The second encore begins with, “If you’ve got the guts, we’ve got the action!” ‘Soldier of Love’ has two takes because they seriously botch the beginning. At some point during ‘YL,’ Stone talks to Jeff, who begins laughing and Stone is hysterical. Stone then talks to the techs and the rest of the band, still laughing. As ‘YL’ concludes, Mike tags a snippet of ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ and the band remains on stage, with Matt stretching and the band appear to be discussing the next song to play. They take their spots, there is some feedback off Mike’s guitar, four clicks from Matt’s sticks, a single loud chord and the band quickly waves goodbye and exits from the stage, much to the dismay of the crowd. (There was no deviation aside from omitting ‘Jeremy.’) setlists scan

04/11/03 – Sound Advice Amphitheater: West Palm Beach, FL attendance: 17,000 support act: Sleater-Kinney soundcheck: Last Exit, Gimme Some Truth, Nothingman, Glorified G (x2), I Am A Patriot pre-set: You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away (Ed solo) set: Long Road, Breakerfall, Corduroy, Animal, Save You, Given to Fly, Cropduster, Even Flow, Elderly Woman, Love Boat Captain, Ghost, Whipping, Untitled/MFC, You Are, 1/2 Full, State of Love and Trust, Alive enc 1: Last Exit, I Am A Patriot, Better Man, Down, Glorified G, Do The Evolution enc 2: Daughter/(Dig Me Out), Yellow Ledbetter, Baba O’Riley notes: After the lovely ‘Long Road’ opener, the band just tears through the first few songs with no breaks. ‘Elderly Woman’ goes out to the “highest people in Florida” (referencing how someone told him that the top of the lawn is the highest peak in FL). ‘Untitled’ is extended and modified – quite lovely. Ed uses the mirror to reflect light into the crowd during ’1/2 Full.’ During ‘SOL&T,’ Ed sees a fan with a cell phone, he obtains it and sings a bit of the song into the cell. He sticks it in his pocket like he is going to keep it but tosses it back to the owner eventually. A powerful ‘Alive’ is dedicated to cancer survivor, Nick, who had lost his hair due to chemotherapy, but now has a thick head of curly hair. After ‘Last Exit,’ Ed notes someone holding up a flag and says, “This song’s for the flag,” leading to a slow, sweet ‘Patriot.’ A “USA” chant starts up and Ed responds, “I hear ya brother … ‘USA’. USA, it’s a great fuckin’ country, right? I used to work midnight shift security guard; Matt used to work at Kinkos. … I’d say one of the greatest thing about it is you have the right to express your opinion, no matter what it is … It’s not Pizza Huts and Walmarts on every fuckin’ corner. And the fact that our president, who I love … here’s a fact for you … my opinion …” and he talks about how the young soldiers aren’t getting paid shit while the government is working on getting tax breaks for the rich. “I’m calling bullshit on that. All right, enough of that,” leading to ‘Better Man,’ tagged at the end with: “President Bush, President Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell … don’t let us dowwwnnnnnnn!” Introduced with, “All right, here’s one we haven’t played for fuckin ages,” ‘Glorified G’ is resurrected from the vault after nearly seven years. Ed changes the ‘DTE’ lyrics to “I keep fucking it up so I’ll soon be fired.” Very cool show and crowd. poster setlists scan

04/12/03 – House of Blues: Lake Buena Vista (Orlando), FL attendance: 2,000 soundcheck: Deep, Green Disease, Fuckin’ Up, Sleight of Hand, Know Your Rights, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away (Ed solo), Soon Forget (Ed solo), You’re True (Ed solo), Can’t Keep (Ed solo) set: Can’t Keep, Save You, Get Right, Even Flow, Faithfull, Habit, I Am Mine, Love Boat Captain, Green Disease, Sleight of Hand, Thumbing My Way, 1/2 Full, Deep, improv/Insignificance, Once, Alive enc 1: Spin the Black Circle, Go, Do The Evolution, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Blue Red Grey, Rearviewmirror enc 2: Glorified G, Crazy Mary, Know Your Rights, Fuckin’ Up enc 3: Yellow Ledbetter notes: This club show at the House of Blues was added after the tour dates were announced and tickets were only available via radio station contests. Ed says, “Well, we don’t know what you did to get in tonight but we’re glad you did.” He notes the many cameras and explains that those are there for people at home watching the show on their computers. He later jokes of how they are the “house band.” The improv before ‘Insignificance’ includes the lyrics: “There’s no karma in the afterlife … but there’s a price to pay in this one here …. be good …” During the encore, Ed comments on how his uke is nicknamed “Carry On” (short for ‘Carry On My Wayward Son’) and he says that he isn’t going to play the song but wishes that Mike would. Mike steps up with guitar and Ed says that if Mike knows how to play it, he’ll sing it. Mike plays the lead riffs and stops, with Ed saying it is a good thing that Mike only knows the instrumental section or Ed would be in big trouble. This leads to Ed playing ‘Blue Red Grey’, a Who song (see The Who By Numbers) that Pete penned and plays the ukulele on; it is undoubtedly the inspiration for ‘Soon Forget’ and Ed plays the uke on it as well. (The entire show was webcast two days later and was aired again May 7.) setlists scan

UPDATED March 29, 2010 04/13/03 – St. Pete Times Forum: Tampa, FL support act: Sleater-Kinney preset: You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away (Ed solo) set: Elderly Woman, Grievance, Corduroy, Hail Hail, Save You, Dissident, Given To Fly, Off He Goes, Love Boat Captain, Thin Air, Wishlist, Even Flow, Better Man, Daughter, 1/2 Full, I Am A Patriot, MFC, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Last Kiss, Do The Evolution, Black, Alive enc 2: Yellow Ledbetter, Rockin’ In the Free World notes: This show gets down to business with not much Ed banter at all. Ed doesn’t address the crowd until after “Save You” by asking “How’s it goin’? Starting to warm up a bit in here. It’s nice to be here, we got some friends and family…and you!”. He introduces Mike and “Dissident” and we are back off and running. Not many rarities in a very mellow and radio-heavy setlist but the boys seemed loose and really locked in. Not many mistakes, yet when there were some missed cues, etc. they turned into happy accidents and actually added a nice change (i.e. extended sing-a-long in “Elderly Woman…” and slightly extended intro to “Grievance” due to Ed’s false start.). Stone badly flubs the solo/bridge in “Thin Air” which prompts an immediate “Stone” chant at the end of the song. Ed points out that “It’s been a long time” since they had played the song. Not much improv tonight either as “Better Man” is tag-less, however “Daughter is tagged with Ed leading the crowd in a loud sing-a-long of “P-E-A-C-E” and afterward says “That’s about the only thing I can get excited about these days is that word. Thanks for sharing with us.” The first “rare” moment of the evening comes when they break out a slightly different version of “I Am A Patriot” than what we had heard previous to this tour. This particular night, Ed was “walking with his girlfriend, he was drunk on wine, it was the only way he could ease his mind.” Afterward the crowd begins chanting “U-S-A” to which Ed responds “Lets hear it. That’s exactly what I’m talking about brother, although I will admit I feel like my version was a bit more poetic” then launches into “MFC”. They close the main set with “Rearviewmirror”. Before the second encore Ed says they’ve “been in Florida a week but it feels like a month and they hate to leave.” He then talks about everyone “doing things in your own lives to make the world a better place. You probably already do, and if you don’t it’s a great time to start. It’s addicting. Why do you think we play? It feels alright ya know? Even just picking up the papers for somebody else in the morning who’s too old to reach down and get ‘em themselves, that’s a nice little thing that makes the world a better place. Shootin’ the Domino’s pizza guy an extra five bucks, it makes the world a better place. Unless of course he’s a crack addict on parole and he goes and shoots himself up and then ends up robbing somebody else’s house. You gotta be careful about this stuff.” The band then says goodbye to Florida with a version of “Ledbetter” that has slightly different lyrics – “I walk my side streets, some strangers that I don’t know. And they’re waving the old American flag and I wave back…”. Sleater Kinney joins them for “Rockin’ in the Free World”, sending the crowd home happy.

04/15/03 – Alltel Pavilion Walnut Creek: Raleigh, NC

support act: Sleater-Kinney soundcheck: Habit, Sometimes, Gimme Some Truth Mankind (x3) preset: You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away (Ed solo) set: Release, Even Flow, Save You, Help Help, Given To Fly, Cropduster, I Am Mine, Lukin/Not For You, Corduroy, I Got Shit, You Are, Elderly Woman, Insignificance, Alive, Porch, Blood enc 1: Gimme Some Truth, Love Boat Captain, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Glorified G, Do The Evolution, Rearviewmirror enc 2: Fortunate Son, Rockin’ in the Free World notes: Not much chat but a blazing setlist. Before ‘I Got Shit,’ Ed mentions that Mike is looking relaxed. He discusses how they aren’t getting much attention from music television anymore so the band hired a fashion consultant to work with their image and that they suggested Mike wear sandals, but that they have duct tape on them and that’s what makes them “edgy … relaxed, but edgy.” ‘Elderly Woman’ is dedicated to “everybody in the back … you are your own small town yourself, there’s enough of you.” ‘Insignificance’ is introduced as “another song about a small town just south of Seattle where they got the Boeing plant where they make the airplanes … the war planes …” After ‘Porch,’ Ed walks backwards from the edge of the stage and takes a nasty spill over a monitor. It seems as if the band is prepared to play ‘Daughter,’ but Ed speaks to Stone, Stone changes guitar and they play ‘Blood.’ Ed is sporting a “What Would Jesus Bomb” t-shirt and works the words into ‘DTE’ (as well as, “I bomb what I want to irresponsibly”). Ed uses the mirror and spotlight to highlight areas of the crowd during ‘RVM.’ Sleater-Kinney again help out on ‘Fortunate Son’ and ‘RITFW.’ Before ‘Fortunate Son,’ Ed encourages the crowd to “educate yourself … if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything, and I see that happening a lot these days.” Very energetic crowd with lots of clapping beats and singalongs. Very energetic band, with several jumps, including Jeff’s four- or five-foot leap at the end of ‘RITFW.’ poster

04/16/03 – Verizon Wireless Amphitheater: Charlotte, NC attendance: 9,392 support act: Sleater-Kinney soundcheck: In Hiding, Sonic Reducer, Light Years, Breath, Drifting (Ed Solo) preset: Drifting (Ed solo) set: Sometimes, Last Exit, Save You, Animal, Jeremy, Nothing As it Seems, In Hiding, Even Flow, SUV improv, Green Disease, Corduroy, Immortality, Nothingman, Better Man, Leatherman, Grievance, Do The Evolution, Breath, Go enc 1: Love Boat Captain, Black, Down, Alive enc 2: Sonic Reducer, Leaving Here, Rockin’ In The Free World notes: Ed makes a reference to Creed toward the start of ‘Green Disease’ and then gets lost and sings “la la la.” Later he spells out “C-R-E-E-D” rather than “G-R-E-E-D.” After ‘Jeremy,’ Ed says good evening to those on the lawn (“high on grass in the back”). ‘Nothingman’ is introduced with, “… we’re gonna play three songs. Each has the word “man” in it. They’re all written from a female perspective.” After ‘Grievance,’ Ed speaks of how he can’t imagine living somewhere where you couldn’t sing what you wanted to sing or say want you wanted to say, but that it feels like that lately. Being the day after tax day, he speaks of paying taxes and how 50% of tax money funds the military to “keep ourselves safe.” He mentions how ironic it is that the soldiers are only getting paid just above minimum wage. “At the same time we’re giving $90 billion to fight this war …” (Someone interrupts, shouting, “Which we won!”) Ed continues, “It’s not over yet, my friend … and it’s not all about winning and losing … it’s about what step are we taking next and where are we going with this thing … if we’re in control, we’d better do it responsibly. And if we’re the people, we’d better make sure our leaders do it responsibly because it’s our ass they’re putting on the line, not theirs.” He speaks of the $20 billion being taken from the Veterans’ Administration and how we should get congress to support the troops, leading to ‘DTE.’ The rest of the band applaud Mike after an amazing ‘Black’ solo. Ed sings the “you’re still alive, she said” line from ‘Alive’ seated on the edge of the stage. Sleater-Kinney sing the ‘Leaving Here’ chorus with Ed and also help out on ‘RITFW.’ ‘RITFW’ is very wild with jumps from amps by Ed and Mike, plus Mike and Jeff exchanging guitars and Jeff pretending that he is going to smash Mike’s at the end. Ed taunts the crowd by almost giving away the “23″ Michael Jordan jersey on Jeff’s amp. He grins and runs off the stage. Great energy, tight setlist, stellar crowd (Sleater-Kinney commented that it was the best crowd they’d seen all tour). During the final jam of ‘RITFW,’ Eddie and Corin from S-K each took a tambourine and went to the far, opposite corners of the stage and helped the crowd clap/sing along. setlist scan

04/18/03 – Am South Amphitheater: Antioch (Nashville), TN

support act: Sleater-Kinney soundcheck: Parting Ways, Oceans, Present Tense (several times) preset: Throw Your Arms Around Me (Ed solo) set: Oceans, Love Boat Captain, Breakerfall, Gods’ Dice, Save You, Do The Evolution, Cropduster, Light Years, MFC, Deep, Even Flow, Daughter/(ABitW)/(Androgynous Mind), Insignificance, Parting Ways, Better Man/(Wild Thing), Rearviewmirror enc 1: Free Jazz, Elderly Woman, Know Your Rights, Bushleaguer, Alive, Sonic Reducer enc 2: Leaving Here, Fortunate Son, Rockin’ In The Free World notes: Opening with ‘Oceans’ and then totally just hammering it in with hard rocking out songs and amazing high energy from everyone. Ed feeds off the crowd a lot, in very high spirits. ‘Light Years’ is dedicated to someone that recently passed way that was close to someone they know — simply beautiful. Before ‘Even Flow,’ Ed says, “I know this next song so well I could have a cigarette, have a drink, brush my teeth, take a shit and mow the lawn all at the same time while singing it. I’ll only be doing a couple of those things during this version,” and he puts a cig in his mouth but has no lighter. He motions for one of the crew for a lighter, but no one helps him. Suddenly approx. 10 lighters fly out of the crowd. Ed catches one (“All right, we got enough!”), lights the smoke and throws it right back to the guy that tossed it up to him. The ‘Wild Thing’ (a 60s song by The Troggs) tag on ‘Better Man’ is totally random and the crowd loves it. Before ‘Free Jazz,’ Ed says, “We’re gonna try this one out, this is a new song on our next album,” and they play this out of tune session with Ed snapping his fingers out of rhythm. At the”scream HELLO” part of ‘Elderly Woman,’ the crowd does a loud “Hello!” but it is super loud and Ed says, “Jesus Christ” right after it. ‘Bushleaguer’ finally returns after the Denver outcry. Ed takes the stage wearing the silver glitter jacket and the Bush mask. When he removes it, he goes to set it on the stand and says something about not violently putting it down: “see?” During the song, Ed sticks his fingers through the back of the mask into the mouth part to look like a tongue hanging out and he wiggles them around. At the end, he caresses the dubya mask’s “hair” and then dips it into a kiss, getting quite a few boos and a lot of screams. ‘Sonic Reducer’ is performed with Cheetah Chrome, the guitarist for the Dead Boys who penned the song and lives in Nashville. Sleater-Kinney help out on the last three songs and this is their last night opening. Steve Earle plays on ‘Fortunate Son.’ Ed does a lot of silly dancing and Mike has goofy moves … the whole band is very tight.

04/19/03 – Hi Fi Buys Amphitheater: Atlanta, GA

support act: Sparta

set: Love Boat Captain, Corduroy, Save You, Hail Hail, Grievance, Elderly Woman, Even Flow, 1/2 Full, Thumbing My Way, I Am Mine, Insignificance, Glorified G, Present Tense, Animal, State of Love and Trust, Blood enc 1: Crown Of Thorns, Black, Alive, Porch enc 2: You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away, Crazy Mary, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter notes: ‘Corduroy’ has a lyric change to “Can’t buy what I want because it’s PEACE.” ‘Grievance’ lyric changes are “I would like to taste every Georgian I see” and “I want my free speech.” Before ‘Elderly Woman,’ Ed mentions fond memories of Atlanta and how they had been looking forward to this show. He says they got a call on a cell phone from the people behind the large American flag that folks in the crowd are holding up … “it’s not that they are being unpatriotic; they just can’t see anything … they’re being blinded by the flag if you know what I mean.” ‘You Are’ is attempted twice after ‘Thumbing My Way,’ but Stone has technical problems with the sound and says, “We’ll see if we can get that one sorted out,” but it never resurfaces. Ed says, “That song we just attempted to play is a love song written by Matt Cameron; this one was written by me. When Matt writes a love song it’s about someone else. When I write a love song I write it about myself. This song’s about claiming your own personal space and that that’s okay,” leading to ‘I Am Mine.’ Before ‘Glorified G,’ Ed notes, “This is another song in the Pearl Jam catalog that has to do with weaponry.” ‘Present Tense’ is introduced as “a song we haven’t played for a long, long time. We’re gonna give it a try.” Amazing. At the top of the first encore, Ed thanks Atlanta and refers to ‘Olympic Platinum’ (from the ’96 fan club single): “We didn’t know if you’d let us back after that one.” He says they are making it up as they go, leading to ‘Crown of Thorns,’ with Brendan O’Brien on keyboards and a nice jam in the middle. Stone hits a wrong note at the start of ‘Alive,’ causing the band to create a little crazy musical dissonance before going into a proper version of ‘Alive.’ Four guys in the crowd wearing Bush masks are noticed by Mike and they are pointed out with a security flashlight. During ‘Porch,’ they are brought up on stage, each individually introduced as “George Bush Jr. and friends of Ed’s. Ed says, “We’re all looking for support, we all want support” and the four boost Ed up above their heads and the band returns from the ‘Porch’ jam to “hear my name, take a good look …” with Ed being held high with the four “Bush’s.” Hilarious! After the encore break, Ed says, “I probably shouldn’t tell you this because it’s an issue of national security, but the Bush’s are partying backstage, pretty heavy. It’s historical. It’s the first time we’ve ever had cocaine backstage at a Pearl Jam show … You know it’s nice to be supported by our government, that felt good.” Ed continues about cutting the Veteran’s Administration Fund. “I support the troops. I want them to stay alive. I want them to be well paid. And I want them to get their healthcare paid for. Their kid’s education paid for. While we’re at it, let’s pay teachers more. They’re on the forefront. I’d say an education is pretty good ammunition to face the world with. We weren’t even going to say anything tonight, but someone brought the flag and a few other things. That’s freedom of speech there. We’re all just practicing freedom of speech. It seems to be working out all right, let’s just keep it alive.” Ed’s lovely solo version of ‘You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away’ is followed by the ‘Crazy Mary,’ ‘Baba O’Riley,’ ‘Yellow Ledbetter’ punch, with the band having a great time. The last half of the show is full of extended rocking jams and crowd interaction. “Thank you, Georgia. Atlanta rocks!” poster

04/21/03 – Rupp Arena: Lexington, KY

support act: Sparta

set: Cropduster, Given To Fly, Corduroy, Last Exit, Save You, Daughter, Immortality, Elderly Woman, Even Flow, 1/2 Full, Can’t Keep, You Are, Do The Evolution, Blood, Thumbing My Way, Jeremy, Black enc 1: I Am A Patriot, Go, Glorified G, Breath, Better Man, Alive enc 2: Smile, Fuckin’ Up, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Unusual ‘Cropduster’ opener. This was clearly Mike’s night with his solos invoking massive uproars from the crowd. Ed shines the spotlight across the crowd with his mirror at the end of ’1/2 Full.’ He didn’t actually address the crowd until after ‘Blood,’ thanking them and saying that the band had decided to cancel the show the next day … “Fuck it, we’ll stay right here! It’s Tuesday: Whiskey Drinking Day, right?” He laughs and says, “It’s called ‘pandering to the audience 101′ … what is there to drink in St. Louis, piss?” He says the content of the next song would make the lesser person want to lose themselves in the bottle, leading to ‘Thumbing My Way.’. The crowd in the first two sections are jumping so much during ‘Jeremy’ that Ed and Mike take notice and get everyone involved. Ed and Matt open the first encore with ‘I Am A Patriot.’ “I’m just gonna reload for this next one,” introduces ‘Glorified G.’ Ed sings the second verse of ‘Breath’ first and catches himself twice, laughing as the crowd helps out. Next he baubles ‘Better Man,’ but the crowd is singing and he says, “You know it better than I.” At the start of the second encore, Ed introduces the band and jokes about what it must feel like to be Mike’s guitar, leading to ‘Smile.’ A crew member tosses Ed about seven tambourines during ‘Fuckin Up,’ as Ed breaks them and liberally gives them away.

04/22/03 – Savvis Center: St. Louis, MO

support act: Sparta soundcheck: Faithfull, Green Disease, Save You, Present Tense set: Present Tense, Save You, Animal, Green Disease, Grievance, Faithfull, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Sleight Of Hand, You Are, Elderly Woman, Not For You/Love Boat Captain, Wishlist, Help Help, Do The Evolution, Alive enc 1: Go, State Of Love And Trust, Black, Improv/Rearviewmirror enc 2: Soon Forget, Better Man/(Save it for Later), Daughter, Indifference notes: A fairly dark stage with Mike playing the first notes of ‘Present Tense’ to open and the crowd going nuts. The high energy continues through the next few songs, with ‘Animal’ and ‘Even Flow’ reminiscent of ten years past, Ed’s eyes rolling back in his head and menacing grin; Mike spinning in circles, running everywhere like an uncaged animal and never missing a note. Drenched in sweat, Ed looks up at the Stanley Cup banners (Savvis Center is the home of the St. Louis Blues) and says that the flags help the acoustic out but that the crowd’s feet must be freezing, leading to ‘Sleight Of Hand,’ backed nicely by ‘You Are’ with effectively dramatic lighting. There is an amusing exchange before ‘Elderly Woman.’ Ed is ready to start the song and Stone is switching guitars and getting a drink, causing Ed to wait. It was one of those “you go” … “no you go ahead” type things and they bantered back and forth a bit with big grins on their faces. An intense ‘Not For You’ with a lyric change to “small my table, seats saint Lou” getting a huge response from the crowd. The main set closes with an energetic ‘DTE’ (Jeff’s bass line rules!) and ‘Alive,’ with Ed swinging the mic around Daltrey style during the Mike’s solo. Ed creeps behind one of the suit and tie security guards below Mike, goofing on him in a crouching “scary” pose like he is going to pounce on him, but the guard is so serious that he won’t look up, causing the band to crack up. A rather lengthy improv follows a deliberately slow ‘Black.’ The improv’s lyrical theme revolves around “I don’t know where, I wanna go, I just know I need to go. … get me the fuck outta here,” and later “when I feel that regime change, starts at home, starts at home, take me home, let’s go.” There are a lot of percussive and animal-like vocal sounds from Ed. The improv eventually wraps up, leading into a tight ‘RVM’ featuring a very extended bridge section underneath Kille’s beautiful lighting to close the encore. Ed returns with the wine bottle (“A toast to you, St. Lou. A toast to Dead Moon, who you’ve never heard of.”), thanks Sparta, jokes about the hockey score and picks up the uke giving a lyrically flawless ‘Soon Forget,’ the crowd not clapping along, but enjoying the song. He concludes the song holding a note forever, then doing a variety of jumps and windmills with the uke. Ed asks the crowd to take the first verse and the audience obliges singing ‘Better Man,’ putting on a good show and Ed picking up the lyrics at the first chorus, tagged at the end with a very slow ‘SIFL.’ ‘Daughter’ is next, with no tag, but a very, very extended jam with Ed trying a variety of different solos with the harmonica. Then he uses the mirror and spotlight to reflect a beam of light around the audience for a few minutes with great Ed/crowd interaction. Ed speaks about communicating and “just not fighting,” finishing the night with a beautiful performance of ‘Indifference.’ poster setlist scan

04/23/03 – University of Illinois Assembly Center: Champaign, IL attendance: 10,435 support act: Sparta soundcheck: Driven To Tears (x6), U, Deep set: Do The Evolution, Corduroy, Save You, Deep, Dissident, Elderly Woman, Even Flow, Jeremy, Thumbing My Way, You Are, I Am Mine, Habit, Untitled/MFC, Given To Fly, Nothingman, Blood, Porch enc 1: Driven To Tears, Better Man, Crazy Mary, Know Your Rights, Fortunate Son enc 2: Blue Red Grey, Black, Alive, Baba O’Riley notes: Ed says a quick, “All right … let’s go!” and PJ opens with a slamming ‘DTE’ in this smallish venue shaped like a UFO. The sold out Illinois crowd is more than receptive to Pearl Jam, especially with this ferocious opener great Stone solos throughout. The fast pace continues through a welcome ‘Deep’ with killer Mike solos and Ed’s intense lyrical delivery. While changing instruments, Ed greets Champaign and says he feels like a lion in a cage and asks if there are any Christians who want to be eaten tonight. He dedicates ‘Elderly Woman’ to towns like Gurnee, Rockton and Kankakee. Someone yells out “Cuba!” which amuses him. Big response from the audience, who promptly lights up the place with their lighters and the crowd sings the “hearts and thoughts” section. During ‘Even Flow,’ a fan tosses a camera to Ed, who takes a photo of Mike soloing and then tosses the camera back. ‘Jeremy’ is well-received and worth the price of admission simply to watch Stone pogo while yelling out the whole “ooh, ooh, ooh” section with a huge grin on his face in unison with the crowd. This show is having the feel of stepping back in time about 10 years. ‘Habit’ is dedicated to those high on crystal meth and there is no “speaking as …” tag. As usual, Ed plays around with the lyrics to ‘Untitled’ (“Lets get to Chicago, get drunk and talk politics …”; Assembly Hall is on campus and no alcohol is served) leading to a high energy ‘MFC’ with Mike running all around the stage. ‘Blood’ gets an insane response; this is the first time it’s been played in the midwest since Soldier Field. Band is animated, Ed is thrusting the mic stand like the old days and the stage is bathed in red lights. ‘Porch’ follows as the perfect closer after ‘Blood.’ While it isn’t the 12-minute Atlanta 94 version, it has great solos from Mike and Stone, plus Ed leading the crowd in a call/response of noises and phrases during the bridge. Ed goes to Stone’s side and he picks up a cable, swinging it as if he would catch it over the rafters and climb (quite amusing). When the band hits the stage again, Ed says, “We don’t have class tomorrow … do you?” The crowd yells, “no!” and Ed says, “Class my ass is what you’re saying” and an enthusiastic “Stone” chant gets going. Matt starts the drum beat that would become The Police’s ‘Driven To Tears,’ which has even the die-hard fans in total shock. After ‘Crazy Mary,’ “OK class … a bit of history,” introduces a searing ‘ Know Your Rights,’ with Ed jumping all over his monitor wedges making hand gestures. The audience is in a state of bewilderment, and it exploded as the band went into ‘Fortunate Son,’ giving the song an amazing response. A very strange, high energy encore! Ed returns, standing motionless, then looking around shrugging as if “where’s the band?” Fans are screaming out songs. Ed responds, “We’re proponents of open honest debate … the ballots are closed … I am your leader!” He starts talking about ‘Soon Forget’ and how it was “stolen off a song off Who By Numbers. Some one interrupts yelling “Yellow Ledbetter” and Ed responds, “Hold your horses, shut the fuck up; cause you see we were gonna and now we won’t and that’s just how we are … you’re not helping matters at all.” (And it WAS on the setlist and it WASN’T played … lesson learned: don’t interrupt.) He continues that Pete Townshend is his hero and loves Chicago and plays, ‘Blue, Red, Grey’ … another huge surprise. The crowd sings the second verse of ‘Black’ when Ed points the mic to the crowd. Ed backs up and ends up leaning against Stone. Alive’ has the crowd singing note for note, pogoing and chanting the “yeah” section. By the end of the song, the crowd is ready to blow the roof off of the place, and that’s exactly what happens when the house lights come up, the band starts ‘Baba,’ and the whole place just goes completely, clinically insane, the band included. Mike, Jeff and Stone are pogoing and running around like wild animals, doing strange dances, Boom grinning his ass off, flailing his hair around and Matt attacks his drums. Ed goes through at least five tambourines. Pearl Jam at it’s best. poster setlist scan encore setlist scan

04/25/03 – Gund Arena: Cleveland, OH

support act: Sparta soundcheck: Driven To Tears, Soldier Of Love set: Can’t Keep, Corduroy, Grievance, Save You, Do The Evolution, Given To Fly, Elderly Woman, Love Boat Captain, I Am Mine, Even Flow, Present Tense, Jeremy, Lukin/Not For You, Thumbing My Way, Spin The Black Circle, Alive enc 1: You Are, Animal, Daughter/(WMA)/(People Have the Power), State Of Love And Trust, Black enc 2: I Am A Patriot, Driven To Tears, Better Man, Crazy Mary, Sonic Reducer, Rockin’ In The Free World notes: A fairly straight on show with not a lot of chat. Fun ‘Daughter’ tag integrating ‘WMA,’ chanting and the ‘People Have The Power’ (“… we have the power to wrestle the world from fools, we have the power, combined we have the power … it’s decreed the people rule …”), getting the crowd to repeat the words. “It’s the ultimate goal (making the peace sign); good singing!” Some in the crowd seem confused since the lighting make it difficult to see that he is making a peace sign, so Ed says, “This is not a fuck you to the troops. One finger makes a big difference, just to clarify.” The show closes with a energetic ‘RITFW’ with everyone singing and Ed breaking and tossing the tambourines. While stepping across and back to the stage, he falls into a gap. After a minute or so, he comes back up on stage, with big cheers from the crowd. Ed holds his hands together as if praying.

04/26/03 – Mellon Arena: Pittsburgh, PA

support act: Sparta soundcheck: Footsteps, Once (x2), Gimme Some Truth set: Elderly Woman, Hail Hail, Save You, Corduroy, Insignificance, Cropduster, Daughter, Even Flow, Faithfull, Whipping, Immortality, Blood, Down, Love Boat Captain, Wishlist, Better Man, Go enc 1: Last Kiss, Breakerfall, Once, Alive, Footsteps, Rearviewmirror enc 2: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Know Your Rights, Do The Evolution, Porch, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Ed does a cool slide intro to ‘Corduroy.’ Ed greets the crowd before ‘Daughter’ with: “Steeltown, Saturday night.” Mike runs across the stage during his ‘Even Flow’ solo and Ed leans against him. ‘Blood’ has a bit of a jam in the middle, with Matt’s added drum fills at the end. Ed says, “Normally that song is at the end of a set because it is pretty hard to sing anything after that …” (pointing at his throat) and he acts like that is the end of the show. “I’m just kidding; this throat’s made of steel. It came from Pittsburgh … We’ve got steel vocal chords and iron tempo. You can’t beat that! And then Mike and Stone listen to a lot of metal so we’re pretty galvanized here. Give us a little “Nitro,” Mike. Mike proceeds to play about 10 seconds of speed metal which is hysterical. This leads to introducing ‘Down’ as a song written by Mike. After screwing up the second line of ‘Wishlist,’ Ed says, “I’ve sabotaged myself already.” For the outro, Ed sings, “I wish I controlled the TV. I wish I controlled the newspapers. I wish I controlled the media, so I could put forth the truth,” and then continues with a lovely tag along the lines of “the truth is all we need; give us the truth; we can handle the truth … let us be free; the truth will set you free.” The audience sings the entire first verse of ‘Better Man’ with Ed pausing before the chorus because of the deafening cheers. For the encore, Ed points to the crowd behind the stage and says the next song is for those who can understand the body language of the song, leading to ‘Last Kiss’ and the whole band turns around to play. Stone plays a quick AC/DC riff before ‘Once,’ followed by ‘Alive’ with Ed using the mirror to illuminate the audience. He notices the skyboxes, where people have been turning the lights on and off, creating a strobe. He laughs, says it’s good to see the people in the skyboxes have a little creativity and that Jeff has said it looks like the “Hollywood Squares” up there. ‘Footsteps’ is played full band, with Ed on harmonica, thus the trilogy (out of order). ‘RVM,’ with a huge, long jam closes the second set. Ed returns for the second encore to perform ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away,’ explaining again how it has taken on a new meaning about freedom of speech. ‘Porch’ also has an amazing bridge with a long Mike solo. ‘YL’ closes with the band jumping, lots of wine, great crowd in a good arena. poster

04/28/03 – First Union Spectrum Arena: Philadelphia, PA attendance: 15,259 support act: Sparta

set: Crazy Mary, Spin The Black Circle, Hail Hail, Save You, Green Disease, Elderly Woman, Nothing As It Seems, Even Flow, Insignificance, Given To Fly, You Are, 1/2 Full, Daughter/(WMA)/(Androgynous Mind), Corduroy, Love Boat Captain, Black, Do The Evolution enc 1: Animal, Go, Glorified G, Better Man, Alive enc 2: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Soon Forget, Jeremy, Fortunate Son, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter notes: A terrific performance with the energy in the building absolutely astounding. Ed spews one appreciative word after another and enlists the crowd’s vocal help often. Ed talks about the Amber Alert and the rider attached to it with respect to doing drugs at events. The highlight of the night has to be the stirring performance of ‘Better Man’ during the first encore which Ed dedicates to his friend “Peter.” Ed lets the crowd sing a full three or four stanzas during the first part of the song. He tags it with a message to Peter: “I’ve known you for a few years now. I see you when I come to town. And you’re growing up good, you’re growing up strong, you’re growing up with the people you belong with, and I feel that I belong, too. Some people gotta be strong. We all gotta be strong. But some people gotta be strong when they’re young. They can be so strong when they’re young. And I just wanna say, that knowing you and knowing how strong you are and knowing how I can be loved has been … you say I’m important to you. Know you’re important to me … love, love, love … and I won’t let you down.” (Peter is a 12-year-old with Cerebral Palsy facing surgery who the band had met and befriended in two prior visits who is sitting up on the stage.) Eddie returns alone to start the second encore, taking a ceremonious drink of wine for sections all over the arena, including a group holding a large Argentinean flag who Eddie mistakenly referred to as Brazilians. He mentions how touched the band is by the opportunity to play in the historical Spectrum, referring to Dr. J’s playing days in that venue, and telling the crowd: “To put it into perspective, just to take a piss in the Spectrum was very important to us (laughing). And to take a shit backstage at the Spectrum would have probably been the ultimate, but it bordered the line of disrespect!” He tell how he and Jeff got to meet Dr. J several years ago and how cool he is. This leads to ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’ being dedicated to anyone confident enough to express themselves in any way. The band closes with ‘YL’ with Ed introducing it as, “Here’s Mike McCready, it’s the least we could do” and giving a tambourine to Peter.

04/29/03 – Pepsi Arena: Albany, NY

support act: Sparta

set: I Am Mine, Whipping, Last Exit, Blood, Cropduster, Daughter/(Song X)/(ABitW)/(Androgynous Mind), Even Flow, Ghost, Elderly Woman, Love Boat Captain, Wishlist/(improv), Save You, Once, Corduroy, Better Man, Porch enc: People Have The Power, improv, Do The Evolution, Given To Fly, All Or None, Alive, Baba O’Riley notes: Crowd is very, very involved, singing throughout both sets. The band comes out to a thunderous ovation and the energy did not wane. After ‘I Am Mine,’ the band kicks it right into high gear with ‘Whipping,’ ‘Last Exit’ and ‘Blood’ revving things into high gear. ‘Elderly Woman’ is dedicated to people from Utica, Ithaca and Boston (biggest cheer). ‘Wishlist’ includes “lucky as Albany” and “Charger’s hood.” The improv tagged on ‘Wishlist’ is a very extended outro with Ed leading the way on guitar. During ‘Porch,’ Ed escorts Mike around the stage to play to the people in the back, and does a call-response thing toward the end of the song. When the band take the stage for the encore, several people in the Ten Club sections hold white signs with peace signs on them and the band flashes the peace sign back. Ed selects a young woman holding a sign with a peace sign on it out of the front row (Rachel) to be his “human music stand,” holding the lyrics to ‘People Have The Power.’ She shakes hands with everyone, except Stone who gets a huge hug. He takes a photo of himself and Rachel with her disposable camera; then Stone takes a shot of Ed and Rachel. Ed then photographs Rachel with the rest of the band. ‘People’ is followed by a short improv for Rachael: “Oh Rachel was a girl, she sat in the front row, Next thing that you know, she’s part of the fuckin’ show, Rachel was a girl, she wished peace on the world, She came all dressed in white, he said, “Hey man that’s right,” ‘Cause peace is the way, peace could be the way, Peace is not far away, if you believe it today. Rachel!” It is believed that a curfew at Albany kept the show short, with Ed checking his watch during the encore. Ed introduces ‘All Or None’ as “a quiet number from our last album that we wanted to try.” The version is nearly flawless (unlike the Showbox 12/5/02 version), with Ed nailing the lyrics and the changing vocal inflections from verse to verse, and Mike’s wailing solo gradually slowing to a mournful close. They rip into a fierce ‘Baba’ with Ed running in big circles all the way around the stage, tossing a tambourine into the crowd in the back, ending a short but razor-sharp show. After ‘Baba,’ Mike grabs another guitar to continue, but is told there isn’t enough time to play another song. A barn burner of a show … they brought the place down and the band seemed to be in good spirits, with lots of jumps from Jeff, dancing and jumping around from Ed, but not a lot of chat. poster

04/30/03 – Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum: Uniondale, NY

support act: Sparta

set: Long Road, Rearviewmirror, Animal, Save You, Get Right, I Am Mine, Corduroy, Present Tense, In Hiding, Even Flow, Elderly Woman, Jeremy, You Are, I Am A Patriot, Blood, Not For You, Better Man, Porch enc 1: Last Kiss, Thumbing My Way, Crazy Mary, Down, Do The Evolution, Daughter/(WMA), Alive enc 2: Bushleaguer, Know Your Rights, Rockin’ In The Free World notes: A solid, intense show, that gets crazy during the second encore. Some rude members of the crowd start booing during ‘Bushleaguer.’ Ed’s response: “I busted out the nice suit for you, yeah? Ahhhhh, yeah. You didn’t like that one. I don’t understand. Maybe you like him cuz he’s gonna give you a tax cut. Maybe you like him because he is a real guy, that relates to you, because he is so down home.” Crowd starts chanting: “USA, USA, USA!” Ed responds: “I’m with you. USA. I just think that all of us in this room should have a voice in how the USA is represented. And he didn’t allow us our voice. That’s all I’m saying. We love America. I am standing on a stage in front of a big crowd. I worked in a good damn drug store. I love America, right? (Some people are yelling “play some fucking rock and roll!”) This is good, this is open, honest debate, and that’s what it should be. If you keep this back and forth … good things will happen. If you don’t say anything, you don’t know what will happen. Cause we are on a brink of forever. And if we don’t participate on where this thing is going, when where we are the number one super power in the world, you want to have a part in it and make sure it is a good thing, yeah? Plus or minus, be active. This is a good thing.” The band continues with a searing ‘Know Your Rights’ followed by ‘RITFW,’ during which some in the crowd are flipping the bird and throwing projectiles.) Ed repeats the “U-S-A” chant a few times, says “Thank you, good night,” and slams the mic stand down. The band is obviously upset and they leave the stage. ‘Smile,’ ‘Indifference’ and ‘Soldier Of Love’ were on the setlist and not played. Note: Approx. one hour before the PJ show in Buffalo, local Buffalo radio station (103.3 The Edge) interviewed Mike. Mike said that due to the reactions of fans during the tour while “Bushleaguer” was being performed (Mike cited the boos received at the Uniondale show) that the band has reached a decision and the song will no longer be played live. He said that the one thing they don’t want to do is alienate their fans, and that they (the band) are as American as anyone and hopes that people won’t misunderstand the meaning behind the song.

05/02/03 – HSBC Arena: Buffalo, NY [164m]

support act: Sparta preset: You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away (Ed solo)

set: Love Boat Captain, Brain Of J, Hail Hail, Save You, Corduroy, Elderly Woman, I Got Shit, Even Flow, Faithfull, Deep, Given To Fly, Spin The Black Circle, Wishlist, Green Disease, Insignificance, Black, Go enc 1: Free Jazz, Driven To Tears, Better Man, Crazy Mary, Do The Evolution, Alive enc 2: Soon Forget, Smile, Fortunate Son, Sonic Reducer, People Have The Power enc 3: Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter notes: During ‘Hail Hail,’ Ed forgets the next line after, “I get the words and then I get to thinking …” and says “What’s the next line, I always forget,” not missing a beat. No talk until after ‘I Got Shit’: “Here it is, the second-to-last night of the tour of this leg … going home for a while after this and watch the world turn round … You’d always think that … you’d want to see a band on their last night … that’s when they’d really let it all hang out … but being in the band, we realize it’s different … it’s really the second-to-last show” [that is the special one]. ‘Faithfull’ is subbed into the setlist in response to a sign on Mike’s side, gets off to a bad start and is restarted. ‘GTF’ is dedicated to Buffalo filmmaker Vincent Gallo. Wishlist’ is stretched to 9 minutes and contains a lovely tag, including: “… I wish that I was a disease, a disease called love and peace and I wish that I could spread, to every person in the land and I know that eventually, and I hope that eventually and I feel, I feel, feel; that it wont happen without you and me it’ll take you and me, it’ll take you and me and more than me, it’ll take you and more than me, it starts with two and then becomes ten; and then becomes ten thousand and then becomes ten million; and then becomes … the truth the truth, the future, and the truth send home those troops, come on troops seek more troops …” Returning for the encore, the band seems to have trouble getting started and go into ‘Free Jazz,’ with Mike yelling “jazz jazz jazz … experimental jazz!” until they find their way to the start of ‘Driven To Tears.’ At the start of the second encore, Ed notes toasts Buffalo, noting that they make the best Mozzarella in the world and he observes that venues such as the HSBC Arena often have curfews, and that breaking them costs bands lots of money. As people start booing, he says, “Mike McCready is gonna pay the fine tonight,” (prompting a “Mike” chant). He then introduces Luke the uke and plops a Bill Gates mask atop the mic stand. Ed is confused whether the crowd is saying “Luuuuke” or booing. “Are you angry that it’s black and white and not red, white and blue?” He talks about the mask, commenting, “He’s a skinny little guy … note the size of his penis,” (or lack of same, as he sizes up the mic stand) leading to ‘Soon Forget.’ ‘Smile’ is played by request for a group of friends who attended the Uniondale show and held up various signs and towels with ‘Smile’ written on them. (After the Bushleaguer incident, Ed sees the ‘Smile’ signs and says to the group, “tomorrow night, tomorrow night, next show,” and the band delivers.) For ‘People Have the Power,’ Ed invites a young lady (“Nana, from the heart of Buffalo”) on stage to hold the lyrics up for him. At first she seems nervous, but as the song progresses, she is more confident and by the end, is rocking right out. Great singalong and a long, impassioned, powerful version with the crowd chanting back the chorus, Eddie yelling “let’s hear you!!” and asking, “It’s the ultimate goal, yeah?” Ed and Nana do a back-to-back lean, and Nana helps sing the closing chorus into the mic. At the song’s end, Ed gives her a great, dramatic dip. This version is so good that most thought it was the close of the show and are stunned when the band returns for the third encore. When they come back to the stage, Ed says, “We had a democratic vote backstage and the verdict was: It’s Friday night … what the fuck.” At the beginning of ‘Baba,’ the house lights are turned up and people from the stands rush the floor area as security give up trying to control the crowd as the band and the audience go crazy. Classic show.

05/03/03 – Bryce Jordan Center: University Park (State College), PA

support act: Sparta

set: Release, Save You, Animal, Corduroy, Cropduster, Elderly Woman, Even Flow, Grievance, I Am Mine, Improv, Rearviewmirror, Nothingman, Daughter/(Highway To Hell)/(ABitW), Lukin, Whipping, MFC, Jeremy, Improv, Blood enc 1: You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away, Gimme Some Truth, Breath, Do The Evolution, Black, Alive enc 2: Last Exit, Mankind, Down, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Satan’s Bed, Leaving Here enc 3: Crazy Mary, Porch, Fortunate Son, Rockin’ In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Huge fan club contingent with incredible energy and great singalongs all night long. Before ‘Cropduster,’ Ed notes how he didn’t realize State College was Penn State until that morning on the bus ride in. “It’s nice to be here among the highly educated.” A very polished improv song/ includes: “I wanna go where there are no roads, I wanna go where the truth can be told … I wanna go where the teachers told me I can’t go. I wanna fly high, I wanna go free. I wanna be everything my dad told me I couldn’t be …” and leads into ‘RVM.’ The ‘Daughter’ tag includes a modified “We’re on a highway to hell,” as a call/respond chant, followed by a “hell, no we won’t go” chant and finishing with ‘Another Brick In The Wall.’ This leads nicely into the staccato ‘Lukin,’ ‘Whipping,’ ‘MFC’ trio. Returning for the encore, Ed offers ‘Hide Your Love Away’ as an “acoustic bit for the Amish.” An “Eddie” chant breaks out and he responds, “yeah yeah yeah” and goes into a talk about Nader and how people need to vote. “Make your voice be heard.” ‘Breath’ is for a girl who had been bringing a sign to the past dozen shows and to which the band had been “smiling condescendingly.” A fan tosses Ed his Dr. J 76ers jersey during ‘Alive’ and Ed wears it for the duration. At the start of the second encore, Ed talks about how they will be going home after this show and says, “If you guys wanna stick around, we’re willing to make this the longest Pearl Jam show that ever has been played … we’ll play some jazz … we might even have to play ‘Bushleaguer’ … just to keep the debate open, without letting it hurt anybody’s feelings. Song selection for the second encore seems totally spur of the moment. ‘Last Exit’ is followed with Stone’s statement, “Every once in a while, I get the call,” leading to ‘Mankind,’ which has a bad start and gets restarted after Stone asks, “Are you guys ready for me to try this again?” After ‘Better Man,’ Ed says,”We hereby open the floor for requests,” creating pandemonium. He begins to scan signs and shout outs. “Don’t know that one. Used to know that one, put it away. Uh, kinda know that one. See, this democratic thing can get really, (someone throws a shirt on stage) really messy. All right, if this has a song on it, we’ll have to play it. If it says, “Fuck Me, Eddie” I’m not gonna do it. And the winner is, “Thanks for the music, please fuck me.” I said I wasn’t gonna do that. Some people they just always want a little bit more. Wait, wait. Before I say no I should see what he looks like.” After a brief conference with the band members and some guitar noodling, Pearl Jam busts into the first live attempt at ‘Satan’s Bed’ since 10/7/96. The version is disjointed, with Ed really remembering only two lines of lyrics (“Model role model, roll some models in blood,” “You’d know it if I had, that shit don’t come off,” and “already in love” and the song ends with Ed droning, “I’ll never suck … Satan’s coooock,” but the crowd loves it. To start the third encore, Ed drinks some wine saying, “This is the best bottle of wine there’s been all tour and we’re not gonna leave until it’s finished,” leading to ‘Crazy Mary.’ Another legendary version of ‘Porch,’ during which Ed again picks up the mirror, reflecting one of the stage lights onto every single member of the audience. He speaks to the power in the room during ‘Porch’: “Even when we leave, all of you are still a power to be reckoned with. Beautiful. It’s easy to feel otherwise, there’s so many issues and so many things that make you feel otherwise, right? Like you got no power, like you got no strength, like if you say something, it’s not gonna be heard … together, there’s a force to be reckoned with, so keep it together.” Again, the line in ‘RITFW’ is changed from “homeless man” to “soldier man.” The crowd takes over the song singing the original lyrics, but Ed stops the song to do the “We’re a thousand points of light, for the soldier man, want him to come home soon, come home while they can …” “It might sound trite … but what’s happening here tonight is really beautiful …” He thanks the crew and everyone who supports the tour and includes Sarge, a member of their lighting crew, who has gone to Iraq. “Sarge, come back and see us on the next tour.” ‘YL’ closes, with Mike sneaking in a quick, subtle ‘Bushleaguer’ tiff near the very end. Ending the first leg of the tour, a setlist scan (#3 below) has the words “GO HOME” on it. A very long show with the band seeming to want to play until they dropped … an unforgettable close to this leg of the tour.

May 15, 2003 – The Rockfords play a benefit for the Chrohn’s and Colitis Foundation at Sunset Tavern in Seattle. Show features Mike McCready, Carrie Akre, Chris Friel, Danny Newcomb, Rick Friel (The Rockfords) with a special appearance of UFO (Mike McCready, Gary Westlake, Rock Tim DiJulio, Kelly Van Camp and Paul Pasterelli), Kim Virant opened and there was a Shadow reunion of sorts.

05/28/03 – Adams Fieldhouse: Missoula, MT attendance: 7,000 support act: Idlewild

set: Can’t Keep, Last Exit, Do The Evolution, Save You, Ghost, Insignificance, Cropduster, Even Flow, Grievance, Wishlist, Not For You, Whipping, Corduroy, Brain Of J, Black, Better Man, Porch enc 1: Elderly Woman, Daughter, Crazy Mary, I Got Shit, Down, Glorified G, All Or None, Blood enc 2: Last Kiss, Know Your Rights, Alive enc 3: I Won’t Back Down, Fortunate Son, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Ed greets the crowd after ‘Can’t Keep,’ talking about how it is the first night out of the second leg of the longest tour they’ve done since they were in their early 20s and they thought Missoula would be a good pick where it “would go well” for the first night and that it is Jeff’s hometown. After ‘Ghost,’ Ed speaks about a crew member (lighting guy, Sarge) who is in the reserves who got called to duty but was back on the tour again. Everyone throws their hands upward at the appropriate spot in ‘Wishlist’ and Ed laughs and backs away from the mic briefly. The keys are shining off your ‘GTOs hood” tonight and he tags the ending with, “I wish I was 21 again; I wish I could go to school again … I’ll go back when I’m 41; and I’ll learn what I want … and the required courses that I will take will be only the courses that I require and I’ll raise my hand up in the front of the room and I’ll tell my government what I want … dreams, dreams, dreams …” ‘Not For You’ includes, “small my table, seats all of you …” ‘Porch’ is dedicated to “a young man named Sam.” Returning for the encore, Ed mentions that last time they played outside and he remembers all the “freeloaders” on the hill. “Now since you can get the music for free, you gotta pay to get in.” ‘Elderly Woman’ is dedicated to anyone from Big Sandy (Jeff’s original hometown). At one point, Jeff is so into playing that he nearly takes a header off the stage. After ‘Down,’ Ed talks about how high the fan is blowing on him and it makes it feel like being in an Aerosmith video, Mike tossing out a “Walk This Way’ riff. “We’ll try something that we don’t usually do … it just never felt right in some of the bigger places that we’ve played …” leads to ‘All Or None.’ ‘Last Kiss’ is for those in the back and the band turn around, playing to the seats behind them. Ed spits wine into the air and the lights, spraying himself and the crowd going nuts! He speaks to a “local issue” and how Jeff earmarked some of the proceeds from the Seattle benefit show for a skateboard park and how the approval was getting intermingled with the city council’s initiative to band skateboarding on the sidewalks. He suggests a letter writing campaign and mentions the “skateboarding is not a crime” bumperstickers from years ago and how skateboards are “… not weapons of mass wheel revolution … they’re just skateboards,” leading to ‘Know Your Rights.’ Ed’s solo performance of Tom Petty’s ‘I Won’t Back Down’ seems a spur of the moment idea. Very high energy show in a small venue with a receptive, fantastic audience.

05/30/03 – GM Place: Vancouver, BC

support act: Idlewild pre-set: You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away (Ed solo)

set: Love Boat Captain, Animal, Hail Hail, Save You, Get Right, Corduroy, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Thumbing My Way, You Are, I Am Mine, Lukin/Grievance, 1/2 Full, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Parting Ways, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Soon Forget, Do The Evolution, Elderly Woman, State Of Love And Trust, Go enc 2: I Won’t Back Down, Bushleaguer, Crazy Mary, Rockin’ In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Ed is wearing a Cubs cap during the preset and at the start of the show. The start of ‘Hail Hail’ is totally botched with each starting at a different time and stopping about 5 seconds into it, looking at each other and Mike cracking up. Matt gives a “1, 2, 3″ count and they begin again, nailing it. Ed greets “our neighbors, Vancouver” after ‘Corduroy.’ ‘Thumbing My Way’ is played for Adam Kasper who drove up to see the show. Matt’s drumwork makes the snappy transition from ‘Lukin’ to ‘Grievance.’ ’1/2 Full’ is slightly extended as Ed uses the mirror to capture the spotlight to light different areas of the crowd when he sings, “Who will save the world?” ‘Parting Ways’ is intense, but Jeff’s bass is malfunctioning. As soon as the song ends, ‘RVM’ begins immediately Jeff quickly switches his bass out for a new one. He’s still having problems, but gets it worked out in time to lead into the “saw things…” section finally. Ed returns to the stage alone at the start of the first encore and starts to sing a bit of ‘Oh Canada.’ “I’m waiting for a special guest … not that special. There’s a joke that they tell down in Seattle … have you ever noticed that Canada is kinda like your Grandma’s attic? You never go there and then when you do, you get up there and you go what the fuck is all this shit? … But it’s been a beautiful two days here … you should be lucky that this is a secret.” He says they asked Mr. Bill Gates to come to the show but he was busy (out shopping … “the republican lobby”) and jokes that he is going to buy Canada. The mask finally makes it out to him and Ed places it on the mic stand saying, “If you watch closely … I’m impaling him in a ritualistic manner,” leading to ‘Soon Forget.’ Ed puts on the mask, leading straight into ‘DTE’ and he pushes the mask up to sing and leans over so the mask is facing the crowd. He throws the mask to the crowd. ‘Elderly Woman’ is dedicated to the guys from Medicine Hat (who had to hitchhike to be there when their vehicle broke down). To start the second encore, Ed performs Tom Petty’s ‘I Won’t Back Down’ and it seems more practiced. ‘Bushleaguer’ is a surprise, but the Canadian crowd eats it up. (Lots of signs in the crowd, one saying “It’s OK, you’re in Canada” on one side with “Bushleaguer” on the back.) After ‘RITFW,’ performed with the house lights on, Mike grabs another guitar wanting to do ‘YL’ so they do one more.

06/01/03 – Shoreline Amphitheatre: Mountain View (San Francisco), CA

support act: Idlewild preset: Throw Your Arms Around Me (Ed solo)

set: Long Road, Do The Evolution, Animal, Save You, Green Disease, Grievance, I Am Mine, You Are, Even Flow, Not For You, Corduroy, Habit, Daughter/(It Rains On Me), Thumbing My Way, Present Tense, 1/2 Full, Insignificance, Go enc 1: Love Boat Captain, Elderly Woman, Better Man, Crazy Mary, Alive, Porch enc 2: Know Your Rights, Bushleaguer, Fuckin’ Up notes: Ed offers a toast to those who participated in the February 15th protests prior to ‘Grievance.’ ‘Not For You’ is dedicated to Michael Powell (FCC chairman appointed by Bush and son of Colin Powell). ‘It Rains On Me’ (a Tom Waits song) is tagged on ‘Daughter,’ with Ed inviting the crowd to sing. He introduces ‘Present Tense’ as a rarely played song that starts out with just “me and Mike.” The rest of the band is off stage and they gradually join in. Returning for the encore, Ed screams out, “All right everybody. Can I hear it for a Sunday night in San Francisco?!” in his best Steven Tyler scream. He mentions how the band thinks the energy seems a little low and it might be because it is a Sunday night but then takes personal blame for it. He speaks of how often they’ve played at Shoreline and jokes about waking up sweating after having dreams about Mike in the Village People outfit. He continues, “Unless Neil stops playing here, we’ll never get to be the house band … and I think we’re coming back in October to play with Neil.” He mentions that the Dixie Chicks will be there, too and there is a mix of cheers and boos. “Anybody who boos the Dixie Chicks … you’re a fucking pussy and I’ll kick your ass.” ‘Crazy Mary’ brings the energy level up, with a huge jam at the end (featuring dueling solos between Mike and Boom). An incredible ‘Porch’ features Mike wandering the stage, Ed running up the aisle to the 200 section and an interlude where Ed does some political speaking, including: “… music is a weapon of mass construction … let’s have a preemptive strike against another four shitty years.” At the end of ‘Fuckin’ Up,’ Mike goes to get another guitar but that’s the end of the show.

06/02/03 – Verizon Wireless Amphitheater: Irvine (Los Angeles), CA attendance: 16,000 support act: Idlewild soundcheck: In Hiding, Dissident, Of The Girl, Oceans set: Of The Girl, Last Exit, Save You, Corduroy, Love Boat Captain, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Gimme Some Truth, I Am Mine, Jeremy, Wishlist, Immortality, Whipping, Deep, Thumbing My Way, Black, Rearviewmirror enc 1: You Are, Daughter/(Atomic Dog), (With My Own Two Hands), Alive, Blood enc 2: I Am A Patriot, Down, Crazy Mary, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter notes: A bluesy ‘Of The Girl’ opens with Ed yelling “Let’s go!” at the end, ripping into ‘Last Exit.’ Ed mentions they have friends and family there. The second verse of ‘Even Flow’ is modified to include something about the FCC. ‘Wishlist’ is extended: “I wish I was the dolphin swimming just off your shore … and “I wish I was a human being that can somehow love you more. How I feel I just can’t express … I try harder every day … how I feel … try to write songs, try to write notes, try to write letters … but the words get stuck in my mind,” which leads to ‘Immortality.’ Ed references the bonfire on the grass in the back the last time they played here and what a relief that isn’t happening now. He says he thinks he met Matt here when Ed was just about to go to Seattle and Matt was in Soundgarden and points how how far back he was in the crowd. “It took about 10 years to get 30 yards from there to here … the biggest jump is probably this last four or five feet.” A bit of ‘With My Own Two Hands’ (a Ben Harper song) is sung acapella briefly after ‘Daughter.’ ‘Blood’ includes a good three-way jump at one of the stops (Mike, Jeff, Ed). At the start of the second encore, Ed thanks those in the back and jokes about how it is easier to smoke pot back there. He says they were told they have 15 minutes to wrap up the show and if they went beyond the curfew, it would cost “a decent chunk of money” and he talks about passing a hat, but that they are playing longer and it will cost $5,000. After ‘Patriot,’ “That was a good two grand!” ‘Crazy Mary’ has the long Boom solo, then Mike, then trading off. Stone plays some super energized and rhythmic acoustic flurries and dances/skips around. The whole band is smiling at Boom and watching him. ‘Baba’ is huge with tambourines bashed and thrown like Frisbees into the crowd. Stone is doing mini-windmills. Afterward, Matt leaves the stage and has his jacket on when Mike and Ed go into YL’ and that closes the evening. Not a lot of talk, but an amazing set with dead on vocals, no lyrical flubs, technically tight and the band in good spirits.

06/03/03 – Verizon Wireless Amphitheater: Irvine (Los Angeles), CA

support act: Idlewild

set: Can’t Keep, Spin The Black Circle, Save You, Grievance, Cropduster, Nothing As It Seems, Even Flow, You Are, 1/2 Full, Given To Fly, Daughter/(With My Own Two Hands), Lukin, Corduroy, Untitled, MFC, Black, Love Boat Captain, Porch enc 1: I Am A Patriot, Do The Evolution, Elderly Woman, State Of Love And Trust, Crazy Mary, Alive enc 2: Know Your Rights, Bushleaguer, Fortunate Son, Rockin’ In The Free World notes: Ed greets the crowd after ‘Cropduster,’ mentioning the show the previous night, how good it was and that the crowd has a lot to live up to. He tells how the show is a live broadcast on 94.9 independent radio station in San Diego “and you’re all part of it.” Ed does berserk, mad, unhinged dancing at the end of ’1/2 Full,’ shouting out, “Do something! Save the world … do something!” Crowd seems a little flat until ‘Given To Fly.’ ‘With My Own Two Hands’ is tagged on ‘Daughter,’ with an extended call and response, the crowd chanting the “with my own two hands” part during each verse. Ed adds the tag line “94.9 San Diego … the independent station” at the start of various songs. Mike and Stone play together during ‘Lukin’ making funny opposing head nods with Stone’s chiming guitar part. Mike, for the second night in a row, runs around in circles with his head in his hands to psych himself up for the ‘Corduroy’ solo. ‘Untitled’ includes going to Mexico and “taking a board just in case.” He trades his fedora for Donita’s (Sparks, from L7) sailor’s hat before starting ‘Love Boat Captain.’ After ‘DTE,’ Ed talks about how they did an interview where they were asked about the origin of the band’s name and how they gave a bogus response, but the true answer is they were looking for “good initials” and they came up with P.J. based on basketball coach Phil Jackson so “We will be well-coached and winners.” (Phil Jackson is in the pit seats and the wine gets passed directly to him first during ‘Crazy Mary.’) Lyrics are forgotten during ‘SOL&T.’ To start off the second encore, Ed says, “If you want more, we got it. (crowd cheers) All right … you got it!” He references 94.9 radio again and speaks to how the FCC legislation just passed to open up the possibility of communications corporations becoming bigger monopolies and that we should all be concerned because the airwaves belong to all of us. He recommends visiting epitaph.com and that’s their “public service announcement,” leading to ‘Know Your Rights.’ Very political second encore with ‘Bushleaguer’ (no fanfare; no mask) and ‘Fortunate Son’ following. He yells out, “All right southern California! … pander pander pander.” He talks about how the two back to back shows felt like they were having twins and this second night is “the ugly one,” but that the crowd came through for them. He brings out Jack Irons to drum while Matt plays Ed’s red SG Junior on ‘RITFW,’ making snarling/smiling rock faces throughout the song. Jeff and Matt do “the lean” briefly. Mike runs into the crowd during ‘RITFW’. Ed tells Jack when to come down for the “thousand points of light” verse.

06/05/03 – San Diego Sports Arena: San Diego, CA

support act: Idlewild

set: Better Man, Do The Evolution, Save You, Animal, Given To Fly, Get Right, Even Flow, I Am Mine, Corduroy, 1/2 Full, Wishlist, Thumbing My Way, Not For You, Present Tense, Blood, Rearviewmirror enc 1: You Are, Elderly Woman, Daughter/(People Have The Power), Elderly Woman, Crazy Mary, Go enc 2: Blue Red Grey, Sonic Reducer, Alive enc 3: Arc, Baba O’Riley notes: Unusual ‘Better Man’ opener with a crazy crowd that’s ready to sing. ‘DTE’ is changed to “I am the first man to surf this place” and ‘GTF’ is “had a joint in a tree” instead of smoke and that gets a cheer. Ed uses the mirror and the spotlight during ’1/2 Full’ and shines it on himself near the end, nearly blinding himself. At the start of the encore, Ed talks about coming to see shows there … The Who, David Bowie, Queen, KISS, Cheap Trick… and that he was usually up in about C18 but that was the “pass the joint” section. He jests about seeing Nugent with his “Tarzan loincloth” and how he was going to wear his tonight but didn’t. “It’s kind of an ensemble. You can’t really wear it unless you got the bow and arrow, too.” He speaks about the ocean and surfing and the benefits of what Surfrider is doing. Excellent long ‘People Have The Power’ tag on ‘Daughter.’ Ed returns for the second encore alone and talks a bit about Jewel and how if he messes up a lyric, it is because he is so highly anticipating her new record release. He goes on about how one of her songs will be part of a commercial for ladies’ razors or a feminine hygiene product and how exciting that is because he won’t have to buy it, he can just watch TV and wait for the commercial. He talks about PJ’s best commercial offer that was for Viagra. “It was a singing penis … a little singing cock singing I’m still alive. Six million dollars we turned down to prevent our song from being sung by a cock.” This leads to ‘Blue Red Grey’ sung for Pete. Ed looks rough and asks for a fan from the crew early in the show. His throat seems to get progressively worse, becoming more weak and painful to him. He changes ‘Alive’ to “I’m barely alive.” He gets nailed by something thrown from the crowd and he grabs and slams it down beside Matt’s drumkit. Regardless, for the third encore, the crew brings out a chair and some unfamiliar equipment. Ed asks the crowd to be quiet (getting somewhat annoyed because the crowd won’t quit yelling) so he can try ‘Arc’ (for the first live performance) and puts on headphones. He uses a loop recorder, adding another vocal layer after each loop as it builds and builds. (‘Arc’ is not included with any of the official bootlegs released.) ‘Baba’ closes the show.

06/06/03 – MGM Grand: Las Vegas, NV attendance: 17,000 support act: Idlewild

set: Go, Save You, Spin The Black Circle, Last Exit, Even Flow, I Believe In Miracles, Interstellar Overdrive/Corduroy, Better Man, You Are, Grievance, Wishlist, Green Disease, Daughter, Present Tense, Lukin, State Of Love And Trust, Porch enc 1: Last Kiss, Love Boat Captain, Down, Breath, Do The Evolution enc 2: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Crazy Mary, Know Your Rights, Fuckin’ Up, Rockin’ In The Free World notes: Very hard and fast series of opening songs. Before ‘STBC,’ Ed welcomes the “winners and losers alike.” Ed engages the crowd to start off the first two verses ‘Better Man’ and says “Good singing!” at the end. ‘Daughter’ includes a “Hey ho, let’s go” chant between Ed and the crowd. During ‘Porch,’ Ed tries to inspire the audience to “raise the roof off this place … it’s probably made of plastic.” Returning for the encore, Ed starts singing, “Luck be a lady tonight,” the apologizing for turning into “Buddy Love” for a moment. ‘Last Kiss’ is for the people in the back but Ed seriously baubles the lyrics while the band plays on. He blames it on the “strength of the wine” and says everyone makes mistakes. “I feel like Sammy Sosa … The worst thing is I was feeling like such a winner right before … I should have folded.” After ‘Down,’ Ed says they will play a song to test his lyrical knowledge again, leading to ‘Breath.’ Ed returns to start the second encore, teasing humorously with a short improv of the Clash’s ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’ with the crowd cheering, “Stay!” He speaks about how he’s going to use his tax break to get Bush out of office, leading to a bit of chat about democracy and a solo ‘Hide Your Love Away’ with the crowd helping out by singing the “Hey!” at the start of each chorus. Matt drums the intro to ‘Fuckin’ Up’ but that stops and they play ‘Know Your Rights,’ then return to play ‘Fuckin’ Up’ properly, with Ed exclaiming”cuss words!” The lights come up and Mike plays a ‘Barracuda’ teaser as Ed introduces their “neighbors” from Seattle, Ann and Nancy Wilson (Heart), and they join PJ for ‘RITFW,’ with Ed and Ann throwing out many tambourines to the crowd in a big finish.

06/07/03 – Cricket Pavilion: Phoenix, AZ

support act: Idlewild

set: Elderly Woman, Given To Fly, Save You, Insignificance, Cropduster, Immortality, Blood, Breakerfall, Gimme Some Truth, Corduroy, Off He Goes, Even Flow, Daughter/(WMA)/(ABITW), Better Man, Spin The Black Circle, Rearviewmirror enc 1: I Won’t Back Down (Ed Solo), Love Boat Captain, Black, Glorified G, Do The Evolution enc 2: I Believe in Miracles, Indifference, Baba O’Riley notes: An extremely hot show, low energy and Ed’s voice suffering. He stumbles over the ‘GTF’ lyrics but the crowd is there for him and Ed laughs and is thankful. After ‘Cropduster,’ Ed draws his hand across his throat and apologizes for his voice. “It’s like singing while sucking on a brow dryer right now …” He thanks the crew for working in the 105 degree heat and gives his sympathy as they have to drive to El Paso next. ‘Breakerfall’ is introduced as a love song. Ed plays the opening chords to “Gimme Some Truth” and pauses. “Fucking Las Vegas. That’s classic lead singer behavior right there; you just blame it on something else.” Ed asks the crowd to sing the ‘Another Brick In The Wall’ tag and he modifies the lyrics to sing about teachers and needing better pay. There’s a small “Eddie” chant at the start of the first encore and Ed responds, “If you’re going to do it, don’t do it half ass,” which creates a large “Eddie” chant. He quickly quells it, “All right that’s enough.” He thanks the crowd for coming out on a Friday night and the crowd corrects him (it is Saturday) and he seems surprised. “Jesus Christ, it’s been a long tour.” He pulls out a note from his cousin and introduces ‘I Won’t Back Down’ as a song he’d sing to kids. ‘Black’ has a great moment when Ed positions the mic toward the crowd and they sing the ending. Great moment during Black as crowd sang the ending; put the mic with stand out for the crowd to sing the closing. Returning quickly for the second encore, Ed says, “It’s too hot to stop!” and dedicates the next song to Johnny Ramone, leading to ‘I Believe In Miracles.’ Ed hands a person in a wheelchair a tambourine during ‘Baba.’

06/09/03 – Smirnoff Music Center: Dallas, TX

support act: Idlewild

set: Alive, Brain Of J, 1/2 Full, Go, Corduroy, Green Disease, I Am Mine, Daughter/(Of The Girl), Nothingman, Jeremy, I Got Shit, Blood, Dissident, Better Man, Save You, Even Flow enc 1: Arc, Can’t Keep, State Of Love And Trust, Elderly Woman, Black, Rearviewmirror enc 2: Crazy Mary, Rockin’ In The Free World notes: Starting with the all too familiar ‘Alive’ riff sends the crowd into a frenzy and they smoke through the first few songs. For the ‘Daughter’ tag, Ed has the crowd repeat “A”, “L”, “L”, “A”, “S”, “D” and asks “What’s that spell? … I don’t know how to spell!” and then sings the closing lyrics from ‘Of The Girl.’ He speaks at length after ‘Jeremy’ about how “Houston has the president, San Antonio has the basketball team and you guys have the voices. If this was like American Idol in Texas, you guys would win.” Then he talks about a “contest,” holding up a folder that is inscribed with “WMD” … that there is a folder taped to the bottom of a chair in the crowd with back stage passes in it, and that at the end of the show, they would all go and tear Dallas up with two folks from the crowd. “If you don’t have it then that means you got shit and you can relate to this,” leading to a lovely ‘I Got Shit.’ Later, he asks if anyone has found the folder and grins, telling them to keep looking. After ‘Dissident,’ Jeff says, “Skip Habit … fuck Habit,” and they play ‘Better Man.” After ‘SOL&T,” Ed introduces the band and mentions Stone playing Les Paul guitars and there is a toast to Mr. Les Paul and that he’s 88 years old and that “Les is more.” Then, Boom: “Don’t mess with Texas? Yeah, well don’t mess with fuckin’ Boom, all right? In fact, you can’t mess with any of us as long as Boom is close by.” The second encore starts off with Ed introducing ‘Crazy Mary’ saying, “We’re gonna play it better than we’ve ever played it before.” Ed again asks if anyone has found the WMD folder … “Please don’t tell me it wasn’t there. Don’t tell me the WMDs weren’t there somewhere. That would be upsetting. Keep looking!” leading to ‘RITFW.’ Of course, this is all a big joke, with “WMD” being an acronym for “weapons of mass destruction,” and the folder was never found (many didn’t get the joke), but it was a clever way to voice displeasure in an intelligent way in Texas.

06/10/03 – Alltel Arena: Little Rock, AR

support act: Idlewild

set: Arc, Save You, Animal, Grievance, Corduroy, Love Boat Captain, Cropduster, Even Flow, Light Years, Lukin, Insignificance, You Are, Thumbing My Way, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Alive, Do The Evolution enc 1: Given To Fly, I Believe In Miracles, Elderly Woman, Sleight Of Hand, Fortunate Son enc 2: The Kids Are Alright, Last Kiss, Baba O’Riley notes: Unusual ‘Arc’ opener. After ‘Corduroy,’ Ed greets the crowd: “How’s everybody in Little Rock? You sound like big rock. Is there such a thing as big rock?” He dedicates the show to Damien, Jason and Jessie, holding up a banner from the crowd that says “Free WM3.” He adds, “Next time we play, we want them to be right there.” Ed chats about the great crew and how hot the southwestern shows have been but how they’ve appreciated the great response. He jokes that there is a single guy watching and masturbating to “Three’s Company” in a skybox, and that this is his segue into a “sensitive song” leading to ‘Thumbing My Way.’ Long ‘SIFL’ tag, including modified lyrics. Returning for the encore, Ed speaks about the West Memphis Three again and how they are trying to support them. Later, “This is one we only do when we feel real comfortable,” leads to ‘Sleight Of Hand.’ Returning for the second encore, Ed praises the crowd for “being so much better than Texas” and says their president was better than the one that came from Texas, too. He talks about the trucks and how there is one just to carry their (the band’s) opinions. He also discusses the Pete Townshend situation and how the media wrongly portrayed him (and that he has been cleared) and then proceeds to play a solo version of ‘The Kids Are Alright’ for Pete. After ‘Baba,’ Mike changes guitars and looks ready to play another song but Ed says goodnight and rest of the band goes off stage. Good spirits, good energy.

06/12/03 – Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre: Bonner Springs (Kansas City), KS

support act: Idlewild preset: Dead Man (Ed solo)

set: Release, Breakerfall, Brain Of J., Get Right, Ghost, Immortality, Whipping, Not For You, Off He Goes, Help Help, 1/2 Full, MFC, You Are, Better Man, Save You enc 1: Go, Corduroy, Glorified G, Even Flow, Alive enc 2: Fuckin’ Up, Baba O’Riley notes: A lovely day turned to dark skies, lightning and a torrential downpour starting during Idlewild’s set. During the set change, the first row of seats is flooded with water pouring from the upper sections. Mike comes out and tosses several shirts out to the crowd. The stage is mopped, equipment is covered and the band prepares to play as the downpour turns to steady rain and the lightning becomes less threatening. Opening with ‘Release,’ singing, “Oh, dear Dad, can you see us now? I am myself, like you somehow.” (A large streak of lightning flashes across the sky). Ed says, “Hi, Dad.” A rather powerful moment, helping fuel the rest of the “short, but sweet” set as the crowd sings the words in the rain. The setlist is rapid and somewhat different, seemingly constructed specifically for the circumstances, (such as ‘Whipping’: “Don’t need a raincoat YOU’RE already wet!”). Not a lot of chat tonight with the show starting late. After ‘Save You,’ Ed brings the mic stand down on his monitor with great force and the stand and heavy, round base fly into the crowd, striking someone in the front row. Ed pays homage to the crowd in this totally uncovered venue for holding up and how it is turning out to be a “memorable evening.” The first encore begins with a fiery ‘Go’ (which was to conclude the first set according to the written setlist). Ed moves to the front of the stage at various times, singing up into the rain. Mike climbs down to the front barrier during the ‘Even Flow’ solo, practically crawling into the crowd, then slipping on the wet stage and falling when returning. Ed speaks about stopping by to visit one of the West Memphis Three in Arkansas and how it makes you appreciate your freedoms and how you could lose them being in the wrong place at the wrong time. How it makes you appreciate open spaces and being able to gather together and have a great time and the “ability to stand in the rain all night.” ‘Baba’ closes, with Ed removing his outer shirt and turning his back to the crowd, revealing his classic, worn Who shirt beneath.

06/13/03 – Mid-America Center: Council Bluffs, IA

support act: Idlewild

set: Arc, Save You, Hail Hail, Animal, Green Disease/Grievance, Faithfull, Cropduster, Dissident, Even Flow, Driven To Tears, Spin the Black Circle, Bushleaguer, Thumbing My Way, Love Boat Captain, Nothingman, Go enc 1: Better Man/(Every Day)/(Save It For Later), Daughter/(With My Own Two Hands), Down, Jeremy enc 2: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Crazy Mary, Know Your Rights, Rockin’ In The Free World notes: Tiny venue compared to most stops on this tour (approx. 7,000 capacity), lending to an intimate setting where Ed talks and jokes a lot, and the crowd chants and claps in unison effortlessly. With the entire room dark, Ed strolls out, puts on the headphones to perform a four-minute version ‘Arc’ with the lights out for the duration. The rest of the band take the stage, the lights come up and it is immediate obvious that Mike and Stone have buzz cuts (what caused this?). They zip through the first few songs, Matt using a drum fill to effortlessly transition from ‘Green Disease’ to ‘Grievance.’ After ‘Bushleaguer,’ Ed quotes the Beatles’ song ‘A Day In The Life’ (“I read the news today, oh boy”) and discusses how he read the news and how the media has made it sound like PJ isn’t patriotic. He says it seems like a lot of “patriotic” people had a party three weeks ago as the war was “over” (including Bush partying up on an aircraft carrier) but so many soldiers had been killed since then. “We need to all pay attention … we need to STILL support our troops and get them home safe.” After ‘Thumbing My Way,’ he asks if this is the first time they’ve been to Council Bluffs. He plays a snippet of Buddy Holly’s ‘Peggy Sue’ for Clear Lake, Iowa and continues to list other cities in Iowa. At the top of the encore, Ed asks how often you get to play on Friday the 13th and have it go well. ‘Better Man’ is for all the “darlings” out there and the loud crowd sings the opening with Ed responding, “Congratulate yourselves!” ‘Better Man’ glides into a short ‘Every Day’ (by Buddy Holly) and then a bit of the ‘SIFL’ tag. During ‘Daughter,’ Ed encourages the crowd to sing along, saying it makes you feel good and is the only thing keeping him from blowing his head off. He requests more singing for ‘Jeremy,’ and the crowd is happy to assist and the song is even extended so the crowd can keep singing. Returning for the second encore, the crowd is loud and Ed exclaims, “Jesus Christ!” and that the crowd is making it extremely hard for them to leave. “We have an empty hotel room to get to in Minnesota and watch Jerry Springer.” He says they will have been in six states just today, but if you add states of mind, it is more like 17. He points out Mike and Stone’s matching haircuts and says now that music can be downloaded, musicians have to come up with alternate methods for making money and that he wants to sell some of Mike’s hair. “He’s going to want a percentage but was just laying there on the bathroom floor. I was the one who was the entrepreneur.” He says since it’s Mike’s DNA, he is just going to keep it for his own personal collection. They move directly from ‘Know Your Rights’ to ‘RITFW.’ The lights are up and every single person in the room is clapping in unison to Matt’s bass drum. Ed looks around in awe and lifts his hands up saying,”Wow! Look at this! It looks good!” It is almost too much for Ed to start singing the song again but he points into the crowd and says, “You’re a thousand points of light …” and proceeds to finish the song, using tambourines to clap along with the crowd and tossing them out. poster

06/15/03 – Fargo Dome: Fargo, ND attendance: 9,473 support act: Idlewild Evacuation, Drifting, Red Mosquito, Elderly Woman, I Believe In Miracles set: Arc, Go, Do The Evolution, Insignificance, Nothing As It Seems, 1/2 Full, I Believe In Miracles, I Am Mine, Help Help, Daughter/(Androgynous Mind), You Are, Even Flow, Better Man, Whipping, In My Tree, Thumbing My Way, Spin The Black Circle, Porch enc 1: Corduroy, Animal, Elderly Woman, Sleight Of Hand, Rearviewmirror enc 2: I Am A Patriot, Crazy Mary, Baba O’Riley notes: Ed is sick, drinking tea, chasing it with wine and a smoke throughout the show. Ed flubs the lyrics to ‘DTE’ and the band has to adjust, leading to an awkward moment in the mid-song. After ‘Insignificance,’ Ed points out that the reason the band are playing Fargo is Jeff Ament and the crowd responds with “Jeff” chants. Ed mentions Jeff’s family, who are supposedly in the stands stage right holding a large “Thanks, Jeff” banner. He thanks the Cohen brothers, leading to ‘NAIS.’ Ed postulates that in the 2300+ shows the Ramones played, not one was in Fargo, and thus, this is the first time this song has ever been played in Fargo, leading to ‘I Believe in Miracles.’ The ‘Daughter’ tag doesn’t quite get off the ground with the crowd, who have trouble with the call and response and Ed struggles with his throat. Mike is immersed in his ‘Even Flow’ solo, dragging it out over several minutes and the band seeming impatient with him, all staring at him with not-too-happy looks on their faces. ‘Whipping’ is introduced as “another love song, with a bondage twist to it.” ‘In My Tree’ makes its tour debut, though the band only “play the part we remember…” It’s a fairly low-key, slower and shorter version, but beautiful in its simplicity, with improvised lyrics at the end. It’s still growing up just like me, yeah. Still growing, still breathing, still avoiding dying. Still playing, still loving, still avoiding crying, yeah. As the crow flies, as the tree grows, tomorrow I’ll die. Something I never thought I’d know. Ed remarks afterward, “That was just a detour.” ‘Thumbing My Way’ is played electric rather than acoustic. Lyrics included during ‘Porch:’ “If I could take back … there’s some things I’d change …” When they return for the first encore, Ed, who noticeably has difficulty with his voice all night long, making several gestures to his throat throughout the show, apologizes for his difficulties. “I guess I was just intimidated by all of Jeff’s family. Or all the sudden it freaked me out cause I know that my family’s gonna be in Chicago in three days and I’m getting the shakes.” ‘Sleight Of Hand’ makes an odd encore appearance, with Ed noting, “… it is not the average, not the normal, we might try it.” Matt and Ed return for the second encore with Ed announcing, “Minnesota can wait. (big cheers) Half of you are from Minnesota. OK, then goodnight we’ll see you tomorrow!” The wine bottle gets passed around for ‘Crazy Mary,’ and Boom goes wild at the end. ‘Baba’ closes the show, the crowd in this small venue taking over the chorus. poster

06/16/03 – Xcel Energy Center: St. Paul, MN attendance: 14,865 support act: Idlewild

set: Of The Girl, Last Exit, Given To Fly, Ghost, Corduroy, Wishlist, Immortality, Even Flow, Thin Air, Cropduster, Grievance, Driven To Tears, I Am Mine, Alive, Black enc 1: Daughter, Save You, State Of Love And Trust, Bushleaguer, Better Man, Lukin, Leaving Here enc 2: Elderly Woman, Rearviewmirror, Rockin’ In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Despite Ed being ill, the band gets right to business, charging through the first four songs. Ed greets the crowd with a little ‘Outshined’ tag: “good evening … looking California, feeling Minnesota,” leading to ‘Corduroy.’ After the “hands upraised” section in ‘Wishlist’ and seeing the crowd respond, Ed responds, “Wow, you’re actually even listening, huh?” ‘Driven To Tears’ has a bit of trouble getting started as Ed can’t quite get the cue right to start singing. During ‘Alive,’ Ed convinces a fan to pass his cell phone up and he sings into the phone. A fan requests ‘Lukin,’ and Ed says he can’t. Ed asks if he wants to sing it … “Do you know the words? I’ll think about it. You just stay where you are.” ‘Daughter’ is tag-less, but the crowd claps along anyway as the song ends, prompting Ed to shrug. The longest crowd speech is Ed’s discussion about a story that ran on the front page of the newspaper about how spam on cell phones is a major problem and a story about how 44 soldiers were killed in the Middle East in the last two months was on page 18. He says we need to stick to what is important and we need to bring our soldiers home safely and soon; we can get to the cell phone shit later, leading to ‘Better Man.’ The fan requesting ‘Lukin’ is brought up on stage as a “… special guest … I dunno how special he is.” He bows to the band and Ed praises him for being “submissive.” “OK, this is Michael Benton singing ‘Lukin’.” He sings and jumps around with Ed, then leaves. At the top of the second encore, Ed asks, “Has it been five years?” and the crowd cheers, leading to ‘Elderly Woman.’ Slow jam leads to ‘RVM’ with the entire venue silently listening. A fan wearing a Wellstone bumper sticker (Senator Paul Wellstone who was killed in a plane crash last October and was one of the most outspoken senators against Bush’s policies and stood up for the underprivileged) is noticed and at the start of ‘Bushleaguer,’ Ed says, “Where’s Wellstone when you need him?” An extra Wellstone sticker makes it to the stage during ‘RITFW’ and Jeff places it on his bass. (Encore setlist played is quite different than indicated on the written setlist.) poster setlist scans

06/18/03 – United Center: Chicago, IL

support act: Idlewild soundcheck: Thumbing My Way, I Won’t Back Down (list probably incomplete) set: Release, Hail Hail, Save You, Cropduster, Love Boat Captain, I Am Mine, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Off He Goes, Light Years, Green Disease, Grievance, Present Tense, Daughter/(With My Own Two Hands), Bushleaguer, Alive, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Arc, Corduroy, Elderly Woman, Better Man, Crazy Mary, Do The Evolution enc 2: Down, Rockin’ In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Ed is still ill, blowing his nose throughout the show, but the show rocks with one song careening into the next. Ed thanks the crowd for filling the arena and speaks of the basketball stars and The Who playing there … and that his Grandma is there (watching the show from an easy chair side stage) and that he thinks “she likes this one” leading to ‘Love Boat Captain.’ ‘Off He Goes’ is dedicated to someone close to the band that passed away. Amazing version of ‘Light Years’ with a beautiful improv/extended ending. ‘Green Disease’ lyric is modified to “… think with your heart and not your dick.” Ed encourages the crowd to “clap for Grandma” and “sing for me” during ‘Daughter,’ even getting them to whisper the lyrics to the tag. Before ‘Corduroy,” Ed talks about surfing last December and getting the “picture perfect” wave and thinking “Wow, this is pretty good for a kid from Chicago,” and that he is proud to be playing in Chicago. He commends Chicago for “really good singing” during ‘Better Man’ and says you “could almost feel the pain.” Ed thanks Idlewild for opening and some of them (Roddy and Gavin) join PJ for ‘RITFW’ with Matt swapping out and playing bass. poster

06/19/03 – Riverbend Music Center: Cincinnati, OH (canceled due to flooding) poster

06/21/03 – Alpine Valley Music Center: East Troy, WI attendance: 22,000 support act: Buzzcocks soundcheck: Rival (1 partial; 1 complete), Smile, Leaving Here, Soldier Of Love, Evacuation (slower version), Once (partial), Romanza (Ed on acoustic), You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away (ending, 2X) set: Sometimes, Corduroy, Green Disease, Save You, Gods’ Dice, Faithfull, Immortality, Love Boat Captain, Insignificance, Deep, I Believe In Miracles, You Are, Better Man/(Why Can’t I Touch It?), Jeremy, Even Flow, Daughter, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Go, Animal, Elderly Woman, Glorified G, Bushleaguer, Do The Evolution enc 2: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away (Ed solo), Breath, Crazy Mary, Know Your Rights, Fortunate Son, Baba O’Riley enc 3: Yellow Ledbetter/(Little Wing) notes: PJ takes the stage early (while it is still light) to a deafening ovation. Jeff has the standup bass out and the whole fan club section goes wild as soon as Ed hits the first note of ‘Sometimes.’ After ‘Immortality,’ Ed greets the crowd and recalls how cold it was last time they played Alpine, and how that crowd must be the “toughest audience in rock and roll history.” “We made a pact after the show never to play that fucking place again.” He jokes about the smoke and introduces Boom as coming from the land of the best smoke, leading to ‘LBC.’ During the break in the middle of ‘Insignificance’, the band stops but Mike keeps playing. He holds his hand up, laughing, as if to say “Yes, that was me that fucked up.” ‘I Believe In Miracles’ is dedicated to Johnny Ramone. ‘Jeremy’ (introduced as “Here’s a new one for you”) and ‘Even Flow’ are both loaded with energy. Soothing ‘Daughter’ tag: “Hush my baby, don’t you cry. Sing yourself your own lullaby. Hush my angel, go to sleep. You have your own soul to keep.” On returning for the encore Ed says they can’t go yet as it just got dark. ‘Go’ and ‘Animal’ keep the crowd frenzied. Ed says they want to make sure the show is longer than the drive for those who came from Chicago and anywhere else while ‘Elderly Woman’ is for those who didn’t have to drive far. Ed holds back the band and has them repeat the final “hearts and thoughts” to let the crowd continue singing along. Introduced as the “president’s favorite song,” ‘Glorified G’ is a big crowd pleaser and has modified lyrics: “Got an army; in fact I’ve got two. That’s OK man ’cause I love money. He reminds people about voting and to “stand up and be counted,” leading to ‘DTE,’ which includes “Admire me, admire my home, admire my son, he looks like Stone.” To quell the screams when Ed returns for the second encore wearing the silver jacket, he says, “Don’t be seduced by the jacket,” and he tells about getting the jacket from The Frogs. He begins speaking about voting and being active and goes off on a big tirade: “Power to the people man…. The real people, the people that work, not the people that sit in their towers, and try to run the whole thing, thinking that we’re too stupid to notice what they’re doing! They get us in our little holes, and our boxes, and our cages and they show us American Idol and American Gladiators and American …. blowjob, buttfuck, whatever. And everyone watches with baited breath. Oh, who’s going to get a blowjob tonight? What American’s going to get a blowjob tonight? When in reality, you could be getting one yourself instead of watching the fucking TV, I don’t know. I digress. I’m going to get a guitar. But we were just talking in the back, and we were thinking that maybe uh, on the strength of a night like this, and uh, really, uh, so you understand how much we appreciate it, we were thinking that instead of uh, waiting 2 years or even, uh, after we finish the next record, maybe just next summer, we could come back and play, just a few places that we’ve been to and this would be one of them. And hopefully even in a year, the world will be a little more straightened out.” Then he talks about how his Uncle’s friend and how Ed used to steal his Beatles’ records and sometimes kept them, He taught Ed how to cuss at age 4 and he dedicates ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’ to him saying, “Thanks, you did a great fuckin’ job.” Just before Boom’s ‘Crazy Mary’ solo, a big, drunk guy makes it onstage with security hot on his heels. Ed calmly shoos away security and lets the guy mumble a couple of things (including “God bless Eddie Vedder”) into the mic and Ed he dances a bit with the man, then spins him off into the arms of the security. The the conclusion, he says “Boom Gaspar,” to big cheers, “and some drunk idiot!” which gets laughs from crowd, band, and crew. Kerry Wood from the Cubs was there and Ed got mixed up and thought it was him for a second and Ed goes to Kerry’s side of the stage and laughs with him. With the house lights up, ‘Baba’ seems to be the show closer with Ed tossing tambourines to Kerry Wood and others, but after Ed says the goodnights, Mike stays onstage with guitar leading to a brief huddle and the ‘YL’ close, Mike adding a nice ‘Little Wing’ tag. Great intensity, beautiful night, awesome crowd with Ed obviously feeling better and the band rested, ready to play and having fun after a two-day break. poster

06/22/03 – Verizon Wireless Music Center: Noblesville, IN attendance: 13,578 support act: Buzzcocks

set: Long Road, Interstellar Overdrive/Corduroy, Whipping, Save You, Given To Fly, Cropduster, I Am Mine, Thin Air, Gimme Some Truth, Present Tense, MFC, Habit, Jeremy, Even Flow, Better Man/(Why Can’t I Touch It?), Black, Porch enc 1: Soldier Of Love, Blood, State Of Love And Trust, Do The Evolution, Alive enc 2: Smile, Elderly Woman, Sonic Reducer, Yellow Ledbetter notes: The crowd is space for the openers, Buzzcocks and Ed mentions that, saying he knows there were not a lot of people around to hear them but he knows he was out there watching and that he was honored to be on the same stage as Pete Shelley. Opening with ‘Long Road’ (also the 98 opener at this venue), PJ continues into the ‘Interstellar Overdrive/Corduroy’ combo (the 2000 opener here).They tear through the next few songs, including intense versions of ‘Whipping’ and ‘Save You,’ with the crowd getting into the music and singing every verse with the band. Ed takes note and backs away from the mic and smiles at the crowd. They slow down the tempo with ‘Thin Air,’ the crowd recognizing the song and singing. ‘Gimme Some Truth’ is played early with Ed showing his rage, shouting, and doing the Pete Townshend windmill and a few kicks. ‘Habit’ is dedicated to someone in the crowd with a giant tattoo of an alligator on his back. ‘Jeremy’ gets the crowd to a frenzy. A searing ‘Even Flow’ includes, “… looking through the papers though he doesn’t know to read … dumb fuck.” During ‘Better Man.’ the crowd isn’t singing very loud in the now traditional let the crowd sing the first part. Ed asks if the crowd wants to do a bit more singing during the ‘Why Can’t I Touch It?’ tag, but they are still holding back. Ed responds, “Come on boys, we ain’t gonna call you a faggot!” which works. Ed lays down on the stage behind an amp during the solos in ‘Black’ and ‘Porch,’ and is still blowing his nose in a towel. Returning for the encore, the crowd chanting “Eddie, Eddie” to which he responds, “Fuck you … how dare you embarrass me in front of friends.” He sings a little snippet of the Jackson 5′s ‘Going Back To Indiana,’ leading to ‘Soldier Of Love’ with Ed singing on his knees for emphasis. They burn through the encore with Mike and Ed leaning on each other during ‘SOL&T.’ On returning for encore two, Ed thanks the crowd for being a real “Friday night crowd” on a Sunday night and he notes Stone on bass and Jeff on guitar, leading to ‘Smile,’ “a request for THAT guy” (a fan in the front row wearing a beanie with “smile” written on it and gets the harmonica at the end). Ed chats about Jeff growing up in a very small town “285? 385? 885? … that was the year after they got the big fuckfest.” He says Jeff would have gotten chairs thrown at him by Bobby Knight if he’d grown up there, leading to ‘Elderly Woman.’ Screaming “all right … let’s go” preface a frantic ‘Sonic Reducer,’ which appears to be the end of the show as the band walks off, but Mike starts into ‘YL’ and they stay. Ed modifies the lyrics, “… all these pussies leavin’ early… fuck you! (laughs) And I see them, I’d like to wish it all away. And they’re all so responsible, showin’ up for Monday morning, to work in accounting. And I see ‘em. The rest they know how to play, the others they go home in the boxer or the bag …” The band lines up, does a deep bow together and that closes another outstanding show at this venue.

setlist scan

06/24/03 – Germain Amphitheater: Columbus, OH

support act: Buzzcocks

set: Can’t Keep, Daughter, 1/2 Full, Go, Save You, Ghost, Better Man, Grievance, Evacuation, Even Flow, In Hiding, Cropduster, Corduroy, Elderly Woman, Red Mosquito, improv, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Given To Fly, Wishlist, Not For You/(Start Me Up), Footsteps, Do The Evolution, Jeremy enc 2: Fuckin’ Up enc 3: Yellow Ledbetter notes: Ed thanks the people in the back after ‘Elderly Woman’ and makes a quip about the 17-year locusts. He mentions a request for Mike, leading to a bit bit of Zep riffing (‘Nobody’s Fault But Mine’) between Matt and Mike before ‘Red Mosquito.’ Ed talks about being ready to do the song if he “… can just shift himself” (Robert Plant reference). The improv is about Ohio and “Me oh my oh, lost in Ohio … I’m in Ohio high oh … just making my way through Ohio where the sky is and the roads are long … went back to Ohio and my city was gone” (nod to Pretenders). At the start of the encore, Ed thanks the Buzzcocks and talks about watching a video where a band was pretending to be a punk band and he thanks the “real thing,” the Buzzcocks. “Buzzcocks were opening for the Sex Pistols before I was fondling my first erection,” and he talks of how he met them a long time ago when he was a crew guy carrying their gear. “You never know how things will turn out.” ‘Wishlist’ has an extended instrumental ending with additional lyrics:”I wish I was this, I wish I was that; I wish I could do this, I wish I could do that … they don’t care about you, they don’t care about me; they just care about money money money money money … there ain’t no love in Washington DC anymore, but there’s love here, in your houses and your homes … when you’re singing alone … use it like a weapon, a weapon of mass construction.” This leads to a ‘Not For You’ intro: “… so it’s not for you, its for them.” Ed tags a little of “Start Me Up” in the middle, asking for a little background (“if you start me up, I’ll never stop … you make a dead man cum”). Ed says, “Threw in a a song by the Folksmen, there …” (joking about the Spinal Tap spin off band known for performing a sanitized, folk version of the Rolling Stones’ ‘Start Me Up’). “Don’t know if you recognized it. Don’t know if you’ll understand this next one, too. It goes early early early as we go … certainly not one raped on the radio or anything,” leading to Footsteps. During ‘DTE,’ “I am the first man to act like Elvis” as he is wearing the crazy Elvis sunglasses. Ed introduces the band and says they will be doing a song written by Mr. Neil Young, adding “This is George W’s favorite song, leading to ‘Fuckin’ Up.’ They return for a surprising third encore with Ed noting, “You can thank Mr. Stone Gossard for this one,” and they close with ‘YL.’

06/25/03 – DTE Energy Music Theatre: Clarkston (Detroit), MI

support act: Buzzcocks soundcheck: In My Tree (various parts), Tremor Christ, Red Mosquito, U preset: The Kids Are Alright (Ed solo) set: Animal, Gods’ Dice, Rival, Save You, Glorified G, Breath, I Am Mine, Love Boat Captain, Even Flow, Help Help, Nothing As It Seems, Given To Fly, Lukin, Corduroy, Daughter/(WMA)/(Atomic Dog), Evacuation, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Crazy Mary, I Believe In Miracles, Elderly Woman, Bushleaguer, Do The Evolution enc 2: Soon Forget, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Modified lyrics for ‘Glorified G:’ “Got a gun, fact I got two. That’s OK cause I love Ted …” (undoubtedly Ted Nugent). ‘Elderly Woman’ is dedicated to Kalamazoo. At the top of the encore, Ed thanks the folks in the back “where the real people are.” (Many of the close seats in the front did not go to fan club members due to season ticket holders at this venue.) He speaks of how they almost didn’t play because of all the ads in the venue. “I ain’t playing for Pepsi … Miller Lite, now that’s a beer … I could piss in a cup and give it to this guy and he’d like it better …” He talks about big corporations buying up media everywhere and how the government is “playing along.” “They’ll start telling you that blue eyed people are smarter and that war is a good thing … keep an eye on these guys. Or they might just bombard you with Sheryl Crow music … I think Sheryl Crow is sponsored by Big Boy, isn’t she?” After ‘Crazy Mary,’ he thanks those who showed up early to see the openers: “Here’s a toast to you!” and he thanks the Buzzcocks, leading to ‘I Believe In Miracles. The show appears to end with ‘Baba’ when Mike again starts in on ‘YL’. poster

06/26/03 – DTE Energy Music Theatre: Clarkston (Detroit), MI

support act: Buzzcocks preset: Throw Your Arms Around Me (Ed solo) set: Last Exit, Brain Of J, Hail Hail, Save You, In My Tree, Red Mosquito, Present Tense, Green Disease, Immortality, Sleight Of Hand, Whipping, Corduroy, Down, Leatherman, Nothingman, Better Man, Spin the Black Circle enc 1: You Are, Even Flow, State Of Love And Trust, Black, Alive enc 2: Leaving Here, Know Your Rights, Rockin’ In The Free World notes: A setlist heavy on Vitalogy and No Code songs, including the unusual opening songs. Crowd is better than the previous night, but still a lot of casual fans in the pavilion area tonight, not knowing a lot of the new material but more respectful. Ed notes, “I hope you’re better than those assholes that were here last night … I’m referring to the first 10 rows last night.” He says they will be experimenting and playing things a little differently and making it a show to remember. The reworked ‘In My Tree’ follows. The ‘Present Tense’ performance coincides with sunset and Ed points to the trees on the hill while singing “Do you see the way that tree bends.” They play the “man trilogy” with the third song introduced as “tougher man” for Chris Chelios, “the toughest old man I’ve ever met.” Somewhat lackluster audience participation with ‘Black’ and ‘Alive.’ Returning for the second encore, Ed chats about the Buzzcocks and how they are inspiring. “Don’t be inspired by bullshit, cause it’s out there. It will only inspire you to be a bullshit person yourself and a hollow empty human being and you’ll die and leave nothing left on the earth except the things that you took away from it. There’s so many great things you can do in this world.” This leads to ‘Leaving Here.’ Steve Earle joins PJ for ‘RITFW,’ which gets a big reception and Ed climbs the speaker stacks to the side. Powerful, energetic performance and a setlist that may have disappointed the season ticketholders, but great for the big fans.

06/28/03 – Molson Amphitheatre: Toronto, ONT attendance: 16,000 support act: Buzzcocks soundcheck: Why Go (various parts several times + once straight through), U, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away (instrumental) preset: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away (Ed solo) set: Release, Breakerfall, Hail Hail, Save You, Cropduster, Dissident, In My Tree, Given To Fly, Insignificance, Love Boat Captain, Get Right, I Believe In Miracles, I Got Shit, Lukin, Corduroy, Thumbing My Way, Daughter/(With My Own Two Hands), Even Flow enc 1: Bushleaguer, Fortunate Son, Do The Evolution, (Why Can’t I Touch It?), Better Man, Crazy Mary, Spin The Black Circle, Rockin’ In The Free World enc 2: Baba O’Riley notes: ‘Release’ includes”Anthony, can you see this now?”, likely a nod to Anthony Hurley, the Australian fan lost at Roskilde three years ago. Ed first addresses the crowd after ‘GTF,’ asking if the crowd would like to participate in a survey. He realizes he hasn’t said hello, says hello and is greeted with a huge ovation of uninterrupted cheers and says it’s “really” good to be here. He wants to continue with the survey which consists of (a) not believing in the killing of innocent people and that the threat of weapons of mass destruction was distorted in order to get Americans to support the war or (b) “Yes, I’m an idiot.” ‘Daughter’ includes a hint of Pretenders’ ‘Brass in Pocket’ (“I’m special, so special”) followed by the Ben Harper ‘With My Own Two Hands’ tag. ‘Even Flow’ is awesome, with Mike bringing the solo down into a jazzy feel with Matt following right along with accenting symbol hits. This totally throws Stone off and he eventually stops trying to play anything under the solo, just looking at Mike and laughing. ‘Bushleaguer’ returns to true form with Ed employing the silver jacket and Bush mask, dancing, putting the mask on the mic stand, letting a cigarette dangle from its lips, giving it wine and caressing it. Some forgetfulness and creative license elicit different lyrics to ‘DTE’ including, “I crawled the earth, and now I’m high. Ah something something and I sometimes forget this, what the hell …” and toward the end, “I am an American, baby!” A small part of the Buzzcocks’ ‘Why Can’t I Touch It?’ is covered, with the crowd helping out. Ed says the band has been trying to get them to play it but they hadn’t. As usual, the crowd takes over the opening verses of ‘Better Man,’ but it is extremely loud and the crowd gets going too fast with Ed trying to get it back on track using his hands, leading to a huge cheer-filled break during the first chorus. Ed mentions how they had discussed doing a short tour next year with maybe just ten spots, including Toronto. “We’ll cross the border for you any time.” After ‘Crazy Mary,’ the crowd erupts, Ed says it is now a “free-for-all” as the band members tap their watches, aware of the early curfew. A Muppets “Animal” doll gets tossed on stage, but they rip into a rapid versions of ‘STBC’ and ‘RITFW.’ Ed cautions, “Kille, no” (meaning, no house lights). Returning for the second encore, Ed says, “There’s three sips of wine left here and they came from Geddy Lee so we’re not leaving ’til it’s done.” The band breaks into ‘Baba,’ which seems to be perfectly timed with huge fireworks at a fireworks competition (at neighboring Ontario Place).Ed points them out past the lawn while the crowd goes wild – magical. poster

06/29/03 – Bell Center: Montreal, QUE

support act: Buzzcocks preset: Drifting (Ed solo) soundcheck: In My Tree (many starts, no complete version), Driven To Tears, Low Light (many starts) set: Long Road, Go, Save You, Ghost, Grievance, Present Tense, 1/2 Full, Even Flow, Off He Goes, I Am Mine, You Are, Green Disease/Not For You, Wishlist, Habit, Elderly Woman, Jeremy, Blood enc 1: Arc, Down, Black, improv, Rearviewmirror enc 2: Soon Forget, Last Kiss, Last Exit, Driven To Tears, Better Man, Alive, Fuckin’ Up notes: Mike and Stone take the stage first, standing to the side for a good two minutes, waiting for the house lights to go down. ‘Long Road’ is started in partial light, with the crowd cheering when the lights finally go down. Jeff is playing stand-up bass for ‘Long Road.’ Matt goes off on ‘Even Flow’ … a great, great Matt night. After a lovely ‘Off He Goes,’ there’s a quick band meeting and ‘I Am Mine’ replaces ‘Gimme Some Truth.’ ‘Not for You’ is very powerful with lots of crowd singing. Lyrics are changed to “small my table, seats all of you” and there’s a small jam in the middle with the crowd chanting “hey, hey” and Ed turning it into “hey, ho, let’s go!” ‘Wishlist’ has the extended ending: “I wish I was the radio song, the one they can’t make money on. The one that can’t be bought and sold … turned into a commercial when we get old. I wish I was the president, keep them from killing girls and men. Figure out ways around the war. I always thought that’s what presidents were for. … and each one of you, there’s a light in each one of you … thanks for bringing your light into this room. Thanks for letting the light shine through …” Ed talks about the guy who was mountain climbing, fell, got trapped by himself and had to cut off his own arm with a knife to get free. “It was actually a ‘Leatherman’, prompting a guitar riff. He talks of how the climber had to get down and walk for hours and how he is “man of the year” but suggests that if the president would unselfishly cut his own head off to save the world, he might be eligible. To start off the encore, Ed gets ‘Arc’ going much more easily than when he first tried it in San Diego and it just sounds huge, with a big response from the crowd. Ed commends the crowd at the start of the second encore and lets them know that no one associated the band would ever order something called a “freedom fry.” ‘Soon Forget’ is about the greedy people on Capitol Hill that come up with that sort of “stupid shit.” He says we need to pay attention and vote. ‘Last Kiss’ is performed to the fans behind the stage. ‘Alive’ is a huge crowd pleaser with everyone in the entire arena pumping their fists and shouting “hey! hey! hey!” at the end and the show closes out with a thunderous ‘Fuckin’ Up’ with Ed destroying the tambourines with full house lights and the band and audience going ballistic.

setlist scan

07/01/03 – Nissan Pavilion at Stone Ridge: Bristow, VA (Washington, DC)

support act: Buzzcocks preset: Blue Red Grey (Ed solo)

set: Can’t Keep, Elderly Woman, Off He Goes, Corduroy, Green Disease, Save You, Even Flow, Nothing As It Seems, Cropduster, 1/2 Full, Gimme Some Truth, Daughter/(WMA)/(ABITW)/(No More Pain), Thumbing My Way, Given To Fly, You Are, Better Man/(Why Can’t I Touch It?)/(Save It For Later), Black, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Do The Evolution, Spin The Black Circle, Blood, Why Go, Know Your Rights, Jeremy, Indifference enc 2: Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter notes: They start out playing some “quieter stuff” due to traffic clogs and people getting to the venue late as a result. Ed tries to desperately to “figure out” a ‘Daughter’ tag (it is ‘Why Can’t I Touch It?’) but gives up, moving to ‘Another Brick In The Wall, changing the lyrics to, “Rumsfeld leave those kids alone,” and then Embrace’s ‘No More Pain’ (“Your emotions are nothing but politics …”). He gets it going later, tagging it on ‘Better Man’ with the crowd singing along. Early on, Ed pauses and glances up at himself on the jumbotron screens. He starts making faces and then jams his finger up his nose like a kid watching himself on video camera. He laughs, as well as the crowd. Ed introduces Stone and Jeff as “one of the longest lasting couples in rock and roll music.” He says there is no one he’s ever met who would rather just play guitar than Mike … “see how happy he is right now … cause he’s playing guitar. When he’s not playing guitar, he’s a fuckin’ prick … kind of.” Mike plays the ‘Nobody’s Fault But Mine’ riff in response (plus a couple of others ;) ). ‘Why Go,’ introduced as trying something they haven’t done for a while, returns to the setlist after vanishing in 1995. At the top of the second encore the band returns and Mike starts to plays the opening to ‘Yellow Ledbetter,’ but Ed waves him off as if to say “no man, not yet.” They go straight into ‘RITFW.’ Amazing energy with Stone bent at the knees, cocking his head forward and back, and even adding some powerful hip thrusts in for good measure!

07/02/03 – Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts: Mansfield (Boston), MA

support act: Buzzcocks preset: Dead Man (Ed solo)

set: Oceans, Go, Hail Hail, Save You, Deep, Get Right, Dissident, I Am Mine, Even Flow, Help Help, Immortality, In My Tree, Light Years, Evacuation, Whipping, Grievance, Present Tense, Porch enc 1: Thumbing My Way, Elderly Woman, Smile, State Of Love And Trust, Leaving Here enc 2: Soon Forget, Bushleaguer, Fuckin’ Up notes: ‘Oceans’ is gorgeous, taking many by surprise and Ed’s voice is strong. Ed states that the band has a plan: “… we’ve worked up about 70 songs for this tour. We thought we would play three nights without repeating a song and get to every song … we’re actually playing about 105 … this would put it at about 35 songs a night.” Intense staredown between Mike and Ed during the ‘Even Flow’ solo, almost as if Ed is daring him to keep soloing, which he does for what seems forever. After ‘Grievance,’ Ed speaks about free speech and the government is cloaking themselves in the flag. He talks about Celine Dion and how she is still under the control of Sony Music etc, comparing her to a robot and that they put too much “ego chip” in her. Then, in reference to his own spitting, he says the reason she doesn’t spit is because “I heard she swallows.” After a lovely rendition of ‘Present Tense,’ Ed has a young fan count the “1,2,3,4″ opening to ‘Porch.’ ‘Thumbing My Way,’ ‘Elderly Woman’ and ‘Smile’ are played by request. ‘Bushleaguer’ gets a rather chilly, confused reception. Ed using the mask, French kisses it and tosses it into the crowd. ‘Fuckin’ Up’ is extended by a couple of minutes, with Mike soloing and the rest of the band jamming with huge smiles on their faces. The venue’s 11 pm curfew made for a quick, tight show (although they did go a bit past 11). Great show with the band loving the crowd.

07/03/03 – Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts: Mansfield (Boston), MA

support act: Buzzcocks preset: You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away (Ed solo)

set: Release, Animal, Gods’ Dice, Do The Evolution, Insignificance, Love Boat Captain, I Got Shit, Low Light, Rival, Lukin, Not For You, Daughter/(WMA)/(I’ve Been Tired), You Are, In Hiding, I Am A Patriot, Once, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Driven To Tears, Corduroy, Soldier Of Love, Crazy Mary, Alive enc 2: Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Really nice ‘Release,’ Ed’s voice soaring. Ed asks how many people had been at the show the previous night and how many had seen the sun rise that morning. He continues that he did and testifies testifies to the truth in the advice to live for the moment, but that after one moment comes another, and another, and before you know it the sun’s coming up, “… that’s why I’m so damn grumpy … so live for the moment, but then go to sleep …” For ‘Low Light,’ Ed has a Yield booklet in his hands for the lyrics. After ‘WMA,’ The Pixies’ ‘I’ve Been Tired’ is tagged on ‘Daughter.’ ‘ RVM’ is extended. ‘ Mike changes to a Pedro Martinez jersey for the first encore. Ed, to the delight of many, changes into a Ramones t-shirt and Red Sox cap. Crazy Mary’ gets the wine bottle passed and Boom and Mike are playing off each other — the best jam of the two Mansfield shows — going on and on, bringing brought the house down. The crowd goes crazy any time Boom and his Pedro Martinez Red Sox jersey appear on the big screens over the lawn and back sections. The crowd also responds well when Jeff wears a Bruins jersey as a turban during the second encore. The last three songs (‘Alive,’ ‘Baba,’ ‘YL’) are huge singalongs with the band looking flabbergasted by the crowd. Baba is dedicated to two prolific Englishmen: Joe Strummer and Pete Townshend (“…and Pete’s innocent.”) No songs repeated from previous night.

07/05/03 – Tweeter Center: Camden, NJ (Philadelphia, PA)

support act: Buzzcocks preset: Throw Your Arms Around Me (Ed solo)

set: Can’t Keep, Brain Of J, Save You, Do The Evolution, Spin The Black Circle, Green Disease, Cropduster, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Faithfull, Wishlist, Rockin’ In The Free World, 1/2 Full, Love Boat Captain, Breath, I Believe In Miracles, Corduroy, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Last Exit, Better Man, Down, Black, Blood enc 2: You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away, Last Kiss, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Ed tries to play ‘Parting Ways’ in the preset, but has trouble with the lyrics and performs ‘Throw Your Arms Around Me.’ A hot night on the waterfront with the band breezing through ‘Can’t Keep’ to open, then full throttle with the Stone Gossard show. He is on fire, tearing through ‘Brain of J,’ ‘Save You,’ ‘DTE’ and ‘STBC,’ serving up solos and excellent guitar work. Ed banters about whether they are in Philly or New Jersey (eliciting cheers and boos from the crowd) and says where ever we are, it’s hot! The City of Philadelphia’s fireworks display is visible during ‘Faithfull’ and ‘Wishlist.’ The band doesn’t seem to notice immediately, but Jeff says something to Ed, Ed notices and asks if the people on the lawn can see them. Suddenly, they deviate from the setlist and tear through ‘RITFW’ (“let’s give you a little music for the fireworks”) in the middle of the set while the fireworks are still continuing. The crowd loves this and Ed jokes at the end of the song that they would normally say “Thanks and good night” at this point. During the encore, ‘Down’ gets an enthusiastic crowd response with Ed acknowledging it. Powerful ‘Black’ solo by Mike, taking advantage of the great groove the rest of the band has produced. The second encore opens with Ed chatting about punk rock, politics and free speech. He uses the wine bottle analogy … that when the bottle is empty, that means the show ends. Motioning to get another bottle, it is delivered, but only a few sips are downed. A beautiful, ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’ leads off, followed by huge singalongs. Extremely strong finish … high energy, tight ‘Baba’ with the crowd shouting almost every lyric, Ed bathed in sweat. Great musicianship, energy and spirits; Stone and Jeff not missing a beat all night.

07/06/03 – Tweeter Center: Camden, NJ (Philadelphia, PA)

support act: Buzzcocks preset: The Kids Are Alright (Ed solo)

set: Of The Girl, Breakerfall, Hail Hail, Save You, Grievance, Dissident, Immortality, I Am Mine, Get Right, Even Flow, In My Tree, Lukin/Not For You, Nothingman, You Are, Whipping, Porch enc 1: Jeremy, Elderly Woman, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Daughter/(War), Alive enc 2: Do The Evolution, Fuckin’ Up, Rockin’ In The Free World notes: The Buzzcocks’ get an encore and Ed joins them for ‘Why Can’t I Touch It?’ After the mellow opener, they rip through the next songs with no chat until after ‘Save You,’ when Ed refers to the crowd as “people of mass construction” and says the only fireworks will be the ones on the stage. ‘Even Flow’ is very long and avoids some of the sound quality problems that seemed to plague Mike’s solo during Saturday’s show. Ed speaks of freedom and how playing guitar like Mike is freedom. ‘Porch’ is excellent with Mike tearing it up. At the start of the encore, Ed asks how people are holding up and comments that the encore will be “all request,” and the first two songs are played with dedications – ‘Jeremy’ is for Peter. The crowd waving their arms up and screaming the “hello!” part are so loud that Ed steps back in surprise, saying “Jesus Christ” softly. During ‘Daughter,’ Ed dons the Bush mask, dances to the beat and then busts out his best moonwalk across center stage. He changes the lyrics to “the bombs fall down” and then gets the ‘War’ chant going. Ed comments about high proportions of Riot Act sales in the Philly area, leading to a blistering ‘DTE’ (with lyrics changed to “this land WAS free”) and ‘Fuckin’ Up.’ (hmmmm) Steve from the Buzzcocks plays Ed’s SG for ‘RITFW.’ Excellent show.

07/08/03 – Madison Square Garden: New York, NY attendance: 20,000 support act: Buzzcocks

set: Love Boat Captain, Last Exit, Save You, Green Disease, In My Tree, Cropduster, Even Flow, Gimme Some Truth, I Am Mine, Low Light, Faithfull, Wishlist/(Why Can’t I Touch It?), Lukin, Grievance, 1/2 Full, Black, Spin The Black Circle, Rearviewmirror enc 1: You Are, Thumbing My Way, Daughter/(With My Own Two Hands), Crown Of Thorns, Breath, Better Man, Do The Evolution enc 2: Crazy Mary, Indifference, Sonic Reducer, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Jeff, Ed and Mike join the Buzzcocks for ‘Why Can’t I Touch It?’ during their set. Very emotional performance of ‘I Am Mine’ with Ed mentioning it was the band’s first time in NYC since that thing that happened about a year and a half ago and he applauds NY for being so strong. ‘STBC’ is dedicated to the record stores in New York City. Ben Harper joins PJ in singing the tag on ‘Daughter,’ saying, “This is the best band in the world!” Ed mentions that the staff at the Garden told him that they have only seen the stage rumble that hard in three shows: Grateful Dead, Iron Maiden (at which point Mike plays a quick riff from ‘Number Of The Beast’) and Bruce Springsteen (which elicits a major cheer). Ben Harper joins the band again to sing ‘Indifference.’ Ed says it will cost them $14,000, but that they will break curfew and keep playing (nearly three hours), going until almost midnight. Stellar show with the crowd wild (HUGE fan club turnout) and the band on fire.

07/09/03 – Madison Square Garden: New York, NY attendance: 20,000 support act: Sleater-Kinney

set: Crazy Mary, Save You, Hail Hail, Whipping, Corduroy, Red Mosquito, Dissident, I Am Mine, Get Right, Given To Fly, Evacuation, Even Flow, I Believe In Miracles, Untitled/MFC, Deep, Present Tense, Nothingman, State Of Love And Trust, Porch enc 1: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Elderly Woman, Glorified G, All Or None, Do The Evolution, Alive enc 2: Go, Know Your Rights, Rockin’ In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Unusual rip roaring ‘Crazy Mary’ starts off the set to a packed house at MSG for the second night in a row. Strong Ed voice on ‘Hail Hail.’ He addresses the crowd after a great version of ‘Whipping,’ telling them how special the previous night was for the band but that they “… have their work cut out for them because you guys always wanna make it better than the last.” This spins into a strong ‘Corduroy,’ with the crowd loving it. ‘I Am Mine’ lyrics are changes to, “The in between is yours … you are yours.” Ed phones Johnny Ramone before ‘I Believe in Miracles’ but gets his answering machine. “Hey, Johnny. You fucker. Why aren’t you home?” Then during ‘Untitled,’ “Johnny, I hope you get the message, or you’re not home. I’ll see you in a month or so …” An absolutely beautiful ‘Present Tense.’ Ed gives props to Matt and mentions that the fourth Wellwater Conspiracy album is finished and should be released soon. He says he’s glad because it means Matt will be available to record with PJ. ‘Nothingman’ is a great, huge singalong. Tight ‘Porch’ with a sweet bridge. Upon returning for the first encore, Ed starts reading signs in the crowd. “Garden, yes we’re in the garden. That’s good … This one says ‘play Leash you pussies’. You know, there’s fucking children here, you know. You fucking cocksucking motherfucker asshole prick!” He mentions the fan club support and that last night there were 7,000 and tonight there are 8,000 fan club tickets represented. He thanks the fans and mentions hearing how fans have met via shows and become friends or lovers. He jokes how a couple (“I think they’re from Jersey”) met, married and is trying to have five kids to name them after the band. “So far they have Jeff, Stone and Mike and they’re fucking right now trying to get a little Eddie. And if they get to Boom … we’re just gonna keep adding band members. We’ll have a horn section … that’s evolution, baby.” Ed starts to introduce ‘All or None’ but Mike goes into the first riff of “Glorified G” and they play that first. A heartfelt ‘All Or None’ leads to an incredible ‘Alive.’ As soon as Mike hits the solo, the entire arena begins the fist pump, simultaneously yelling “yeah” for the duration of the song. Ed scans the entire Garden in awe. Mike smashes his Gibson flying V at the end of ‘Go.’ A searing ‘Know Your Rights’ (played for Joe Strummer) encompasses the energy they had from the first note and leads gracefully into ‘RITFW,’ which blows the place up. Ed references phoning Johnny and leaving a message yet again in ‘YL’ (“I tried and I phoned and we only left a message; he wasn’t there.”) Mike intertwines a few of the unmistakable Hendrix doing the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ at Woodstock guitar wailings in ‘YL’ to close.

07/11/03 – Tweeter Center: Mansfield (Boston), MA [preset 50m/main set 165m]

support act: Sleater-Kinney

PJ preset: Long Road, Of The Girl, Sometimes, Off He Goes, All Those Yesterdays, Drifting, Thin Air, Sleight Of Hand, Footsteps, All Or None(/Heartbreaker), Parting Ways, Indifference set: Can’t Keep, Breakerfall, Brain of J, Spin the Black Circle, Ghost, Green Disease, Tremor Christ, Given To Fly, Nothing As It Seems, Cropduster, Faithfull, Why Go, Wishlist/(Why Can’t I Touch It?), Leatherman, Nothingman, Better Man, 1/2 Full, Untitled/MFC, Blood enc 1: Breath, Habit, Down, Mankind, U, Black, Jeremy enc 2: Arc, I Believe In Miracles, Know Your Rights, Fortunate Son, Rockin’ in the Free World enc 3: Yellow Ledbetter notes: This show is part III of the plan for PJ to play their catalog over the three Mansfield shows with no repeats. The unique full band preset starts early with a nearly full house with Ed thanking the crowd for participating in “the experiment.” After ‘Of The Girl,’ Ed asks the crowd to sit down saying, “We haven’t played to a seated crowd in a long, long time … there’s not gonna be an acoustic version of ‘Blood’ or anything like that …” The preset begins acoustic with Jeff playing electric on some of the early songs and Mike going electric on some of the later songs, even throwing in part of Jimmy Page’s famous “Heartbreaker” solo into “All or None”. Splendid song selection and very well executed. At least three-quarters of the crowd leaves after the preset Sleater-Kinney thanks Pearl Jam for opening for them in their set. PJ return for the main set, ripping through the first few songs at a staccato pace. Ed toasts Boston #3 after ‘GTF,’ and mentions saving the best for last. He says the next song could have been played in the preset but that they had saved it, and Mike begins ‘NAIS.’ ‘Faithfull’ was saved specifically for night three. Ed flubs ‘Wishlist’ but puts an extended jam on the end (acknowledging the crowd has “forgiven” him) that evolves into the ‘Why Can’t I Touch It?’ tag, enlisting the crowd to sing and joking about not giving Atlanta this part to sing. Ed introduces the “man” trilogy as three songs that “go together just like teeth in a Georgian’s mouth,” and then apologizes to Atlanta. In usual form, the crowd sings the first two verses to ‘Better Man’ before Ed even gets a word out. Returning for the first encore, Ed checks his notebook and says there are “… still quite a few songs on the list, so take a deep …” but doesn’t finish the sentence and they launch into ‘Breath.’ Unfortunately, there is no “speaking as …” in ‘Habit,’ but just a complete stop from the build up. ‘Down’ is introduced as a “b-side off the last record for the serious collector,” and is dedicated to Howard Zinn. Ed speaks more of Zinn’s writings at the end of the song. He addresses the 77 soldiers that have lost their lives in Iraq since the war is supposedly over and that he hopes that our thoughts and actions are still with those people overseas. “It will be a fine day when they all come home.” Ed introduces Stone, who says, “I’ve been waiting all tour to get the mic. Finally I have it. It feels so good. Since we’re playing all the songs, here’s the one that I sing …” leading to ‘Mankind,’ played under pink lights! He flounders on the repetition of the “… what’s got the whole world faking” lyric toward the end and says, “Well, it was sort of magic up to the last part … the second verse was pretty good, I thought.” After ‘Black,’ Ed says they only have one more of their songs to do and it is one the crowd knows so they can sing along, leading to ‘Jeremy,’ and afterward, leaving the stage with, “We did it … thank you!” The second encore begins with “Eddie, Eddie” chants and he responds, “Yeah, it’s just me up here.” He talks about how they were pacing themselves and the crowd outdid them. He says they are going to break the curfew and says it isn’t a deliberate act of disrespect but they want to finish the setlist and that next time they will probably play the Fleet Center. “It will never be like the Garden or like the Orpheum Theater.” After thanking those who showed up early for the “experiment” of the opener, he introduces ‘Arc’ as another experiment, following it with ‘I Believe in Miracles.’ Sleater-Kinney come out for ‘Fortunate Son’ and ‘RITFW.’ Then, “There’s one more we haven’t done. We’ve done it once in Birmingham …” and they repeat the loud “one note” and leave, to the dismay of the crowd that still continues to stay and cheer. The band returns, repeating the “one note” but then going into ‘YL’ (apparently the only song that would signal they were really done to get the crowd to leave). Mike adds a snippet of Boston’s ‘More Than A Feeling.’ Playing 30 minutes beyond the 11 pm curfew allegedly cost the band $7,500. (Total count for the three nights at Mansfield = 82 songs plus 11 covers.)

07/12/03 – Hersheypark Stadium: Hershey, PA

support act: Sleater-Kinney preset: You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away (Ed solo)

set: Love Boat Captain, Last Exit, Animal, Do The Evolution, Help Help, Grievance, Get Right, Elderly Woman, Immortality, Even Flow, Deep, Lukin/Corduroy, Thumbing My Way, Thin Air, Once, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Driven To Tears, Whipping, Glorified G, Daughter/(ABITW), Crazy Mary, Alive enc 2: State Of Love And Trust, Rockin’ in the Free World notes: Matt helps out on tambourine during a Sleater-Kinney song. After the ‘LBC’ opener, Ed yells, “Let’s go! Fuck this fuckin’ chocolate factory!” Ed’s voice is a bit hoarse from the previous night’s marathon and makes up for it by having quite a bit to drink. Ed says everyone has fairly good complexions so they can’t be from around there. He jokes about a guy with a sign that reads “8 1/2 months pregnant” and suggests various band members’ names as names for the baby and wishes him good luck. ‘Elderly Woman’ is for people from small towns. The ‘Immortality’ solo is very bluesy, and Matt has a great solo. ‘Even Flow’ culminates with Mike and Stone squaring off from their respective sides of the stage, initiating a call and answer between guitars. Matt and Jeff own the middle jam in ‘RVM,’ with Jeff spending the second half leaning against his amp, eyes closed. The whole band brings it home at the end with Stone in particular rocking out (looking really cool in the strobes). Throughout much of the show, a female fan up front is flashing the band. Ed comments, “You know there’s some little coquette up here who thinks she’s getting us excited by pulling her top up and showing me absolutely nothing. Hey look guys … look at my mosquito bites from this summer. It’s all fucking girls gone wild bullshit. If every girl who pulled her top up educated herself and voted! And by the way, little lady, I’m just not turned on by that little thing. I’m into much harder core stuff. I actually like to shit on little girls heads just like you; that’s what turns me on,” leading to ‘Whipping.’ ‘Thumbing My Way’ and ‘Thin Air’ are gorgeous. The lyrics in the ‘Another Brick In The Wall II’ tag on ‘Daughter’ are modified: “Let’s pay teachers more and more; let’s not waste money on fucking war.” Mike tosses in a ‘Cat Scratch Fever’ riff at the end of a rocking ‘SOL&T” and Ed motions for someone in the crowd to toss him their harmonica, playing it a bit and tosses it back. The band brings out a friend of Stone’s who got married the day before (Mike Tyler … Stone calls him “Mr. Philadelphia”) to play on ‘RITFW,’ which Ed says is called “I do!” Ed dons the Bush mask for a while and dances around carelessly. A super tight set, but a very short second encore.

07/14/03 – PNC Bank Arts Center: Holmdel, NJ

support act: Sleater-Kinney soundcheck: Hunger Strike, Wash, All Those Yesterdays, People Have The Power, Black Red Yellow (Ed solo) preset: Dead Man (Ed solo) set: Wash, Once, Even Flow, Go, Dissident, Corduroy, Nothingman, I Got Shit, In My Tree, Present Tense, Given To Fly, Wishlist/(Why Can’t I Touch It?), Evacuation, Insignificance, 1/2 Full, Save You, Porch enc 1: Growin’ Up by Bruce Springsteen, Do The Evolution, Daughter/(Androgynous Mind), Alive enc 2: Hunger Strike, Leaving Here, Fortunate Son, Rockin’ in the Free World enc 3: Yellow Ledbetter notes: ‘Wash’ opens brilliantly with the band entering from the shadows, Ed holding a pizza box with the lyrics written on the box (he gives it to someone in the crowd saying, “Hold onto this for me?”) with bluesy guitar from Mike. Ed introduces ‘Present Tense’ saying that it starts with the letters “PT” just like his friend, Pete Townshend. ‘Porch’ is all rocked out Ed jumping on top of the speakers and working the crowd up into a more frenzied state. Ed prefaces ‘Growin’ Up’ by saying this was a song he used to play sitting on his bed (when he was first learning how to play) and also said Bruce wanted to play here but the place wasn’t available for 167 nights in a row. He acknowledges the fan support and other stuff that’s been on his mind the past few months. He says that anything that they’ve said or done throughout the tour came from opinion and that opinion is about caring … caring for their country. That makes them feel like patriots. ‘Growin’ Up’ is a tender, heartfelt solo version. ‘Hunger Strike’ is performed as a big surprise (except for those following soundchecks and setlist scans) and is performed admirably with Corin from Sleater-Kinney singing Chris Cornell’s part. The “Sleater-Kinney chorus” help out on ‘Leaving Here,’ ‘Fortunate Son’ and ‘RITFW.’ Excellent show, with a very animated band and Jeff jumping all over the place all night. Unique setlist with them playing a couple of songs from each album from the first to the last.

07/17/03 – Palacio de los Deportes: Mexico City, Mexico attendance: 20,000 support act: Sleater-Kinney

set: Of The Girl, Go, Once, Save You, Get Right, Corduroy, I Am Mine, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Love Boat Captain, Wishlist, Gimme Some Truth, Better Man, Lukin/Not For You, Daughter/(WMA), 1/2 Full, Rearviewmirror enc 1: Do The Evolution, Glorified G, Black, Alive enc 2: Hunger Strike, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter notes: A powerful, great version of ‘Of The Girl’ opens. Ed speaks to the crowd in Spanish, reading from his notebook, including “Gracias por esperar” (thanks for waiting), leading to huge cheers. The crowd is extremely loud, sometimes nearly drowning out the band with singing. Ed has a Mexican flag across his back during ‘Given To Fly.’ ‘Wishlist’ brings out the lighters in the crowd (turning them on and off rhythmically) and has an extended jam plus a call and respond (“hey ho, let’s go”) session. The crowd just dominates ‘Better Man,’ leading Ed to invite them to sing along with a spirited ‘Lukin’ as well. Ed introduces the band en Español upon returning for the encore. They slam into ‘DTE’ with Stone missing the first of his solo. Ed does the Daltrey-style microphone swings during ‘Alive.’ Like the Holmdel show, Corin helps out on ‘Hunger Strike’ again and Sleater-Kinney joins them for ‘RITFW.’ Mike is on fire, doing kick splits, jumps and running around the stage the whole night with the other band members turning to look at him going crazy. Amazing crowd! Packed to the rafters.

07/18/03 – Palacio de Los Deportes: Mexico City, Mexico attendance: 20,000 support act: Sleater-Kinney

set: Release, Save You, Hail Hail, Animal, Grievance, Corduroy, In My Tree, Dissident, Even Flow, You Are, I Am Mine, Elderly Woman, Nothingman, State Of Love And Trust, Jeremy, Porch enc 1: Bushleaguer, Do The Evolution, Black, Crazy Mary, Alive enc 2: Arc, Hunger Strike, Leaving Here, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Stone misses the start to ‘Elderly Woman,’ leaving Ed and the crowd singing alone until they restart. For ‘Bushleaguer,’ Ed comes out with a Bush mask and the shiny silver coat. Someone tosses up a Mexican wrestling mask, Ed hangs the Bush mask on the mic stand and starts pulling some wrestling moves on the stand with the mask – hilarious! ‘Arc’ is played for the ninth time.

07/19/03 – Palacio de Los Deportes: Mexico City, Mexico attendance: 20,000 support act: Sleater-Kinney

set: Wash, Do The Evolution, Save You, Given To Fly, Cropduster, Corduroy, Immortality, Wishlist, Even Flow, I Am Mine, Thumbing My Way, Daughter/(With My Own Two Hands), MFC, Jeremy, Hunger Strike, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Alive enc 1: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Present Tense, Elderly Woman, I Believe in Miracles, Black, Mexico improv, Rearviewmirror enc 2: Las Mañanitas, Happy Birthday, La Guantanamera, La Bamba, La Bamba (punk version), Mankind, Last Kiss, Leaving Here, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter notes: After ‘GTF,’ Ed says, “Este es el ultimo dia de la gira y fue aqui con ustedes.” (“This is the last day of the tour and it was here in with you.”) He announces that the show is being broadcast to all of Latin America. The crowd brings out the lighters for ‘Wishlist’ again. After ‘Hunger Strike’ Ed sends their love to Chris Cornell. Ed phones Johnny Ramone before ‘I Believe in Miracles’ and the crowd says “Hi, Johnny” together. After the song, they all say “adios, Johnny” and Ed hangs up. Later Ed says, “Nunca olvidaremos estos shows de Mexico y esperamos regresar pronto.” (“We will never forget these shows in Mexico and hope to return soon.”) An improv about how they don’t want to leave Mexico and won’t forget it and will be back serves as a lead-in to ‘Rearviewmirror.’ Mike destroys his guitar at the end of ‘RVM.’ A Mexican trio (Chucko y Los Clasicos) take the stage at the start of the second encore, singing ‘Las Mañanitas’ (the Spanish birthday song) with the whole crowd singing along, and then ‘Happy Birthday’ in English for Stone’s birthday. Then the trio and PJ play play ‘La Guantanamera’ and ‘La Bamba,’ followed by Pearl Jam’s punk version of ‘La Bamba’ (including the “hey ho, let’s go” lyrics – too funny). Ed asks Stone how old he is and Stone says “37.” Then, “Since it’s my birthday, I get to sing to you … sort of, in a strange way, a punishment,” leading to ‘Mankind.’ ‘RITFW’ features the band’s techs on drums, guitar and bass, most of them (and Sleater-Kinney) wearing various Mexican wrestling masks. Very cool with everyone having a great time and quite a sight with many people unaware of the switch because of the masks. After ‘YL’, Ed says “Gracias!” more than a dozen times and that concludes the tour. poster

10/22/03 – Benaroya Hall: Seattle, WA attendance: 2,500

set: Of The Girl, Low Light, Thumbing My Way, Thin Air, Fatal, Nothing As It Seems, Man Of The Hour, Immortality, Off He Goes, Around The Bend, I Believe In Miracles, Sleight Of Hand, All Or None, Lukin, Parting Ways, Down enc 1: Can’t Keep, Dead Man, Masters Of War, Black, Crazy Mary, 25 Minutes To Go, Daughter/(You Know My Name)/(You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away) enc 2: Yellow Ledbetter notes: This show is an acoustic benefit for YouthCare, a Seattle nonprofit providing services for homeless youth. Notably, this show is the 13th anniversary of PJ’s first show (at the Off Ramp). The crowd is extremely loud, much louder than you’d expect from 2,500 people. Matt is wearing a shirt and skinny tie. Boom is there on keyboards. ‘Thin Air’ is obviously baubled when Stone flubs the solo after the second verse. He just stops playing and sort of grins at himself. Ed makes a comment, “We heard about this room and, if you make the slightest mistake, that everyone would catch on to it. There’s no chance of getting away with that one” (but the crowd is very forgiving). ‘Fatal’ is a lovely Binaural outtake appearing on the Lost Dogs release. Mike plays electric on ‘NAIS.’ ‘Man Of The Hour’ is introduced as new song, recently written by Pearl Jam and recorded two days before for Tim Burton’s upcoming movie, Big Fish. After ‘Around the Bend,’ Ed tells a little story. He explains that before the show started, an older guy in an overcoat approached him and asked if he was indeed Ed Vedder. Ed thought, “No, I’m not probably.” Apparently the guy tried to serve him legal papers. Ed notes on the irony of playing a benefit show and having someone try to serve him papers, seeing it as a test of will. “You come to play a benefit and somebody tries to serve you legal papers. It’s the most punk ass motherfuckin’ move I’ve ever known. Just fucking ridiculous.” During ‘Sleight of Hand,’ of all songs, an audience member makes it on stage. He raises his arms a little and jogs in place, clearly pumped up. However, with the band ignoring him and crowdsurfing obviously not an option, he is frozen to the spot and is swiftly escorted off. After the song ended, Ed jokes, “Sorry about that. That’s the manager of the group; his name is Kelly Curtis.” After ‘All or None,’ Ed acknowledges Mike, who receives a standing ovation. Stone then speaks a bit about YouthCare and how the acoustic setting is ideal to showcase strongly lyrical songs, which sometimes get lost in an electric show. Then they proceed to go into a full speed, acoustic ‘Lukin.’ After the song ends, Ed sarcastically comments, “that young gentleman earlier; he just mis-timed it.” ‘Can’t Keep’ and ‘Dead Man’ are performed solo by Ed, with the uke helping out on ‘Can’t Keep.’ ’25 Minutes To Go’ is a song penned by Shel Silverstein that Johnny Cash recorded and popularized. The brief ‘Daughter’ tags are ‘You Know My Name’ (The Beatles) and ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away (John Lennon). ‘YL’ closes with the band plugged in and standing, pushing aside the seats they’d used throughout the show. ‘Masters Of War’ is Ed, Stone and Mike playing some heavy riffs. The audience sings the last verse of ‘Black’ loudly after Ed points at the crowd. review with photos poster

10/25/03 – Shoreline Amphitheater: Mountain View, CA (Bridge School Benefit) (acoustic) set: Masters Of War, Daughter/(My My, Hey Hey), Man Of The Hour, I Believe In Miracles, Black, 25 Minutes To Go, Last Kiss notes: Introduced as “Their sixth time here on this stage …”, Pearl Jam plays a rather short set filled with cover songs. ‘Masters Of War’ is a standout. ‘Man Of The Hour’ is introduced as “a father-and-son story thing.” Boom shines on ‘Black.’ The crowd cheers when ’25 Minutes To Go’ is introduced as a “Johnny Cash song.” Like PJ’s previous two appearances at the benefit, Ed dedicates ‘Last Kiss’ to Maricor (his “girlfriend”) and mentions that she is now in her third year at Berkeley. The big finale for the night is CSNY performing ‘Teach Your Children,’ but the PJ guys do not participate.

10/26/03 – Shoreline Amphitheater: Mountain View, CA (Bridge School Benefit) (acoustic) [37min] set: You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away, Elderly Woman, Better Man, improv, Down, Crazy Mary, Masters Of War, Long Road notes: Ed uses a neck-mounted harmonica, saying that “Uncle Neil” had just taught him how to use it. ‘Better Man’ is dedicated to Maricor. (“I hate to embarrass her in front of everybody, but, you know, she’s been putting the moves on me pretty hardcore for about six years now … and it’s workin’! … we’re so proud of her and we love you, Mari. So we’re not going to play her favorite song tonight ’cause we did it last night. … if this one was called ‘Can’t Find a Better Girl,’ we’d play it for her but we’re gonna change it. This one’s for you Mari.”) ‘Old MacDonald’ is requested by Bridge School student, Harold, but Ed notes that they have their own version and it is an improv about Dick Cheney, sung to the tune of ‘Old MacDonald’ (“old Dick Cheney had a plan – E I E I O…”) Neil Young accompanies PJ on organ during ‘Long Road,’ with Ed noting that Neil helped them record and write the song.

10/28/03 – Santa Barbara Bowl: Santa Barbara, CA (benefit for the Louis Warschaw Prostate Cancer Center at Cedars-Sinai) attendance: 4,562 soundcheck: I Believe In Miracles, Against The 70s, Daytime Dilemma, In My Tree (old version), In My Tree (new version with Boom), Hail Hail (w/ vocals), Hail Hail (instrumental) Hunger Strike (w/ Chris Cornell), Reach Down (w/ Chris Cornell), Can’t Change Me (Cornell solo), Crazy Love (Cornell solo), 25 Minutes To Go [Yes, Chris Cornell is finally soundchecking at a PJ show! It isn't a TOTD recording ;) ] set (acoustic): I Believe In Miracles, Nothing As It Seems, Immortality, Fatal, Thumbing My Way, Elderly Woman, Man of the Hour, Nothingman, Crazy Mary, Last Kiss, 25 Minutes To Go (w/ Lyle Workman) set (electric): Love Boat Captain, Black, In My Tree (w/ Jack Irons), Hail Hail (w/ Jack Irons), Save You enc 1: Soon Forget (w/ Jack Johnson), Better Man/(I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend) (w/ Jack Johnson), Can’t Change Me (Chris Cornell solo acoustic), Like A Stone (Chris Cornell solo acoustic), Hunger Strike, Reach Down enc 2: Daytime Dilemma (w/ John Frusciante), I Believe in Miracles (regular version w/ John Frusciante) enc 3: So You Wanna Be A Rock N Roll Star notes: Amazing show with many guests at this special benefit billed as “An Evening With Pearl Jam Acoustic and Then Some” at a small, outdoor venue (with a 10 pm curfew). Starting off seated, PJ begin off with a slow, acoustic ‘I Believe In Miracles,’ followed up with ‘NAIS’ with Mike bringing out the electric (and Ed requesting that the spotlight be taken off himself). Ed explains the cause (support for the Cedars-Sinai Center) and that “… they happen to be saving the lives of some very good friends of ours. People that it would be difficult to live without …” He talks about other “good or great” friends that are there and how they didn’t invite any “shit friends” and that they are also there because they’ve never played Santa Barbara. ‘Last Kiss’ is introduced as “… one of those teen death songs.” (Earlier Ed had said, “We also have teen death songs on our resume …”) Guitarist Lyle Workman helps out on ’25 Minutes To Go.’ The chairs are discarded as the electric set begins with ‘LBC,’ ‘Black’ and Jack Irons joins the band for No Code staples, ‘In My Tree and ‘Hail Hail.’ ‘Soon Forget’ features Ed on uke (as usual) with some help from Jack Johnson on guitar. He stays for ‘Better Man,’ which offers a different tag (‘I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,’ a Ramones’ song tag. Ed introduces the next guest saying “… personally I still don’t believe he’s still gonna be here until he actually walks out after we say his name …” and Chris Cornell takes the stage, expressing some apprehension about performing alone, without any of the members of PJ, during the middle of the encore. He offers two acoustic songs, ‘Can’t Change Me’ (from his solo album) followed by ‘Like A Stone’ (Audioslave). The Temple of the Dog reunion lusted after by fans for ages finally takes place when he brings the band back and they announce, “OK, now were gonna do something that we haven’t done in at least 11 years … now I’m old enough to be able to say that there was something that I did as an adult that I haven’t done for 11 years … I’m really glad that you guys are here to hear this; this is great!” and the crowd is treated to ‘Hunger Strike,’ followed by ‘Reach Down’ (very long version with an extended jam). John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers) helps out on the Ramones’ ‘Daytime Dilemma’ and ‘I Believe In Miracles’ (played a second time). The third encore features the whole band with all of the guests. poster

2004

03/06/04 – Mike plays his well-received, Hendrix-style National Anthem at the opening of the Seattle Thunderbirds game at Key Arena in Seattle. A portion of certain ticket proceeds benefit the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA)

04/09/04 – Westin Hotel: Seattle, WA (2nd Annual IMPACT Awards) set: Last Soldier, Down, 1/2 Full notes: Pearl Jam is among four artists receiving IMPACT Awards from the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Recording Academy for extraordinary contributions to local music. The band is dressed to the nines and Jeff is sporting a deep tan (most likely from his birthday climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro). They perform a very brief, electric set. Stone gives the acceptance speech. ‘Patriot’ is included on the written setlist as an encore but is not played.

05/14/04 – The Showbox: Seattle, WA (Mike’s benefit for the CCFA) Ed’s solo set: Parting Ways, Man Of The Hour, The Seeker, Porch, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Originally billed as a benefit featuring “Left Hand Smoke, Mike McCready and Friends,” this show grew since Ed played after opener Vast Capital and Brad played a set. Before ‘Porch,’ Ed says, “It’s interesting to think that if John Kerry was the second worst president in the history … of all time, that he’d still be better than what we have now.” Mike and Stone join Ed for ‘YL,” with Ed adding some interesting drumming. Brad plays a quick set with Left Hand Smoke following. Mike and friends play a UFO tribute set that includes two Aerosmith covers (‘Sick As A Dog’ and ‘Nobody’s Fault’).

09/24/04 – The Showbox: Seattle, WA support act: Smoosh Ed’s pre-set: Don’t Be Shy electric set: Last Exit, Save You, Hail Hail, 1/2 Full, Do The Evolution, The American In Me, Grievance, Love Boat Captain, Insignificance, Given to Fly, U, Go enc 1 (acoustic): Elderly Woman, Footsteps, Man Of The Hour, Masters Of War, Crazy Mary enc 2: Even Flow, The Seeker, Down, The New World notes: PJ’s contribution to the No Vote Left Behind music and art festival (with the goal of motivating the youth vote in November to vote out Bush) is this club show at The Showbox. Ed opens with a preset song, ‘Don’t Be Shy’ [a Cat Stevens' song and a nod to the Muslim's (now known as Yusuf Islam) recent skirmish with U.S. officials as a result of his name being on a no-fly list for suspected terrorists]. Ed introduces “two future voters of America,” the preteen sister duo Smoosh (Asya and Chloe) who entertain the crowd with a brief set. Rep. Jim McDermott (Washington democrat) provides an introduction for Pearl Jam saying, “If voting becomes the ‘in’ thing, my generation will be freaked out.” Pearl Jam take the stage for an electric set and Boom is there on keyboards. Stone is particularly animated and at one point, his glasses fly off and Ed accidentally steps on them, breaking them! Ed says something to the effect of “this may effect the rest of the gig tonight,” and Stone then does a modified duck walk in circles, acting as if he can’t see anything, making a funny, cross-eyed face and playing a bunch of disturbingly out of tune riffs. Ed starts laughing (as everyone was) and teases him about how “maybe the show will actually sound better now” or, remarking to the noise from Stone’s guitar, “that actually sounds better.” ‘The American In Me’ is a song by The Avengers, a California punk band. Returning for an acoustic set, Ed jokes, “We’re going to do this next bit sitting down … not because we’re old, because you’re old.” Dylan’s ‘Masters Of War’ is a slower version featuring the whole band. During Boom’s ‘Crazy Mary’ solo, Mike is near his the back, playing rhythm with his eyes closed and his head back. Boom is going crazy, but the solo went on and on and Boom is looking like he’s dying and Mike can jump in any time. Ed walks across the stage, hollers at Mike several times (finally from two feet away) and snaps him out of his trance, Mike looks at Boom and immediately transitions into his solo with Ed and Stone laughing. The encore is electric again, opening with ‘Even Flow’ and followed by ‘The Seeker’ (by The Who). Infrequently performed ‘Down’ is dedicated to Howard Zinn. Introduced as an American hero, John Doe (X) makes a surprise appearance, performing X’s ‘The New World’ with PJ and explaining how it was written when Ronald Reagan was president and Doe references Reagan as “the devil himself.” Very little chat at this show, political or otherwise.

09/28/04 – Fleet Center: Boston, MA attendance: 17,226 support act: Gob Roberts, Death Cab for Cutie Ed’s pre-set: Don’t Be Shy, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away electric set: Release, Last Exit, Hail Hail, Save You, Do The Evolution, Dissident, The American In Me, Insignificance, Untitled, MFC, Given to Fly, Even Flow, Down, Jeremy enc 1 (acoustic): Low Light, Masters Of War, Elderly Woman, Last Kiss, Crazy Mary enc 2: Love Boat Captain, Better Man, Bleed For Me (The Dead Kennedys), Blood enc 3: Alive notes: Fan club members got a pre-sale access code to purchase tickets for this show via Ticketmaster. Gob Roberts, Tim Robbins’ band opens, followed by Death Cab for Cutie. At the start of his preset, Ed comments on how good it is to see who the faithful really are. There is some discussion among the band before starting ‘Release.’ Before ‘DTE,’ Ed comments about playing “Boston proper” again (vs. the Tweeter Center in Mansfield). Ed introduces ‘Down’ and Howard Zinn (“a true American patriot”) comes on stage and says, “Stop the war.” Lots of big sing alongs with Ed looking pleased. ‘Low Light” is very pretty. ‘Last Kiss’ is played for the people in back of the stage, because “we’re an equal opportunity band.” Red Sox GM Theo Epstein is seated right side stage and during ‘Crazy Mary, ‘Ed offers one bottle of wine to the crowd and one to Theo’s area. Ed congratulates the Red Sox on getting to the playoffs and dedicates ‘Love Boat Captain’ to Theo. Mike is off the wall with energy tonight and it’s great to see him this healthy. A shirt reading “God Bless Johnny Ramone” is given to Ed by someone in the crowd, which he promptly displays center stage for the second encore. Ed looks visibly pleased and contemplative. Someone throws a Red Sox hat on to the stage that Stone proudly wears for the second encore onward. Before ‘Alive,’ Ed talks about the West Memphis Three (sales from the Boston shows will benefit their defense fund), and he has difficulty remembering the state where the WM3 is and the name of the WM3 documentaries. The band flubs ‘Alive’ towards the bridge, leaving Ed shaking his shoulders and Mike and Jeff laughing hysterically. setlist scans

09/29/04 – Fleet Center: Boston, MA support act: Gob Roberts, Death Cab for Cutie Ed’s pre-set: I Am A Patriot set: Go, Animal, Do The Evolution, Save You, The American In Me, Immortality, Wishlist, Grievance, Alone, Present Tense, Corduroy, I Believe In Miracles, Once enc 1 (acoustic): Lukin, Off He Goes, Man Of The Hour, Parting Ways, Black enc 2: The Seeker, Daughter/(War), Glorified G, Lion’s Share (Germs), The New World enc 3: I’ve Got A Feeling, Rockin’ In The Free World notes: The band mixes it up a bit more on this second show in Boston with five covers, including ‘Lion’s Share’ by LA punk band, Germs. ‘Alone’ and ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’ are surprises, not played since shows ten years ago. Green lights bathe the stage before the band takes the stage, green means ‘Go,’ and the crowd is really up from the opening notes of ‘Go’ through the end of ‘DTE.’ During ‘Wishlist’ a guy in the front proposes to his girlfriend and Ed changes the lyrics to reflect this (“I wish I was a preacher man …”) and later announces it to the whole crowd. He jokes, “This is the song I would have proposed to,” and at the end of the show, he gives the couple a wine bottle signed, “Congratulations … Love, Eddie … 9/29/04.” ‘Alone’ catches a lot of fans by surprise, with others having no idea what it is and the band seems a bit unsure of where to take it, recovering to finish it in a decent way (considering it hadn’t been played since 1994). ‘Corduroy’ is introduced as Johnny Ramone’s favorite PJ song. After playing ‘Corduroy,’ Stone starts the intro to ‘Once,’ then quickly stops, the band talks, then they break into ‘I Believe In Miracles,’ perhaps as a kind of tribute to Johnny. ‘Once’ is a gigantic sing along, almost deafening. For the acoustic set and beyond, Boom breaks out his Pedro Martinez Red Sox jersey. Ed comments later that Boom’s hair is what Pedro’s is going to look like in three years … “with three world series rings on his fingers!” and the crowd goes nuts. There are lots of smiles at the acoustic ‘Lukin.’ Very good crowd response to ‘MOTH’ and ‘Black’ is extended with Mike soloing and Ed seeming pretty moved. ‘The Seeker’ is great with the crowd eating it up. ‘Daughter’ into ‘War’ is gigantic (tremendous call and response of “shades go down” during ‘Daughter’), and ‘Glorified G’ just continues the energy. Ed brings Tim Robbins out to help sing ‘New World,’ getting a somewhat tepid reaction from the crowd. (Gob Roberts received several boots throughout their set and was semi-booed off the stage, just finishing up their final song and getting off quickly.) Just as with ‘Alone,’ some people don’t seem to know what ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’ is, but the diehards get it right away. Again, the band nearly muffs it up, then recovers for another nice ending and the lyrics are changed to express anti-war sentiment. Show ends with ‘RITFW,’ house lights on, and the band looking like they’re having the time of their lives and Ed obviously drunk at this point. Ed trades a tambourine to someone in the front row for a bottle of wine. Ed then pretends to swing the bottle like a bat. (On the soundboard handwritten setlist, “I Am Mine/Light Years” were written after ‘PT’ but ‘Corduroy’ was obviously played instead.)

09/30/04 – Ed Sullivan Theater: New York, NY (The Late Show with David Letterman appearance) [3m] set: Masters Of War

10/01/04 – Sovereign Center: Reading, PA [140m] (Vote for Change Tour) attendance: approx 9,000 support act: Gob Roberts, Death Cab for Cutie Ed’s pre-set: Don’t Be Shy, Growin’ Up set: Love Boat Captain, Animal, Brain Of J, Do The Evolution, Nothing As It Seems, Insignificance, The American In Me, Gimme Some Truth, Given to Fly, 1/2 Full, Sad, Go enc 1 (acoustic): Soon Forget, Elderly Woman, Masters Of War, Nothingman, Crazy Mary enc 2: Last Kiss, Daughter/(Blitzkrieg Bop), Bleed for Me, The New World (w/Tim Robbins), Alive enc 3: Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter notes: After Ed finishes his preset, he says he’s going to read a statement, opens up a piece of paper and talks about bringing a conservative senator for Pennsylvania on stage to give the conservatives fair time. An old man with his legs draped in a flag comes out in a wheelchair and he begins to play a song while the crowd boos. He takes hold of the microphone and seems to be electrocuted and he falls and the lights go down. But when the lights return, it was all an act by Tim Robbins and the Gob Roberts set begins. Poor acoustics at this venue and a stack blows to make it worse. A big highlight is ‘Sad’ (a Binaural outtake appearing on the Lost Dogs release), played at a live show for the first time tonight. The acoustic set begins with Ed saying, “Anybody who is undecided, if you think about it, being undecided is really dangerous, and I have a perfect example: people with mullets. That’s indecision. “Do I want it short? Do I want it long? I just can’t take a stand.’” Then he introduces ‘Soon Forget’: “This is for the rich guys, the really rich guys, who love it when you don’t vote.” Ed later teases that will play ‘Bushleaguer,’ but instead play a “love song” (‘Nothingman’). Tim Robbins helps out with ‘The New World’ again. Mike totally misses his solo in ‘Baba,’ then realizes he needs to play (with Stone and Ed both looking his way) and botches it.

10/02/04 – Sports Arena: Toledo, OH (Vote for Change Tour) attendance: 6,000 support act: Gob Roberts, Death Cab for Cutie Ed’s pre-set: I Am A Patriot, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away set: Long Road, Corduroy, Hail Hail, Save You, The American In Me, Cropduster, I Am Mine, Wishlist, Better Man, I Believe In Miracles, Even Flow, Bleed For Me, Alive enc 1 (acoustic): Thumbing My Way, Elderly Woman, Black, Harvest Moon (Ed and Neil) enc 2: All Along the Watchtower, Act of Love, Cortez The Killer, Rockin’ in the Free World notes: Big, big show with Neil Young heard soundchecking with the band. Toward the start of the show, Ed quote some statistics: “Four percent of the whole US population is in Ohio. You account for 25% of the jobs that have been lost in the last four years. That’s staggering. And this is a swing state?” At the end of the acoustic set, Ed says something about a friend “… who came a long way, I thought to see us, but really I think he came out to see you” and Neil and Pegi Young take the stage. ‘Harvest Moon’ ends the acoustic set and is just Ed and Pegi on vocals with Neil playing acoustic guitar. The encore songs include Neil (obviously) and the final three songs also include Neil’s wife Pegi, plus Peter Frampton For ‘Act of Love,’ Ed and Pegi stand to one side providing vocals, with Neil fronting. Neil tells the crowd to get friends registered to vote and “… maybe we can turn this whole thing around.” Tour poster show poster

10/03/04 – Delta Plex: Walker (Grand Rapids), MI (Vote for Change Tour) attendance: approx 6,000 support act: Gob Roberts, Death Cab for Cutie Ed’s pre-set: Dead Man, Throw Your Arms Around Me set: Breakerfall, Last Exit, Save You, Do The Evolution, Even Flow, Light Years, Sad, Not For You, Whipping, 1/2 Full, Bleed for Me, Blood enc 1 (acoustic): Millworker (Ed solo), Elderly Woman, Footsteps, Masters of War, Crazy Mary enc 2: Given To Fly, Daughter/(Song X)/(War), Insignificance, The New World, Kick Out The Jams enc 3: Alive, Yellow Ledbetter notes: Show begins with a great run of high energy songs. ‘Light Years’ is dedicated to Johnny Ramone and ‘Sad’ is dedicated to Linda. A new cover, ‘Millworker’ is by James Taylor, and starts the acoustic set with Ed playing solo. ‘Masters Of War’ includes the changed lyrics,”… for threatening my daughter, just born and just named.” The ‘Song X’ tag is particularly appropriate given the times and the cause. Tim Robbins helps out with ‘The New World’ again. The second encore concludes on a high note with another new cover, ‘Kick Out The Jams’ by the radical, Michigan-based band, the MC5. Solid show and setlist. encore setlist scan tour poster

10/05/04 – Fox Theatre: St. Louis, MO [150m] (Vote for Change Tour) attendance: approx 4,500 support act: Gob Roberts, Death Cab for Cutie Ed’s pre-set: Last Kiss set: Love Boat Captain, Last Exit, Animal, Save You, The American in Me, Corduroy, Immortality, Alone, Jeremy, In My Tree, Wishlist, Rearviewmirror enc 1 (acoustic): I Am A Patriot (Ed solo), Man Of The Hour, Elderly Woman, Off He Goes, All Or None, Black enc 2: The Seeker, Do The Evolution, State Of Love And Trust, Better Man/(Save It For Later), The New World (w/Tim Robbins), Fortunate Son enc 3: Yellow Ledbetter PJ makes a return to the Fabulous Fox Theatre, a beautiful, acoustically sound venue, after ten years. Ed is wearing a brown shirt with Bush’s face on it that says “Expires Nov ’04.” After ‘Corduroy,’ Ed says, “It’s about time this group played a classy joint!” (in comparison to the prior arenas). ‘Alone’ again catches many off guard and Ed’s vocals are nearly spot on with the original recordings but the harmonies are missing, filled by guitarwork. ‘Wishlist’ has the “I wish I was the president …” tag and includes some language about Dick Cheney and how you can’t sacrifice the lives of American men and women for a war that appears to be profit driven … “it will be Dick Cheney who is not forgiven.” This leads to a well-received and strong ‘RVM,’ concluding the first set. Upon returning, there is a toast to St. Louis and one to the whole state with some discussion about how only 1/3 of those between 18 and 22 vote and a plea to register and vote and that they don’t really care how people vote. Ed says actually they do care (“That’s why we’re here …”) and that leads to a lovely ‘Patriot’ with just Ed and his guitar. ‘MOTH’ is dedicated to Johnny Ramone, really lovely and a nice showcase for Ed’s deep range. ‘Elderly Woman’ includes a bauble (Ed notes, “I fucked up”) and he could tell since the crowd was singing along. ‘Off He Goes’ is beautiful and ‘All Or None’ again seems to be a bit lost on the crowd (and it would be nice to see Mike go a bit longer on the ending solo). Ed turns the end of ‘Black’ over to the crowd and it is a nice finish to the acoustic set. The next set begins with the normally quiet Stone talking quite a bit, thanking St. Louis and reminding people it is important to vote. Very solid set follows with so much excitement during ‘DTE’ that someone in the front of the balcony nearly falls. A brief, cheerful band huddle follows and they go with Mike’s selection of ‘SOLAT’ to keep the momentum going. ‘Wishlist’ slows things down but has a solid ‘Save It For Later’ tag with some “please vote” lyrics intermingled. During ‘The New World,’ Tim Robbins and Ed square off and slam into each other (you can guess who won … not Ed; Tim is tall!). The fun continues into a high spirited ‘Fortunate Son.’ Ed toys with the Bush mask a bit but there is no ‘Bushleaguer.’ ‘YL’ finishes, featuring a short ‘Star Spangled Banner’ tag by Mike. Encore setlist scan

10/06/04 – Civic Arena: Asheville, NC (Vote for Change Tour) attendance: approx 7,500 support act: Gob Roberts, Death Cab for Cutie set: Sometimes, Grievance, Corduroy, Hail Hail, Once, Dissident, Even Flow, Daughter/(Blitzkrieg Bop), MFC, U, Not For You, Blood enc 1 (acoustic): Long Road, Elderly Woman, Sleight Of Hand, Crazy Mary enc 2: Brain Of J, Do The Evolution, Smile, The New World (w/Tim Robbins), Baba O’Riley notes: Ed is really sick throughout the show, which explains the lack of a preset solo (along with late arrival to the venue). He’s constantly blowing his nose and sipping tea between songs. Very poor security at this venue (lots of drunk idiots down front that pushed their way to the front without having proper tickets) and crap being thrown on stage. ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ is tagged on ‘Daughter,’ with a “hey, ho, let’s vote” chant. A verse is omitted from ‘MFC.’ The uke was brought out for the acoustic set but not used. Boom doesn’t make his appearance until the acoustic set, inviting a warm welcome from the crowd. Mike goes up by Boom for an extended jam on ‘Crazy Mary.’ During ‘DTE,’ Ed completely skips over the ‘hallelujah’ part leaving Jeff going up to the mic then looking surprised. After the song, Mike just shrugs his shoulders and laughs, while Jeff goes back to the mic to do his part that was skipped over. During ‘Smile,’ Stone puts on a plastic nose that somebody threw on stage, getting some good laughs from the guys. Tim Robbins comes out for ‘The New World’ and throws a bouquet of flowers to the crowd. ‘Soon Forget,’ ‘Masters Of War,’ ‘Glorified G,’ and ‘Indifference’ were on the setlist but not played.

10/08/04 – Silver Spurs Arena: Kissimmee, FL (Vote for Change Tour) attendance: approx 8,000 support act: Gob Roberts, Death Cab for Cutie Ed’s pre-set: Trouble, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away set: Last Exit, Animal, Save You, American In Me, Even Flow, 1/2 Full, Given To Fly, Wishlist, In My Tree, Timeless Melody, Rearviewmirror enc 1 (acoustic): Lukin, I Am Mine, Nothingman, Last Kiss, Black, enc 2: jazz improv/toaster improv, Corduroy, Do The Evolution, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Daughter/(Blitzkrieg Bop), I Believe In Miracles, The New World (w/Tim Robbins), Fortunate Son, Alive enc 3: Rockin’ In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter notes: High energy show, ripping through the first four songs and Ed joking several times about how they would play as long as Bruce. Vacant security. Ed changes the lyrics of the second verse of ‘Even Flow’ relative to Bush and then forgets the following lyrics and blames it on Bush. Praise to Mike for the ‘EF’ solo and then Ed has Mike kick off ’1/2 Full.’ The first verse of ‘Wishlist’ is messed up, starting “I wish I was the singer …” and he laughs it away to start over, screw up again and admit it at the end of the verse. The improv ending includes language about Ed wanting to be president and Cheney to be VP so Ed can shout “get the fuck out.” Ed introduces Ben Gibbard from Death Cab to play a “Las song” (‘Timeless Melody’), leaving the crowd a bit clueless. The acoustic set begins with Ed talking about how they will play some songs not heard often, romantic love songs and then they rip into ‘Lukin.’ Ed is still sick, sipping tea (and wine) and blowing his nose. During ‘Black,’ he walks to the side and takes Susan Sarandon’s hand to dance. The improvs are just the band noodling/goofing around. ‘DTE’ includes “I’m the first man to poop my pants,” and he demonstratively pulls up his pants. The ‘SIFL’ tag includes asking the crowd numerous times if they are going to vote followed by “don’t let me downnnn!” ‘I Believe In Miracles’ is dedicated to Johnny Ramone since it would have been his birthday. During ‘Alive’ the house lights come on, to be turned off and turned back on for the final encore. Both opening bands plus Tim Robbins’ son participate in ‘RITFW.’

10/11/04 – MCI Center: Washington, DC (Vote for Change Tour) attendance: approx 20,000 other bands: John Mellencamp, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Keb’ Mo’, Jurassic 5, R.E.M., the Dixie Chicks, James Taylor, Dave Matthews Band, John Fogerty, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Ed with R.E.M. Begin The Begin set: Grievance, Save You, The New World (w/Tim Robbins), Bushleaguer, Masters Of War enc with all bands: (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding, People Have the Power notes: This show is the big finale featuring all of the acts on the Vote For Change tour on one stage. Each band gets a short set. Ed joins R.E.M. providing vocals for ‘Begin The Begin.’ PJ’s brief set begins with the highly relevant ‘Grievance,’ which was oddly missing from most of the setlists on this tour. The band is very focused and moves rapidly between songs. Ed talks a bit about voting and says Nov. 3rd is the day everyone talks about things changing, but he urges the people in the crowds to hold up two fingers to remind the everyone which day to go to the polls. ‘Bushleaguer’ is finally performed but the mask is not employed (although the Bush mask can be seen kissing the devil mask during the encore with all the bands on stage!). Stone is unmistakable in the orange shirt and devil mask dancing during the final songs – hilarious.

10/13/04 – Continental Airlines Arena: East Rutherford, NJ (Ed popup at Bruce Springsteen show) songs with Ed: No Surrender, Darkness On The Edge Of Town, Better Man enc with all: (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding, People Have The Power notes: A bonus Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band show added onto the Voters for Change series features several members of the other bands that participated helping out on various songs (including Vedder, John Fogerty and Jackson Browne). About half an hour into his set, Bruce introduces Vedder and yells, “come on out, Eddie” and Ed comes walking out, telecaster in hand. They play ‘No Surrender’ and ‘Darkness On The Edge Of Town’ both with Ed singing lead on the second verses. Ed’s vocals with Bruce are excellent. After ‘Darkness,’ Ed approaches the mic and says, “Hello, New Jersey … Bruce asked me to do this song, and since he&’s the boss and I’m the employee, here it is.” This leads to ‘Better Man’ with piano intro, and Ed and Bruce exchanging verses, the crowd singing along, Clarence playing a sax solo and Bruce playing an extended guitar solo to finish. It is a HUGE moment and the crowd erupts into a huge “Eddie, Eddie” chant at the end of ‘No Surrender.’ Ed hugs band members and leaves the stage and Bruce says, “I think I felt some swing voters swinging on that last one.” Ed returns later with the other guest artists to participate on ‘Peace, Love And Understanding’ and ‘People Have The Power’ to close the encore.

10/19/04 – Key Arena: Seattle, WA (Ed and Mike at Michael Moore’s rally) set: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Don’t Be Shy, Masters Of War (w/Mike) notes: Ed and Mike show up unexpectedly at Michael Moore’s “Slacker Uprising Tour” stop in Seattle. Ed performs “a couple of sing alongs,” ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’ followed by ‘Don’t Be Shy,’ with Ed saying he is playing it because Cat Stevens can’t be there. Mike joins Ed on electric guitar for a sweet ‘Masters Of War.’ Ed chats about hearing Bush insisting that morning that there won’t be a draft, then jokes about Bush saying, “We’ve got a vol-un-teeer AR-MEE.” Then he asks the crowd “who the fuck is gonna wanna volunteer for Bush’s disaster” (or something to that effect). He talks about Michael Moore and how when when PJ started as a band, Moore’s CIA file was *this big* (3 inches), and now they have a whole wing devoted to Moore. He discusses the Patriot Act and the fear of Bush setting the Patriot Act II in motion (information about which, including damning information detailing the danger of the Bush administration’s incompetence — can be found on “the internets”) if he gets the reelection. Ed then introduces Moore as “a Patriot who acts.” Moore makes a comment about meeting Ed’s baby and how her shirt says “I already know more than the president” and Moore says that she already can pronounce “nuclear” correctly (to much laughter and applause).

10/23/04 – Shoreline Amphitheater: Mountain View, CA (Ed at Bridge School Benefit) (acoustic) set: Soon Forget, Better Man, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, tag/Masters Of War notes: Ed is a late addition to the 18th annual Bridge School Benefit (rumored to be the last Bridge concert). He joins Neil and Pegi for ‘Harvest Moon’ and performs a very short solo set. He sings a snippet of ‘Here’s To The State Of Mississippi’ before ‘Masters Of War.’ Ed joins the group finale, ‘Hey Jude.’

10/24/04 – Shoreline Amphitheater: Mountain View, CA (Ed at Bridge School Benefit) (acoustic) set: I Am Mine, Man Of The Hour, I Believe In Miracles, Baby Beluga, Here’s To The State of Mississippi, Last Kiss notes: ‘Baby Beluga’ is a children’s song by Raffi about a whale, introduced as a “song only parents would know” and dedicated to Sam, one of the Bridge kids who drew a picture of Baby Beluga to go on Ed’s dressing room door. Ed performs a regular version and then a punk version. ‘Here’s To The State Of Mississippi’ is an old protest song written by Phil Ochs in the 60s and the original song slammed schools, cops, judges, etc. in Mississippi. Later Ochs modified the song to express disdain toward Nixon, with a mention of Billy Graham. Ed changes the lyrics (in the same way Tim Roberts does with the Gob Roberts band) to replace the original names with Rehnquist, Cheney, Ashcroft and Bush (“… here’s to the country you’ve ripped out the heart of, George W find yourself another country to be a part of”.) He sets it up by joking that he is still an undecided voter (because he wants the attention), then says, “This song might give you an idea which way I’m leaning.” Later he says, “I can’t wait until all these songs are irrelevant.” Ed joins Ben Harper for ‘Diamonds On The Inside’ and helps out Neil and Pegi again on ‘Harvest Moon.’

2005

01/17/05 – Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles, CA (Not Pearl Jam: Vedder only) attendance: 2200 On bill: Tenacious D, Beck, Dave Grohl, Eddie Vedder, Josh Homme, Will Ferrell Ed’s set: I Am Mine, Trouble (Cat Stevens), The Seeker (The Who), Last Kiss, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away (w/ Kyle from Tenacious D) encore: (featuring all performers) Time Has Come Today (The Chambers Brothers), So You Want to Be A Rock ‘n Roll Star (The Byrds), Good Times Bad Times (Led Zeppelin), Time Has Come Today (w/Will Farrell on Cow Bell) TFT Notes: This show was a benefit to aid the victims of the tsunami in Southeast Asia. After “I Am Mine”, audience calls out song requests; someone yells Corduroy to which Ed replies “that’s a good one” and plays the beginning of it before stopping to go into “Trouble.” Vigorous strumming during “The Seeker” causes Ed to break a string; he finishes his set playing one of Beck’s acoustic guitars.

03/18/05 – Paramount Theater, Seattle, WA attendance: 2807 also on bill: Presidents of the United States of America, Ann & Nancy Wilson of Heart and Bill Frisell set: The Kids Are Alright (Ed and Boom), Porch, Save You, Given To Fly, 1/2 Full, Crapshoot (new song), Daughter, Happy Birthday (to Jeff Ament and Bill Frisell), Crazy Mary (w/ Bill Frisell on guitar) encore:Parting Ways (w/ Northwest School student Eli Weinberger on cello), All Along The Watchtower (w/ensemble) TFT Notes: Concert to benefit and celebrate the 25th anniversary of Stone Gossard’s Alma Mater (Class of 1984), The Northwest School. Ed and Boom start things out with an homage to the students, The Kids Are Alright; the slightly extended ending features Ed telling the crowd “the kids are alright … your kids are alright … my kid is alright …”. Slower jazzy intro to Porch featured, as well as a new tribal flavor to Matt’s drumming on the breakdown of Save You. Jeff plays a “regular” bass instead of the standup on a tag-free Daughter. This show featured the first public performance of new song “Crapshoot.” Slower jazzy intro to Porch featured. TFT Review

04/08/05 – The Showbox, Seattle, WA (Not Pearl Jam: McCready only) on bill: Flight To Mars (featuring Mike McCready, Gary Westlake, Tim DiJulio, Kelly VanCamp and Paul Passerelli) with Left Hand Smoke, Lee Rude and the Trainwrecks Lee Rude and the Trainwrecks partial set (w/Mike): : Powderfinger (Neil Young) Left Hand Smoke partial set (w/Mike): Sympathy for the Devil (Rolling Stones) Flight To Mars set: Doctor Doctor, Too Hot to Handle, Lights Out, Mother Mary, Love to Love, Natural Thing, Shoot Shoot, Only You Can Rock Me, Loser, Rock Bottom encore: Cowboy Song (Thin Lizzy), How Many More Times (Led Zeppelin) TFT Notes: This show was a benefit for the CCFA. Flight to Mars is a tribute to the band UFO.

04/29/05 – Easy Street Records, Seattle, WA attendance: Approximately 200 set: 1/2 Full, Corduroy, Lukin, Amerikan in Me (The Avengers), State of Love and Trust, Down, Sad, Small Town, Crapshoot, Spin the Black Circle, Even Flow, Save You, Bleed For Me (The Dead Kennedys), New World (with John Doe); encore: Fuckin’ Up, Porch TFT Notes: Pearl Jam played a surprise show at Easy Street Records in West Seattle in support of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS) and in celebration of CIMS’ 10-year anniversary.

05/25/05 – Neumo’s, Seattle, WA (Not Pearl Jam: Vedder only) attendance: 800 ed’s participation: I Wanna Be Sedated (The Ramones), Corduroy, Rock Lobster (B’52s) TFT Notes: The Seattle International Film Festival presented this “Rock School Jam Session,” featuring the young musicians from the documentary Rock School: Julia Rainer, Teddi Tarnoff, Madison Flego, Julie Slick, Louis Graff, Bryan Purcell, Joe Randazzo, Larry Allen, Eric Slick and CJ Tywoniak with Rock School teacher Paul Green. Ed joins in to contribute a few songs. Ed plays cowbell on “Rock Lobster.” TFT Review

UPDATED September 1, 2005 08/29/05 – Adams Event Center, Missoula, MT attendance: approx 7500 support act: The Briefs main set: MFC, Save You, Do The Evolution, 1/2 Full, Insignificance, Given To Fly, Sad, Even Flow, Faithfull, Daughter, Lukin, Grievance (incomplete), Whipping, I Got Shit, Nothing As It Seems, Rearviewmirror first encore: Elderly Woman …, Sleight of Hand, Black, Glorified G, Alive second encore: Bee Girl (Ed and Jeff), Black Red Yellow, Better Man, Porch third encore: Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: This show was a political fundraiser for Montana politician Jon Tester’s U.S. Senate Election Bid. Jeff Ament takes the stage first and thanks many people but “mostly, I want to thank the band – I want to thank Ed, Stone, Matt and Mike for coming over.” Continuing he introduces the “next senator of Montana”, Jon Tester. Jon Tester briefly and enthusiastically introduces Pearl Jam, alluding to his experience with fellow Montanan Jeff Ament, “this is what happens when a dirt farmer from Big Sandy runs for the U.S Senate teamed up with a bass player from Big Sandy and a world-class band. We’re just a couple of Montana boys trying to have a good time.” The band took the stage with the house lights still up. The crowd sings the last chorus of “Even Flow” after Ed pleas “Would you do me the privilege of singing this next chorus on your own? Giving me the day off, just for a chorus? Loud as you can, that kinda thing. Shall we? I’d be grateful.” Before the outro of “Faithfull”, Ed prepends:

I think we want to believe. I think we deserve to believe. Something … something … something … They aint’ trying to screw us, or rip us off, or tear us apart, or kill us, or take our lives. Lord have mercy… M-Y-T-H-S …

After some back-and-forth shout outs at the beginning of the “Daughter” jam, Ed sings an improv to the common tune of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2″:

“We don’t need no misrepresentation We don’t need no Fox News Report Take your bias, shove it up your asses Don’t you remember what the truth is worth? Reporters leave Cindy Sheehan alone Leave her alone…

Ed dedicates “Elderly Woman …” to “the Mayor of Big Sandy” – Jon Tester, that is. The “Jeff Chant” is back in full force after “Black” and Ed praises Jeff saying that “when Jeff got a bit of money, from our band working in Seattle, the first thing he did was move back here.” “Bee Girl” is played for the first time since October 2, 1994, a gap of 320 shows, and Ed acknowledges both prior performances (October 18, 1993 (Rockline) and October 2, 1994). With Phil Jackson (former Chicago Bulls coach, now L.A. Lakers coarch) in attendance, “Black, Red, Yellow” – written about “six extraordinary human beings that work together as a team” – is played for the first time since November 24, 1996, a gap of 246 shows. “Porch” starts again with the slow, funky intro. Before “Yellow Ledbetter”, Ed salutes the crowd, acknowledging “it’s been awhile since we played live, so we spend time living normal lives, we have no idea that there’s this kind of energy out there waiting for us, so thanks again.” All songs played tonight are Pearl Jam songs, no covers. setlist setlist (close-up on notes)

UPDATED September 8, 2005 09/01/05 – The Gorge, George, WA first set (acoustic): I Believe in Miracles, Elderly Woman …, Off He Goes, Low Light, Man of the Hour, I Am Mine, Crazy Mary, Black, Hard to Imagine second set (electric): Given to Fly, Last Exit, Save You, Do The Evolution, Alone, Sad, Even Flow, Not For You, Corduroy, Dissident, MFC, Undone, Daughter, In My Tree, State of Love and Trust, Alive, Porch first encore: Love Boat Captain, Insignificance, Better Man, Rearviewmirror second encore: I Won’t Back Down (Ed solo), Last Kiss, Crown of Thorns, Blood third encore:Yellow Ledbetter, Baba O’Riley TFT Notes: The band starts off with an acoustic set ala Mansfield ’03. The playing of “Low Light” during the acoustic set is positioned to coincide with the sunset. “Undone” is performed for the first time in a non-soundcheck set. “Hard to Imagine” is played for the first time since September 6, 1998 Knoxville, TN (gap of 188 shows). Unlike the 2003 tour, the stage now has a backdrop where they project lights and images onto it, with themes coinciding with some songs – e.g. “Love Boat Captain” = water. Ed calls for Tom Petty (playing the Gorge 9/2-3) to join the band onstage and gets the crowd to join in the request. Never appearing, Ed instead performs the Petty original “I Won’t Back Down”. The unique T-shirt for this show is a beige color with a large brown Chevron on the back. In gold, it says “Pearl Jam, The Gorge, Sept. 1, 2005″ The front of the shirt is quarry truck (as in the Colombia River gorge). On the truck’s bed it says “9105″ and on one of the wheels is inscribed “PJ”. setlist photo

UPDATED September 8, 2005 09/02/05 – General Motors Place, Vancouver, B.C., Canada support act: The Supersuckers opener set: Poor Girl (Ed w/Supersuckers) set: Release, Go, Animal, Save You, Given to Fly, Corduroy, Love Boat Captain, Even Flow, Better Man, 1/2 Full, Daughter/(W.M.A.), Wishlist, Lukin, Grievance, Immortality, Nothingman, Down, Do The Evolution, Blood / (Atomic Dog) first encore: Footsteps, Elderly Woman…, U, Alive second encore: Bee Girl, Black, Porch third encore:I Believe in Miracles, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: During the Supersuckers set, Ed came out in the silver Bushleaguer suit and a white wrestling mask with silver eyeholes and mouth (same used in Mexico ’03) and performed X’s “Poor Girl” with the band. The costumed Ed casually appeared, sang the song, bowed with the band and exited. PJ took the stage at 8:52 PM and all the seats in the arena were filled in the side and rear stage of the venue (unlike Missoula and the Gorge show), no backdrop. In addition to Jeff’s bass amps being painted in large letters spelling out “BASS,” he has an American flag painted with a large glow-in-the-dark skull in the area where the stars are. Ed broke out a mirror during “1/2 Full,” reflecting light from a spotlight onto the audience by first panning slowly across the crowd then quickly flashing it in circles like a siren. “Love Boat Captain” now starts with a funkier guitar intro. “Daughter” included a “W.M.A.” tag followed by a shout out soon-to-be-born boy named Wolfgang, so that he could feel the “vibrations” through his mother attending the show. With the disco ball returning during the solo, “Wishlist” included a verse at the end:

“I wish I came from a country that never went to war, I wish I came from a country that took care of its poor, Maybe someday that will change, In the place from where we came, In the meantime, thanks for the example”

During the “Blood” breakdown, Ed sang the “Bow-wow-wow yippee-yo yippee-yay…” from George Clinton’s “Atomic Dog.” Ed had lyric sheets for both “Blood” and “U,” with “U”‘s written as “YOU” across the top. “Black” included a vocal experiment where Ed asked the crowd to whistle the “do-do-do-do”s at the end instead of singing. When the whistling became piercing Ed said “Not that loud, that’s feedback!” “Porch”‘s jam featured Ed and Mike standing on Matt’s drum riser playing to the rear, Jeff in another corner. Ed prefaced “I Believe in Miracles” with “This is a song by the greatest rock band in the world” Johnny Ramone’s widow Linda was in attendance at the show. Ed threw out six tambourines during “Baba O’Riley,” the last going to a fan in a Johnny Ramone T-Shirt. Jeff spun in circles, putting his index finger on the top of his head mimicking a spinning ballerina during the crescendo at the end of “Baba O’Riley.” setlist photo

UPDATED September 5, 2005 09/04/05 – Pengrowth Saddledome, Calgary, AB, Canada support act: The Supersuckers set: Oceans, Last Exit, Corduroy, Whipping, Hail Hail, Do The Evolution, Given To Fly, Red Mosquito, Even Flow, MFC, Daughter/(Hey Ho Do You Wanna Go/ Androgynous Mind), Alone, Insignificance, Not For You, Black, Save You, Rearviewmirror first encore: Elderly Woman …, Thumbing My Way, Sleight of Hand, Hard To Imagine, Alive second encore: Better Man/(I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend)/(Save It For Later), (improv), Last Kiss, Rockin in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: A full house, the tall four-level Saddledome packed to the rafters. The Brian Eno-esque humming bass note was used for entrance music, and the band came on at 9:00 PM sharp. The lights remained off for all of “Oceans.” The “I sometimes realize…” breakdown of “Hail, Hail” was sung to the back of the house, and featured the lyrical change “I wish I coulda been your one.” In “Do The Evolution,” Ed wanted the crowd to “admire Stone” instead of “my clone.” After “Do The Evolution,” Ed conferred with the band for a song change and “Given to Fly” was played instead of “Red Mosquito.” Prior to “Red Mosquito,” Ed thanked the crowd for “bringing your Saturday game on a Sunday night.” He talked about how depressed the band were about the effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans, and mentioned Kingsway Studios, that they recorded some songs there and they were sure it was gone. He thanked the crowd for Canada being “a nation who tried to help,” introducing “Red Mosquito” with “This is one that came outta there.” The rest of the band (and crew) assumed it was cut from setlist and scrambled to get the right instruments quickly before launching into the song. Red lights lit the stage. During the “The shades go down” section of “Daughter,” the dimly lit lights at the rear of the stage lower down. Mike uses an E-bow at the end of the breakdown. Mike gets the crowd clapping during the first verse of “Not For You”; Ed broke a string during the middle before “all that’s sacred,” pulling out some of the other strings. The crowd used lighters and cell phones to create a starry sea of light during “Black,” Ed adding back “We belong together” at songs end for the first time in a while. The “Rearviewmirror” jam featured Stone on his knees, hunched over his effects board, needling furiously, pounding on some of his effects with his hands, then standing up to spin in circles. “Elderly Woman…,” “Thumbing My Way,” “Sleight of Hand” and most of “Hard To Imagine” were played seated; Ed stood up from “things were different then…” until the end. Before “Thumbing,” Ed acknowledged a “young woman” in the front row attending her 100th Pearl Jam show (*cough* TFT’s Kathy D.! *cough*), saying that was pretty good since he’d been to a hundred and one. Prior to the second encore, Ed told the crowd they “made it very hard for a bunch of guys to be depressed,” mentioning that they’ve been away being in the studio in Seattle making a new record and taking their time with it because it’s the best thing they’ve ever done, further expressing gratitude for the crowds loud, heartfelt and enthusiastic response since it had been a while since they’s been to Calgary (Aug 11, 1993). Ed asked the crowd to sing the “Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh’s” at the end of Last Kiss, and both Matt and Stone joined in off mic. On setlist and not played: Sad, Breath (after Alive), Blood (or Porch, listed together) (after Better Man) Man of the Hour listed as an alternative to Thumbin’ and not played. setlist – first set setlist – encores

UPDATED September 8, 2005 09/05/05 – Rexall Place, Edmonton, AB, Canada support act: The Supersuckers set: Release, Go, Save You, Spin The Black Circle, Nothing As It Seems, Daughter/(Dream Baby Dream), Even Flow, Better Man, I Am Mine, Grievance, Elderly Woman…, Sad, Corduroy, Given To Fly, Wishlist (Hard Times Are Over), Animal, Do The Evolution first encore: Love Boat Captain, Crazy Mary, Jeremy, Porch second encore: Fuckin’ Up, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Brian Eno-esque bass chord sets the tone for an 8:47PM show start time. “Release” is played with the lights down, Ed’s arms in a “V” at the height of “I’ll ride the wave where it takes me.” Lyric is changed to “Oh dear Ed, can you see this now.” Middle eight of a slower “Spin The Black” (“You’re so warm…”) is sung to the back of the house. Ed again mentions the hurricane disaster in New Orleans, mentioning that the city is the birthplace of much great jazz and blues, without which “we wouldn’t be here.” On “Nothing As It Seems”, Ed renews the gesture of using his hand as a megaphone for “whispers through a megaphone.” Mike rouses the crowd to clap during the “Daughter” breakdown, and swirly celtic-looking lights are projected on a black curtain at the back of the house below the crowd as well as on the center ceiling. Before the tag, Ed pounds his chest quickly then pats his hand over his mouth, before launching into snippets of ’70s NYC Punk band Suicide’s “Dream Baby Dream,” a song covered by Bruce Springsteen. Ed hand wrote a lyric sheet for the tag. Returning from singing the second verse of “Evenflow” to the back of the house, Ed tripped over his guitar, recovering in perfect time to sing the chorus. After the breakdown jam right as Stoney was coming in, and the song builds back to the final chorus, Ed put his hand out flat as if to conduct the crescendo, raising it up to the ceiling and over his head, launching into the chorus. During the Ed solo portion of “Better Man,” the crowd was lit with lighters and cell phone light. Before “Elderly,” Ed comments on how Stone’s (tomato red, yellow, green and white plaid) pants looked good backstage, but in the light, “those pants REALLY look good.” The crowd cheered, then Ed mentioned “It’s great to be in awe” of the people in your band. Prior to “Sad,” Ed took a swig of water, put his head back and spit a fountain of water over himself. For “50 million hands upraised” in “Wishlist,” a sea of hands made Ed smile broadly and say “you got it.” A tag at the song’s end featured Ed adapting the lyrics of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Hard Times Are Over”: “Hard times are over, hard times are over, over for a while. Solders come home, soldiers come home, mothers welcome your sons home.” During “Animal,” the house lighting was brought up when the crowd sang the chorus. For “Do The Evolution” Ed sang “admire his clone” and tilted his head over to Stone. Returning for the first encore, Ed said “We knew we had Canadian friends, but not this many” to loud cheers. At the end of “Love Boat Captain” Ed roused the crowd to sing “Love.” As he sang “Mary risin’ up above it all” during “Crazy Mary,” Ed curled his hands in the bottom of his shirt tails and pulled his shirt up to a “V” on either side of his head. Mike began his solo facing Ed, moving over to Boom, Boom playing a spirited line and Mike echoing it, the two soon wailing simultaneously. On “Jeremy,” Stone sang the backup “hoo hoo hoo…” while Ed led the crowd in the “woah oh oh oh oh oh” at the songs end. Prior to “Porch,” Mike thanked the two fans who put together a fund raiser for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada (CCFC), raising $5,000. Mike’s shirt sported the letters CCFC handwritten on the front. Ed hauled out the mirror he uses in “1/2 Full” and shone it all around the crowd with increasing speed, spinning around quickly and stopping in perfect time to sing “hear my name..”, during which he came out in front of the monitors. At songs end, he tripped over his monitors, fell backward and did a perfect somersault, landing just shy of Matt’s drum riser. Back from encore two, Ed told the crowd “We’d stay here all night but we have to get to Saskatoon.” The end of “Fucking Up” featured the crowd doing the “Hey’s” usually done at the end of “Alive” and Ed smiled, saying “Beautiful” as he watched the united sea of arms punching the air. Jeff played part of “Ledbetter” standing with Boom behind the Hammond organ. On setlist, not played: Last Exit as first encore opener, and a mini-set of Wash, Man of The Hour, Light Years, Insignificance and Hail Hail. setlist photo

UPDATED September 12, 2005 09/07/05 – Credit Union Centre, Saskatoon, SK, Canada support act: The Supersuckers opener set: I Believe In Miracles (Ed w/Supersuckers) set: Release, Corduroy, Save You, Given To Fly, Do The Evolution, Animal, Insignificance, Green Disease, Even Flow, Present Tense, I Am Mine, State of Love and Trust, Elderly Woman …, I Got Shit, Rearviewmirror first encore: Glorified G, Whipping, Daughter, Off He Goes, Footsteps, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Porch second encore: Runnin’ Back To Saskatoon, Last Kiss, Alive third encore: Rockin’ in the Free World TFT Notes: Ed came out in the silver costume and wrestling mask again, doing a somersault across the stage before joining The Supersuckers for The Ramones’ “I Believe In Miracles”. The first few songs of the main set were taped for an MTV Hurricane Katrina relief special “ReAct Now: Music & Relief” (see link for air times) and Ed addresses the crowd after Release to let us know what is happening with the video. The cameras seem to disappear after Do The Evolution. Better Man has the Save It For Later tag. During Porch, Ed is standing on the rail of the front of the crowd, with two PJ security personnel holding his legs to prop him up. Porch began with the “funky start” again and included a long jam, during which Ed was walking around the stage checking out the people on the sides drinking his wine that he handed out. When he was right in front on Mike – sporting a Keith Richards T-shirt – Ed points at the shirt, says something to Mike, and Mike makes a “drunk face” while Ed does his own “drunk walk”. “Runnin’ Back To Saskatoon” by The Guess Who is a debut cover. The band says that they were trying to learn a new song and this was part of the reason why they took so long to come back out during the encore break, wishing they had taken longer when the fans hear them play it. Lyric sheets were brought out and taped to the stage. Stone and Jeff sang back up. They get through the first two verses then stop because they dont know the rest of the song. Third encore starts with the band noodling the Canadian National Anthem.

UPDATED September 30, 2005 09/08/05 – MTS Centre, Winnipeg, MB, Canada support act: The Supersuckers opener set: Poor Girl (Ed w/Supersuckers) set: Better Man, Hail Hail, Corduroy, Grievance, Save You, Given To Fly, Sad, Not For You, Daughter/(Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2), Wishlist, Even Flow, Untitled -> MFC, 1/2 Full, Immortality, Lukin, Jeremy, Black, Do The Evolution first encore: In Hiding, In My Tree, Crazy Mary, Alive, Blood second encore: Indifference, Smile, Elderly Woman…, Fuckin’ Up, Rockin’ In The Free World TFT Notes: Ed came out in the silver costume and wrestling mask again joining The Supersuckers for X’s “Poor Girl”. Ed utilizes the open stage early on and runs to the back during Hail, Hail. Right after “Save You”, Stone started playing the intro to “Sad”, rather than the scheduled “Given To Fly”. The rest of the band waited for him to figure it out and had a chuckle – Ed came over to Stone and hugged him, then they proceeded with “Given To Fly” (lyrics are changed to “Made it to the ocean, got drunk in a tree”). Ed sings “Sad” with his shirt a above his head for some of the time, with Mike soloing while crouched down at the edge of the stage. After the song, Ed talks about how the Winnipeg crowd is the loudest crowd by far. He thanks the crew who are travelling coast to coast with them and how the band wouldn’t be able to put on the show without them. In “Not For You”, the table seats “all of you” and later “oh, where did they come from? … Saskatoon!”. After the song, Jeff told Ed off mic, “Hey that was pretty good” and Ed agreed, patting himself on the back. Ed is handed a cell phone passed up to the stage. He says “hello” and then starts a “hey” chant with the crowd, turning the phone around when it’s the crowd’s part. After that, he says “hello, we’re in Winnipeg” into the phone then finds out that the person on the other end is in Los Angeles, so he hangs up! The crowd sings the “Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2″ tag after the first line. Mike plays part of the “Even Flow” solo with his guitar behind his head, while Ed spins the mic cord. “Untitled” contains lyrics about spending all of your paycheck on oil. During the jam at the end of Immortality, a bright white spotlight is on Matt and the rest of the band is gathered around the drum riser. During “Black”, Mike has a blue spotlight on him during the solo, with Ed changing his oft-improvised “we belong together” cries to “we didnt belong together”. Mike plays snippets of the Rolling Stone’s “Angie” at the end of the Crazy Mary solo. Ed acknowledges a fan in front who has been wearing a shirt with “Smile” on it at the past few shows. Ed says he isn’t sure if it has been washed on not, so they should play her request. Fast forward and she’s brought up on stage. She’s asked if she can play bass (“no”), guitar (“no”), or sing (“no”). Ed has her sit down on a stool by the drum kit and says she can sing back up. For the second verse, he brings her up to the mic to stand with him and sing. With the vocal part over, he dances around the stage with her and gives her the harmonica. During “Elderly Woman…” Ed mentions how it was written thinking about Neil Young because he is from a small town. “Fuckin’ Up” and “Rockin’ in the Free World” are introduced by Ed describing Neil as being from Winnipeg and not a “land baron” from Northern California. Ed introduces “Fuckin’ Up” as “George W’s favorite song” and jumps off the stage to where a fan is in a wheelchair on the side of the floor and gives him a tambourine. With the house lights up, the band is running and jumping everywhere around the stage during “Rockin’…”, ending with Ed pointing to the very back top level of the arena and saying “thank you”. On the setlist but not played: Light Years (after In My Tree), U (written as “You” on the setlist, before Indifference), Yellow Ledbetter (after Fuckin’ Up). List of alternate songs on setlist not played: Deep, Alone, Bee Girl, Go.

UPDATED September 13, 2005 09/09/05 – Fort William Gardens, Thunder Bay, ON, Canada support act: The Supersuckers opener set: Cowboy Song (Mike w/Supersuckers), Poor Girl and I Believe In Miracles (Ed with Supersuckers) set: Present Tense, Corduroy, Save You, Animal, Given To Fly, Cropduster, Even Flow, Elderly Woman…, Light Years, Lukin, State of Love and Trust, Down, Driven To Tears, Jeremy, Breakerfall, Porch first encore: Nothingman, I Am Mine, Black, Alive second encore: Last Kiss, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: With the venue about half full, Ed comes out before the Supersuckers set to perform “You’ve Go To Hide Your Love Away”. Mike guests on guitar with The Supersuckers for a cover of Thin Lizzy’s “Cowboy Song”. Mike runs back out to snap Polaroid photos during another song when Joe is playing the bass and Eddie is standing behind him playing his guitar. Mike crouches down at the front and takes 3 or 4 polaroids pulling them out as fast as he can. Ed comes out for “Poor Girl”, falling over backwards at the end of the song. At the end they decide to do another one after Ed puts up his finger for one more, leading to “I Believe In Miracles”. Ed spots a kid on the floor wearing a Ramones t-shirt and motions to him with his finger to come up to the stage. He does and goes over to sing with Ed. After the chorus Ed climbs on the kid’s back piggy-back style and looks like he is trying to get up to his shoulders but doesn’t make it. While toasting with his Heineken, Ed addresses the crowd following “Given To Fly” that it’s the hottest show and wonders how they play hockey in a building like this. Ed misses the beginning lyrics of “State of Love and Trust” because he is stretched out giving a pick to someone in the first row. Luckily, the crowd started singing for him. After the “arms raised in a ‘V’” part of “Jeremy”, Ed walks to Stone’s side and climbs up on the stage monitors to sing to the people on the side. When he gets down, he walks to the other side of the stage, mounts one of the smaller front monitors, then swings on the ladder the lighting technicians use. Starting the first encore, the band comes out on stools. A “Boooom” chant ensues, and Ed quips that Boom is used to this heat since he’s from Hawaii. Mike throws some “War Pigs” riffs into the “Alive” jam. “Last Kiss” is played to the fans in the back, with the lights on. Befor it starts, Ed climbs into the stands and makes his way up about ten rows, tailed closely by security. People are high-fiving him and patting him on the back. People from the sections around are all running over to be closer. They start “Last Kiss” once he has picked his new spot in the seats. Security try to leave an open path for him to get back down. Stone comes back around to the front during the third verse and goes over beside Matt. Once they all get back at the end of the next song Jeff is up on the riser talking to Matt as if to fill him in on what he missed, since he was not able to face the other way, both are laughing. The Supersuckers join PJ for “Rockin In The Free World”. Eddie Spaghetti brings out his young son, Quattro, sporting ear protective headphones, holding a black tambourine in his hand. Eddie Spaghetti just sings and watches his son, Dusty plays drums, and the others play guitar. Quattro completely steals the show during the song, singing “yeah! a lot. Mike is on his knees in front of Quattro trying to get him to play, but he just puts the mic up to Mike who says “play” into it. The Supersuckers leave the stage except for Quattro who stands at the front still saying “yeah!” and “Supersuckers!” with his hands up making the “devil” sign. setlist photo – page 1 (including Ed’s guitar pick) setlist photo – page 2 setlist photo – page 3

UPDATED September 18, 2005 09/11/05 – Memorial Auditorium, Kitchener, ON, Canada support act: Sleater-Kinney soundcheck: I Am Mine (no vocals), Leatherman (2X), You Are (2X), Gimmie Some Truth (1.5X), Habit Ed pre-set: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away set: Long Road, Last Exit, Animal, Save You, Do The Evolution, Given To Fly, Love Boat Captain, Corduroy, Insignificance, Gimme Some Truth, Faithfull, Jeremy, Even Flow, Leatherman, Habit, Blood first encore: Soon Forget, Can’t Keep, Man of the Hour, Elderly Woman…, Daughter/(W.M.A.), Black, Alive second encore: In My Tree, Indifference, Better Man, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Ed came out at 7:30 PM and played “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away.” The main PJ set opened at 8:45PM with a moving Long Road (show was on the anniversary of 9/11/01). During “Animal,” Mike did a split kick after “torture from you to me.” Ed went over to Stone and stood directly in front of him singing “I’d rather be with an animal.” Mike finished the song spinning in circles. Before the section of “Save You” where Ed usually encourages crowd clapping in double time, he pulled his shirt up over his head covering his face completely; when he took the shirt down, he chuckled at the crowd doing the claps on their own. The “hallelujah”s in Evolution featured Mike as the conductor, using his finger as a baton. At songs end, Ed stooped over and put his knuckles down imitating an ape then doing a swaying dance. In “Given To Fly,” Ed “ran for hundreds of miles, to get here.” Ed sang the second verse to the back of the house, and at songs end moved the mic swiftly back and forth over his lips. Before “Love Boat Captain”, Ed talked about how people kept saying “Thanks for coming to Kitchener,” but he said we wanted to turn it around and say “thanks for having us.” He also said the Kitchener crowd was making Edmonton look like pansies, which got huge cheers. A few songs he admitted that he said it only to get a crowd reaction. He did say it’s funny how he could have a great night in Edmonton just a few nights prior and now here he was, calling them names. To demonstrate how easy it is to get a crowd to react he said “fuckin’ edmonton mother fuckers.” The extended end of LBC has the crowd repeating “Love” at Ed’s request “Let me hear it” and then “let me feel it.” An “Eddie! Eddie!” chant broke out after the song, and a bemused Eddie joked “Is that a nickname for Edmonton? ‘Cause you can call me Ed.” After “Insignificance,” Ed described what inspired the song talking about how Seattle is famous for a lot of things, including coffee, and bands (name checking Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney). But that it’s also famoous for being the home of Boeing, which not only manufactures regular airplanes but has a division that manufactures war planes. He said what he had in mind when he wrote “forgive our hometown” (Seattle) for “bombs dropping down.” He went on to alluded to the U.S. war on Iraq, speaking of how Americans have gotten used to “living with a disease” of the questionable war. “Gimme Some Truth” had Ed using the lyric sheets to get it right. During the second “short-haired yellow-bellied son of Georgie Porgie” Ed stopped strumming the guitar so he could flip off the prez with both middle fingers raised. He to the back of the house for the breakdown of “Faithfull” returning to the stage front to hand gesture the “me .. you … you, me … it’s all related.” An animated “Jeremy” featured Ed’s shoving both of his hands quickly up through his shirt so he could again extend both middle fingers out the neck hole, this time during the line “seemed a harmless little fuck.” The house lights, which have been coordinated to switch on at key moments of the crowd singing throughout the show, were brought up for the “Whoa”s a the end, Ed putting his hand over his throat to encourage more singing. He strapped on a guitar after the song, then laughed at himself as “Even Flow” started, taking it back off, then rolling up the sleeves of his black Sisters of Mercy T-shirt. The jam featured a tribal Cameron-heavy interlude. At some point during the main set, McCready – wearing glasses! – playing guitar behind his head. Ed mistakenly introduced “Habit” right before “Leatherman” to chuckles from Stone and Jeff, correcting himself laughingly. The end of the “Habit” breakdown had Ed doing Pete Townshend-style windmills on his guitar. “Blood” features Ed leaning back during the opening line, then between “Fucking circus” and “stab it down”, using the microphone stand as a support, leaning fully on it to pull himself forward, feet briefly leaving the ground. Spent after the final chorus, Ed flopped onto his back, laying there for a minute then throwing the microphone to the side. Jeff had on some kind of sweat-soaked nylon full body jumpsuit, which he changed out of after the main set. Ed returns with “Luke,” his ukelele, alluding to hockey players Luc Robataille, then Chris Chelios. A short-lived attempt at “Soon Forget” had Ed quickly exclaiming “Shit!” at the failed chord change, another try at it gave way to a more successful solo “Can’t Keep.” Prior to “Man Of The Hour,” Ed said he “would like to dedicate this to Johnny Ramone.” In addition to a “W.M.A.” Daughter tag, He sang “take a look at my friends!” calling out George W, singing “I can’t wait ’til somebody takes your place; Dick Cheney you can kiss my ass; forgive me if I get high to celebrate the news when you die.” Prior to “Black”, Ed mentioned the Mamasan tape, talking about Stone writing the song after Andy Wood’s death, and about Matt playing on the tape and talking about how grateful he was to have Matt in the band, after which Matt blew Ed a kiss. “Alive” was played with full house lights up. Ed grinned and laughed when the crowd waved during the “wave to all my friends” line. After the final “How much difference does it make?” Ed talks a lot about how uplifting the crowd’s unified singing and reacting to the music was. He thanked all corners of the house profusely. Two ecstatic young girls in the front row off to Stone’s side who were born in 1992 got picks from Ed as well as one of the tambourines used during Baba. Matt showed the crowd his gratitude by tossing out three sets of drumsticks. poster setlist photo

UPDATED September 18, 2005 09/12/05 – John Labatt Centre, London, ON, Canada support act: Sleater-Kinney Ed’s pre-set: Growin’ Up set: Oceans, Breakerfall, Corduroy, Hail Hail, Animal, Glorified G, Black Red Yellow, In My Tree, Better Man/(Modern Girl), You Are, Not For You, Jeremy, Wishlist, Even Flow, Bleed For Me, Rearviewmirror first encore: Nothing As It Seems, Off He Goes, Hard To Imagine, Alive second encore: Go, Grievance, Elderly Woman…, State of Love and Trust, Smile, Rockin’ in the Free World TFT Notes: “Hail, Hail” has lyric change to “I refer to those in front”. Ed counts out the “1,2,3,4,5 against 1″ on both hands in “Animal” with the crowd. “Black, Red, Yellow” is introduced as “one for the serious collector”. Better Man includes a nod to the opener, tagging Sleater-Kinney’s “Modern Girl”. “You Are” is played for the first time on the Canadien tour, with the same light effects as in 2003 complete with strobe lights at the end. “Not for You” features lyric change to “small my table, seats just three” and has a tag that seems practiced and smooth, including improvised lyrics and then ending with “not for you” repeated several times. The disco ball comes down for “Wishlist” which offers a great effect in this medium sized venue. Ed goes off the right side of the stage during the jam at the bridge in “Even Flow”. He brings his wine bottle and is rockin’ to the crowd behind the stage. He then turns back to the stage, lights a cigarette in his other hand, and alternately smokes and drinks while watching Mike solo, waves to the crowd, comes back to the stage, gives praise to “Mike McCready”, all with the the crowd going nuts. “Bleed for Me” is introduced as “by a band from San Francisco, The Dead Kennedys”. When finished, Ed says “that song is what it feels like to be an American right now”, putting his fist to his heart. “Rearviewmirror” has a tight jam in the middle, with Stone down on his knees at his pedals, generating some great effects. When they come back, they are all seated and “Nothing As It Seems” is introduced. After “Off He Goes”, Stone, Jeff and Ed talk quickly and Ed comes to the mic and says “we’ve got this one for a special occasion” leading to “Hard to Imagine” which ends with all standing, Stone’s riff leading the charge. “Alive” is huge, with Stone rockin’ hard, walking to Mike during the first chorus. After the second verse, Ed wanders to the right of the stage, out past the monitors, and gives a small wave to a young girl (“Melissa”) in the second row, who waves back, and he motions for security to bring her on stage. He talks with her briefly and then grabs her hand and brings her to center stage where she is noticeably terrified. The crowd starts in on the “hey! hey! hey!” and the house lights are on. Ed holds her hand up and is yelling with the crowd, then dances her around the stage. Mike comes over to her and says something, gives her a hug and finishes the song to the crowd going nuts. Coming back after the break, Ed says “we’ll play just one more because Melissa has school tomorrow”, then says “Fuck school, you’re staying with us!”. Then, he adds “Oh, I just said ‘fuck’. I said it again, fuck!” as he and the band are laughing, Jeff just shaking his head. Stone is noticeably rockin’ during “Grievance”, nailing his solo, some duck-walking, having a lot of fun. Ed tries to start “Elderly Woman…” and is interrupted by a “Let Stone Sing!!” chant from the floor. Enough so that Ed walks to the front of the stage to listen, and Matt gets a beat going in time with the chant, then Ed doing the chant on the mic. Ed first says “NO! he will never sing … he shan’t never sing”, laughing and looking at Stone, who is pretending to be busy with his guitar. Ed says “you make it sound like someone is not letting Stone sing. Stone Gossard can sing any song, at any time, on any stage”. Then Stone walks to Ed’s mic and says “what I really want to do is dance”, which gets Ed and Matt starting an improv jam, with Jeff and Mike quickly joining in. The spotlight shines on Stone, and he starts dancing, goofing around shaking his ass – continuing it for a good amount of time! – the crowd loving it, the band cracking up. Then Ed starts right in to “Elderly Woman …”. Ed walks to the mic quickly after “State” and says “For those we were talking to in the parking lot earlier that had some requests for tonight’s show, hope this fulfills your wishes”, all the while Stone and Jeff are frantically switching equipment. “Smile” receives a very warm welcome, with Stone on bass and Jeff playing guitar, and playing to each other through most of the song, Ed coming in late on the last chorus with the harmonica. The house lights come on, and Ed says “Mike McCready would like to say a few words”, letting Mike talk. Mike brings up a card that he also had at Kitchener, and says that the CCFC foundation of Canada has put in a lot of good work and has raised almost $5,000 just tonight, and adds that “I have Crohn’s, it’s a nasty fucking disease.” Mike thanks everyone who donated, and a few people specifically with the foundation (there was a pub across the street from the venue that was auctioning off a guitar, a poster and other PJ memorabilia before the show playing the Touring Band 2000 DVD on their projector for the whole day with drink and food specials with reps from CCFC on hand to take donations). “Rockin” gets a huge response from the crowd with the lights on, Ed has two tambourines and stands behind Stone and bangs the tambourines together until they start coming apart with pieces flying. Jeff and Mike are jamming together most of the song. Matt throws out 3 sets of drumsticks afterward. setlist photo – page 1 setlist photo – page 2 poster

UPDATED September 18, 2005 09/13/05 – Copps Coliseum, Hamilton, ON, Canada support act: Sleater-Kinney Ed pre-set Throw Your Arms Around Me set: Porch, Save You, Spin The Black Circle, Animal, Given To Fly, Sad, U, Corduroy, 1/2 Full, Daughter/(I Believe In Miracles), Lukin, Insignificance, Present Tense, Untitled, MFC, Jeremy, Better Man/(Modern Girl), Rearviewmirror first encore: Thumbing My Way, I Am Mine, Harvest Moon (with Sleater Kinney), Black, Alive second encore: Last Exit, Go, In My Tree, Elderly Woman…, Indifference, Rockin’ in the Free World (with Sleater Kinney), Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: The show begins at 8:55 PM. The show was not sold out (about five sections in the upper bowl of the arena were curtained off). “Better Man” includes the “Modern Girl” (Sleater-Kinney) tag again. Ed addressed the crowd about newspaper articles which claimed “Pearl Jam has added a keyboard player for this tour” which brought out a huge “Booooom!” chant. Before “Harvest Moon”, Ed tells the band that he is missing a wedding tonight and does a “repeat after me” for “Jack and Jen”, which gets a large response. Before the band starts playing, they all put on tuxedo coats, Ed is sporting tails, and Slater-Kinney comes out to sing harmony. Ed even plays harmonica to finish the song, just like Neil does. setlist photo – page 1 setlist photo – page 2 poster (hand-signed by Brad Klausen) poster (close-up of signature)

UPDATED September 20, 2005 09/15/05 – Bell Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada support act: Sleater-Kinney Ed pre-set Don’t Be Shy set: Release, Corduroy, Last Exit, Save You, Animal, I Believe In Miracles, Light Years, Grievance, Sad, Given To Fly, Love Boat Captain, Better Man/(I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend), Even Flow, In My Tree, Do The Evolution, Lukin, Porch first encore: Trouble, Man of the Hour, Last Kiss, Harvest Moon, Crazy Mary, Alive second encore: Whipping, Down, Blood, Black, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: This show was on the one year anniversary of the death of the Ramones’ Johnny Ramone, a close friend of Eddie’s and during “Release,” he sings “Oh dear John, can you see us now?”. Before PJ covers the Ramones’ “I Believe in Miracles,” Ed talks about how he hired Johnny Ramones’ guitar tech Ricky when Johnny died. Ed leads into “Love Boat Captain” jokes about how they were once going to make the song about Bush and call it “Love Boat Asshole… no, no… Greed Boat Asshole… no, no, no… Greed Boat Asshole Behind the Counter in the Oval Office.” Eddie presented Love Boat Captain in French, reading from the floor: “Cette chanson s’appelle ‘Love Boat Captain’” meaning “This song is called ‘Love Boat Captain’”. “Harvest Moon” is dedicated to newlyweds and Sleater Kinney do back up vocals and a simple dance. “Whipping” has screwed up lyrics. “Black” featured an extended outro, with a long session of “do do dos” and Ed asking the crowd to “turn your candles on” and the crowd responding with lighters and cell phone backlights. setlist scan – page 1 setlist scan – page 2 setlist scan – page 3

UPDATED September 30, 2005 09/16/05 – Corel Centre, Ottawa, ON, Canada support act: Sleater-Kinney Soundcheck: Ed on ukulele: You’re True, Can’t keep, Brokenhearted (instrumental). Full band: Don’t Gimme No Lip, Wash, Leaving Here Ed pre-set: Last Kiss set: Wash, Go, Hail Hail, Animal, Brain of J, Corduroy, Immortality, In Hiding, Don’t Gimme No Lip, Even Flow, Green Disease, Insignificance, I Got Shit, Jeremy, Black, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Rearviewmirror first encore: Bee Girl, I Believe In Miracles, Sleight Of Hand, Elderly Woman…, Crazy Mary, Alive second encore: Given To Fly, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Daughter, Harvest Moon, Leaving Here, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Ed opened the Ottawa show at 7:30 sharp with a solo rendering of “Last Kiss.” Despite the fact that the place was perhaps 15% full this was greeted with a great roar. “Part of my job is to introduce the show,” Ed explained before he started, playing a shiny black Rickenbacker. After “Even Flow”, Ed noted he was glad Canadians are keeping their social values more or less intact, but asked if they could stand a little criticism. Goading the audience with a long lead-in, Ed talked at length about how the band – and the crew, in particular – were getting a little jumpy from … the condition of the roads here in Canada! This drew a big laugh. He suggested that the roads are constructed in ten-foot chunks, so that driving was like riding in a train: ka-chunk ka-chunk ka-chunk; it’s at the point on the tour now where members of the road crew are wandering around nodding their heads “no” as a result of inexorably long distances between gigs. Ed went on to suggest that perhaps an American firm named Haliburton (prompting wide booing from the crowd) could be contracted to fix the problem. But then he added that, on second thought, Haliburton wouldn’t be available to do the work because they’re otherwise occupied in New Orleans. Ed then opined that the Bush Administration has worked hard to really spread out the wealth of government contracts … onto the head of “a pin.” Big cheers from the crowd! “Don’t Gimme No Lip” premieres at this show, with Stone on lead vocals. The Ramones’ “I Believe in Miracles” was played acoustic. Jeff played all four solos in “Leaving Here”. PJ started their set at 9:00pm and ended approximately 11:50.

UPDATED September 23, 2005 09/19/05 – Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada support act: Sleater-Kinney Ed pre-set: Porch soundcheck (partial): Porch, I Got Shit, A Sort of Homecoming (incomplt) set: Release, Go, Animal, Save You, Given To Fly, Corduroy, Love Boat Captain, Elderly Woman…, Even Flow, Habit, Daughter/(W.M.A. / Androgynous Mind / Yahweh / Bad), Better Man, 1/2 Full, Black, Do The Evolution, Rearviewmirror first encore: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Present Tense, Wishlist, Harvest Moon, Indifference, Alive second encore:Blood, Jeremy, Leaving Here, Rockin’ In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: With members of U2 in attendance, Ed thanks them for “opening” for them in Toronto (U2 played four nights in a row over the previous weekend). A snippet of U2′s “A Sort Of Homecoming” was played before “Elderly Woman…”. Ed said, “Speaking as a dirty greasy American” in Habit. “Daughter” is tagged with a verse from “W.M.A.,” the “Hey, Hey, it’s OK” from Sonic Youth’s “Androgynous Mind,” a snippet of U2′s “Yahweh,” and part of U2′s “Bad” (“If I could, yes I would / If I could, I would / Let it go”), and a bit of a call-and-response with melodic “Hey ho, let’s go”s. There was also a very short “Bad” teaser before “Habit”, with Ed saying he thought “Bad” was best song he’d heard about addiction, before he mentioned that “Habit” was another song about addiction. Corin Tucker from Sleater-Kinney joins the band on backing vocals on “Harvest Moon”. Ed can’t seem to find the right notes on the harmonica during “Harvest Moon” so he takes it and tosses it into the crowd. Jeff played all four solo parts during “Leaving Here”, and Sleater-Kinney sing backup. The Edge from U2 is setting side stage (Mike’s) all night and Bono joins the band for “Rockin’ in the Free World”. poster

UPDATED September 22, 2005 09/20/05 – Colisee Pepsi Arena, Quebec City, QC, Canada support act: Sleater-Kinney Ed pre-set: Dead Man set: Sometimes, Last Exit, Do The Evolution, Save You, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Faithful, Corduroy, Insignificance, Amerikan in Me, Elderly Woman…, Not For You, Better Man, State of Love and Trust, Black, Blood first encore: Man of the Hour, I Am Mine, Footsteps, Crazy Mary, Alive second encore:I Believe in Miracles, Porch, Rearviewmirror, Fuckin’ Up, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Ed came out with his Rickenbacker to play “Dead Man” and introduce Sleater-Kinney. Mike McCready joined Sleater-Kinney during their set for a cover of Danzig’s “Mother.” Early in the main set, Ed attempted some basic French, asking everyone, “C’est Va?” and then hoisting his wine bottle in a toast of “Sante.” After “Amerikan in Me,” Ed talked about the rainy day in Quebec City, and then jokingly apologized that he and the rest of Pearl Jam stayed up all night hanging out with Bono and U2 trying to solve all of the world’s problems. He went on to say that “People are beautiful” but talked about how he’s noticed that when there are fewer of them around it can be a good thing, leading into “Elderly Woman…”. Jeff has an ultra animated night, with lots of high jumps. In “Not For You,” Ed once again sings, “small my table, seats just three”. “Better Man” has a tag that seems to be “Save it for Later” but with different words, all except the standard “Don’t Let Me Down!”. “Black” finds the crowd erupting into spontaneous “do do do’s,” over which Eddie repeatedly sings, “get out and don’t come back no more.” “Blood” began with Eddie burning his wine cork with his lighter and attempting to black out his eyes. As PJ returned for the encore, everyone on chairs, Ed dedicated “Man of the Hour” to “my friend that passed away, Johnny Ramone.” “Footsteps” is played for someone’s birthday who requested the song at a previous show, and “we hope he’s out there tonight.” Mike and Boom trade duelling solos at the end of “Crazy Mary” as Ed hands his bottle of wine to the front row to drink after him. Ed reminds everyone that “I Believe in Miracles” is a Ramones song, clearly refering again to Johnny Ramone. “Porch” leads off with EV playing the intro riff softly on his guitar and then Jeff, Stone, Matt and Mike crashing in hard and fast after the first verse. At the show’s close, someone in the crowd throws Ed a hockey jersey with “Vedder 6″ on the back, which he drapes across his shoulders while listening to Mike solo during “Yellow Ledbetter”. The band leaves the stage to full house lights, waving at and thanking the vocal crowd. On the set list but not played, “Immortality”, “Off He Goes”, “Harvest Moon”, “Soon Forget”, “Daughter”, “Jeremy”, and “Baba O’Riley.” setlist scan – page 1 setlist scan – page 2

UPDATED October 5, 2005 09/22/05 – Metro Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada support act: Sleater-Kinney Ed pre-set: Drifting set: Hard To Imagine, Animal, Corduroy, Green Disease, Love Boat Captain, Dissident, State Of Love And Trust, You Are, Go, Breath, Elderly Woman…, Leatherman, Even Flow, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Jeremy, Blood first encore: Low Light, Off He Goes, Nothingman, Glorified G, Rearviewmirror second encore: Alive, Down, In My Tree, Daughter, Better Man, Porch, Bushleaguer, Fortunate Son, Rockin’ In The Free World TFT Notes: Jeff, wearing a wild black Spinal-Tap-esque wig complete with a headband, Mike, and Matt joined Sleater-Kinney on Danzig’s “Mother.” PJ took the stage and sat down for the opener, “Hard To Imagine.” Somewhere around “State of Love and Trust” Mike and Ed did a classic head-lean into each other. And early in the night, Ed talked about how after the rain in Quebec City, Nova Scotia’s nice weather was like the tropics to them. Ed fucks up the lyrics to “Breath,” prompting laughst from Stone. The first three songs of the first encore are played seated, and Ed comments that “Nothingman” is a song he and Jeff wrote in a few hours. At the start of the second encore, Mike — wearing a red Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada t-shirt — discussed his Crohn’s disease and mentions that he visited some kids in the local hospital who also have the disease. Mike said that 30 of those kids were at the show, and he dedicated a song to them. During the second encore, Ed started talking about how much he’d really like to try the local beer, Alexander Keith’s Ale, repeatedly asking for someone to get him one and promising that if someone gets him one, they’ll play all night. Soon, he’s handed a Heineken which meets with his disapproval (“what the fuck?!”) and he unsuccessfuly tries to give it to the crowd. Right before “Down,” Eddie finally scores a Keith’s beer, which he opens, and starts guzzling, beer running down his face while the crowd chants “chug! chug! chug!” He introduces “Down” by toasting Howard Zinn with his half empty Keith’s, and sings almost the whole song with the beer can balanced on his head. “Bushleager” is introduced as, “this next song’s about an asshole.” Sleater-Kinney joins PJ for “Fortunate Son” and “Rockin’ in the Free World.” The back rows were going nuts all night and every song on the setlist is played. setlist photo

UPDATED October 5, 2005 09/24/05 – Mile One Stadium, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada set: Can’t Keep, Go, Even Flow, Animal, Corduroy, Nothing As It Seems, Given To Fly, Grievance, Daughter/(Bad/”hey ho, let it go”/W.M.A.), Lukin, U, Present Tense, Don’t Gimme No Lip, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Porch, Save You first encore: Thumbing My Way, I Am Mine, Elderly Woman…, Black, Rearviewmirror second encore: Whipping, Do The Evolution, Spin The Black Circle, Last Kiss, Leaving Here, Alive, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Last minute opening band addition, Halifax band Wintersleep warmed up the crowd from 7:00 to 7:30. Pearl Jam hit the stage at approximately 8.07, with Ed using a lyric sheet for “Can’t Keep”. During the “lead him away” toward the end of both choruses of Even Flow, Ed gestured both of his hands in toward himself. Mike noodled a note to fade the solo in, and Ed grabbed the wine bottle and scooted side stage behind Boom’s Hammond, smoking a cigarette during the solo. During the intro and “1-2-3-4-5 against one” of “Animal”, Mike roused the crowd, jumping up and down and raising his hand up and down to inspire jumping. Right before the first chorus, Jeff spun around a full 360 degrees twice very quickly. Mike got the crowd jumping again for the outro. Soon after the opening notes of “Corduroy”, Stone clapped along while facing Ed, and the crowd joined in. Ed played the strums over the solo to the back of the house. Before “Nothing As It Seems”, Ed toasted the crowd, saying “Live, from St. John’s – it’s Saturday Night!” During “Nothing As It Seems”, “Something maybe two tone” featured Ed moving his hands up and down as if he had an imaginary Slinky toy, also moving them up into an imaginary megaphone for the appropriate line. Verse two of “Given To Fly” was sung to the crowd behind the stage to loud cheers. Jeff played the chorus so bent forward, his bass nearly touched the stage. In Grievance, “I pledge my grieveance to the flag” featured Ed saluting the American, Canadian and Newfoundland flags hanging vertically directly over the seats across the venue from the stage. Ed shook his head, flinging sweat toward song’s end (“I want to run when I’m up high”). Mike did a split jump after the “don’t call me” in “Daughter” before the tag; the tag was “if I could / you know I would / if I could / I would let it go” from U2′s Bad; blending it with “hey ho – let it go” to get the crowd to call and respond, then going into “W.M.A.” Ed introduced “Lukin” saying “this is another singalong”. “U” featured a slightly extended ending. Bar-like bright white lights shone from behind Matt during the breakdown of “Present Tense”, and quickly popping yellow lights accompanied the hard strumming toward the crescendo directly before the outro of the song. Stone graced the crowd with “Don’t Gimme No Lip”; he thanked the crowd before the song, telling them that he partook of the local custom of “kissing the fish” (which is a Newfoundland rite of passage, particularly popular in the many pubs on George Street in St. John’s, Known as “Screeching in”, it involves a tradition of drinking popular Newfoundland-made Screech rum and kissing a cod fish, thus becoming an honorary Newfoundlander). Stone said he gave the fish a sexy kiss and reenacted it for the crowd. Ed’s first intro strums misfired, then the song launched; Stone stood sideways facing the band, guitar-less, holding the microphone off the stand in his right hand. Mike and Ed sang backup, and Stone jumped up and down, danced a sway and raised his arm in the air animatedly. Ed’s “Better Man” featured windmilled strums before “she loved him”, which were played for the crowd behind the stage; “Save It For Later” was tagged at songs end. Mike played his “Porch” solo on the extended platform on his side of the stage. Another sweaty head shake from Ed bathed the stage during “Save You”; to dry off further Ed pulled his shirt tails over his head for the breakdown, getting front and rear of the audience to clap along. After a 6-minute break, prior to “Thumbing My Way”, Ed teased the crowd saying there was an argument backstage about whether to play all night, not with the band but with management. The crowd booed, and Ed had the band laughing and crowd cheering after saying “fuck management!”. Before “I Am Mine” Ed talked about how cool it was that in Newfoundland they were “closer to Ireland than we are to New York”, and how great to be at the edge of the continent; how you could take your stuff to the ocean and just “throw it off and never see it again.” Ed played a Gibson Jumbo acoustic guitar for those two songs. During crowd favorite “Elderly Woman…”, small chains of people were spotted in many sections, arms around one another’s shoulders, swaying side to side and singing. During the last “hearts and thoughts” Ed asked the crowd to sing, closing his eyes and leaning his head back, seeming enraptured with the united voices. After giving the pick to someone in the front, Ed took a pretty good tumble over his stool, but waved away security help. Next up “Black”, and after “and all I taught her was everything” Ed spoke “that’s all” off mic. Stone’s arm moved out and back between strums, and Ed stood up as he sang “all I’ll be”, holding the note facing behind the stage. The usual jam breakdown of “Rearviewmirror” seemed transformed, Jeff playing a cascading bassline, Ed singing and strumming with his E-bow before the “saw things”. After a 5-minute break, Ed answered the enthusiastic cheers asking the crowd “Hey don’t you guys have to be somewhere tomorrow?” He took a moment to talk about how from his hotel room, Newfoundland looked very similar to West Seattle…water, buildings, like you could just fold the map and have a mirror image. Ed mentioned being holed up working on the new record, traveling with his tape machines, and that Stone told him there’s an ocean, and that he was going to get to the ocean tomorrow. “Whipping” was punctuated with first yellow then white lights that beamed into the crowd. After “Spin The Black Circle”, Ed mentioned that the song was about vinyl, something the kids aren’t really familiar with, and that the next song was related since it was a found on a 45rpm single that led them to cover it (the story goes that Ed found the single shopping in the Fremont district of Seattle). Almost all of “Last Kiss” was played with the band playing for the crowd behind the stage; Ed climbed up the lighting rigger’s ladder in the rear left corner of the stage so he could be eye level with people in the front row of seats, hanging there for the last chorus. After the song, Ed came back to the front of the stage, telling everyone there that he forgot to tell them that during the song, “you all were supposed to make out and have babies.” Prior to “Leaving Here” Eddie shared a story about a friend on the tour, his “best friend”, who was in a record store, waiting in line, and this girl was in line in front of them, where a guy behind the counter had a ticket to sell to that night’s show for $160 dollars. The girl wanted to go badly and agreed to pay the price with a tone in her voice of “I can’t afford this, but yeah I’ll pay it”. The girl went outside to do the deal, and Ed’s friend intervened saying don’t do that, I’ll get you a ticket, I’ll get you whatever you need, the best seats in the house. Ed continued that there was “more to the story” relating how the girl had a boyfriend who had two tickets to the show, and that he wasn’t going to take her, and then they broke up and he was going to go to the show with his new girlfriend. Ed brought the girl, Kelly, onstage with him holding onto her hand while he spoke, addressing the ex-boyfriend, putting his other arm out as if it were around someone’s shoulder and saying “you could be here”. Ed suffered three misfires of the intro to “Leaving Here” claiming the band were so taken with Kelly they couldn’t play, then admitting that perhaps the singer was taken with her and couldn’t play. “Alive” started, and Ed went side stage to give Kelly his pick during the intro. Stone and Mike crossed toward one another, staying in close for the second chorus of the song. Ed’s ability to catch tambourines was showcased during “Baba” as his tech Rick tossed them from sides and corners of the stage while Ed ran by; he never missed, even taking a solid tumble after one catch and getting back up to toss one behind the stage. setlist photo – main setlist photo – encores

UPDATED October 5, 2005 09/25/05 – Mile One Stadium, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada support act: Wintersleep set: Elderly Woman…, Last Exit, Animal, State of Love and Trust, Hail Hail, Corduroy, Wishlist, Dissident, Even Flow, Insignificance, You Are, In My Tree, I Got Shit, Half Full, Black/(Eleanor Rigby), Go first encore: Bee Girl, Man of The Hour, Crazy Mary, Alive second encore: Light Years, Better Man, Jeremy, Rockin’ In The Free World TFT Notes: “Black” ends with Ed tagging the chorus from The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby”. Last minute opening band “Wintersleep” joins the band for “Rockin’ in the Free World”. encore setlist photo

UPDATED September 30, 2005 09/28/05 – PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA, USA supporting: The Rolling Stones set: Go, Corduroy, Animal, Even Flow, Gimme Some Truth, Given To Fly, Daughter, Black, Better Man/(Save it for Later), Jeremy, Last Kiss, Alive, Save You, Rockin’ In The Free World Rolling Stone’s set (with Ed): Wild Horses TFT Notes: After “Jeremy”, Ed prefaces “Last Kiss” with “here’s another teen death song”. Lyric in “Rockin’ in the Free World” is changed to “there’s a thousand points of light / for the New Orleans man”. Ed sang “Wild Horses” with The Rolling Stones with Mick Jagger’s arm around him. Ron Wood gave him a big kiss at the end.

UPDATED October 1, 2005 09/30/05 – Borgata Events Center, Atlantic City, NJ, USA support act: Sleater-Kinney Ed pre-set: No Surrender set: Long Road, Porch, Hail Hail, Animal, State of Love and Trust, Whipping, Even Flow, Grievance, Green Disease, Daughter/(W.M.A.)/(Blitzkrieg Bop), (Ruby Tuesday)->I Got Shit, Elderly Woman…, Better Man, Sad, Do The Evolution, Save You, Blood first encore: Man of the Hour, Off He Goes, Low Light, Crazy Mary, Rearviewmirror second encore: I Believe In Miracles, Once, Alive, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Ed came on for a song at 7:45pm with his acoustic (plus capo), “appropriately” a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “No Surrender” from Born In The USA (Sleater-Kinney even covered Bruce’s “Promised Land” during their set). Pearl Jam came on about 9:05pm. Being general admission in front of the stage, Ed addressed the crowd early on. A fan had actually crowd-surfed during a song and Ed remarked “none of this crowd-surfing shit”, saying that they need to be careful, and that they were unfortunately being chastised for something that was allowed “back in ’92″. He continued with a plea to be aware, keep an eye on your neighbor and to be careful. “Raise your hand if you need to get out” he remarked to those who may have found the crowded front tough to manage and “those big guys in front will help you”. He mentioned how “those same big guys” would throw out any more crowdsurfers (amazingly there were 2-3 surfers as the show went on, each appearing to get thrown out). “Daughter” featured a verse and a chorus from “W.M.A” and a “Hey Ho, Let’s Go” shout-out with the crowd. Ed led the crowd in two rounds of the chorus of The Rolling Stones’ “Ruby Tuesday” which led right into “I Got Shit”. Throughout the show, Ed was updating the crowd with the score of the New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox game (the two teams are tied with only 3 games left in the season). He first mentions “Bottom of the fifth, Boston 5, Yankees 2″ to a mix of boos and cheers (Atlantic City crowd was majority mix of Pennsylvanians, New Jerseyans and New Yorkers). Later he says “Bottom of the ninth, Yankees 10, Boston 6!” to some gasps, but admits that the crowd will eventually find out that he’s lying. Another update later of “Bottom of the eigth, Boston 5, Yankees 3″. Finally, after sensing the fans swayed towards the Yankees and – at this point Boston had won – he starts to announce the score then says “you don’t want to know …”. Sensing the mixed northest U.S. crowd, Ed prefaces “Elderly Woman…” with “so where are you from anyway?”, then proceeds to dedicate it to “Ithaca, Poughkeepsie, and Utica” (the nearest of these to A.C. is Poughkeepsie at 216 miles north in New York state!). Asking if the crowd wants to “hear a b-side”, Ed mentions that they have abandoned the setlist because the crowd has “taken us off guard”. He continues that they expected the crowd to be “full of high-rollers and their kids”, leading to “Sad”. The first encore started at 10:30, the second at 11:15. “Crazy Mary” included excerpts of the guitar solo from Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” by Mike. Towards the end of the “Rearviewmirror” jam, Ed repeated the lines “I hope you know, I have to let go.” Mike also ended “Yellow Ledbetter” with riffs from “Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’”. Fashion notes: Ed started with three layers (the green “army” jacket, shed to a flannel shirt, shed to a Sisters of Mercy t-shirt. Mike started with a button down, was shirtless by end of first set, then appeared in the encores with a Social Distortion shirt (Social D was playing at the Showboat nearby).

UPDATED May 2, 2006 10/01/05 – Borgata Events Center, Atlantic City, NJ, USA support act: Sleater-Kinney Ed pre-set: Atlantic City Sleater-Kinney set: One Beat (with Matt), Promised Land (whole band), Mother (Ed and Jeff) set: Present Tense, Do The Evolution, Save You, Insignificance, Given To Fly, Dissident, Even Flow, Leatherman, Immortality, Lukin, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Wishlist, Don’t Gimme No Lip, Breath, State of Love and Trust, Porch first encore: Gone, Bee Girl, Harvest Moon, Nothingman, Once, Alive second encore: Spin The Black Circle, Glorified G, U, Leaving Here, Rockin’ in the Free World TFT Notes: Given the location, lots of references to Bruce Springsteen – from Ed’s preset covering Bruce’s “Atlantic City” (from Bruce’s Nebraska, which he said used to play a lot “when I was a kid” but hadn’t played since then), to Ed singing lead on Bruce’s “Promised Land” with Sleater-Kinney, to a brand new, previously unplayed Pearl Jam song which was a strong, plaintive ballad called “Gone” and was reminiscent of early, acoustic Springsteen (lyrics included “a tank of gas feels like money in the bank” and a big chorus of “I’m gone!”). During Sleater-Kinney’s set, Matt came onstage to play “lead tambourine” for one song. He stood in the front and center and shook the tambourine emphatically, complete with front-man poses and rawkin’ faces, you could see Stone sidestage with his glass of wine laughing. The finale of Sleater-Kinney’s set was a guest appearance by Jeff (in a black wig with a long strand of hair hanging down over the nose ala Danzig’s former bands The Misfits and Samhain), Mike, and Matt for Danzig’s “Mother.” Matt got frustrated with his cowbell and jumped behind his own kit for a double drum assault with Sleater-Kinney’s Janet Weiss. Pearl Jam’s set was a special treat for diehards and casual fans alike, chockfull of rarer stuff (“Bee Girl”, “Don’t Gimmie No Lip”) and not frequently played old favorite plus (“Breath”, “Once”, “Dissident”) the aforementioned new song (which Ed played solo, acoustic, and included a quote from the Who’s Quadrophenia). The front of the floor boounced a little a’la 07/08/03 Madison Square Garden during “Do The Evolution”. The crowd – including the general admission front section – was enthusiastic and sang strongly, but wasn’t as rough as the previous night by fan accounts. Ed commented early on that he could tell it was a more community-minded crowd from the night before and added that he knew the dedication it took to get up front or even in the house at all, and he knows fans had to beg, borrow or steal to get in and thanks, then joked that the back row of the Borgata was probably about the 10th row at the Rolling Stones concert the other night. Ed took time out to talk about being back in the U.S. after Canada and remembering that the war, which he likened to having a disease, was going on, all the while Jeff and Stone and Matt made up a particularly cool improv in the background. “Wishlist” was tagged with a tiny snippet of Ed’s old Bad Radio song “Believe You Me.” Stone took over for “Don’t Gimmie No Lip.” “Harvest Moon” features Sleater-Kinney singing back up, and a pair of newlyweds who had just married within 24 hours invited to the stage for a slowdance and serenade by all the members of Pearl Jam. A few songs after the crowd chanted, “Drop the Leash” for quite awhile, Ed teased that they would play it, then added “next year” jokingly, eliciting aloud collective groan from the crowd. Ed breaks a string at the end of “Not For You”, and the crowd picks up his slack with some creative clapping, which he comments on. “Porch” is the “new Porch”, with its slower intro and slam bang choruses, and before Ed can open his mouth to start the song the crowd is singing so loud, he just lets them sing the first verse. “Rockin’ in the Free World” features Kiss’ Ace Frehley, and Mike McCready looking ecstatically happy. Stone introduces Ace saying Mike wouldn’t be a guitarist if not for Kiss. Jeff and Matt (and Ed!) chime in “me too!”. Extended “Rockin’…” with Mike and Ace trading solos (you can tell he studied this guy!). setlist photo – main setlist photo – first encore (“Gone” premiere) setlist photo – second encore

UPDATED May 2, 2006 10/03/05 – Wachovia Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA support act: Sleater-Kinney Sleater-Kinney set: Promised Land (with Ed), One Beat (with Matt), Mother (with all of PJ) set: Wash, Hail Hail, Brain Of J, Spin The Black Circle, Given To Fly, Sad, Alone, Even Flow, Green Disease, Faithfull, Whipping, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Leatherman, Better Man/(?)/(Save It For Later), Nothingman, Once, Bleed For Me, Blood first encore: Around The Bend, Harvest Moon (w/Sleater-Kinney), Hard To Imagine, Crown of Thorns, Crazy Mary, Alive second encore: Last Kiss, In My Tree, Do The Evolution, Sonic Reducer, Little Sister, Leaving Here (w/Sleater-Kinney), Rockin In The Free World (w/Sleater-Kinney), Yellow Ledbetter. TFT Notes: Starting Sleater-Kinney’s set, signer/guitarist Corin Tucker immediately thanked Pearl Jam for inviting them out on tour again, and “especially wanted to thank one person” as Ed came out and kicked off the show with Bruce Springsteen’s “Promised Land”. Matt was introduced and played “lead tambourine” on Sleater-Kinney’s “One Beat”. For Sleater-Kinney’s finale, Corin called out all the members of Pearl Jam and the ensemble played Danzig’s “Mother”. Mike was on guitar stage-left, Stone was on tambourine in front of the drum kit and Matt stood alongside Janet Weiss and added percussion. Jeff came out in a black, long-sleeve, Samhain (Glenn Danzig’s old band) t-shirt, white face paint with eyes blackened and a wig with strands of hair over his face in the Misfits/Samhain style. Ed discretely perched himself behind’s Matt kit and filmed the event with a small video camera, before grabbing Matt’s sticks and contributing on drums. Pearl Jam opens as they did their first Philly show in 1991 with “Wash”. Ed first addresses the crowd before “Given to Fly” with “well, we heard that you were uh … if you were waiting for us, know that we were waiting for you too … nice seeing you!”. The “man trilogy” of “Leatherman”, “Better Man” and “Nothingman” makes its 2005 debut. Remarking that it “feels like the end of the tour” Ed hints that the night will be filled with songs that they don’t play that often. Prior to the first encore, Ed’s roadie brings out a short music stand complete with numerous lyric sheets, leading to “Around the Bend” (first time in 2005, first since Benaroya ’03). Sleater-Kinney provide backup on “Harvest Moon”, swaying to the “oooohs” in unison on Stone’s mic. Ed mentions “Crown of Thorns” is “for special occasions, of which we consider this”. “Crazy Mary” is started and immediately following the “L-O-I-T-E-R-I-N-G” line, the stage-left monitors start blasting this hideous screeching feedback, with all band members slowly backing away and the crew scrambling to isolate the problem. It lasts about 10-15 seconds and when it stops, the crowd erupts and all the band has that “what the fuck was that” look on their faces. A spooked Ed says that he never called “Mary” crazy in person, and he doesn’t want to continue the song, laughing. Stone starts up the chords, Ed approaches the mic, then backs off shaking his head “I can’t do it!”. He mentions that Boom had told him during the encore break that he was going to take it “Crazy Mary” to the next level, so the band resumes the song with the second chorus and Mike and Boom do their solo trade-offs. For the second encore, Ed comes on and references their history with Philadelphia, the band’s first Philly show at the club J.C. Dobbs July 1991 (commenting on the size of the J.C. Dobbs club by forming the small width of the room to the crowd in front of him with his outstretched hands in a “this small” manner) and as the band walks backstage to play “Last Kiss” to the crowd behind the stage, Ed turns to the crowd in front and says “we’re gonna go do a club show.” Ed repeatedly nodded sidestage during “Last Kiss” to his wife and daughter during the chorus’ line “oh where oh where can my baby be”. “Little Sister”, an Elvis original, premieres. Eddie references his lyric sheet and the band members are all turned towards Matt, carefully working the new arrangement. Ed brings out Sleater-Kinney for “one more” then realizes they commonly sing encore backups on more than one song, so he asks the crowd “do you want one more or two more?” (to which most of the crowd started chanting “three!”), so they join in for “Leaving Here” and “Rockin in the Free World”. On “Rockin’…”, Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein played Ed’s blue Gibson SG, Janet Weiss played Matt’s kit as Matt accented on cymbals and Corin Tucker sang and played tambourine, rockin’ with Ed as they slapped their tambourine’s together in unison. “Rockin’…” and “Yellow Ledbetter” are played with the house lights on. On the setlist but not played: Footsteps, Don’t Gimme No Lip.

UPDATED October 6, 2005 10/05/05 – House of Blues, Chicago, IL, USA support act: Robert Plant set: Love Boat Captain, Grievance, Do The Evolution, Even Flow, Dissident, Elderly Woman…, Corduroy, Green Disease, Daughter, Half Full, I Am Mine, Better Man, Black, Alive, Save You, Porch first encore: Man of the Hour, Hard to Imagine, I Got Shit, Rearviewmirror second encore: Given to Fly, Going to California, Little Sister, Money (That’s What I Want), Fool In the Rain, Thank You third encore: Rockin’ in the Free World TFT Notes: This show was a benefit for the survivors of Hurricane Katrina, tickets were $1000 with net proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity, The American Red Cross and Jazz Foundation of America. 25 pairs of Ten Club tickets were made available to Chicago members for a minimum $80 donation per pair. “Elderly Woman…” is dedicated to those from the nearby small town of Naperville. “Daughter” does not include a formal tag, but there are shout-outs between Ed and the crowd. Being a Chicago Cubs fan, Ed talked a little about Chicago’s other team, the White Sox, and the baseball playoffs (at the time of the show, White Sox are leading a playoff series). The crowd’s response induced both “Cubs!” and “Sox!” chants. Ed then grabbed a Sox hat from the crowd and said, “Ok, Ok, is this better?”. Someone threw a Cubs jersey with “23″ with “Vedder” on the back which he hung on his guitar stand. After “Man of the Hour”, everyone except Ed stands up off their stools. Ed asks for requests, (paraphrasing) “don’t get used to it, but you paid one big one ($1,000), so we’ll make an exception.” He comments that he hears “Bee Girl” and something else. Jeff, Mike and Stone are all interacting with fans in front of them who are yelling requests, including the now routine vocal plea for “Leash”. Mike heard a request, walked over to Ed and Ed said, “alright we’ll do that one”, leading to “Hard To Imagine”. By the time the band finishes the song, Ed has his guitar and starts the lead into “I Got Shit”. “Given to Fly” is dedicated to Robert Plant. During “Given To Fly”, he requested and received an Illinois license plate from the crowd which said “GVN TO FLY”. At the end of the song, Plant and his players Strange Sensation come out and go right into “Going to California” (from Led Zeppelin IV) as Ed sits on the drum riser, Mike and Jeff take a seat on the stage, and Stone stands to the side sipping some wine. The band is clearly into it as much as the crowd. Ed gets up, they have some banter and Plant stays on for Elvis Presley’s “Little Sister” trading off on verses (Robert Plant has performed “Little Sister” throughout his career as a solo artist and with The Honeydrippers). “Money (That’s What I Want)” (a motown hit from 1959 that has been covered in the past by the Beatles, The Rolling Stones and also by Robert Plant during his solo career) is played with Mike, Ed, Jeff, Stone, Matt all singing the “that’s what I want!” chorus. “Fool In the Rain” (from Led Zeppelin’s In Through the Out Door) is somewhat extended, with Boom providing the essential groove inherent to the song. Ed and Robert comment on having to have the lyric sheets and then they throw them to the crowd after the performance. “Thank You” (from Led Zeppelin II) was next, with Plant taking over most of the vocals as Ed left the stage. The band is clearly enjoying themselves and thrilled to be onstage with Robert Plant. They return for another encore with “Rockin’ in the Free World” with Robert Plant playing Ed’s guitar. Mike is shirtless for the encores. Ed does the usual “catch-pound-break-throw” routine with many tamborines. After a failed attempt, he flings one all the way to the balcony, but it is then thrown back into the pit by the person who caught it. Ed sees it come flying back and for a moment has a completely surprised look on his face as he looks back to the balcony. At close, the band left the stage with Plant and Ed out front. Ed started to leave the opposite way of Plant, stopped himself, then followed him off the same way, mouthing to the crowd and pointing “I’m with him”. On the setlist but not played: MFC (replaced by Green Disease), Last Kiss (replaced by “Hard to Imagine).

UPDATED May 2, 2006 11/22/05 – Estadio San Carlos de Apoquindo, Santiago, Chile opening act: Mudhoney set: Release, Corduroy, Last Exit, Hail Hail, Do The Evolution, Given To Fly, I Am Mine, Grievance, Elderly Woman…, Even Flow, Lukin->Not For You/(Modern Girl), Daughter/(Blitzkrieg Bop)/(Androgynous Mind), Down, Jeremy, Save You first encore: Go, Better Man, Black, Alive second encore: I Believe In Miracles, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Pearl Jam’s first show in South America begins with “Release” with a light drizzle making the atmosphere a bit on the chilly side. A few times people light fireworks which look like red torches, creating a lot of smoke in the air and enhancing the stage lights effect. “Release” lyrics tweaked by Ed with “Dad” in Spanish and English to start the third verse. Prior to “Hail, Hail” Ed greets the crowd in Spanish and thanks them for coming. Ed addresses the general admission crowd “Is everybody ok? There’s help in the middle and help on the sides if you need it. Take care of your neighbor OK? please?” right into “Do The Evolution.” The first notes of every song are being met with huge roars. The crowd starts their own chants for the band prior to “Even Flow,” and although this is the first show in Chile, the crowd is very familiar with the crowd participation aspects of the songs, shouting out the “Yeahs!” and singing the final chorus during “Even Flow.” Partial introduction follows with “Mike McCready la guitarra, Matt Cameron on drums, Santiago on vocals,” garnering a great response. Mudhoney is introduced in Spanish, then Ed segues in English “And one guy who couldn’t be here, his name’s Matt Lukin, this song’s about him.” leading to Lukin->Not For You. “Daughter” includes “Hey Ho, Let’s Go” (Ramones) and “Hey, Hey, It’s OK” (Sonic Youth) callbacks between Ed and the crowd. Ed introduces “Jeremy” with “Feel free to help with the vocals on this” and at the end thanks the crowd for their “Good voices in Chile.” A common soccer chant precedes “Save You” with the band jumping in at certain points with their instruments. An “Eddie! Eddie!” welcomes the band back from the first encore break, prompting Ed to say “You can call me ‘Ed’, that’ll throw the chant off.” Ed continues, thanking Mudhoney again, but also “We want to thank our crew and all the local crew for helping set this up the last couple of days. And then the biggest thank you of all – and feel free to thank yourselves – is to you! Thanks for being here, and for waiting, for coming early today and still listening to us after all this time.” “Better Man” is tagged with repeated lines “I Need You / I Want You.” An almost 8-minute “Black” winds down with repeated lyrics “Dreams are made… to fall apart… but sometimes… they come true.” Ed looks up to the sky while addressing the members of the Ramones who’ve passed away, chanting, “Ra-MON-nes… hola Johnny… hola Joey… hola Dee-Dee” with the crowd echoing every word. Before “Yellow Ledbetter,” Ed says “Thanks to the clouds for keeping us cool, and next time it wont’be so long ’til we come back, I promise you that.” (merch note: There was no poster offered at merchandise stands.) setlist scan (with Fan Club wristband)

UPDATED December 9, 2005 11/23/05 – Estadio San Carlos de Apoquindo, Santiago, Chile opening act: Mudhoney set: Given To Fly, Whipping, Animal, Save You, Do The Evolution, Even Flow, Insignificance, In My Tree, Immortality, State of Love and Trust, Jeremy, Faithfull, Daughter/(Blitzkrieg Bop), Green Disease, Corduroy, Better Man, Porch first encore: Rearviewmirror, Black, Crazy Mary, Alive second encore: I Believe In Miracles, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes:“Given To Fly” opens and the crowd roars from Ed’s change of “Made it to Santiago, had a smoke in a tree.” After “Do The Evolution”, Ed says “Son un publico – bacan!”, telling the crowd they are “great!” (“bacan” is a localism which means “great” or “fantastic”). “State of Love and Trust” is a “request from the front” and “Faithfull” is a dedication to someone Ed met earlier. “Daughter” jam starts with Ed referencing the previous night “Tonight, we have a beautiful night, yeah?” and starts a chant “No clouds, no rain, no pain, all gone / No clouds, no rain, no pain, thank God / No rain, no pain, no rain, thank God / No clouds, No rain, no pain” followed by enthusiastic “Hey Ho, Let’s go” chants with the crowd. “Alright, we know that you are Santiago, and this is Mike McCready. Basso, Jeff Ament. Battarista, Matt Cameron. La guitarra extraordinaire, Stone Gossard. Boom Gaspar … where are ya?.” Jeff chimes in “And Eddie!” to which Ed replies “That’s right, on the bottle.” With introductions finished, Ed tells Santiago that “now it’s your turn, yeah? Come join the band” leading to “Better Man.” PJ is having fun with the soccer chants, turning it into a full band jam for one lasting close to two minutes. “Slow-starting” Porch ends the first set, with jam and lead-in to the final chorus heavier than recent performances. Starting the first encore, Ed addresses the General Admission conditions “Thank you for taking care of each other out there tonight, it’s very important to us. It’s like you’re all friends and you all took care of each other and for that we incredibly grateful. Thanks for making it safe.” “Rearviewmirror” jam contains a short imporov “I see your face / Can I feel your face / I saw your face / I’ll never forget your face / Never, Never, Never, Never…”. “Black” improve at the end is “I didn’t need you / I didn’t need you / To make my dreams come true / I didn’t need you / I didn’t need you / To make my dreams come true / Goodbye, Goodbye, So long…”. “Alive” is set up with “uno mas!”. “Yellow Ledbetter” lines of “Oh, I don’t want to stay” are replaced by “I’d like to stay/ Stay in Chile / We wouldn’t mind stayin, no, no”.

UPDATED November 27, 2005 11/25/05 – Ferrocarril Oeste Stadium, Buenos Aires, Argentina opening act: Mudhoney set: Breakerfall, Corduroy, Do The Evolution, Animal, MFC, Even Flow, I Am Mine, Once, Daughter/(It’s OK), Greivance -> Not For You, Given To Fly, Wishlist, Jeremy, Spin the Black Circle, Black, Rearviewmirror first encore: I Believe in Miracles, Save You, Betterman/(Save It For Later) second encore: Blood, Alive, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: The 11/25 and 11/26 concerts were originally scheduled for Boca Juniors Stadium, but changed on 11/17 due to a rescheduled soccer match. Before “I Am Mine”, Eddie said (in Spanish, he was reading from his notebook) “Thank you for waiting for so long, thanks to the neighbors but we cannot lower down the volume”. The crowd is singing loudly with every word – as well as the guitar parts!! To the bands amazement, the crowd is actually singing the guitar parts, specifically singing “Ohhhs” for Stone’s guitar bridge in “Do The Evolution”, the intro to “I Am Mine”, the guitar solo outro of “Even Flow” and the last chorus bass lead-in to “Rearviewmirror”, among others. At one point Ed said “we should be paying you for coming here”. When they came back on stage for the first encore he said that of all the places they’ve played before they never have had a better audience singing the lyrics and “no one sings the guitar parts!”. Continuing, he said that the first time he ever came to Argentina was seven years ago for a Ramones show (footnote: Ramones, popular in South America, played to 70,000 in Argentina’s largest stadium) and people started chanting “Hey, Ho, Let’s go”. A crowd-supported “I Believe in Miracles” follows, as Ed is very emotional and has a tough time getting through the verses. Soccer chants today include “Ole, ole, ole, Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam” and “Ole, ole, ole, ole, ole, ole ola, ole, ole, ole, cada dia te quiero mas, ohhh, soy Pearl Jam, es un sentimiento, no puedo parar”, loosely translated: Ole…/ Every day I love you more/ Ohhh, I’m (meaning “I’m a fan”) Pearl Jam / It’s a deep feeling, I can’t stop”.

UPDATED May 2, 2006 11/26/05 – Ferrocarril Oeste Stadium, Buenos Aires, Argentina opening act: Mudhoney set: MFC, Save You, Hail Hail, Animal, Given To Fly, Elderly Woman…, Whipping, Even Flow, Love Boat Captain, Corduroy, Lukin, Half Full, Daughter/(W.M.A.), Insignificance, Jeremy, Do The Evolution, Go first encore: State of Love and Trust, Black, Better Man, Porch second encore: Last Kiss, I Believe in Miracles, Alive, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter

TFT Notes: Just prior to Pearl Jam’s set, the P.A. music was a Spanish cover of “Last Kiss”. Ed came out singing the “Oh, oh, oh…” part along whith the crowd. Leading off, “MFC”‘s chorus lyrics are changed to “There’s no leaving here, ask Argentina!”. During the set, Ed – in Spanish – says that friday’s show had been one of the best ones they had ever played. Before “Love Boat Captain” he said that he knew that some of us had lost friends in a rock concert (referring to December 30, 2004, 194 people where killed during a Callejeros (local band) concert when someone lit a fire-work that hit cloth hanging below the roof causing a deadly fire) and that they had lost some friends to, so they dedicated the song to both victims and survivors of the tragedies. Starting the first encore, Ed tells the Argentinian fans that “You make a sad man happy”, leading to “State of Love and Trust”. With “Black” winding down, the band is playing at very low volume and the crowd chanting the “doo-doo”s as “oh-ohh”s, Ed remarks that “From up here it’s so beautiful”. The stadium lights are turned on with the band just staring at the crowd in amazement. “Argentina, you sure know how to have a good time. We’ve had a great time too. Because when tomorrow hits, it’s gonna hit us all hard….” (stealing a lyric from Mudhoney’s “When Tomorrow Hits” from 1989′s self-titled debut). Waving to the crowd, Ed exits with “Next time it won’t be so long, we’ll see you again”. setlist scan – page 1 setlist scan – page 2

UPDATED November 29, 2005 11/28/05 – Gigantinho Gymnasium, Porto Alegre, Brazil opening act: Mudhoney set: Long Road, Last Exit, Animal, Do The Evolution, Green Disease, Jeremy, Grievance, Cropduster, Even Flow, Betterman, State of Love and Trust, Daughter, Habit, Given To Fly, Immortality, Save You, Rearviewmirror/(Gone) first encore: I Got Shit, Crazy Mary, I Believe in Miracles, Alive second encore: Elderly Woman…, Corduroy, Blood, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: For the majority of the show, Ed addresses the crowd in their native Portuguese. “Rearviewmirror” jam includes the chorus from “Gone”, previously only played at 10/01/05 Atlantic City. Following “Crazy Mary” Ed introduces drummer Marky Ramone “And tonight on the drums, this is Marky Ramone.” With that, Marky hops on Matt’s kit and plays drums for “I Believe in Miracles.” The five-song second encore is acknowledged with “We’re going to play a couple more than usual tonight.” Ed mentions the band’s first visit to Brazil in “Elderly Woman…” with a subtle lyric change “I wish I’d seen this place / but no one’s ever taken me.” Mike plays “Alive” with a Brazilian flag draped over his shoulders. Nov. 28 is Matt Cameron’s birthday (turns 43) and Ed brings him to center stage “One of the greatest drummers of our time, right here.” An interpreter comes on stage, instructing the crowd to sing “Happy Birthday” in Portuguese. A cake is brought out, and Ed throws some at Matt’s face, some to the crowd and a mini-”cake fight” ensues. Some cake remains in Ed’s beard for the last two songs.

UPDATED December 5, 2005 11/30/05 – Pedreira Paulo Leminsky, Curitiba, Brazil opening act: Mudhoney set: (Interstellar Overdrive)/Corduroy, Do The Evolution, Animal, Save You, Given To Fly, Dissident, Even Flow, Sad, Lukin, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Grievance, Down, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Black, Once, Porch first encore: Last Kiss, I Believe In Miracles, Jeremy, Spin the Black Circle, Kick Out The Jams second encore: Whipping, Go, Indifference, Alive, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: “We finally meet!”, Ed mentions on the band’s second Brazil concert. “In English, I say that this is a very beautiful place you have here. And I know … it’s a beautiful stage made out of wood in the middle of the rock and I know that the Ramones have played here before. And tonight we’re really proud to share the stage with friends and neighbors and the greatest of bands, Mudhoney. (“Mud-ho-ney” chant ensues) A toast to Mudhoney.”, leading to “Lukin”. “Not For You” ends with “My baby loves me / I’m so happy / I wanna stay on hallowed ground” preceding the “Modern Girl” tag, but to the same tune. After singing the same verse twice in “Down”, Ed – even throwing in a few “sorry”s – changes the “I think I’ll throw these pills away” line to “I think I’ll throw my brain away”. Steve Turner and Mark Arm from Mudhoney join Pearl Jam for “Kick Out The Jams”, with Mark Arm preluding the song with “And right now it’s time to ‘Kick Out The Jams’ motherfuckers!!”. The band’s admiration for the audience and the venue is visible, with Ed ending the show with “How can we leave? We cannot leave!”

UPDATED December 9, 2005 12/02/05 – Pacaembu, Sao Paolo, Brazil opening act: Mudhoney set: Go, Hail Hail, Animal, Green Disease, Corduroy, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Faithfull, Untitled/MFC, Porch, I Got Shit, Once, Glorified G, Do The Evolution, Better Man/(Modern Girl), Alive first encore: Man of the Hour, I Believe in Miracles, Last Kiss, Don’t Gimme No Lip, Rearviewmirror second encore: Save You, Black, Jeremy, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Only weeks prior to these shows, Sao Paolo Mayor Jose Serra had suspended shows in Pacaembu after complaints from residents around the stadium about the noise. For the concerts to go ahead, Serra set a list of demands, including that the concert must finish at 9.45 p.m. sharp and rehearsals must take place during the day for just 30 minutes. After Animal, Ed stops the concert for a couple of minutes, until the crowd to his left side calms down a little. “Untitled” returns prior to “MFC”, with the following lyrics:

Got a car, we ain’t got no gas Let’s get the fuck out of here, get out of here fast Everyone’s confused, so I stay in my room I wanna go but I don’t want to go alone

I hope you get this message, but you’re not home Oh, I could be there in 23 minutes or so We don’t have to take no things, just get the kid and come along I wanna go but I don’t want to go alone With you, I could never be alone

Let’s get out of North America Let’s get down to South America Let’s feel the summer air Let’s feel the freedom there How could I ever feel alone

“I Got Shit” contains a lyric change “Got all these questions, don’t even know what language I’m gonna ask”. “Do The Evolution” is introduced as being “about our ancestors… in the mud”. Recently, the “Modern Girl” tag has followed “Not For You”, but tonight it is tagged at the end of “Better Man” (and to the tune of same). Ed mentions that they’re going to try a few that they haven’t done yet in Latin America, and he mentions “Johnny Ramone”, leading to a strong “Hey Ho, Let’s Go” chant from the crowd. “Can you hear them Joey? Can you hear them Dee-Dee?”, Ed remarks. “Man of the Hour” has a lyric change “Johnny he enjoyed collisions”. “Ladies and gentlemen, I have an announcement in English, ok? ok? His Latin America singing debut this evening here tonight in Sao Paolo, please welcome to the mic, Mr. Stone Gossard”, Ed introduces Stone to the mic for “Don’t Gimme No Lip, leading to Stone calling high and loud “Ola Sao Paolo!!!!!!”. Ed speaks a lot in Portuguese, but mentions in English that “I apologize, I speak your language like a kindergartner… first grade … a four-year-old”. As the show closes, Ed thanks the crowd “Thank you for coming… after all these years. Thanks for listening, thanks for singing…. We’d like to thank nature and the earth for keeping everybody cool down in the front. It’s better than Seattle, this is better than Seattle. And next time, (we’ll be back in) maybe two or three years, not fifteen… maybe one!!”, with Mike agreeing by holding up a single finger mouthing “one”. During “Jeremy”, Ed comes down from the stage and sings in the open area in the center of the pit. For “Yellow Ledbetter”, Matt Cameron plays Stone’s acoustic guitar and Stone Gossard plays drums.

UPDATED December 9, 2005 12/03/05 – Pacaembu, Sao Paolo, Brazil opening act: Mudhoney set: Breakerfall, Corduroy, Save You, Animal, Given To Fly, Even Flow, I Am Mine, Lukin, Sad, Present Tense, Daughter/(It’s OK), Not For You/(Modern Girl), Jeremy, Bleed For Me, State of Love and Trust, Elderly Woman…, I Believe in Miracles, Do The Evolution first encore: You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away, Better Man, Black, Kick Out the Jams second encore: Whipping, Crazy Mary, Alive, Rockin’ in the Free World TFT Notes: “Given to Fly” has a lyric change: “Made it to Sao Paolo, had a smoke in a tree”. The jam during “Daughter” catches Ed’s attention when a chant starts to the beat. Ed leads other parts of the crowd in an “It’s OK”, and the two chants complement themselves beautifully. Ed remarks “It’s better than ok. That’s the first time ever – 2 parts!”. “Jeremy” is set up with “Last night was very special also, but you are better. No sleep for me last night, no sleep for Matt last night. We’re very excited, so this song, please sing.” “Elderly Woman…” doesn’t start on the right beat after a “1-2-3-4-2-3″ count off in English, so Ed does a Spanish count off “uno-dos-tres-catorce-dos-tres.” (a reference to U2′s intro to the song “Vertigo,” where Bono sings “uno dos tres catorce,” which translates to “one two three fourteen.”) “Elderly Woman…” has a lyric change: “My God, it’s been too long, and i know we’ll return.” Ed plays “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” solo to start the first encore, and laughs towards the end as the neck-strap holder to his harmonica breaks. “Better Man” includes the repeated lyric “I’ll say, nothing affects me” at the end. The band is appreciative of the crowd – “Much better than last night, and they were great!”. During “Alive”, Ed comes down from the stage and sings in the open area in the center of the pit. Ed profusely thanks the Sao Paolo crowd for their enthusiasm during the two-day span and closes the show by referencing the rules imposed for the Sao Paolo shows “Thanks to the neighobrohood for letting us play loud. Thanks to your voices being loud to let us play in the neighborhood.”

UPDATED December 9, 2005 12/04/05 – Apoteose, Rio De Janiero, Brazil opening act: Mudhoney set: Last Exit, Do The Evolution, Save You, Animal, Insignificance, (Interstellar Overdrive)/Corduroy, Dissident, Even Flow, Leatherman, Given To Fly, Daughter/(It’s OK)/(Suck You Dry), Don’t Gimme No Lip, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Elderly Woman…, Down, Once, Go first encore: Soon Forget, Betterman/(I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend), I Believe In Miracles, Blood, Kick Out The Jams, Alive second encore: Last Kiss, Black, Jeremy, Yellow Ledbetter, Baba O’Riley TFT Notes: Pearl Jam starts their “last” Brazil show (this tour) with “Last Exit.” During the “Daughter” jam, Ed starts an “oh-oh” chant common from past “Daughter”s, followed by a tag from Dead Moon’s “It’s OK.” He starts a tag of Mudhoney’s “Suck You Dry” but he realizes the crowd is still singing the “oh-oh” chant from previous “Daughter” jams, so he steps back and lets that continue (“Bravo Rio!”). Even when “Daughter” ends, the crowd keeps singing and Ed starts a “Hey Ho! Ri-O” chant. During the first encore break, Ed addresses the crowd: “If I can say in English, I probably look like shit, but you look beautiful. If I could, before the evening ends, we’d really like to thank – all throughout Brazil – all the people that helped put on these shows and especially our crew. They’ve really worked so hard to make everything OK, and loud and bright; all the men and women of the Pearl Jam crew. And I’d like to say thanks to Marco and thanks Fernando, we couldn’t have done this without ya. And I’d like to thank my Mom. And the best girl in the world, someone called Jill. And then I’m gonna try something that we haven’t done yet on this tour, with your help. It’s a little song on a little instrument. And I’ll be playing it on one of your beaches tomorrow.” Ed starts “Soon Forget” then flubs a chord change in the first verse. Referencing his comment about playing it on the beach, he jokes “I’ll play it perfect tomorrow.” At the end of “Not For You,” Ed sings “I always wanted to go / to Rio” repeated just before a tag of Sleater-Kinney’s “Modern Girl.” “Better Man” includes a tag of the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,” complete with the chorus, a verse (with the key signature change) and another chorus. Mike plays riffs from two Kiss songs, “Black Diamond” and “Deuce,” at the end of “Blood.” After Mudhoney’s Mark Arm and Steve Turner once again join PJ on “Kick Out The Jams,” Arm jokes, “That answers the twenty-year-old question: what would it be like if Skin Yard, Shadow and Green River played an MC5 song.” He’s namechecking the pre-PJ bands of the people onstage: simultaneously in mid 80s Seattle, Matt Cameron was in Skin Yard, Mike McCready was in Shadow, and Turner, Arm, Stone and Jeff were in Green River. Ed calls to the crowd, “Alright, if you want to help me sing, I’d like to hear the rhythm and voices of South America and Brazil one more time” leading to “Last Kiss.” After “Black,” a large Brazilian flag with notes and signatures from fans is thrown up to Ed who admires it and says “I’ll keep this in my home.” Later, Ed adds, “My phone number’s on the back of your tickets, if you’re ever in Seattle give me a call.” Before “Jeremy”, Ed says in Portuguese (roughly) “next time we play in Brazil the world will be a better place because George Bush won’t be President anymore.”

UPDATED December 9, 2005 12/07/05 – Auditorio Coca Cola, Monterrey, Mexico opening act: Mudhoney set: Long Road, Corduroy, Hail Hail, Animal, Do The Evolution, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Light Years, Lukin –> Not For You, In Hiding, Grievance, Green Disease, Daughter/(Suck You Dry)/(Androgynous Mind)/(It’s OK – Spanish), Jeremy, Rearviewmirror first encore: Man Of The Hour, Off He Goes, Elderly Woman…, Last Kiss, Black, Alive second encore: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, I Believe In Miracles, Kick Out The Jams, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: The night begins with Ed’s hello, “Que onda, Monterrey?” a common way young people in Mexico greet each other. The Auditorio Coca Cola normally holds 20-40,000 capacity but the entire venue was not opened up, so the attendance was only 8-10,000, prompting Ed to start “Hail, Hail” off with the modified lyric “Looks like there’s room for both of us.” Ed welcomes the crowd in Spanish, saying “Hola Monterrey, como esta? Nosotros estamos contentos” which translates (roughly) to “Hello Monterrey, how are you? we’re fine.” He then switches to his native tongue, saying “Is it ok if I speak English? It’s hard for me to speak Spanish when I’m drunk, you’d understand” and continues “But, you know, we’ve been a band for 15 years and it’s very nice for us to be able to come to a place we’ve never been before.” After another blistering Mike McCready “Even Flow” solo, Ed introduces Mike who’s “thinking that it’s Monterrey Pop and not Monterrey.” Jimi Hendrix is famous for his performance at the 1967 Monterrey Pop festival in Monterrey, California where he knealt and lit his guitar on fire. “Not For You” ends with the music set-up for a “Modern Girl” (Sleater-Kinney) tag, but Ed doesn’t sing it this time. “Grievance” is introduced as a song “about having a debate with your Government – which they tell you you’re supposed to be able to have – and at least in the U.S. because the pressure… I think we’re finally starting to be able to have it.” “Daughter” includes a few lines from “Suck You Dry” (Mudhoney) shouted back and forth with the crowd, then some modified “Androgynous Mind” (Sonic Youth) lyrics “Hey Hey, it’s ok / If it’s not, it’s gonna be.” Then, a fan in the vast pit passed a large sheet with the lyrics to Dead Moon’s “It’s OK” in Spanish to the stage, where Mike got them and passed them to Ed. Then Ed, from McCready’s area of the stage, tagged “It’s Ok” in Spanish reading from the giant lyric sheet “Esta bien….”. Referencing the chilly weather, “One of the warmest crowds on one of the coldest nights.” “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” comes next, dedicated to John Lennon, the 25th anniversary of his murder being the night after this show, with Ed prefacing the performance of it with an anecdote: “Another cold night that I can remember was 25 years ago and I was sitting in a chair and I was in a room by myself as a kid, and they said on the TV that John Lennon had been killed. It kinda changed my world and it’s been different ever since. And I often think a about a few people in life – or a few people that don’t have life and aren’t with us any longer – and he’s certainly one I think about all the time. What would it be like if he was still around? And I think we can all agree it’d be better.” Ed brings Mark Arm and Steve Turner from Mudhoney on for “Kick Out The Jams” and “Rockin’ In The Free World”, set up with “Alright, right now, ladies and gentlemen, Lo siento (“I’m sorry”) for speaking english. But, I wanna tell you, before this band and before Mother Love Bone and before … soon after Christ there was a band called Green River. Now, Jeff and Stone have been together forever, yeah? But I’d like to bring out two gringos onto the stage that knew him way before I did: Mr. Steve Turner from Mudhoney and the incredble Mr. Mark Arm right there.” Before “Rockin’”s last verse/chorus, Ed addresses the crowd: “And just know that there are a few people in America that know that George Bush – it’s bad enough he’s the President of the United States – we know damn well he ain’t the President of the world, yeah? He’s on the way down (4x)… There’s a thousand points of light / Take down the President / there’s a kinder gentler truthful hand.”

UPDATED December 13, 2005 12/09/05 – Palacio de los Deportes, Mexico City, Mexico opening act: Mudhoney set: Animal, Last Exit, Go, Do The Evolution, Given To Fly, Cropduster, Even Flow, I Am Mine, Alone, I Got Shit, Lukin->Not For You, Daughter/(It’s OK – Spanish), Save You, Once, (Romanza)/Better Man, Rearviewmirror first encore: Elderly Woman…, Last Kiss, Crazy Mary, Black, Jeremy second encore: Kick Out The Jams, Alive, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: “Daughter” tag includes a full blown “It’s OK” tag in Spanish, complete with the guitar/bass chord changes and Ed leading lyric shout-outs with the crowd, much like the tags from the 2nd leg of the 2000 U.S. Binaural tour that started in Virginia Beach, 08/03/00. Ed whispers “I wanna try this” and plays the instrumental “Romanza” before “Better Man”. “It’s better than we remember” Ed says during the first encore break. A moment later, some fans throw up Mexican national team soccer jerseys for each member (including Boom!) with their names on the back which the band all put on. “How do we look? I hope they don’t see this in Brazil. You’ve given us so much, thank you – the shirts off your back.” Mark Arm and Steve Turner from Mudhoney join the band for “Kick Out The Jams”. After “Kick Out The Jams”, Ed brings out longtime technician Jeff Ousley and Ed tells the crowd that Jeff’s grandmother Gertrude is 102 years old and asks the crowd to sing her “Happy Birthday”, which they do. “This one’s for her”, Ed says of “Alive”. During “Alive”, Ed falls to the ground as if he’s been “knocked out” and a large shirtless bodybuilder with an “El Santo” mask comes out and saves him. El Santo was a famous Mexican wrestler, actor and icon from the mid- to late-twentieth centrury and Ed has appeared numerous times with his El Santo mask. “Gratias senor Santo. Santo, we need your help in America. We need your help, Santo, please help us from George W. Bush. Please Santo.” “Yellow Ledbetter” has some modified verse lyrics: “I wanna see him, I wanna wish this dream away / but the war goes on and the war goes on and the war goes on another day.”

12/10/05 – Palacio de los Deportes, Mexico City, Mexico opening act: Mudhoney set: Better Man, Corduroy, Whipping, Save You, Animal, Given To Fly, Even Flow, (Untitled)/MFC, Nothingman, Elderly Woman…, State of Love and Trust, Jeremy, Insignificance, Daughter/(It’s Okay – Spanish), Do The Evolution, Blood first encore: Man Of The Hour, Hard To Imagine, Black, Alive second encore: Porch, Last Kiss, Kick Out The Jams, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: “Nothingman” and rarity “Hard To Imagine” show up for the first time on this tour. “Untitled” is played prior to “MFC”, with the following lyrics:

Got a car, even got some gas Let’s go to Mexico, Mexico fast Everyone’s confused, get me out of this room Get me to the shore, I don’t want to be alone

I hope you get this message, but you’re not home Oh, I could be there in 25 minutes or so Don’t have to pack no things, get your board, your kid and come along I wanna go but I don’t want to go alone

I’ve had enough of war A war that no one knows what it’s for I wanna go somewhere where there’s peace, peace Hope, Hope… Oceans, hope… Waves of hope I don’t wanna go alone With you, I could never be alone

Mike plays a few lines of “River of Deceit” (Mad Season) before “Last Kiss”. Mudhoney’s Mark Arm and Steve Turner join the band for “Kick Out the Jams” and “Rockin’ In The Free World”. On “Rockin’”, Mark and Ed alternate verses and later Mike and Steve alternate solos.

2006

04/15/06 – “Saturday Night Live”, NBC Studios, New York, NY rehearsal: World Wide Suicide, Life Wasted set: World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand TFT Notes: This is the band’s third appearance on Saturday Night Live, the others being 1992 and 1994. Both songs are for the upcoming album Pearl Jam, with “Severed Hand” making its premiere (“World Wide Suicide” was released as a studio single and a live download from an AOL session).

04/20/06 – Astoria, London, UK soundcheck: World Wide Suicide, Little Sister, Present Tense, Sad, Marker in the Sand, Man of the Hour, Elderly Woman…, Why Go set: World Wide Suicide, Life Wasted, Severed Hand, Unemployable, Gone, Even Flow, Sad, I Am Mine, Insignificance, Army Reserve, Present Tense, Better Man, Marker in the Sand, Do The Evolution, Why Go first encore: Man of the Hour, Given To Fly, Elderly Woman…, Porch second encore: Comatose, Leavin’ Here, Yellow Ledbetter third encore: Alive TFT Notes: This concert at a small venue in London includes the live (non-TV) concert premieres of many songs, including “World Wide Suicide”, “Life Wasted”, “Severed Hand”, “Unemployable”, “Gone” (full band), “Army Reserve”, and “Marker in the Sand”. “Comatose” was previously played as “Crapshoot” at 03/18/05 and 04/29/05. Prior to “Severed Hand”, the crowd is chanting “Ed-die! Ed-die!”, which then morphs to “Jeff! Jeff!”, which then morphs to “Mike! Mike!”. Following “Unemployable”, Ed greets the crowd with “I think a toast is in order, it’s been a long time – a long time comin – so thanks for comin. (It’s been) about six years or so, so thanks for waitin. I don’t know if you’ve heard these songs before but that’s ok because we haven’t played these before.” Ed talks about being in normally overcast London and how “you find this little spot of light and realize it’s a much better day than you thought, and that’s how being in London feels to us.” Continuing the theme, Ed introduces “Gone”, saying “I suppose this song is about a man and a woman who is doing the same thing, just on a path gettin out of town and finding some sunshine, some light at the end of the road.” An Astoria tech comes over to adjus Ed’s mic, “This guy’s called Pete, where are you from Pete? (into the mic, he replies “Cornwall!”) That’s Pete from Cornwall everybody (cheers) … We don’t go anywhere without Pete from Cornwall.” Transitioning from “Army Reserve” to “Present Tense”, Ed says “that was called ‘Army Reserve’, this is called ‘Private Reserve’. Following “Better Man”, Ed praises the crowd, “Thanks for singing. Whoever said you were just a bunch of drunk hooligans who couldn’t hold a tune, it wasn’t me.” “Marker in the Sand” premieres and Ed talks about its religious tones: “this next song’s called ‘Marker’ and at the end of it we’re callin out to God to come down and give us some help – not just give us help, just an opinion – because a lot of people are doing things in his name. And it’s … ah, religion – let’s not talk about religion! As I call out to God, usually I look up that way so it’s almost as if I’m looking for God in JJ’s bar (crowd laughs). I imagine that’s what those peope are doin too.” Once a staple in the early ’90s, “Why Go” is resurrected and has come together musically much better than in past attempts, with Matt playing the trademark drumbeat intro true to the original, and the crowd recognizes it instantly. Coming back from an encore break, Ed asks “Y’all still good? Comfortable? But on the edge? This song’s about a father-figure kinda guy who we like to keep on the edge, kinda like Pete Townshend”, leading to “Man of the Hour”. A “Leash” chant ensues, with Ed joking that “I thought it was just the dirty simple Americans who wanted to hear that song … you’re much better than that.” A male fan lifts up his kilt to the band revealing well …erm … nothing, and a red-faced Ed remarks “We all just got our first glimpses underneath a kilt. I was gonna write a couple of postcards tomorrow and I didn’t know what I was gonna write about, but now I know.” “We were gonna hit a few spots in Europe on this brief little trip and it evolved into just this thing in London and I’m very thankful for it, it’s been great”. “Comatose” is introduced as a “pain in the ass to sing and you can’t really sing much after it”. The song starts, but Mike hits the wrong chords to which he steps up to the mic and says “My bad, and I basically kinda wrote the song.” Ed replies “It’s the first one we wrote but haven’t practiced it since about then”. “Yellow Ledbetter” and “Alive” are played with the house lights up. “Alive” is played as a third encore, and was listed in brackets on the setlist, as if it was an option but not definite.

04/XX/06 – BBC Maida Vale Studios, Maida Vale, London, UK Set: Severed Hand, Why Go, World Wide Suicide, Garden TFT Notes: Pearl Jam recorded these songs live in the BBC Maida Vale Studios some time in April. The broadcast – including an interview with Eddie Vedder and Matt Cameron conducted by Zane Lowe – was broadcast on BBC Radio 1 on May 3, 2006.

04/XX/06 – Later … with Jools Holland, London, UK Set: World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Alive TFT Notes: Pearl Jam performed on this UK TV show to promote Pearl Jam. The broadcast – including an interview with Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready – was broadcast on May 5, 2006.

05/04/06 – “The Late Show with David Letterman”, Ed Sullivan Theater, New York, NY TV Broadcast: Life Wasted set: World Wide Suicide, Comatose, Severed Hand, Marker in the Sound, Gone, Unemployable, Present Tense, Do The Evolution, Why Go, Porch TFT Notes: This is the band’s seventh appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, the others being 09/20/96, 05/01/98, 04/12/00, 11/14/02, 11/15/02 and 09/30/04. Pearl Jam performs Pearl Jam‘s second single “Life Wasted”. Following the taping of the show (The Letterman show is filmed in the late afternoon, then broadcast at 11:30PM EST), Pearl Jam performs a one-hour set for the “Live on Letterman” series of performances, which was also webcast on cbs.com. All tickets for this show were free, and offered to Ten Club members a week before the show. Ed addresses the unique event, opening with “If it feels special to you, it certainly feels special to us.” At one point, fans in the venue hold up signs for “LEASH”, which prompts Ed to pull out his own sign saying that they won’t be playing it.

05/05/06 – Irving Plaza, New York, NY Attendance: 1000 Soundcheck: Hail Hail, World Wide Suicide, Come Back, Man of the Hour, Garden, Why Go, Sad, Unemployable set: World Wide Suicide, Life Wasted, Severed Hand, Marker in the Sand, Come Back, Garden, Even Flow, Insignificance, Given To Fly, Army Reserve, Gone, Why Go, Present Tense, Do The Evolution, Comatose first encore: Man of the Hour, Elderly Woman…, State of Love and Trust, Porch second encore: Alive, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Tickets this show were given out free in singles to the first 450 people who bought Pearl Jam from the Tower Records in the Village, and 150 pairs were sold to the highest seniority Ten Club members from Manhattan proper. The balcony was VIP-only, with fans spotting Susan Sarandon, Scott Ian (Anthrax), David Fricke (Rolling Stone), Flea and The Strokes (Julian and Fabrizio), Drew Barrymore, Steward Copeland, Marky Ramone, Kevin Federline(?) and one of the Olsen twins(!!). “World Wide Suicide” opened strong, and the crowd was singing along at the top of their lungs. This trend continued throughout the evening, with the audience duetting surprisingly loudly with Ed on most of the only-three-days-released new songs. “Comatose” got an especially uproarious reception. Ed, whose white Plasmatics T-shirt was soaked to the skin within two songs and who repeatedly shook the sweat out of his hair like a dog-just-out-of-the-bathtub, eventually noted how great it was to see that people were responding to the new songs, which were written without really knowing if any one shared their points of view. At another point in the night, after Ed spoke about the fans making it to the show, the whole crowd started chanting “Thank You” in unision. Early on, Stone was really reacting to the energy – duckwalking and snapping his neck around and smiling. Actually, it was clear that the band as a whole were really enjoying playing the new stuff, all night there were those classic Jeff-Stone face-to-face/bass-to-guitar jam conferences in the back of the teensy stage by Cameron’s drum riser. Jeff deserves special commendation for “Army Reserve”, its prominent bassline is even more funky and muscular live and it’s apparently a first for him to play slap bass. Spontaneously, a chant of “Jeff Jeff Jeff” erupted at another point in the evening. Mike McCready, as usual, was having a great time rocking out and interacting with the crowd in front of him (fans pointed, Mike pointed back, handfulls of picks flew, a guitar or two was wrangled expertly behind Mike’s head). The setlist was also studded with underplayed songs from the PJ catalog, including a slow-burn version of “Garden” (big singalong), a raucous “State of Love and Trust” (big singalong), which was chosen unanimously over “Better Man” after Ed gave the crowd the choice, and an excellent “Why Go” (you guessed it, big singalong) with it’s thrice-repeated chorus lyric wholly intact (unlike the 2003 versions). Just as notable at this show, no covers at all. Ed was kinetic as well, leaping, falling toward his mic stand to pull his way back up to standing position, going into a lean with his mic stand propped against Mike, and singing his head off, basically. During at least two moments, his body shook as he stood in place, teeth-gritted, intensely hitting his notes. After a night of lots of interaction with the crowd, he reached for the hand of the male fan in front of him and had the fan help him step over the gap, on to the barricade, to deliver the end of “Porch” being held upright on the narrow rail by the crowd down front. Needless to say, “Yellow Ledbetter”, signalling the end of the show, came all too soon. McCready softened the blow by handing out a stack of signed copies of the album as he made his way off the stage.

05/09/06 – Air Canada Centre, Toronto, CAN Soundcheck: Unemployable, Sad, Love Boat Captain, Severed Hand set: Severed Hand, World Wide Suicide, Life Wasted, Marker in the Sand, Given To Fly, Better Man, Even Flow, Unemployable, Garden, Sad, Corduroy, Present Tense, Daughter/(To Come) -> Grievance -> Not For You/(Check on it), Inside Job, Why Go first encore: Do The Evolution, Jeremy, Come Back, Alive second encore: Porch, Rockin in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: This is the first night of the first leg of the tour in support of Pearl Jam. The band hits the stage at 8:50PM local time, entering the stage with “Master/Slave” playing as the intro music over the P.A. The “Daughter” tag is parts of “To Come”, a monologue by Lenny Bruce. In the middle of “Not For You” just before the “All that’s sacred…” line, Ed sings “Check up on it” twice from Beyonce’s “Check On It”(!). “Inside Job” premieres at this show, with Mike playing a double neck guitar. My Morning Jacket joined in smashing tambourines during “Rockin’ in the Free World” and two of the band members did backing vocals with Jeff and Stone. At the end of the show, all of the band members were throwing guitar/bass picks and Matt his drumsticks as usual. Stone, though, started throwing out a lot of merchandise (hats, t-shirts, etc.) into the crowd. He didnt scrunch them up, so they didn’t travel that far into the crowd. One time he tried to toss it over his head backwards and it ended up only a couple of feet behind him, amusing those up front.

05/10/06 – Air Canada Centre, Toronto, CAN soundcheck:It Ain’t Like That (Alice In Chains, partial), In Hiding, You Are, Low Light, World Wide Suicide, Wasted Reprise set: Release, World Wide Suicide, Life Wasted, Severed Hand, Hail, Hail, Unemployable, Dissident, Even Flow, Corduroy, I Am Mine, Low Light, (Improv)/Whipping, You Are, I Got Shit/(Cinnamon Girl), Better Man/(Save It For Later), Jeremy, Marker in the Sand, Black, Rearviewmirror first encore: Wasted Reprise -> Man of The Hour, Elderly Woman…, State of Love and Trust, Do The Evolution, Alive second encore: (Improv)/Go, Crazy Mary, Fuckin’ Up, Indifference, Yellow Ledbetter/(Beast Of Burden) TFT Notes: The band hits the stage at 8:50PM local time, entering the stage with “Master/Slave” playing as the intro music over the P.A. “Severed Hand” now features stage effects including smoke and lasers. The first set clocks in at 100 minutes! “Wasted Reprise” premieres at this show, seguing into “Man of the Hour”. During “I Got Shit”, a drumstick flew out of Matt’s hand, hit Ed’s leg and landed in front of Stone. He looked down and grabbed it, holding it up excitedly as though he were in the audience and caught it. After “I Got Shit”, Ed told the crowd he had a secret to tell, that this won’t be on the bootlegs and first sang the chorus of “I Got Shit” by himself, then sang “I wanna be with a Cinnamon Girl, I want to live the rest of my life with a Cinnamon Girl”, hinting the similarity in the two choruses. During “State of Love and Trust” where Ed often goes over and head-butts or leans again Mike, Ed looked at Mike and leaned down like he was going to go over, but didn’t. Ed mentioned that Sean Kinney’s birthday was coming up and told the crowd he was going to count to three, and then the crowd would say, “Happy birthday Sean!”. He said they’d send Sean a video of it so he could watch it on the tour bus (Sean Kinney’s birthday is May 27, and Alice In Chains will be on tour in Europe). It was then that he asked Kevin to make sure he was filming. Ed spoke directly into the camera as if he were talking to Sean, saying something like, “Hey Sean, we’re just here hanging out in Toronto, and we just wanted to say something to you…”. He then counted to three, and the crowd yelled “Happy birthday Sean!”. The wine bottle was passed back quite a ways during “Crazy Mary”. At one point in the encore, Matt whipped his sticks into the crowd behind the stage (maybe a litte harder than he intended), and then briefly pretended he was a fan who got hit in the eyes and had a stick stuck in each. Towards the end of “Fuckin’ Up”, Ed tried to lay down on Stone’s monitors and fell off. He sat up and remained there, snapping his fingers along, and drank a Heineken after the wine bottle was empty. Ed laughs so much during “Yellow Ledbetter” that it interrupts his singing. He laughed because there was a banner to his left that caught his eye, it said : “Impeach Bush. Pearl Jam For President”.

05/12/06 – Pepsi Arena, Albany, NY, USA soundcheck: World Wide Suicide, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Satan’s Bed, Red Mosquito, In My Tree set: Wasted Reprise -> Life Wasted, World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Do The Evolution, Elderly Woman…, Given To Fly, Red Mosquito, Even Flow, Army Reserve, Daughter/(Another Brick in the Wall, pt II), Off He Goes, Gone, Grievance, Jeremy, Marker in the Sand, Comatose, Why Go first encore: You Got To Hide Your Love Away, Satan’s Bed, Wishlist, Rats, Porch second encore: Last Kiss, Come Back, Sad, Crazy Mary, Alive TFT Notes: 9:00PM start time. “World Wide Suicide” features curtain of sparkly light bulbs hanging from stage rafters that crackle in time with the chorus. Mike split-jumps several times during the final chorus. “Severed Hand” opens to slowly moving groups of green laser beams shooting over the audience; the accelerated tempo builds, and Ed does a split-jump after “when I get home”. After “Do The Evolution”, Ed comments how “it’s great to be back in the home of the River Rat” (Albany’s American Hockey League team is the River Rats). “Big and small, clean and dirty.” Mike sang along off mic during the intro of “Elderly Woman…”. Ed turns around and sings second verse of “Given To Fly” to seats behind the stage, and Jeff pogos vigorously during the second chorus. Band seems to be immersed and caught up in the guitar solo portion of “Even Flow”; Mike plays a large part of his solo with his head thrown back, Jeff stands over with Matt to play in perfect synch, Stone bobs up and down, bending from the waist, Mike then moves to his stack. Matt even plays a small solo, and Ed dances before the final chorus. At songs end, Stone goes to the mic to compliment Matt Cameron “how about those vocals from Matt Cameron- I love Matt Cameron!” Stone and Matt sing backing vocals on “Army Reserve”, Stone bobs head up and down vigorously in the breakdown groove. Before the “Daughter” tag, Ed hugs his mic stand and sways, backing off to snap his fingers along as the green lasers shoot off in succession. Kaleidoscope-like swirling lights bathe the crowd during the tag. Dry ice fog creeps out from either side of the stage at the beginning of “Off He Goes”. During the final chorus of “Grievance” a woman from front row center, hands Ed an American flag with the stars in a peace sign symbol, and he drapes himself in it for the rest of the song, handing it back to her after House lights flash up during the “little FUCK!” in “Jeremy”. Matt adds vocals, alternating with Ed on “try to forget this/try to erase this”. House lights come up to highlight crowd singing “ay yi yi yi” at end of song. Mike plays “Comatose” solo behind head. Main set ends at 10:20 PM. Ed comes back a few minutes later and talks about seeing the same people on every tour (“don’t you people get laid?”), and how trying to decide what to play was difficult – some want to hear stuff they never play (the “freaks”), some want to hear the hits (the “normal” people). He mentions how when he was a teenager, normal was the worst thing you could be, so “here’s to the freaks.” During “Satan’s Bed”, Ed leans the mic stand at an angle behind him, leaning down to read the lyrics. When the mirror ball came down during “Wishlist”, Ed moved slowly around in a circle in synch with its movement. The “Porch” jam featured Stone doing bouncy jumps, Ed putting on his guitar and hammering away at it, Mike playing as he walked in fast circles, and Stone moving to hunch over his effects. The encore ended at 10:57 with the half-circle bank of red lights on the stage behind Matt searching the crowd in all directions. Ed returns at 11:05 PM, moonwalking his way to his mic stand. “Last Kiss” is played with the band facing the seats behind the stage, Mike and Jeff on Matt’s drum riser, and Matt even facing back, using a couple of toms and cymbals placed behind his kit. Stone sang the “oh-oh-ohhhhhhhh” animatedly off mic. At final verse of “Alive”, Stone walked up to play inches away from Ed, and Ed turned to him and sang “is something wrong she said” directly into Stone’s eyes, making Stone raise his eyebrows and chuckle. The mirror ball came down and spun as the song played out, Mike playing the final solo of the night behind his head.

05/13/06 – New England Dodge Music Arena, Hartford, CT, USA soundcheck: Inside Job, MFC, U, I’m Open set: Severed Hand, World Wide Suicide, Life Wasted, Marker in the Sand, Hail Hail, Animal, Dissident, Unemployable, Corduroy, Better Man, Why Go, Garden, I Got Shit, Even Flow, Inside Job, Black, Rearviewmirror first encore: I’m Open, Sleight Of Hand, Comatose, Do The Evolution second encore: Go, Alive, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: The “clothed-in-layers” band takes the stage in the chilly outdoor venue at 8:36 PM to “Master/Slave” as the entrance music. The pre-recorded intro to “Severed Hand” is played before the band starts playing live, green lasers beginning their searchlight movement as the band starts playing. Ed remarks “we’re gonna try and keep you warm for the next couple of hours” and, quickly warming, Stone takes his beanie off before “Marker in the Sand”. Red and yellow lights bathe the crowd and stage during “Hail, Hail”; the crowd has hands ready and does fast claps during the breakdown with Ed’s encouragement. Lasers highlight “Animal” shooting off in sporadic rays throughout. “Unemployable” is introduced as “an uplifting American number”. The chorus of “Unemployable” features Matt, Stone and Jeff singing backing vocals. During the solo/end of “Corduroy”, Jeff gets big air with a jump, and an energized Mike does three successive split jumps. Ed introduces “Better Man” saying “this is where you give Uncle Eddie a break”, and the crowd sings the entire first verse. Stone plays the end-of-song breakdown with Boom. “Is it warming up out there? Don’t lose your inner heat … ever.” Ed says before the re-worked “Garden”. Before “I Got Shit”, when Ed addresses the crowd in back on the lawn, he asks for the camera man to focus on him so the crowd can see him on the big video screens. Jeff ends up grabbing the camera from the guy (Ed: “we’ve got a new cameraman”), panning across the audience and eventually onto Ed before handing it back, to much applause from those in in back. Ed, referencing those on the lawn, introduces the song by its real name “I Got Shit”, but says tonight it can be called “I Got Shit Tickets”. Ed prefaces “Inside Job” with “There will be some lasers on this song, so if you have something besides a cigarette to light, now would be the time.” During the “Rearviewmirror” jam, Ed repeats “One day … I’ll forget”. At the end of “Rearviewmirror”, Ed is really into the jam at the end and gets lost on stage, knocking himself in the mouth with his mic (on the mic stand) and falls, kicking his legs out to help himself back up. Main set over at 10:05PM. Back onstage, Ed talks about playing Hartford twice before (the others, Oct 2, 1996 and Sept 13, 1998), and how this time is like the “last bowl of porridge, this turned out to be ‘just right’” (referencing children’s story Goldilocks and the Three Bears). Ed attempts to start playing “I’m Open” and stops, saying “I was gonna play something but I can’t remember how to play it”. “Comatose” contains the lyric change: “High above / I’ll break the law / if it’s illegal / for me to fuck“. Prior to the second encore, the band is introduced as “Chairman of the Board” Mike McCready, “Secretary of State” Jeff Ament, “I’d elect him President” Matt Cameron, “He’d show Donald Rumsfeld a few things about truth and honesty” Stone Gosssard and “I am the outed CIA agent who knows all your phone numbers to see if you enjoyed the show” Ed Vedder. The crowd “booooms” for Boom and he’s introduced saying “He’s like our Barack Obama”. Ed climbs up onto the stacks by Mike to sing “is something wrong she said”. Stone joins the crowd singing “yeah! yeah!” in rhythm at the end of the song, raising and lowering his guitar and strumming in time with them. During the breakdown of “Rockin’ in the Free World”, Ed pleads “we’ve been playing this song for like, i don’t know how many years, 10 years. We used to play it for fun, we used to play it for Neil, we used to play it for ourselves; but now if we don’t think about this shit, it’s gonna go away. We gotta keep the United States a free world, free communication, free love, free association.” Ed thanks the crowd, equating the shape of the seating area to a baseball field, thanking “right field, center field, left field, third base, short-stop, second base, first base. I guess we’re the catcher, so here’s the pitcher” and leads Mike to start “Yellow Ledbetter”.

05/16/06 – United Center, Chicago, IL, USA set: Release, World Wide Suicide, Life Wasted, Severed Hand, Comatose, Given To Fly, Low Light, Corduroy, I’m Open, I Got Shit, Even Flow, Unemployable, Daughter/(W.M.A.), Present Tense, Do The Evolution, Jeremy, Save You, Porch first encore: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Better Man, Come Back, State of Love and Trust, Black, Alive second encore: Go, Blood/(Atomic Dog), Indifference, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: The house lights go down and the band hits the stage at 8:45 PM to “Master/Slave” entrance music. During “Release”, Ed sang “Oh dear John” in place of “Oh dear Dad”. The crowd singing was so loud during the first chorus during “release me”, that Ed took a step back and leaned his head back, overwhelmed. “Worldwide Suicide” featured animated Mike split-jumps and several long strings of light bulb-sized crackling, lights hanging from the stage lighting rafters. For “Severed Hand” Ed gestured his flat hand above his head to animate “the room”s taller now”; lasers beamed in a circle pattern from the stage to the top rear seats of the arena, green circles of light searchlighting on the crowd. Ed says “can’t talk now, got work to do” before “Comatose” and Mike plays the solo behind his head. Ed tells the crowd after that he’s “starting to feel United”, mentioning that “a lot of incredible things have happened under this roof” and that he was “honored to play this building”, home of many Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls championships. He said he “did some research, and the roof weighs 230 metric tons” and that “with your help we can raise it with you tonight.” Mike was physically all over the place during the solo in “Even Flow”, at one point grinding with his amp stack so animatedly that it almost knocked over. Ed counted the crowd in with his fingers, “1,2,3,4″ for the final chorus of “Even Flow”, using hand gestures to ensure they got the words – hand away from himself for “chases them away”, index finger to lips for “whispering hands”. Ed introduced the crowd to a man in the front row wearing a Mother Love Bone T-Shirt who was at the first show they played. He asked about his girlfriend, who is now the man’s wife and he dedicated a song to him, telling the crowd that this guy deserved to be front and center. Ed introduces “Daughter” by saying this next song is called “Thank Heaven for Little Girls”. During the “W.M.A” tag, Ed sings “Texas son” instead of “American”, “Up his nose/it comes right off” instead of “dirty his hands…”, and “President” instead of “police man”. After the song he comments that the many sports commemorative flags hanging from the rafters may be dampening the sound – particularly a Jordan jersey retirement banner – and that it should be taken down, and that he would gladly store it in his suitcase. Ed backed up from the mic and let the vocal crowd sing the first chorus of “Present Tense”; Mike again grinded with his amp stack. On “Do The Evolution”, Ed sang “Thrift Store, Thrift Store”, pulling on his T-shirt and gesturing to his pants after “admire my clothes”. After “2010 watch it go to fire” Ed sang “don’t let it.” Ed calls out a fan “Rob” in the front row (center) who came to one of PJ’s earliest shows in Chicago with “a Mother Love Bone shirt and a pair of glasses”. Ed says that he’s got a different pair of glasses and remembered he used to go to shows with his girlfriend. Ed sees his non-female companion for this show and jokes that “he’s married an older man”. Watery circles of white light bathe the crowd in the back of the house in swirls during “Jeremy”, and a red light shines on Jeff as he plays the song out. Mike tags “War Pigs” in “Porch” (later again in “Alive”) and Ed sang the final verse of “Porch” on top of the speaker stack on Mike’s side of the stage. Off at 10:20 PM, back on 10:23 PM. Before “You Got To Hide Your Love Away”, Ed spoke of how United Center was “like no other place”, and while he was proud to be in a band from Seattle, he’d always be a kid from Chicago, for better or worse – “I think it’s better”. He encouraged the crowd to sing by speaking of “our Uncle Neil” Young using a 100-piece choir on his latest Living with War, and that “you all could blow 100 pieces away”. After the long held note on that last chorus of “Better Man”, Ed went over to play the guitar breakdown with Mike, leaning down, putting the top of his head against Mike’s chest. The crackled mirror ball was spotlighted near the end of “Alive”; the extended end of the song featured Ed swinging his mic repeatedly, and then collapsing to fall flat on his back. Encore break at 11:00 PM, back on three minutes later. Ed thanked the crowd, and the band gave them a round of applause. “Go” featured a barrage of lasers shooting out from a bank of effects in front of the monitors as well as behind Matt. On “Indifference”, Ed stepped back quickly to let the crowd sing “I will scream my lungs out “til it fills this room”. During “Baba O’Riley”, Ed put his fist through on tambourine and broke the other over his head, giving them to a guy in row 3, and to a fellow in the front row who had an avocado drawn on the top of his bald head.

05/17/06 – United Center, Chicago, IL, USA set: 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), Down, Garden, Inside Job, Lukin -> Why Go first encore: Wasted Reprise, Man of the Hour, Footsteps, Once, Alive second encore: Last Kiss, Last Exit, Glorified G, Elderly Woman…, Crown of Thorns, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Lights down at 8:53 PM. “Master/Slave” is followed by “Severed Hand” pre-recorded intro music. Ed does a hands in the air hippie dance during the lasers. “Animal” has a false start that makes Ed laugh; he steps off mic for the crowd to sing “I’d rather be with an animal”. On “Marker in the Sand”, red and yellow lights punctuate verse 2, and Ed encourages to sing “calling out” at songs end and they oblige. Just prior to singing the first verse of “Evolution”, Ed takes a drink and throws his head back to make a spit fountain, bathing Jeff and a good portion of the security pit and front row. Ed also sings “dmire Stone” instead of “admire my clone”. Mike plays verse 2 of “Whipping” in front of his monitors, going wild at songs end by running back and forth across the stage, walking in quick circles and then falling on the floor and rolling in a circle. At the beginning of “1/2 Full”, Ed gestured to one of his techs, then took the mic off the stand and angrily tossed the stand to the floor. During the solo, Ed put on one of his guitars, saying “I need a mirror” and proceeded to effectively use the scratchplate of his guitar for reflection, shining it around the arena. Large round yellow-gelled lights over the stage slid to amber during “I Am Mine”. Mike delivers the first part of his “Even Flow” solo behind his head; Ed walks to the back of the stage to bond with the crowd there before lighting his usual cigarette. Near solo’s end, Mike leaned into one of his amps, leaning his head into it and finally putting a couple of large tears in the cloth cover. At song’s end, Mike puts his arms in the air to get the willing crowd to cheer enthusiastically; Ed had his back turned and wondered about the sound, saying “I missed that one” and Mike did it once again. Ed teased “Goddamn, you saying it’s that easy? It’s not about spending day in and day out trying to find the perfect chord change and just the right words, all you have to do is ….” He makes the same motion and the crowd goes nuts. “That’s just fucked. I guess if you’re Mike McCready you can get away with that.” Ed jokes. Ed thanked the crowd for making a big city seem like a small town, mentioning that “that last song” is about how sometimes people can’t change and get into life situations that are “hard to get out of”, and that sometimes you need to get out of town in order to change. The crowd sings the opening verse of “Better Man” without prompting, to Ed’s seeming delight. Red/purple gels over the stage slide to red on the “she dreams in red” line of the chorus, as song plays out, the sparkly light bulb strings twinkle and the bank lights behind Matt light the crowd in white. The song ends, and after a brief pause Ed starts playing the chorus guitar line, going into “Save It For Later”, and the band joins him after a moment. Verses are swapped during “Down”. Green lasers at beginning of “Inside Job” beam figure-eight swirls onto the upper decks across from the stage. Ed keeps his head down, swaying to the music for the entire intro. Following “Inside Job”, Ed introduces “Lukin” as “another introspective number”. Loud crowd sings “Why Go Home” break between verses of “Why Go”. Main set over at 10:14 PM, band back on at 10:19 PM to “Wasted Reprise”. Ed introduces “Footsteps” saying “this song is about as old as they get”. He rotates in a slow circle, playing to all sides of stage for the final chorus. Band leaves the stage at 10:40 PM, coming back after five minutes with no Ed. His voice is heard letting Matt know he’s ready to “try this”, and “Last Kiss” starts; Ed has a wireless mic and sings from the soundboard platform. Ed thanks the crowd for making the United Center a “safe place to break bread, play music and feel like a family”. During “Elderly Woman…”, band stops playing and crowd takes over singing “hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away”. Ed calls out many Chicago area suburbs (Rockton, Schaumburg, Skokie, Wrigleyville) to sporadic crowd booing, and responds “is there any place that you like?”. After the song he says “How about Park Forest?” still to more booing (“What the fuck is wrong with Park Forest?”). Matt sings “oh-oh-oh’s” under Ed’s “this is my kind of love” during “Crown of Thorns”. After “Crown of Thorns”, Ed mentions suburb of Park Forest to more booing, chiding the crowd for not liking any of the towns he said (“What’s wrong with Park Forest?”). Ed mentions drummer Matt Cameron being from the great Seattle band Soundgarden to much cheering, and that his former guitarist Kim Thayil is from Park Forest, and band and crowd applaud. Without prompting, the crowd sings “We got a thousand points of light For the homeless man we got a kinder, gentler, machine gun hand”, making Ed smile before he took over singing. Prior to “Ledbetter”, Jeff pulls on his shirt, talking to a guy in the front row that had on the rare “Dirty Frank” T-shirt, saying “nice shirt”. Mike plays his “Ledbetter” solo sitting on the stage in front of his monitors. Show over at 11:25PM.

05/19/06 – Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, MI, USA Ed pre-set: Dead Man, Can’t Explain set: Elderly Woman…, Given To Fly, World Wide Suicide, Life Wasted, Severed Hand, Sad, Marker in the Sand, Red Mosquito, Even Flow, Love Boat Captain, Corduroy, Daughter/(Blitzkrieg Bop)/(I Believe In Miracles), Army Reserve, Green Disease, Why Go, Inside Job, Rearviewmirror first encore: Sleight of Hand, Off He Goes, Around the Bend, Parting Ways, Hard To Imagine, Crazy Mary, Alive second encore: Do The Evolution, Comatose, Satan’s Bed, Leatherman, Blood, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: “Yeah, we’re getting it going” Ed says to the energetic crowd to the crowd of about 12,000. “Daughter” is introduced as “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” and there’s a considerable gasp from some in the crowd. “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” is a Gordon Lightfoot song about a real-life freighter that sank between Wisconsin and Michigan, but also a song often associated (incorrectly?) with an instrumental song on one of Stone Gossard’s early 1990 demos. As “Daughter” starts though, Ed says to the crowd “Don’t hate me.” Ed introduces Boom and says he’s standing in front of what looks like a “portable bar” and says “Love Boat Captain” was written in a “far away place and far enough away that anything seemed possible”. Ed mentions the last time they played Grand Rapids was the “Vote For Change” tour and says the name of that tour was supposed to “make the point” and that “Vote for Change” was maybe “not explanatory enough because some people didn’t figure out you were voting to change things for the better.” He continues, “So a lot of us voted, but things have changed just for the worse and something hopeful, apparently there’s a couple of veterans in the crowd and we have their support so we’re very proud of that.”, leading to “Army Reserve”. Jeff updates everyone on the Detroit vs. Cleveland playoff basketball game that night “We just found out that the Pistons won by two points”, to large cheers. Ed then says he heard they actually lost by three points, to large boos. Ed then asks the crowd to vote for who they think the liar is, but he admits “it’s gonna be me”. During the “Rearviewmirror” jam, Ed sings “Time heals the wounds that no one can see (repeated) / I will forget, I will forgive (repeated)”. With the crowd going nuts, Ed comes on after the first encore saying “Are you kidding me? We’re not gonna want to leave this place. And I thought we had friends in Chicago!”. The first encore is full of “experimenting” and Ed clarifies that “there’s a big difference between ‘experimenting with you’ and ‘fucking with you’, we’re not going to fuck with you.” Before “Around the Bend”, Ed asks, “Would you like to hear ‘Around the Bend’? We can try it. Are you sure? We haven’t played it, we haven’t practiced it, so we’re fucking with ourselves at this point.” Pearl Jam plays back-to-back breakouts with “Around the Bend” and “Parting Ways”, both the only times played this leg. “Parting Ways” includes a sitar-like guitar effect which gives the main riff a different sound. A 10-minute “Crazy Mary” ends with Mike and Boom trading off on ascending high notes, being egged on by the band and the crowd. Starting the second encore, Ed prefaces, “Alright, no more experimenting. We’re gonna drive this thing home with ya. Seatbelts everybody …” and they launch into “Do The Evolution”. Ed uses a megaphone for the “High above …” bridge in “Comatose”. “Satan’s Bed” starts and Ed jokes “I think we may be fucking with you again, sorry”. The band nails “Satan’s Bed”, with supporting B3 by Boom (true to the studio version), and with Ed ad-libbing a hurried “Paris Hilton” after the line “Who set the standard ‘born to be rich’?”. After “Blood”, Ed beckons “Is there anything left? (crowd roars) I think we did it all (crowd yells “No!!!”).” Ed toasts the day to the shared birthday of Joey Ramone (he says “Johnny” at first) and Pete Townshend and dedicates “Baba O’Riley” to them. “Grand Rapids, who knew?!? That was great … thank you so much. If (fans) listen to the tapes, it’s gonna sound like we’re just bullshittin’, but you had to be here. This was really great tonight, thank you so, so much.” Yellow Ledbetter contains a brief “Star-Spangled Banner” tease and Ed changing the second verse lyrics to “And I see them, I’d like to wish this whole fuckin war away / and I try, and I say, I keep waking up with the news today / and the lies they tell, I can’t take no more / because my brother he’s comin’ home in a box or a bag”. Ed replaces the last “I don’t wanna stay” line with “Fuck it, let’s stay.”

05/20/06 – Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH, USA Ed pre-set: Last Kiss, It Makes No Difference (w/MMJ) set: Better Man, Given To Fly, World Wide Suicide, Life Wasted, Severed Hand, Faithfull, Unemployable, Gone, Daughter/(It’s OK), MFC, Immortality, Lukin, Do The Evolution, Spin The Black Circle, Porch first encore: Wasted Reprise, Thumbing My Way, Inside Job, Black, Alive second encore: Go, Comatose, U, Don’t Gimme No Lip, Smile, Why Go, Fuckin’ Up, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: The band is playing Cleveland and Detroit consecutively, coinciding with the NBA Playoffs pitting the Cleveland Cavaliers vs. the Detroit Pistons. “That last song is called ‘Unemployable’ which I’m sure the state of Ohio knows plenty about. It’s a beautiful place, but we’ll always make room for you in Seattle if you ever want to come out. Then you’ll be jobless and wet and depressed, but you’ll be out drinkin with us, so it’ll be alright.” Continuing, Ed introduces “Gone”, saying that “there’s a line in a song called ‘Dissident’ that says something about ‘escape is never the safest path’ or the easiest way, but this song kinda explores that idea, it’s called ‘Gone’.” “It’s OK” returns as a “Daughter” tag (at a slightly higher pitch than previous versions) with the entire band playing a slightly different arrangement. Ed modifies the lyrics somewhat, “This is my plea / this is my need / this is my time for standing free / this is my stand / in this world so demanding of me”. “Immortality” starts with a few bars of finger-picking guitar, similar to some previous versions. Ed gets a big roar from the crowd during “Do The Evolution” with the lyric change “Those ignorant Indians .. they’re a great team, right?” An adventurous 10-minute “new Porch” begins with an even slower-than-usual start by Ed before it kicks in with the second verse. Ed does band intros during the jam, including “on bass, and rooting for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Mr. Jeff Ament” and “the engine with so many horsepower there’s no number, Matt Cameron on the drumkit”, “from the jungle to Cleveland, Mr. Boom Gasper on the B3″, and “sometimes you don’t pick your friends but he’s one of my best friends, Stone Gossard on guitar”. After the main set, Ed says that “it’s interesting, the place we go next is Detroit and we’re in no hurry…” which starts many chants including boos and eventually Ed picks up on an anti-Detroit chant, “I got it … I can’t repeat it because of the bootlegs and all, (Detroit will) get a hold of it. (long pause) I can say it once, ‘Pistons Suck’” to loud cheers. “Thumbing My Way” is played for the only time during the first leg of this tour. Starting the second encore, Ed wants to buy everyone a drink for being such a good crowd and beckons the arena staff to “open up the beer stands”. Ed modifies the “Comatose” lyrics “Blood on all the pistons / Fuck the Detroit Pistons! / Feel it rising (sorry!) / Yeah, next stop falling (sorry Detroit!) / Feel it rising / Comatose, with no fear of falling”. “U”, “Don’t Gimme No Lip” and “Smile” have the band “taking care of a couple of requests that (they’ve) been seeing” so far on Leg One. After “Fuckin’ Up”, Ed tells the crowd about a dream he had where the moon exploded and “crumbled and disappeared into nothing”, creating a world of chaos with the absence of the tides”. He continues that he thinks maybe the moon in his dream could be like “democracy”, and “it looks like it’s full right now, but if we don’t start paying attention … and looking at it thinking it’s beautiful, it’s just gonna disappear like this on us if we don’t participate, and you would know better here in Ohio – the deciding vote” (the vote tally in the state of Ohio decided the winner in the 2004 Presidential election).

05/22/06 – Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit, MI, USA soundcheck: Alone, Breath, In Hiding, Breakerfall, You Are, Gone(acoustic), Garden, All or None, Faithfull (partial and out of order) set: Long Road, Corduroy, World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Animal, Marker in the Sand, In Hiding, Even Flow, I Am Mine, Army Reserve, Insignificance, Garden, Wasted Reprise -> Life Wasted, State of Love and Trust, Come Back, Jeremy, Rearviewmirror first encore: Man of the Hour, Elderly Woman…, Nothingman, Inside Job, Alive second encore: Whipping, Do The Evolution, Comatose, Given To Fly, Why Go, Porch, Indifference, Kick Out The Jams, Yellow Ledbetter/(Star-Spangled Banner) TFT Notes: Chris Chelios of the Detroit Red Wings was side stage, as Ed made numerous mentions of him, and even shared his wine with him during the latter portions of the show. During the “Alive” solo, Mike left the stage and ran through the crowd and up the aisles all the way up to the top of the lower level, then back down again without missing a beat. During “Comatose” Ed used a megaphone for the “High above…” bridge, then smashed it hard to the stage. Ed invites a woman onstage to do sign language for “Given to Fly” similar to 10/11/00 St. Louis, MO. Ed says that Detroit should’ve been given the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because of its rich music history, and then proceeded to play “Kick out the Jams” by Detroit’s MC5. “Yellow Ledbetter” ends with Mike playing the Star-Spangled Banner.

05/24/06 – TD Banknorth Garden, Boston, MA, USA set: Release, Severed Hand, World Wide Suicide, Corduroy, Animal, Red Mosquito, Love Boat Captain, Better Man, Unemployable, Even Flow, Sad, Wishlist, Gone, Green Disease, Down, Jeremy, Life Wasted, Why Go first encore: Forever Young, Masters of War, Crazy Mary, Inside Job, Alive second encore: Spin The Black Circle, Do The Evolution, Whipping, Rats, Comatose, Rockin’ in the Free World TFT Notes: Ed talks about how much they love the Boston crowd, and mentioned the seating snafu in Grand Rapids (some higher-number Ten Club members had better seats than lower-number members) and that they thought they got the seating right in Boston. Prior to “Unemployable”, Ed dedicates the song to recent college graduates in the crowd; before “Even Flow” he tells the same graduates that “this song is gonna be your future”. Ed and Jeff start the first encore with Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young”, followed by a full-band “Masters of War”, performed in honor of Dylan’s 65th birthday. Prior to “Forever Young”, Ed says he doesn’t mean to be cynical, and dedicates it to the college graduates as well. For “Do The Evolution”, Ed and Jeff don orange T-shirts that read “Stone” in black upper and lower case letters (similar to how they are printed on Stone’s guitar picks), and Ed changes the lyrics to “admire Stone”. A raucous “Rockin’ in the Free World” features Jeff jumping off amps and Ed rolling around on stage; toward songs end while Ed bashes on tambourines, Jeff and Mike play “pat-a-cake”.

05/25/06 – TD Banknorth Garden, Boston, MA, USA pre-set: Porch, It Makes No Difference (w/MMJ) set: Severed Hand, Corduroy, World Wide Suicide, Do The Evolution, Given To Fly, Dissident, Even Flow, Marker in the Sand, Low Light, Insignificance, Army Reserve, Garden, I Got Id, State of Love and Trust, Comatose, Inside Job, Rearviewmirror first encore: Wasted Reprise, Man of the Hour, Elderly Woman…, Parachutes, Black, Alive second encore: Why Go, Life Wasted, Smile, Indifference, Leash, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Ed talks about how it was such a beautiful day in Boston and a beatiful day for them and his daughter whose “back home in another city.” He then mentions that their thoughts turn toward those put in a dire situation overseas and plays a hardened version of “Garden,” mentioning its the worst case scenario for those troops. Before “Elderly Woman…”, Ed says the song used to be so easy to play but they kept “fucking it up.” Ed seems pleased with the crowd’s vocals and lets them finish pieces of the tune, much like he did with “Black,” “Alive,” and “Smile.” Ed says Boston has been so good to them that he’d like to try playing a song they’ve yet to play live and they premiere “Parachutes”! Ed laughs mid-song when he clearly stumbles over the words, but presses on. During a frenzied “Alive,” he knocks over his mic stand and falls to the floor. When he stands up, his earpiece comes loose and Ed wildly swings it onstage. Before “Smile,” he spots a small girl in the crowd that he calls up on stage where she presents him with some flowers. He kisses and hugs her and plays her request, “Smile.” Before “Indifference,” Ed discusses how the proceeds for the show are going to benefit a charity for homeless children in the city and how a great man and his cohorts promised they’d match the donation. He seems moved to know such a man “with intelligence and heart,” and says you may have heard of him since his name is Theo Epstein (young General Manager of the Boston Red Sox and massive PJ fan)”. The crowd goes bananas. After years of fans begging the band to play “Leash”, it’s played to a huge roar, with the crowd signing loudly along. Before “Rockin in the Free World,” a man in a brown hooded PJ sweatshirt and blue PJ ballcap comes out to join them for the set. He jams with the band and is clearly into the set. He whips his hat into the crowd, then his thick mullet wig, and it’s revealed to be Theo Epstein himself! The Boston fans go wild and chant “Theo-Theo!” Ed puts on a Terry Francona (Red Sox Manager) Red Sox jersey and they play “Yellow Ledbetter”. Mike ends the song with a fiery, patriotic version of the “Star Spangled Banner.”

05/27/06 – Tweeter Waterfront, Camden, NJ, USA pre-set: Gone set: Wasted Reprise, Life Wasted, World Wide Suicide, Do The Evolution, Animal, Severed Hand, Corduroy, Marker in the Sand, Given To Fly, Unemployable, Lukin -> Not For You/(Modern Girl), Daughter/(W.M.A), I Am Mine, Jeremy, Present Tense, Why Go, Porch first encore: Better Man, Come Back, Elderly Woman, Last Kiss, Alive second encore: State of Love and Trust, Blood, Even Flow, Comatose, Leash, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter/(Star-Spangled Banner) TFT Notes: Being the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend in the U.S.A., Ed mentions that it’s a great way to start the summer, and during “”Even Flow” sings that the “summer’s on its way”. This venue is in Camden, NJ, and Philadelphia is right across the river, thus why it is often considered a “Philadelphia” stop on the tour. With a big smile on his face, Ed references that saying “Where the hell are we anyways? Jersey? Philly?” and mentions that he should know better considering that they’ve played there before. The “Modern Girl” tag to “Not For You” returns, with Mike wearing a Sleater-Kinney t-shirt. “Present Tense” draws a big roar and the crowd sings the second verse. Before “Last Kiss”, the band seems to get comfortable and Matt puts on a Fender Telecaster hinting at something “special”. Ed tells the crowd that they are indeed doing something special tonight and tells of how their charitable proceeds from ticket sales tonight are going towards the Innocence Project, a non-profit legal clinic that works to free the wrongfully convicted through DNA testing. Ed introduces one-by-one three men who had a total of 45 years in prison before they were freed by the works of the Innocence Project. He tells the stories of Thomas “Tommy” Doswell, Vincent Moto, and Wilton Dedge, including how they each served more than a decade before they were freed. Vincent Moto then jumps up on the drums, and Tommy Doswell lays down a large lyric sheet and everyone together performs “Last Kiss”, with Ed and Tommy trading off verses. Vincent and Tommy are bursting with Joy and make Ed blush by starting a “Pearl Jam” chant. Wilton, Vincent and Tommy come back out for an extended “Rockin’ in the Free World”. As they are walking off, Wilton – visibly the shiest on stage – steps up to Stone’s mic, and poignantly implores the crowd that “you don’t have to be a rocker to make a difference in the world”.

05/28/06 – Tweeter Waterfront, Camden, NJ, USA pre-set: Throw Your Arms Around Me, It Makes No Difference (w/MMJ) set: Wash, Go, World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Corduroy, Save You, Given To Fly, Army Reserve, Grievance, Gone, Even Flow, You Are, Wishlist, Satan’s Bed, Garden, Whipping, Life Wasted, Rearviewmirror first encore: Wasted Reprise, Man of the Hour, Parachutes, Black/(So Lonely), Crazy Mary, Alive second encore: Last Exit, Do The Evolution, Glorified G, Comatose, Leash, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter/(Star-Spangled Banner) TFT Notes: Ed performs a preset of “Throw Your Arms Around Me” and stays on for a cover of The Band’s “It Makes No Difference”. Ed addressed the crowd right after “Wash”, saying “I bet you came over after church” which had the entire venue laughing and that “on the seventh day, God said ‘You shall rock your asses off until the cows come home’”. Ed is bothered by mic and mic-stand problems throughout the first set, breaking at least two. Ed dedicated “Army Reserve” to the men and women risking their lives and following orders. During “Rearviewmirror”, Ed is visibly annoyed at a photographer (or fan?) in the pit and aggressively throws a towel at him. Picking up a guitar to join the jam, he then breaks a string and throws his guitar down hard, leaving the stage. The band starts the first encore on the “lighter” side with “Wasted Reprise”, “Man of the Hour” and “Parachutes”. Mike had a line of new baseballs behind him on his equipment and Ed called attention to the fact that he was playing with “a lot of balls”. Mike went back and counted them – 5 balls – and Ed said that he had one of his removed to be able to hit the high notes. After over ten years of absence, “Leash” is played for the third show in a row. “Yellow Ledbetter” closes with Mike playing the “Star-Spangled Banner”.

05/30/06 – MCI Center, Washington, DC, USA pre-set: Don’t Be Shy set: Release, World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Corduroy, Animal, Do The Evolution, Given To Fly, Low Light, Unemployable, Grievance, Even Flow, I Got Shit, Present Tense, Better Man, Inside Job, Wasted Reprise, Life Wasted, Why Go, Rearviewmirror first encore: Man of the Hour, Masters Of War, Elderly Woman…, Come Back, Alive second encore: Comatose, Leash, Fuckin’ Up, Yellow Ledbetter/(Star-Spangled Banner) TFT Notes: Towards the end of the show Ed remarked that Dick Cheney had called his hotel room and requested that they play his favorite song, one he listens to every morning, and the band played “Fuckin’ Up”. Ed said that some of the band had traveled down to D.C. earlier and spent the previous night in the Mount Pleasant district of D.C. which he said, “I heard that area wasn’t ‘pleasant’ anymore, but last night it couldn’t have been more so pleasant.” More notes coming soon…

05/31/06 – The Avalon, New York, NY, USA set: Better Man, Unemployable, World Wide Suicide, Gone, Sleight of Hand, Army Reserve, Insignificance, Alive Ed Solo: Here’s to the State of Mississippi break: Fan Q&A encore: Life Wasted TFT Notes: This performance is a taping of the VH1 TV series “Storytellers”. The show is announced a week prior and 250 fan club members are selected randomly to attend. The venue was formerly the Limelight, where PJ played on April 12, 1992. Ed asked the crowd for a show of hands of those who were at the 1992 show and one (lucky) fan raised his hand. Fans outside the venue are organized into three lines. The first two lines are let into the venue first, with the fans who showed up earliest being allowed to go right to the front of the stage. The floor is general admission, with a few fans taken to the side of the stage as well. The third line of fans are brought to the balconies lining the walls to the right and left of the stage. Ed’s tech Ricky brings out and removes a music stand with Ed’s pre-written notes prior to each song. Ed mentions that the theme of the songs being played revolve around the “truth” and how the government has misinformed the public, also reminding fans of the saying “don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story”. “Better Man” is played with a “new” intro, with Boom starting the song on keyboards and Ed coming in on vocals, much like the studio version. Ed prefaces “Gone” mentioning that it’s “a car song” and how PJ has a lot of car songs, but that Bruce Springsteen is still the king of writing car songs. The venue is very hot, and a small fan is put in front of Ed. It starts blowing his hair as he reads, distracting him, and he asks that it be turned off because he’s “not Steven Tyler”. “Sleight of Hand” is a nice surprise, introduced as “another car song”. Ed retells the story of “Alive” saying “it’s a song about someone I know very well (laughs) … Ok, it’s about me” and goes on to say how the chorus is sung by fans with exuberance and it has trancended from being a song about a curse, to being an uplifting song. He concludes with “you changed the meaning of the song, you lifted the curse” which gets a great response from the fans. The band exits during “Alive” and Ed comes out solo. Ed mentions his collaboration with Tim Robbins in 2004 during the Vote for Change tour and plays “Here’s to the State of Mississippi” originally written by Phil Ochs. At one point Ed is in-between verses and pauses but keeps strumming a G-chord, addressing the crowd wondering if – being a protest song – whether Phil Ochs picked the G-chord intentionally because the left hand mimics the sign of giving someone the middle-finger. Chairs are set up in the middle of the stage for a fan Q&A session. Before the event, fans wrote their name, location and a question on blue cards that were collected while waiting on line. Fans were told that if picked, the would go to areas of the venue where there were microphones to ask their question, but the band instead read the questions and answered them themselves. The band returned one more time to perform “Life Wasted”.

06/01/06 – Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, NJ, USA pre-set: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, It Makes No Difference (w/MMJ) set: Severed Hand, Corduroy, World Wide Suicide, Do The Evolution, Marker in the Sand, Given To Fly, Dissident, Even Flow, Army Reserve, Immortality, Green Disease, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Alone, Jeremy, Why Go, Life Wasted, Rearviewmirror first encore: Wasted Reprise, Man of the Hour, Come Back, Footsteps, Once, Alive second encore: Last Exit, Comatose, Leatherman, Glorified G, Leash, Baba O’Riley, Indifference TFT Notes: “Alone” is played “for the connoisseurs” but the song breaks down half-way through. Not giving up, the band restarts at the second chorus and finishes it up. “Jeremy” then starts with Ed saying “we know this one”. The “Rearviewmirror” jam includes Ed singing “I thought I’d never forget (repeated) / but I forget (repeated)”. Ed has some call/response from the crowd asking them that if they played “Bushleaguer” would they “boo” or “cheer”. Some booing occurs, but it seemed the crowd didn’t understand the question. He asks again and draws big cheers. Ed says that he wants to “continue the dialogue” from the last time they were here, but the crowd is puzzled, because it seems Ed is thinking of the April 30, 2003 Uniondale, NY show in which there was booing during “Bushleaguer”. “Footsteps” is played for the second time this tour and played sitting down. “Footsteps” is well received by the crowd, who even sing the third verse early, but it doesn’t throw the band off. The mamasan trilogy of “Alive”, “Once”, “Footsteps” is played backwards. During “Leatherman” Ed remarks that he went on a hike nearby in New York where he learned of the “Leatherman” story, and hiked that day with a young man who had just graduated today, dedicating the song to him. Prior to “Leash”, Ed remarks that the band is pretty good to fans for playing “Leash” since the last time they were there a fan held up a sign that said “Play ‘Leash’ You Pussies” (but this was July 8, 2003 NY, NY show and not NJ). Celebrity spottings included the Olsen twins (yes, both this time) and Chris Daughtry (American Idol).

06/03/06 – Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, NJ, USA pre-set: No Surrender, It Makes No Difference (w/MMJ) set: Severed Hand, Corduroy, World Wide Suicide, Hail Hail, Animal, Love Boat Captain, In Hiding, Even Flow, I Am Mine, Whipping, Gone, Comatose, State of Love and Trust, Rats, Garden, Inside Job, Porch first encore: Army Reserve, Hard To Imagine, Last Kiss, Black, Crazy Mary, Last Exit second encore: Wasted Reprise, Life Wasted, Lukin, Leash, Don’t Gimme No Lip, Why Go, Leaving Here, Alive, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: “Severed Hand” starts “SNL-style” rather than the with the pre-recorded backing track. Ed references the cavernous Continental Airlines Arena in “Hail, Hail” with “Ah, looks like there’s room for both of us”. During “Animal”, Ed’s mic cuts out before he begins to sing, so the song is aborted abrubtly. On the bootleg, the band’s techs are heard saying they “lost all of the vocals”. This day was a hot and humid day with many thunderstorms, a possible cause for the power problem. The five-minute break keeps the crowd thirsty as Matt plays a beat similiar to what you’d hear at a baseball game “1, 2, 1-2-3, 1-2-3-4, ‘Let’s Go!’” with the crowd clapping along. Applause as Ed’s mic comes back on, “Can you hear me now? So whose job was it… here in New Jersey to pay the electric bill for this building tonight, that’s what we wanna know? Is it uh, I know Bruce Springsteen is on tour right now, do you think maybe he didn’t pay the bill before he left? Well I’m, personally I’m more ready than I ever was, so if you guys are still in …” leading right back into “Animal”. Always a crowd-pleaser, Ed mentions after “In Hiding” that this crowd is much better singers than Thursday night’s show. Community Food Bank of New Jersey will receive one dollar from every ticket from this show, and “they served half a million people since 1982, over a half a billion of food and groceries”. Ed mentions how playing “Gone” in New Jersey is appropriate – being written in Atlantic City – and how he wanted to play “Atlantic City” for the Borgata shows, but couldn’t remember the chords, but “my fingers found their way and turned out to be this song”. Mike inserts a very quick lick from Mad Season’s “River of Deceit” just after the “I choose to feel” line during “Inside Job”, an song by “Mike McCready, words and all”. Ed comes out after the encore break and says there was a little argument backstage about what to play. One song Ed mentions they have to play, and that June 3rd is “West Memphis Three Day” and talks about their plight, his involvement and his collaboration with Damien Echols on “Army Reserve”. Ed introduces Damien’s wife, Lori Davis, who steps up to the mic to thank Pearl Jam and everyone else’s support. “Last Kiss” is played to the crowd behind the stage (so the rest of the night is “guilt free”), including Matt on a bass drum snare and hi-hat set up for him. “Leash” is introduced as another “sing-along” and – just as recent versions – Ed sings “Take my lucky hand…” (see the Vs. lyric sheet) and “Delight in the truth“. Before “Don’t Gimme No Lip”, Stone addresses the crowd on this last night of the first Leg of the tour, “I know you’ve all been waiting for it, and I just wanna say thank you very much. myself and everyone else has had a great tour and I wanna thank Ed Ved personally cause he’s put in so many hours to this record, and the video we made, and every night’s setlist, and he just does an amazing job with an incredible amount of energy, and we’re so lucky to have him. LADIES AND GENTLEMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN, ROUND OF APPLAUSE! (crowd cheers) Thank you, alright, ‘Don’t Gimme No Lip’”. With a few weeks break before Leg Two starts, “Why Go” and “Leaving Here” are played back to back. During “Leaving Here”, Jeff takes the first three solos and Matt the last. “Yellow Ledbetter” is introduced as “we don’t know what else to say, so Mike McCready’s gonna say it for us”.

06/23/06 – Mellon Arena, Pittsburgh, PA, USA opening act: Robert Pollard pre-set: Throw Your Arms Around Me set: Release, Life Wasted, Severed Hand, Corduroy, Do the Evolution, Dissident, Even Flow, Marker in the Sand, In Hiding, Better Man, Daughter/(With My Own Two Hands), Garden, I Got Shit, State of Love and Trust, Inside Job, World Wide Suicide, Porch first encore: Wasted Reprise, Man of the Hour, Waiting on a Friend, Elderly Woman…, Black, Alive second encore: Go, Why Go, Comatose, Smile, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Ed opened the show saying “I’ll throw out the first pitch” and played “Throw Your Arms Around Me” to a sparse audience, then introduced Robert Pollard. Midway through Pollard’s set Pollard exclaimed “I need a cigarette” and launched into the next song, only to have Ed dart on stage, hand him a lit cigarette, then dart back off. Ed commented that when they came into the building someone told him they were tearing it down (not necessarily true, although the Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL) are trying to build a new arena but it’s far from a done deal) He said we should just enjoy it while we have it. No songs from Riot Act or Binaural are performed. During the first encore the lights in the sky boxes are blinking on and off seemingly in rhythm. Ed comments that “You have some talented rich people in Pittsburgh.” Then laughs and says “You have some drunk talented rich people in Pittsburgh. It’s nice to see something new.” Before “Waiting on a friend” Ed tells the crowd that they’ve been to a lot of places around the world, and “Pittburgh isn’t exactly our favorite place.” Loud boos ensure, followed by “Here we go Steelers, here we go!” chants. A few people throw joints at him, he catches one laughing and says “These people are throwing joints! Maybe I should insult you more often.” Everyone in the band laughs. Then he says “OK, well, I need a lighter.” Lighters rain down on the stage. More laughing. Then he notices someone threw up a Marlboro Light and he complains and throws it back. Then he goes on to say “What I didn’t get a chance to say was, this is one of our favorite places to play.” He references their last time in town opening for the Stones and how it was a great time, and says that they’re playing the next song in memory of that evening. During Alive he climbs on the speakers on Stone’s side to sing “We’re all still alive!” Ed’s long sleeve shirt comes off which reveals that the white t-shirt underneath is in fact a Robert Pollard concert t-shirt. During “Rockin’ in the Free World”, Ed takes a running start to toss a tambourine far to the right of the stage, and trips and falls on Stone’s guitar cord, unplugging it. He gets up rather embarrassed with Stone buckled over laughing. Mike turned the final verse of “Yellow Ledbetter” into the “Star-Spangled Banner” to end the show.

06/24/06 – US Bank Arena, Cincinnati, OH, USA opening act: Robert Pollard pre-set: The Kids Are Alright set: Long Road, Save You, Hail Hail, World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Corduroy, Unemployable , Even Flow, Love Boat Captain, Gone, Green Disease, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Present Tense, Lukin, Whipping, Do The Evolution, Life Wasted first encore: Wishlist, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Inside Job, Crazy Mary, Rearviewmirror second encore: Comatose, Leash, Alive, Baba O’Riley TFT Notes: The first Cincinnati show in 6 years – 2003′s show was cancelled due to flooding at the venue – begins at 7:25PM with Eddie and his guitar taking the stage for a solo version of “The Kids Are Alright.” The first of many Who references tonight (Eddie is also wearing a “Maximum R&B” style Who t-shirt). He introduces opening act Robert Pollard, noting that Pollard is from “up the road” in Dayton, Ohio (only about 30 miles away from Cincy). Ed is sidestage rocking out for most of Pollard’s set, and joins him on stage for the last part of Pollard’s last song, “Love is Stronger than Witchcraft.” “Even Flow” notably gets large chunks of Jimi Hendrix’s “Third Rock from the Sun” thrown into the jam, courtesy of Mike McCready. Later, “Not For You” sports a “Modern Girl” tag (Sleater-Kinney), “Better Man” gets a tag of “Save it for Later,” and Wishlist gets tagged with the same Robert Pollard song that Eddie joined Pollard on during the opening set, “Love is Stronger than Witchcraft.” Early on, fans in the front rows throw little plastic parachute toys onstage and Ed comments that he finally understands why, but he says they still aren’t going to play “Parachutes” tonight. Appropriately right before “Love Boat Captian,” Eddie discusses how almost exactly six years to the day ago, nine fans died at the concert in Denmark (Roskilde) and among the first people to call and offer support were The Who’s Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend. He went on to explain that it was at this very same Cincinnati venue (then called the Riverfront Coliseum) where several fans died in a similar crush trying to enter a Who concert (It was 12/3/1979 and 11 died). At another point in the night, Ed pulled out a flyer and discussed how a Pearl Jam fan named Brian Shaffer from Columbus, Ohio had been missing since April, and since the band feels like the fans are in some way “part of the family,” they wanted to call attention to him in hopes that someone is able to help find him. Ed mentioned that, and described Brian’s Pearl Jam tattoo and the reward for information along with a website to visit if you know anything, findbrianshaffer.com. Mike McCready, as usual, is really into his “Crazy Mary” solo, and Ed tries to do the classic back-to-back lean with him, but Mike charges on by to rock out over by Boom. A song later, after “Rearviewmirror”, as the band leaves the stage, Ed jokingly kicks Mike in the butt. After “Leash,” someone in the front row throws a copy of the new Rolling Stone with Eddie on the cover on stage and Ed begins to elaborately wipe his ass with it, angrily commenting about how they agreed to do the Rolling Stone cover as a band, but they went and put only Eddie on the cover anyway. He said something along the lines of, “I have fifty copies of this at home next to the toilet to use when I take a shit.” He also talked about how Pearl Jam has survived for almost 16 years because they are a band – not just one guy – and how they did a whole band photo shoot and everything, but the magazine put that picture on the inside. By the end of Ed’s diatribe, the magazine was in shreds and a high energy “Alive” was launched. In yet another Who nod, the night ended with “Baba O’Riley,” with Eddie and Robert Pollard trading verses.

06/26/06 – Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN, USA opening for: Tom Petty set: Last Exit, Life Wasted, Why Go, World Wide Suicide, Do The Evolution, Given To Fly, I Am Mine, Army Reserve, Even Flow, Better Man, Sad, Sleight of Hand, Daughter/(I Won’t Back Down), Jeremy, Comatose, Alive, Rockin’ in the Free World Tom Petty set: American Girl TFT Notes: This show is the first of six shows in support of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The first notes of “Last Exit” start with Ed exclaiming “Let’s get it on!”. “Do the Evolution” goes a little off course during the verses, and Ed sings “Admire me / Admire my home / Forgive me / It’s my own fault”. Ed references the first show of the PJ/Petty tour, “I know there’s a few kind people who are dedicated to our group and they travel different places to see us. And that’s what our group is gonna be doing for the next couple of weeks. We’re gonna be travellin’ around seeing Tom Petty and we’re proud to be on the same stage and looking forward to this little trip here.” “Given To Fly” is dedicated to “Tom and the Heartbreakers, thanks for taking us along for the ride.” Ed previews “Army Reserve” with “It’s hard to read the paper and it’s hard to be an American without thinking about some of our fellow countrymen who are over dealing with an intense situation. As we’re here enjoy ourselves, this goes out to them. These are the army reservists and soldiers over there doing what they can do.” Ed later jokes “Just think if (Tom) was my dad, my name would be ‘Eddie Petty’ (crowd laughs). But I would have grown up in a really nice house, so I would have dealt with it I guess.” With the crowd an equal share of Pearl Jam and Tom Petty fans, Ed plays the chords to “Better Man” more quietly than usual, asks the crowd to singalong, and the crowd sings the first verse and chorus just fine. The “Daughter” tag includes the chorus of Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” repeated twice. Jeff starts to play the bass line to the “It’s OK” tag, but the song quiets down to its end shortly thereafter. After “Alive”, Ed wraps up the show prior to the final song, “You’ve been very kind. This is the first night of this experiment. So far we like the conclusion – the hypothesis was good, but…. thank you very much, each and every one of you. Thanks. And for us, we’re one song away from relaxing and getting to go to a rock show ourselves, we can’t wait. this is just a great great night, so thank you very much.” Before starting “Rockin’ in the Free World” though, Ed interjects and references the recent donation of $37 billion by Warren Buffett to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Energizing the crowd, he pleads with them to “say ‘thank you’ to that state of mind. How exciting to see rich guys being responsible and caring. It’s ‘sexy’ is what it is. It’s beautiful. Here’s to Warren Buffett. We hope it spreads. This song’s by a friend of Tom’s, and a friend of ours.” During the song, he changes the words “There’s a billion points of light for the homeless man / finally a rich man with a gentle hand.” Ed later joined Tom Petty during his set with vocals on “American Girl.”

06/27/06 – Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN, USA opening for: Tom Petty set: (Interstellar Overdrive)/Corduroy, Severed Hand, Hail Hail, Love Boat Captain, World Wide Suicide, Marker in the Sand, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Light Years, Not For You, Elderly Woman…, Come Back, State of Love and Trust, Glorified G, Black, Life Wasted, Alive Tom Petty set: The Waiting, American Girl TFT Notes: About one minute of Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive” starts the shows, leading directly into “Corduroy”. Jeff adds the bass lines from Queen/Bowie’s “Under Pressure” to the end of “Hail, Hail”. Ed introduces Boom as the “Love Boat Captain” and modifies the lyrics to the common “let the show begin.” Mike McCready’s guitar goes out half-way through “Marker in the Sand”. Following the song, Ed introduces “Mike McCready on guitar over there (pointing)” and finally Mike’s guitar pops on, continuing “Alright, the guitar wasn’t working but the guitar is now working. I was about to accuse the Heartbreakers of sabotage, but why am I so paranoid?” leading to “Given To Fly”. “Light Years” is dedicated to Baseball Sportswriter, ESPN Analyist and Pearl Jam fan Peter Gammons, who was stricken with a brain aneurysm earlier in the day, “I know all his friends are sending out their energies to him and if I could get you as a collective to just send a bit more energy his way, out in the northeast, Peter this is for you, it’s called ‘Light Years’.” “Not For You” includes the modified lines “Small my table, it now seats three / Oh, she’s my payback, oh lucky me”. The music for the “Modern Girl” tag is played for a few bars, but the lyrics are not sung. As it is Ed’s habit to dedicate “Elderly Woman…” to small towns in the vicinity of the concert, this dedication is a little different, saying “If this is indeed the ‘land of a thousand lakes’, this is for lake number nine-hundred and ninety three.” “Life Wasted” is tweaked a little with Ed imploring the crowd “don’t let the sad song play.” Ed thanks tonight’s split PJ/Petty crowd again before “Alive”, “Here’s a toast to all our friends out there, here’s a toast to all the friends of Tom Petty of which we include ourselves. Have a great rest of the evening, so glad we could be part of this.” Ed later joined Tom Petty during his set with vocals on “The Waiting” (though, apparently his microphone was not on) and “American Girl.”

06/29/06 – Marcus Amphitheatre, Milwaukee, WI, USA opening for: Tom Petty set: Wasted Reprise, Life Wasted, World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Corduroy, Animal, In Hiding, Even Flow, Gone, Better Man/(Save it for Later), Do The Evolution, Why Go, Jeremy, Inside Job, Comatose, Rearviewmirror encore: Crazy Mary, Leash, Porch Tom Petty set: The Waiting, American Girl TFT Notes: This show marks a return to Marcus Amphitheatre – and Summerfest – for the first time since 1995. During “Wasted Reprise”, Ed states “We’d like to dedicated this show to Kalehua”, in reference to Boom’s mother, who passed away the previous day. The mood onstage is emotional, with Ed consoling Boom often during the performance. A reference is made to the conditions that day at Summerfest where power issues caused delays in the schedule (Pearl Jam didn’t go on until 8:00 PM and Tom Petty didn’t finish until well after midnight) “Thank goodness for solar power, we’re up and running tonight. Thanks to the power company for doing their part for keeping the rock-n-roll alive this evening. Well, I got a nice bottle of red in my hand and I’m gonna toast Mr. Tom Petty and his band for being around for thirty years and letting us along for the celebration (crowd raises glasses, causing Ed to laugh). That is more glasses in the audience that I’ve seen at any show in the last two years.” In “Do The Evolution”, Ed repeats the “nightly feast / ignorant indians” lines before and after the “Hallelujah” and says after the second one “I got so ignorant I sang it twice”. “Comatose” is started wryly with “Ready … get set …”. After the St. Paul sets did not include encores, Ed remarks, “Tom is still working on his setlist, so he said go ahead and throw down a few more. Actually he didn’t, I just made that up. I should never do that.” Before “Crazy Mary”, Ed leads the crowd in a shout of “Hello Elvis” to Elvis Costello who is playing nearby. “Ya know Elvis Costello, he could be a (Travelling) Wilbury, you know? He’s that good. Tom Petty… I mean he’s gonna be up on this stage and he’s a fucking Wilbury, you see what I’m saying?” Lastly, Ed comments about Tom Petty’s 30th year as a touring artist, mentions that they are halfway there, and mentions Sleater-Kinney’s eleven year duration (on this day, it was announced they were breaking up). Prior to “Porch”, Ed talks about the war and the power of love “They’re fighting a war over a natural resource. It’s arguable that part of what this war is about is oil – a natural resource. There’s a natural resource that all of us have within us. It’s powerful… it’s love! We all have a powerful resource – a natural resource – in each one of us. It’s love. Life is really incredibly fragile, and this band has experienced it – we’ve expierienced it recently. The planet is fragile. Our lives are each fragile. The amount of people in this room is fragile. We just want to say: if you love somebody… tell them. Tell them today, tell them tomorrow. Tell them everyday in case it’s the last time you ever get to speak to ‘em, and it’s the last thing that you say is ‘I Love You’. Please do that.” leading to an 8-minute “Porch”. Ed later joined Tom Petty during his set with vocals on “The Waiting” and “American Girl.”

06/30/06 – Marcus Amphitheatre, Milwaukee, WI, USA opening for: Tom Petty set: Last Kiss, Save You, World Wide Suicide, Spin the Black Circle, Given To Fly, Jeremy, Even Flow, Sad, Daughter/(W.M.A.)/(Ruby Tuesday), I Got Id, Elderly Woman…, Around the Bend, Indifference, Life Wasted, Alive encore: Smile, Rockin’ in the Free World Tom Petty set: The Waiting, American Girl TFT Notes: This show occurs six years following the tragic death of nine fans at the Roskilde Festival in 2000. Ed greets the locals tonight with “Good evening, Milwaukee! Old Milwaukee, young Milwaukee” and dedicates “Last Kiss” to a local girl named Sara. Mike’s opening riffs to “Save You” now include some metal-style muted picking just before the band kicks in. “Spin the Black Circle” is dedicated “not to CDs, not to Cassettes, not to 8-Tracks, not to downloads. We’d like to dedicate this next song to beautiful perfect circles made out of vinyl that 30 years ago we got our Tom Petty records on.” Ed mentions that he never really thought about it before, but says the next song is about “bad parenting”, leading to “Jeremy”. “Daughter” includes a “W.M.A.” tag where the “big hand slapped the white male Milwaukee-an”, and later the chorus of “Ruby Tuesday” is thrown in. Ed forgets the lyrics in “Elderly Woman…” and causes the crowd singalong to go awry as well, prompting Ed to sing “Rockers brains they fade … fade away”. Ed allows the crowd to sing the “I will scream my lungs out…” line in “Indifference” and says afterwards “with this many people and this many people singing along, you’d have to imagine this kind of energy could obviously make a difference in the world.” Ed tells of the story of “Smile” and the local origins of its lyrics: “There’s a band that hails from Milwaukee – they’re an important band to myself other guys in this group, guys in Queens of the Stone Age, Kurt (Cobain), Nirvana – everybody was really touched and moved by this little band. They were called The Frogs. I’ve got all their records, all 692 I believe. And they opened for us years ago and one night, after we had finished our little tour, I opened my notebook and there was a little note from one of the Frogs and it was beautifully written and the band was playing a song in the room that day in practice and I just started singing the note. These words are written by Denis from the Frogs – he’s here tonight. Denis, this is for you, this song’s called ‘Smile’”. During the song, Ed sings “Denis, this is how I feel.” “Rockin in the Free World” includes a call/response with Ed and the crowd, “Hello Tom! / You’re next, Tom!” Ed later joined Tom Petty during his set with vocals on “The Waiting” and “American Girl.”

07/02/06 – Pepsi Center, Denver, CO, USA opening for: Tom Petty set: World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Hail Hail, Do The Evolution, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Present Tense, Jeremy, Army Reserve, Daughter, Bee Girl, Corduroy, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Black encore: Comatose, Bushleaguer, Alive, So You Want To Be A Rock and Roll Star Tom Petty set: The Waiting, American Girl TFT Notes: Boom Gasper is absent at this show, returning to Hawaii after the passing of his mother. Tom Petty’s keyboardist Benmont Tench sits in later in the show. Ed references being in Denver, the “Mile High City”, saying that “I can just about guarantee you, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers will take you even higher than that – we’re just getting you off the ground.” “Given To Fly” has the modified lyric “Made it to the mountains had a smoke in the tree.” Before “Even Flow”, Ed says that the song was written “by some friends of ours that were homeless up in Seattle when we were making our first record, and I read today that Denver has the fond privilege in being first in having the least homeless people in our country, and that’s a tremendous achievement and thank you to the people in charge that made that happen – good on ya!”. “Bee Girl” is played “for the little ones” and Ed explains that it was written with Jeff “with the assistance of a bottle of wine.” After “Bee Girl”, Ed introduces the Heartbreakers’ keyboardist Benmont Tench: “It’s with a heavy heart that I announce the absence of our B3 player and our partner … and over the weekend he lost his mom, so he went back to the islands to take care of her. There’s still a few songs we wanted to play and helping out we got a member of the other team – actually we’re all on the same team, ‘human beings’ – and here’s a great human being and as far as the keys go and the piano, probably one of the greatest players ever. Please welcome to play with us, Mr. Benmont Tench of the Heartbreakers.” Tench plays the B3 organ on “Corduroy” and “Better Man” and piano on “Black”. “Better Man” even includes a solo by Tench, followed by a lone “Don’t Let Me Down!!” by Ed. Pearl Jam breaks out “Bushleaguer” for the first time this tour, since the last time they were in Denver on April 1, 2003, there was a reported incident of fans leaving in protest to the song’s playing. The performance is straightforard, nearly flawless and without comment. Ed does not play “Bushleaguer” with the George Bush mask. Ed thanks the fans after “Alive”, “it’s not just any time and it’s not just anyone who can play for this many individuals, so from us as a group to you as invididuals, thanks so much to each and every one of you, it’s not lost on us.” The Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench join Pearl Jam for the finale “So You Want To Be A Rock and Roll Star”. Ed later joined Tom Petty during his set with vocals on “The Waiting” and “American Girl.”

07/03/06 – Pepsi Center, Denver, CO, USA opening for: Tom Petty set: Long Road, World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand->Not For You/(Modern Girl), Insignificance, Unemployable, Even Flow, Gone, State of Love and Trust, Down, Wasted Reprise, Better Man, Black, Corduroy encore: Come Back, Leash, Why Go, So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star Tom Petty set: The Waiting, American Girl, Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 (Everybody Must Get Stoned) TFT Notes: Boom Gasper is again absent at this show, returning to Hawaii after the passing of his mother. Tom Petty’s keyboardist Benmont Tench sits in later in the show. “Severed Hand” segues right into “Not For You”, with the drum beat intro starting as the guitars for “Severed Hand” fade out. With the rain and overcast weather outside the Pepsi Arena, Ed says “Here’s to a Seattle day in Denver. Yesterday it was Tom’s weather (he’s from Florida), today it was ours – it’s an equal opportunity tour, even as far as God’s concerned.” In a nice moment, Ed talks about touring with Petty and being in Pearl Jam for 15 years:

“This is the last night that we’re on the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers train. We barnstormed a few of your cities and we’ve had a great great time doing it, and it’s been great being around a band that’s been doin’ it for thirty years and sounding as good as ever, if not better. And a little bit of wisdom in the late night hours… I think that’s gonna keep us goin for the next 15 years. I was talking to a guy before the show tonight and he works with another group that’s been around almost that many years, I think. And he said something that I totally agree: you can’t be a band and do this and keep continuing this long unless you’re absolutely best mates. I just wanna toast my best mates up here. I don’t know how we’ve done it but we’ve done it so far. Some people are harder to put up with than others (Ed points to himself, crowd laughs) so I’m really proud to be part of this group and this crew and this family and everything and I just wanted to say it openly. There it is. And thanks to you (the fans) for sticking with us.”

Benmont Tench fills in again for Boom again on B3 and Piano for “Better Man”, “Black”, “Corduroy” and differing from the previous night’s set, “Wasted Reprise”. Ed introduces Tench and references their collaboration in 1994 at the Bridge School Benefit when “it provided us an opportunity back when we didn’t have anybody to play any keys on our stuff.” “Come Back” is dedicated to a fan in the front who was at both Denver shows. Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench join Pearl Jam for the finale “So You Want To Be A Rock and Roll Star”. Ed later joined Tom Petty during his set with vocals on “The Waiting” and “American Girl.” All members joined Tom for “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 (Everybody Must Get Stoned)” with Matt on acoustic guitar, Stone on tambourine, Jeff on acoustic guitar, Mike on electric guitar and Ed helping with vocals.

07/06/06 – MGM Grand, Las Vegas, NV, USA opening act: Sonic Youth Ed pre-set: Man of the Hour set: Inside Job, Corduroy, World Wide Suicide, Grievance, Given To Fly, Marker in the Sand, Faithfull, Even Flow, Gone, Daughter, Green Disease, Rats, Garden, Parachutes, State of Love and Trust, Life Wasted, Do The Evolution first encore: Little Sister, Elderly Woman…, Better Man, Black/(Come Back), Alive second encore: Go, Comatose, Fortunate Son, Porch/(Dirty Frank) TFT Notes: This show is the return of Pearl Jam as the headlining act, following six shows opening for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. After starting with songs like “Inside Job”, “Given to Fly” and “Marker in the Sand”, Ed mentions that “there’s been a few songs already about ‘faith’ and this is yet another one”, leading to “Faithfull”. As the opening chords start, Ed adds that his voice is “a little scratchy tonight if anyone wants to help – join in any time – it’s everybody’s songs, yeah?” Admiring the diverse crowd, Ed looks around and sees “a Brazilian flag over here, I saw a Texas shirt over here. If New York’s the melting pot, Vegas is the fucking boiling pot.” “Daughter” contains an unidentified tag “Like a whisper, I hear her name (3x) / Like a whisper…” In “Green Disease” the rich are asked to “act with your heart and not your wallet.” Still nursing a sore throat, Ed introduces “Parachutes” saying “this next song on the list, we’ve kinda been waiting ’til the singer gets his shit together before we tried it, or at least my throat wasn’t ravaged. Even though it’s a bit of a rough night for me, rather than take it off, what you’re gonna hear might not be the best throat but it’ll be all heart.” In “Do the Evolution”, Ed is the first man to wear a “worn Cubs hat.” During the first encore break, Ed comes out in a silver-sequined jacket, remarking “what’s a Las Vegas show without an Elvis song (cheers). I’m going to dedicate this to the Frogs who made me this jacket about 12 years ago and also to my little sister named Gina who’s here tonight from Texas.” With the spotlight on him and some cheers from the audience about his outfit, Ed puts on a macho voice and says “the clothes make the man.” During “Elderly Woman…”, Mike sees a “Jon Tester for Senate” poster and points it out to a smiling Jeff. “Better Man” includes an improvised “Save It For Later” tag, with the lines “T-R-U-S-T (3x) / I wanna trust you, I wanna love you / Forever (13x) / Don’t let me down!!”. At the end of “Black”, Ed tags “Come Back”, singing “Come back / I’ll be here” repeated. The crowd sings the last half of the first verse of “Porch” over just Ed’s guitar and Matt and the rest of the band come in right on time. A fan is holding up a “Dirty Frank” sign and Ed tags it during “Porch”, reverting back to the style of tag last seen in 1994 with the lines “Cook em! Just to see the look on their face, cook ‘em just to see the look on their face”. Ed thanks and names the various sections of the arena and then the “lucky motherfuckers down in front.” Before the second encore, Ed – almost apologetically – says that “as far as playing Las Vegas, we’ve had some good shows here. We’re up lifetime. Personally I lost a couple of rounds tonight, I’ve been having some health issues. The game ain’t over yet. We’re staying at the (gaming) table – let’s win this thing.” Pearl Jam thanks the crowd following “Porch”, with Ed adding “even the losers get lucky sometimes.”

07/07/06 – Cox Arena, San Diego, CA, USA opening act: Sonic Youth Ed pre-set: Soon Forget set: Oceans, Severed Hand, Corduroy, Brain of J, World Wide Suicide, Love Boat Captain, Gone, Even Flow, Unemployable, Wasted Reprise, Better Man/(Save it for Later), Satan’s Bed, Not For You/(Modern Girl), You Are, Inside Job, Life Wasted, Rearviewmirror first encore: Long Road, Come Back, Elderly Woman…, Crazy Mary, Crown of Thorns, Alive second encore: Last Kiss, Comatose, Leash, Big Wave, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: During “Better Man”, the crowd sings the first verse and chorus well enough to have Ed laud them with “That’s fuckin beautiful, thank you so much.” “Satan’s Bed” is introduced as “a surf song in a way”, continuing “Living in Seattle, all surf songs have to either have at least one thing: either waves, cars or the devil – or girls or the devil, or girls that are the devil – this one’s the devil.” The “Rearviewmirror” jam has Ed singing “Time heals the wounds that no one can see (3x) / I will forgive (2x) / we can all forgive.” Ed starts the first encore with a long dialogue prior to “Long Road”, detailing his relationship with Clayton E. Liggett (Ed’s high school drama teacher and the inspiration for “Long Road”) and explaining that this show’s proceeds are going to benefit that theater. Ed continues to say that when he received a call with the news of Liggett’s death, he escaped to a studio (during the Neil Young “Mirrorball” recording sessions) and just started hitting the opening D-chords of “Long Road” as if he was “trying to ring a bell to say that ‘We lost one of the good ones’”, and after “about eight minutes” the rest of the band just joined in without saying a word and the roots of the song were born. “Long Road” is dedicated to Liggett, and a powerful “Come Back” follows. “Elderly Woman…” is dedicated to “small towns” such as “Olivenhain, Chula Vista, Fallbrook” and “all you one-liquor-store kinda towns.” After “Crazy Mary”, Ed marvels at Mike’s guitar working saying that “it’s science … but believe it or not but I just lit my cigarette off Mike McCready’s amp.” Closing the first encore, Stone Gossard is toasted as the one who wrote “the last one” (“Crown of Thorns”) and “the next one” (“Alive”). Ed explains the risk he takes when mentioning past and future concerts, saying “the next gig’s in Los Angeles, they’ve got their work cut out for them. You see what I do? I bad-mouth the crowd the night before (Ed earlier dissed Las Vegas mentioning his own health problems) and I’m bad-mouthing even the crowd we’re gonna play for. But I promise to you – wine over my heart – I will never say nothing bad about you here tonight.” “Big Wave” is the last song off of Pearl Jam to premiere, and Ed explains that “we were waiting until we got to the coast.” Surfer Kelly Slater guests on “Rockin’ in the Free World”, and Ed mentions that Kelly took him out on waves “so big it put the future of our band in jeopardy.”

07/09/06 – The Forum, Inglewood, CA, USA opening act: Sonic Youth Ed pre-set: Porch set: Release, World Wide Suicide, Corduroy, Do The Evolution, Given To Fly, Severed Hand, Jeremy, Gone, Even Flow, Unemployable, Wasted Reprise, Better Man, Whipping, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Inside Job, Life Wasted, Rearviewmirror first encore: Elderly Woman…, Come Back, Here’s to The State of Mississippi, Black, Crown of Thorns, Alive second encore: Last Kiss, Comatose, Why Go, Big Wave, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Ed opens with a rare pre-set of “Porch”. The first of two nights begins with “Cheers, here we are in Los Angeles. It’s been a few years since we played this building – we have fond memories of it last time – it feels like yesterday. I know it’s Sunday but our approach is that it’s Saturday night.” After “Jeremy”, Ed thanks the crowd for the vocal assistance, and wants them to “feel free to do that any time.” Outside the Forum, there are protestors from a local union, and Ed makes note of this after “Unemployable”, saying “I shoulda maybe mentioned before, that song… I don’t know if you saw, I know there were a few… there were some protesters out in front – union people. As far as I know … when we reserved the building for this concert I don’t think there was a strike on at the time. And now that we’re here, I just want to say that we support the AFL-CIO. I mean, I would want to work here too. What’s beautiful about this room is that there’s no fucking advertising anywhere (cheers). Except for that one guy in the very back row with a “Nike” shirt on (laughing). And it doesn’t even say “Coors”, it just says “beer, wine, and snacks”, that’s so…. it’s probably the same way it looked when The Who played here and Zeppelin played here.” He then turns his attention to the unique design of the Forum’s ceiling, saying “now this thing though, when I first walked in here it looked beautiful; but as we’ve been playing the set I’ve been looking up and I keep thinking of Dick Cheney (boos). Something … I know what it is, that’s what I … it’s the world biggest asshole (cheers)!” Acknowledging the descension of the dialogue Ed jokes “Hey, some nights you come up here and you have an intelligent conversation about politics, other nights you just let it out.” Later, Ed is having problems with the earpiece monitor attached to his waist, explaining that he’s “having a little technical problem and I’m gonna have to see the proctologist real quick. Gonna sort me out (Matt throws in “ba-dum ching” drum hits). His name’s Ricky Ramone (Ed’s tech) – he worked for the Ramones for, I don’t know, a dozen years and now he’s my personal proctologist. (mic) Check.” Ricky bends down and literally kisses Ed’s ass and Ed thanks him “Hey, my ass feels great.” The “Modern Girl” tag of “Not For You” is rephrased “Our whole lives, like a picture on a sunny day.” The crowd does some interesting clapping during “Elderly Woman” and Ed acknowledges it (“that’s good!”). Ed then tells a story about “Here’s to the State of Mississippi”, a re-worded version by Tim Robbins of an old Phil Ochs song, which Ed performed most recently at VH1 Storytellers

I’ve gotten of number of kinda mindblowing letters in my lifetime and expecially since I’ve been a part of this group. And as a group we’ve gotten incredible letters. And recently we got one. It was a song that was played on a little TV thing that we did, it was a song by a guy called Phil Ochs. He was an incredible singer and songwriter and he had … he had guts. He had guts and talent and he used them as a powerful weeapon. And we did this little song and it was a Phil Ochs song that actually Tim Robbins had adjusted to reflect modern times. And he did a great job in doing so. And he played it on a Vote for change tour recentl – couple years back – and I kinda played Tim’s version of it. We got this beautiful letter from Phil’s daughter, saying how much it meant to her and her family. Phil’s daughter, who now works for the ACLU here in Los Angeles. It was an incredibely proud moment. And we’re gonna celebrate here tonight. Of course Phil passed long ago so we don’t have him, but we do have Tim Robbins here to sing it with me. My friend tim. (cheers)

After “Black”, Ed says “hey thank you kindly, we’ve been together as a group for quite a long time. And we’ve been putting together records and we really couldn’t have done it without you. This kinda support is really beautiful to have as a band. We don’t take it for granted for a second. Your support has not only allowed us to stay together as a band, but stay together as friends and give us a purpose.” He then goes on to thank former Sony executive Michelle Anthony (“known us since we were kids”) and Andy Wood (“who never got to play the Forum”). Before the second encore, Ed tells a funny story about Mike McCready’s early ventures in Los Angeles:

Ed: “Ya know Mike McCready, in the old days… before you get a record deal, you have to “pay to play” in this town (i.e. the band would pay the venue to play the venue, not the other way around). How many musicians remember that? Hopefully it’s a thing of the past. Mike, tell me, how much? Mike: Back in 1986, my band Shadow and I came down from Seattle and we paid $700 to play at the Roxy on a Sunday night and I think about four people were there. But actually (Seattle native) Duff McKagan game from Guns-N-Roses so that was cool. But, then we payed another $500 to play The Whisky about a month later and then we were all broke (crowd laughs). I hope they don’t do that shit anymore.” Ed: So basically he was destitute when we met him.”

One dollar from every ticket at this show is donated to saving a local surf break called “Trestles”, made in the name of “Dave Russell” (that’s dave on the back of my t-shirt). Prior to “Baba O’Riley”, Ed mentions that Tim Robbins recently interviewed musician Pete Seeger who said “In some ways, we’re all just chains passing this music along” and Ed closes saying “We’re gonna play our part in the chain.”

07/10/06 – The Forum, Inglewood, CA, USA opening act: Sonic Youth Ed pre-set: Walking The Cow set: World Wide Suicide, Brain of J, Animal, Marker in the Sand, Severed Hand, Even Flow, MFC, I Got Id, Corduroy, Daughter/(Androgynous Mind)/(I Believe In Miracles)/(Blitzkrieg Bop), Sad, Garden, Down, (Baby Please Don’t Go)/Go, Better Man/(Save it for Later), I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts, Porch first encore: Man of the Hour, Off He Goes, Footsteps, Once, Alive second encore: Big Wave, Comatose, State of Love And Trust, Leash, Rockin’ in the Free World TFT Notes: Ed starts the evening with a breakout of sorts: “Walking the Cow”, a Daniel Johnston song last played at the 1994 Bridge School Benefit (and then often on the ’95 Watt tour). Ed dedicates this show to local KROQ DJ Rodney “The Roq” Bingenheimer. Ed introduces “Sad” as a “lost dog” and later “here’s another lost one”, leading to “Down”. Ed sings a snippet of “Baby Please Don’t Go” prior to “Go”. Ed sings towards the end of “Better Man “Baby please don’t go (x2) / I can change, I can rearrange, but baby baby baby baby please don’t go / Baby please don’t leave (x2) / I can change …. / baby please don’t leave (high) / one more chance / One more try one more chance don’t say goodbye / Don’t runawawy … / Don’t let me down!” Ed takes a break and references the band’s approach towards their life on the road “All I’ll say is we don’t take it for granted for a second that we get to be up here on this stage playing these songs for ya. ’cause in the end, sometimes it’s just fucking fun, that’s all.” Debuting a new cover, Ed begins “alright, we are going to attempt something never ateemped before under this roof. The last time we played the Forum was a number of years ago- half a dozen or so. We played with a band called X. And one thing I remember: one of my favorite songs (that) they didn’t play in our two shows here. We’re gonna try the next song tonight with my friend Time Robbins on vocals, (cheers) yeah? It’s called ‘I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts.’” The performance of the song is rough at times and Ed thanks Tim and says “we’ll get it next time.” “Porch” is dedicated to Dennis Rodman, who the band “think(s) about … every day”. Ed talks about Johnny Ramone before “Man of the Hour” and talks about life on the road and his family prior to “Off He Goes”, saying “We’ve got a song here, it’s written a number of years back. I think it was written about Johnny, a great friend of mine. I think that it’s difficult – I think any of us in the band – I think it’s difficult for our friends and our families. We get moving pretty quick and our lives get moving pretty fast and I think we’re hard guys to have relationships with in some ways. It’s just a “fast lane” kinda thing. Anyways, I want to dedicated this song to my brothers – it’s their birthday – one of my brothers Mike it’s his birthday tonight, Happy Birthday Mike (cheers). My other brother Jason it’s his birthday tomorrow (cheers). And they’re both here tonight. We’re pretty tight. We’re almost as tight as we can be and I wish it could even be tighter. This song, like I said, this song it’s about being friends and maybe even being my brother, it’s not the easiset thing.” All the songs of the Mamasan Trilogy are played: “Footsteps”, “Once”, “Alive”. Ed talks again about the local surf break, Trestles, and how it once had support from President Reagan – “probably the best thing he ever did” – and how now “they want to put a tollway through the campgrounds.” Wrapping up the two-night stint at the Forum, Ed thanks KROQ for promoting Surfrider and the cause, for putting “Dave Russell” pictures on the back of the t-shirts and says that the band is going to “save this beach in your name.” “Yellow Ledbetter” is dedicated to “Chelsea” and includes the line “Come on soldiers, come home while you can.”

07/12/06 – Henry Fonda Theater, Hollywood, CA, USA set: (Interstellar Overdrive)/Corduroy, Corduroy, World Wide Suicide, Dissident, Severed Hand, Unemployable, Given To Fly, I Am Mine, Grievance, Even Flow, Gone, Lukin, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Inside Job, Do The Evolution, Rearviewmirror first encore: Parachutes, Masters of War, Crazy Mary, I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts, Wasted Reprise, Life Wasted second encore: Big Wave, Comatose, Why Go, I Believe In Miracles third encore: Alive, Indifference TFT Notes: coming soon

07/13/06 – Santa Barbara Bowl, Santa Barbara, CA, USA opening act: Sonic Youth Ed pre-set: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away acoustic set: Oceans, Elderly Woman…, Low Light, Waiting on a Friend, Hard To Imagine, Daughter, Last Kiss, Come Back, Black, Crazy Mary electric set: (Interstellar Overdrive)/Corduroy, Severed Hand, World Wide Suicide, Given To Fly, Marker in the Sand, Even Flow, Whipping, I Got Shit, U, Do The Evolution, Porch first encore: Big Wave, Better Man, Comatose, Wasted Reprise, Life Wasted, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: coming soon

07/15/06 – Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, CA, USA opening act: Sonic Youth Ed pre-set: Dead Man set: Of the Girl, Go, World Wide Suicide, Save You, Severed Hand, Corduroy, Given To Fly, Unemployable, Sad, Gone, Not For You/(Modern Girl), State of Love and Trust, Gods’ Dice, Present Tense, Comatose, Why Go, Do The Evolution first encore: Even Flow, Parachutes, Footsteps, Once, Alive second encore: Wasted Reprise, Life Wasted, Spin The Black Circle, Bu$hleaguer, Indifference, Rockin’ In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter/(Star-Spangled Banner) TFT Notes: Pearl Jam opens their three-night stint in San Francisco with “Of the Girl”, played for the first time since the 10/22/03 Benaroya Hall show. Ed greets the crowd before “Given To Fly”, “Hello, hello San Francisco! Cheers, cheers… I’m gonna drink to you. It’s been a number of years – I think the number is eight or something since we’ve played San Francisco proper – and you’ve sold out this venue three times which is more people than you could fit in the old Shoreline, so we’re greatly appreciative of that, for your support. And I just thought we’d land the plane quickly so we could say that and now it’s time to get it off the ground once again, this song’s called ‘Given To Fly.’” Song breakout time, and Ed introduces “Gods’ Dice” which is played for the first time since Boston 2003: “Here’s a number for whatever reason we haven’t done it in years, we’re gonna do it now.” The floor arrangement at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium is general admission (no seats), and Ed sees an “I’ve Got A Feeling” sign, saying “Alright, you’ve got a feeling tonight, you’ve given us a feeling. Kille, can we just take a look at who we got here tonight for a second? (house lights up, cheers) Ya know, it’s not every show that there’s an open floor like this. In fact, it rarely happens these days for us. The fact that there’s almost equal amounts of men and women on the front is testimony to the fact that you guys are taking good care of yourselves on the bottom. No one appreciates that more than we do. So thanks for taking care of one another.” Ed then points out a special guest in the house, “it’s my uncle, who’s names Fred. Freddy. Freddy Vedder. I’m gonna see him after, I didn’t see him before. (spotlight starts moving across the crowd) That him? Hey freddy. (light keeps moving, Ed giving instructions) Spotlight … over left … that way … more, more, more, more … down. (Big cheer and drum roll by Matt) We found him! (crowd then starts “Fred-dy” chant) No one deserves it more. I’m gonna dedicate this next song to him and his lovely woman”, leading to “Parachutes”. Before “Bu$hleaguer”, Ed sings “Hey there Georgie boy / why do all the girls just pass you by / all you do is spread your wings / and you could fly away / the world would see a new Georgie boy”. After “Indifference” Ed says that “it’s been a pleasure playing not only a metropolitan city, but in the arts … over the history of music and literature and education. To play here to this crowd, thank you so much.”

07/16/06 – Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco CA, USA opening act: Sonic Youth Ed pre-set: Driftin’ set: Sometimes, Severed Hand, Whipping, Corduroy, World Wide Suicide, Animal, Marker in the Sand, Dissident, Even Flow, Army Reserve, Insignificance, In My Tree, Lukin, Garden, I Got Id, Inside Job, Rearviewmirror first encore: Wasted Reprise, Come Back, Better Man, Life Wasted, The Amerikan in Me, Alive second encore: Last Kiss, Big Wave, Blood, Leash, Fuckin’ Up, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Penelope Houston and Greg Ingraham of the Avengers join Pearl Jam on stage for their cover “The Amerikan in Me”. More notes coming soon!

07/18/06 – Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco CA, USA opening act: Sonic Youth Ed pre-set: I Am Mine set: Release, Life Wasted, Severed Hand, Hail Hail, World Wide Suicide, Untitled, MFC, Red Mosquito, Unemployable, Sad, Light Years, Big Wave, Even Flow, Do The Evolution, In Hiding, Down, Present Tense, Why Go first encore: Wasted Reprise, Man of the Hour, Crazy Mary, Comatose, Alive second encore: Last Exit, State of Love and Trust, Leash, All Along the Watchtower, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: coming soon!

07/20/06 – Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland, OR, USA opening act: David Cross, Sleater-Kinney Ed pre-set: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away set: World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Corduroy, Brain Of J, Do The Evolution, Even Flow, Love Boat Captain, Low Light, Sad, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Wishlist, Parachutes, Satan’s Bed, Why Go, Blood/(Atomic Dog) first encore: Inside Job, Soon Forget, (Happy Birthday – Stone), Don’t Gimme No Lip, Harvest Moon, Wasted Reprise, Life Wasted second encore: All Along The Watchtower, Rockin’ In The Free World third encore: Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: This concert’s proceeds benefited the Northwest Chapter of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA). Comedian David Cross and Sleater-Kinney opened the show. Ed recognizes the purpose of this night early and to Mike who is “the young man we dedicate this night to.”. Having just played three straight nights in San Francisco, Ed jokes with the crowd saying “Wait, did I say Portland? This is San Francisco! (boos ensue) I was just seeing if you were paying attention. We know damn well that this is Portland. We have to thank the other people that are on the stage tonight. David Cross… Sleater-Kinney at this time in their lives.” Ed talks about the musical similarities of “Sad” to Sleater-Kinney’s music, saying “I just remembered that when I was working on (“Sad”), it sounded like a Sleater-Kinney part to me, and that’s why it sounded good (plays the riff) … that’s pure Sleater-Kinney”. “Wishlist” includes an appropos tag at the end, “I wish I was a scientist / One that had all the cures / I wish I was the President / Wouldn’t head into a war / Make it legal to experiment / Make it affordable for the drugs you get / So much you could wish for, yeah / I wish for the ones who get”. “Inside Job” is placed prominently at the start of the first encore, and Ed reinforces his and the band’s support for their bandmate: “I’d like to point out that that’s a song written by Mike McCready top to bottom. I know (Mike) thanks us for his support but he’s been incredibly courageous to be up front about what he’s been through to support the efforts of others that are going throurgh the same thing. I think it’s incredible. It takes fucking guts – and I know his guts were hurting.” He segues into playing the Ukelele and the guitar, “on a much smaller level, it takes guts to do this to – to play a tiny instrument. But Mike, ya know, he plays from pain – you can see it coming out of him. He plays guitar and he turns it into a beautiful thing. And I was reminded that maybe by some of the things David Cross was saying, that maybe some of my pain that I sing from goes back to when I was eight days old.” “Soon Forget” is then introduced as a song about the “pain of a rich person.” Ed leads the crowd in a version of “Happy Birthday” for Stone, after constant “Stone!” chants throughout (“I think that this is a song that most of you have been waiting to hear all night”) and lauds his very existence, “this is for someone on the stage tonight who not only am I thankful that he’s alive, but he’s got a lot of choices in his life and I’m glad that he chooses not only to be our friend, but to be an integral part of this band for fifteen years and counting.” As is customary, a birthday cake is brought out and most of it ends up on Stone’s face. Stone thanks his parents – who are in attendance – for “procreating”, and counts his blessings for the band’s longevity “as a 40-year old to be in a band”. Sleater-Kinney comes onstage to sing backup on “Harvest Moon”. Over the chords of “Wasted Reprise”, Ed says “We’re lucky to have birthdays, we’re lucky to have friends. When i read the newspaper, somethimes I think we can be luckier. We’d be luckier if we had a different President. We’d be luckier if people in countries and outside of our own knew how to get along. But sometimes you see all that and at least I get along with the people I know and the people I love. At least I got that. And if you don’t have that, then I guess that’s where you gotta start from.” The Smiths’ Johnny Marr joins Pearl Jam for “All Along the Watchtower”. The stage becomes more crowed for “Rockin in the Free World” as David Cross (he thanks “The Pearl Jams”) and Sleater-Kinney join, with Ed saying “this stage belongs to everyone, come stake your territory. Thanks to Mike and all his friends.”

07/22/06 – The Gorge Amphitheatre, George, WA, USA set: Wash, Corduroy, Hail Hail, World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Given To Fly, Elderly Woman…, Even Flow, Down, I Am Mine, Unemployable, Daughter/(It’s OK), Gone, Black, Insignificance, Life Wasted, Blood first encore: Footsteps, Once, Alive, State of Love and Trust, Crown of Thorns, Leash, Porch second encore: Last Kiss, Inside Job, Go, Baba O’Riley, Dirty Frank, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: coming soon!

07/23/06 – The Gorge Amphitheatre, George, WA, USA set: Severed Hand, Corduroy, World Wide Suicide, Gods’ Dice, Animal, Do The Evolution, In Hiding, Green Disease, Even Flow, Marker in the Sand, Wasted Reprise, Better Man/(Save it for Later), Army Reserve, Garden, Rats, Whipping, Jeremy, Why Go first encore: I Won’t Back Down, Life Wasted, Big Wave, Satan’s Bed, Spin the Black Circle, Alive second encore: Given to Fly, Little Wing, Crazy Mary, Comatose, Fuckin Up, Yellow Ledbetter/(Star-Spangled Banner) TFT Notes: coming soon!

08/23/06 – The Point, Dublin, IRL set: Inside Job, World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Animal, Do The Evolution, Given To Fly, Corduroy, Gone, Marker in the Sand, Daughter/(It’s Ok), Better Man, Why Go, Education, Even Flow, Life Wasted, Rearviewmirror first encore: Indifference, Black, Crazy Mary, Alive second encore: The Boys Are Back In Town, Leash, Fuckin’ Up TFT Notes: Pearl Jam begins the third of four legs of the world tour in support of Pearl Jam. There are two premieres at this show: “Education” (Binaural) and “The Boys are Back in Town”, a cover by Dublin’s Thin Lizzy. Ed greets the crowd and recognizes the time that has passed, “Hello, I think it’s been a long time. I know exactly how long it’s been, I think it’s been six years or so. And a lot can happen in six years. Thanks for giving us this welcome back into this part of the world. Everybody OK out there? A lot can happen in six years: some of you might have graduated, got jobs, gotten out of prison. A lot can happen in 6 years. Probably the most important thing you’d take pride in knowing is that I fell in love with a woman that has Irish blood in her (Cheers) – her last name is ‘McCormick’. And it happened to Mike McCready as well … fell in love with a girl named “O’connor”. And to top it off, now I have a little girl with Irish blood in her. So here’s to the fire and the blood of the Irish.” Later Ed mentions the typically enthusiastic European crowd “I don’t want to say anything bad about America, but I just couldn’t wait to get over here and hear people singing.” Ed prefaces the debut of “Education”, “So most of the songs we’ve ever written, we play most of them. So it’s actually kinda rare that we play something for the first time live because we usually play them, or they’be been played before. So this is kinda of a B-side type thing, but we’ve never played it and maybe we’ll find out why. This song is called ‘Education’.” “Education” contains the lyric change “See the President who can’t be pick out his own tie”. Ed wonders about “boos” and realizes it’s “Booooom”, as this is his “first time in Europe, his first time overseas.” Ed continues his trend of telling jokes about “The Point” in Dublin, “About 2 years ago in Seattle, I was talking to the singer of an Irish band, and he was saying things about how ‘when their bands make records it’s like a horse, like breeding a horse. when we breed the horse we don’t just want to breed the horse, we want to it to win. We don’t want rock-and-roll to become a niche.’ And I said ‘But what’s the point?’ and he said, (irish accent) ‘Oh Eddie, The Point’s a great fuckin place to play in Dublin.’”. Ed doesn’t preface “The Boys Are Back In Town” and the band just jumps right into it. The crowd erupts after the first big chord and the signature bass riff by Jeff. Almost more than any Pearl Jam song the entire night, most of the Dublin crowd comes right in on the first lyric and helps Eddie out. The modified lyric “But man, I think we’re fuckin crazy” (original: “But man, I still think them cats are crazy”) gets a huge response. “Fuckin’ Up” closes the show, with Ed saluting “we’d like to thank all our friends from Ireland that we see when they come on tour. We’d like to thank you for sticking by us and coming back to see us after all these years.”

08/25/06 – Leeds Festival, Leeds, UK set: Go, Animal, Corduroy, World Wide Suicide, Hail Hail, Severed Hand, Given to Fly, Green Disease, Even Flow, Elderly Woman…, Insignificance, Daughter/(It’s Ok), Lukin, Whipping, Not For You, State of Love and Trust, Black, Porch encore: Why Go, Do The Evolution, Life Wasted, Alive, Rockin’ in the Free World TFT Notes: Notes coming soon!

08/27/06 – Reading Festival, Reading, UK set: Interstellar Overdrive, Corduroy, Do The Evolution, Animal, World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Dissident, Even Flow, Sad, I Am Mine, Jeremy, Grievance, Wasted Reprise, Better Man, Save You, Blood, Rearviewmirror first encore: Soon Forget, Given to Fly, Once, Crown Of Thorns, Comatose, Alive second encore: Why Go, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Notes coming soon!

08/29/06 – Gelredome, Arnhem, NL capacity: 30,000 set: Release, Why Go, Save You, Corduroy, Severed Hand, Better Man/(No Woman, No Cry), World Wide Suicide, Insignificance, Jeremy, Do The Evolution, Given to Fly, Even Flow, I Got Id, Lukin, Spin the Black Circle, Rearviewmirror first encore: Man Of The Hour, Daughter/(Blitzkrieg Bop), State of Love and Trust, Comatose, Porch second encore: Bu$hleaguer, Leash, Alive, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: This show in Arhem marks the first show in the Netherlands in almost ten years, following the cancellation at the Sportpaleis Ahoy’ on July 3, 2000 following the Roskilde tragedy. This venue, the Gelredome, is considerably larger – about 30,000 capacity – than the Sportpaleis Ahoy’. Ed asks the crowd to be nice to each other and to watch out for their neighbors, “because the world outside is ugly as it is”. A lot of older songs were played, much to the enthusiasm of the crowd. The tag on “Better Man” was “No Woman, No Cry” which Eddie eventually turned into “when I have no woman, I cry”. Man of the hour was played as a special request for “our new friend Peter Hendriks”, according to Eddie. During the instrumental jam in “Porch”, Eddie took his guitar and reflected a spot light into the crowd moving across the entire stadium. At the start of the second encore everybody was on stage except for Eddie. Eventually, he strutted onto the stage with a wine bottle in hand, his silver jacket on and wearing a George W. Bush mask. The guys started playing “Bu$hleaguer” while Eddie/Bush was dancing. After he took the mask off, he spat on it, headbutted it and put it on his microphone stand. Somewhere during the song he even poured wine down the mouth of it. After the song ended he told the crowd “some of my actions may seem violent, but they’re nothing compared to the killing of thousands of innocent people in Iraq.” During “Rockin’ in the Free World”, Eddie jumped off the stage to give a tambourine to someone in the crowd. He proceeded up a narrow space in the mosh pit and sang a verse while he was being held by all the outstretched hands.

08/30/06 – Sportpaleis, Antwerp, BE capacity: 17,000 set: Interstellar Overdrive, Corduroy, Animal, Hail Hail, World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Not For You/(Modern Girl), In Hiding, Unemployable, Given to Fly, Even Flow, Present Tense, Do The Evolution, Big Wave, Elderly Woman…, Jeremy, Why Go first encore: Soon Forget, Black, Better Man, Crazy Mary, Comatose, Alive second encore: Indifference, Hunger Strike, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: This show marks the first show in Belgium since … ever! Pearl Jam previously had cancellations in 1992 (07/04/92 – Torhout Festival, 07/05/92 – Werchter Festival) and the 07/02/00 Werchter Festival following the Roskilde tragedy. The audience sang the “doo doo-doo”s at the end of “Black” and repeated it for minutes, with the band eventually stopping and Ed signaled to the crowd we gave him goose bumps. Wolfmother’s Andrew Stockdale joins the band for “Hunger Strike”. More notes coming soon!

09/01/06 – Pavello Olimpic de Badalona, Barcelona, ES set: Inside Job, Corduroy, World Wide Suicide, Animal, Dissident, Given to Fly, Breakerfall, In My Tree, Even Flow, You Are, State of Love and Trust, Whipping, Better Man, Do The Evolution, Life Wasted first encore: Black, improv, Elderly Woman…, Crazy Mary, Comatose, Alive second encore: Why Go, I Believe in Miracles, Hunger Strike, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes:Wolfmother’s Andrew Stockdale joins the band for “Hunger Strike”. More notes coming soon!

09/02/06 – Azkena Rock Festival, Vitoria, ES set: Go, Last Exit, Corduroy, World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Do The Evolution, Even Flow, Marker in the Sand, MFC, Daughter/(Blitzkrieg Bop), Green Disease, Grievance, Gone, Why Go, Down, Elderly Woman…, Spin the Black Circle first encore: I Believe in Miracles, Black, Given to Fly, Save You, Alive second encore: Better Man, Rearviewmirror, Blood, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Notes coming soon!

09/04/06 – Pavilhao Atlantico, Lisbon, PT set: Wasted Reprise, Life Wasted, Animal, Corduroy, Severed Hand, World Wide Suicide, Even Flow, I Am Mine, Gods’ Dice, Given to Fly, Do The Evolution, Wishlist, Lukin, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Comatose, Elderly Woman…, Jeremy, Why Go first encore: Last Kiss, Inside Job, Black, Crazy Mary, Alive second encore: Big Wave, Better Man, Leash, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Notes coming soon!

09/07/06 – Palacio de Deportes, Madrid, ES support act: My Morning Jacket set: Better Man, Corduroy, Animal, Big Wave, Rearviewmirror, In Hiding, Jeremy, Given To Fly, Once, Daughter/(Another Brick in the Wall, Part II), Not For You/(Modern Girl), Grievance, Why Go, Do The Evolution, Even Flow first encore: Severed Hand, Elderly Woman…, Romanza / Man of the Hour, Black second encore: World Wide Suicide, Go, Alive, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter, Little Wing TFT Notes: Notes coming soon!

09/09/06 – Le Dome de Marseille, Marseille, France support act: My Morning Jacket set: Long Road, Why Go, Do The Evolution, Severed Hand, Corduroy, Whipping, Red Mosquito, Elderly Woman…, Given to Fly, Down, Even Flow, Wishlist, World Wide Suicide, Glorified G, Satan’s Bed, Porch first encore: Fatal, Off He Goes, Black/(Good Woman)/(We Don’t Belong Together), I Believe in Miracles, Alive second encore: Last Exit, Leash, Better Man, Dirty Frank, Comatose, Fuckin’ Up TFT Notes:

09/11/06 – Bercy, Paris, France support act: My Morning Jacket soundcheck: Cropduster, Sad, Don’t Gimme No Lip (riffs), Rats, W.M.A. set: Interstellar Overdrive/Corduroy, Animal, Save You, World Wide Suicide, Dissident, Unemployable, Marker in the Sand, Daughter/(Another Brick in the Wall), 1/2 Full, Thumbing My Way, Even Flow, You Are, Love Boat Captain, Lukin, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Black/(We Don’t Belong Together), Life Wasted first encore: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Parachutes, Better Man, Rearviewmirror second encore: Go, Do The Evolution, Alive, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter/(Little Wing) TFT Notes: Notes coming soon!

09/13/06 – Bern Arena, Bern, Switzerland support act: My Morning Jacket soundcheck: Leaving Here set: Go, Animal, World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Hail Hail, Dissident, Breakerfall, Glorified G, Elderly Woman…, Sleight Of Hand, Jeremy, Marker in the Sand, Better Man, Army Reserve, Satan’s Bed, You Are first encore: Garden, Low Light, Do The Evolution, Alive second encore: Last Exit, Why Go, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter/(Little Wing) TFT Notes: Notes coming soon!

09/14/06 – PalaMalaguti, Bologna, Italy support act: My Morning Jacket set: Elderly Woman…, Do The Evolution, Animal, Severed Hand, Given To Fly, World Wide Suicide, Save You, Even Flow, I Am Mine, Marker in the Sand, Green Disease, Daughter/(It’s Ok), Alone, Whipping, Present Tense, Comatose, Porch first encore: Black, Better Man, Life Wasted, Alive second encore: Bu$hleaguer, Why Go, Baba O’Riley, Indifference TFT Notes: “It’s OK”, a song by Dead Moon, was added as a tag to “Daughter”, with a chorus translated to Italian (“tutto Ok”).

09/16/06 – Arena di Verona, Verona, Italy support act: My Morning Jacket soundcheck: Parting Ways, MFC, Immortality, Inside Job, Gone, U, Around The Bend, Insignificance, Can’t Keep, Parachutes set: Release, Given To Fly, Corduroy, World Wide Suicide, Do The Evolution, Severed Hand, Love Boat Captain, Even Flow, 1/2 full, Gone, Not For You, Grievance, Marker in the Sand, Jeremy, Wasted Reprise, Better Man, Blood first encore: Inside Job, Come Back, I Believe In Miracles, Porch, Life Wasted second encore: Elderly Woman…, My Verona (instead of My Sherona), Once, Alive, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: A few hours before the show, heavy rains fell on a beautiful Arena di Verona. It stopped raining for a while (just in time for My Morning Jacket set), but before Pearl Jam took the stage a downpour came back. Ed welcomed the crowd saying “buona sera” (“good evening”) and the band started playing “Release”. Well-matched “Given To Fly” followed. Before the next song Ed spoke a few words in Italian. “You are truly beautiful when you are wet”, he says referring to the colorful raincoats worn by most of the audience. After “Love Boat Captain” Ed made another speech in Italian. He says that a local newspaper wrote that Italy is “a second home for Pearl Jam, and “usually newspapers lie, but this time they told the truth”, and the crowd gives him a big round of applause. “Even Flow” includes solos by Mike and Matt – after the song Ed “introduced” both of them to the audience. During “Not For You” the rain finally ceased. The crowd sang the first verse of “Better Man”. The band closed the main set with a powerful version “Blood”. Ed was about to sing “Paint Ed big…” part, but loud “hey, hey” chant caused him to stop. He looked at the roaring crowd with a stunned look on a face and then continued the song. The whole band except Ed returned to the stage to play “Inside Job” – the frontman appearead after a few first notes of the song to an obvious, additonal applause. “Come Back” was dedicated (in Italian) to Johnny Ramone. “Two years ago on the September 15th, a man died. He was a friend of mine and a legend. His name was Johnny Ramone.”, says Vedder, “I spoke with his wife last night. She asked me to thank the Italian Ramones fans.” During a long “Porch” jam, Ed used his guitar to reflect the light onto the audience. Before the second encore Ed thanked the crowd (this time in English), and promised the band will return sooner than another six years (previous tour in Europe was in year 2000). Then he tried to count in Italian: “Uno, duo, tre” but that only made Stone laugh, so Ed went back to the usual “One, two, three, four, two three” of “Elderly Woman…” After that song a short version of “My Sharona” by The Knack was played, with Ed changing lyrics to “My Verona”. During “Alive” solo Ed went up to side sectors of the amphitheater, did a nice slide trough a puddle while runnin across the stage. Mike played the begining and the end of “Yellow Ledbetter” sitting on the edge of the stage. (note: this entire show was filmed by a professional crew.)

09/17/06 – Forum, Milan, Italy support act: My Morning Jacket set: Go, Last Exit, Save You, World Wide Suicide, Corduroy, Severed Hand, Unemployable, Even Flow, I Am Mine, Man Of The Hour, MFC, Daughter(ABitWpII), Faithfull, Comatose, State of Love and Trust, Why Go first encore: Picture In A Frame, Parachutes, Black, Crazy Mary, Given To Fly, Alive second encore: Do The Evolution, Big Wave, Leash, Rockin’ In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Notes coming soon!

09/19/06 – Palaisozaki, Torino, Italy support act: My Morning Jacket soundcheck: Tremor Christ, Breath, Nothingman, Leatherman set: Go, Corduroy, Animal, Elderly Woman…, Life Wasted, World Wide Suicide, Comatose, Severed Hand, Marker in the Sand, Parachutes, Unemployable, Big Wave, Gone, Wasted Reprise, Army Reserve, Come Back, Inside Job, Do The Evolution, Rearviewmirror first encore: Jeremy, Lukin, Better Man, Black, Tremor Christ, Alive second encore: Blood, Even Flow, Baba O’ Riley, Indifference TFT Notes: Notes coming soon!

09/20/06 – Duomo Square, Pistoia, Italy pre-set: Throw Your Arms Around Me (Ed solo), It Makes No Difference (Ed with MMJ) support act: My Morning Jacket set: Interstellar Overdrive/Corduroy, Rearviewmirror, Life Wasted, World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Unemployable, Elderly Woman…, Dissident, 1/2 Full, I Got Shit, Even Flow, Come Back, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Breath, Given To Fly, Why Go, Comatose, Porch first encore: Last Kiss, Hail Hail, State of Love and Trust, Black/(Good Woman), Crazy Mary, Alive second encore: Last Exit, Do The Evolution, Wasted Reprise, Better Man, Spin the Black Circle, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Notes coming soon!

09/22/06 – Sazka Arena, Prague, Czech Republic support act: Tarantula A.D. set: MFC, Last Exit, Animal, Life Wasted, Elderly Woman…, World Wide Suicide, Insignificance, Marker in the Sand, Unemployable, You Are, Sad, Whipping, Even Flow, Daughter/(Mother), Alone, Jeremy, Do The Evolution first encore: Dead Man Walking, Man Of The Hour, Nothingman, Leatherman, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Alive second encore: Bu$hleager, Comatose, Given To Fly, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Notes coming soon!

09/23/06 – Wuhlheide, Berlin, Germany support act: Black Keys soundcheck: Parting Ways, Gods’ Dice set: Go, Save You, Animal, Do The Evolution, Rearviewmirror, Elderly Woman…, Severed Hand, World Wide Suicide, Marker in the Sand, Even Flow, Present Tense, Big Wave, Grievance, Daughter/(W.M.A.), Green Disease, Black, Porch first encore: Given To Fly, Come Back/(Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World), I Believe In Miracles, Crazy Mary, Alive second encore: Last Kiss, Footsteps, Lukin, Comatose, Why Go, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Notes coming soon!

09/25/06 – Stadthalle, Vienna, Austria support act: Tarantula A.D. set: Life Wasted, Corduroy, Rearviewmirror, World Wide Suicide, Comatose, Elderly Woman…., Severed Hand, Sad, Gods’ Dice, Daughter, Jeremy, I Got Shit, Parachutes, Wishlist, State Of Love And Trust, Why Go, Go first encore: Last Kiss, Inside Job, Off He Goes, Black, Do The Evolution second encore: Even Flow, Spin the Black Circle, Once, Alive, Fuckin’ Up, Yellow Ledbetter, Little Wing TFT Notes: Notes coming soon!

ADDED February 9, 2007 09/26/06 – Dom Sportova, Zagreb, Croatia set: Severed Hand, Corduroy, Hail Hail, Last Exit, World Wide Suicide, Elderly Woman…, Given To Fly, Unemployable, In Hiding, Even Flow, Education, Do The Evolution, Jeremy, Army Reserve, Gimme Some Truth, Whipping, Life Wasted first encore: Thin Air, Thumbing My Way, All Or None, Black, Wasted Reprise, Better Man, Porch second encore: Blood/(Atomic Dog), Alive, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Notes coming soon!

09/30/06 – OAKA Sports Hall, Athens, Greece set: Go, Animal, Life Wasted, Hail Hail, Corduroy, Severed Hand, World Wide Suicide, Elderly Woman…, Given To Fly, Marker in the Sand, Sad, Even Flow, Daughter/(Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2), You Are, Wishlist, Insignificance, Jeremy, Better Man first encore: Footsteps, I Am Mine, Inside Job, Black, Rearviewmirror, Porch second encore: Smile, I Believe In Miracles, Alive, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter/(Little Wing) TFT Notes: Notes coming soon!

10/21/06 – Bridge School Benefit, Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, CA set: Elderly Woman, Parachutes, Throw Your Hatred Down, I Used To Work In Chicago, Daughter, Picture In A Frame, Man Of The Hour, Better Man, Crazy Mary TFT Notes: This is Pearl Jam’s Eighth Bridge School Benefit appearance, and fourteenth performance. Ed greets everyone “After fourteen years, we’re truly grateful each and every time we’ve been here, our lives … it’s hard to assess how deeply our lives have been enriched being around these parents and musicians and seeing these kids grow up over the years.”. Neil Young joins Pearl Jam for the Mirrorball track “Throw Your Hatred Down” and Ed is speechless, “to have the author play it with you… here he is!”. Introduced as “this is one we’ve never tried before”, Ed plays the Rated-R “I Used To Work In Chicago”, and explains to the laughing crowd, “I tried to slip one by the kids there, to see if they were payin’ attention”. Ed asks how many in the crowd are parents and mentions “I’ve joined the club” and that like many of them, he had his child’s “picture in a frame” as early as the ultrasound. Thus, “Picture in a Frame” is “kinda about that, and also a song by Tom Waits.” “Crazy Mary” finishes the set, which is a change from past years, where “usually we play ‘Last Kiss’ for Maricor, but we’re gonna play something a little different”. Boom adds nice organ to “Better Man”, and solos on piano for “Crazy Mary”, instead of the Hammond organ.

10/22/06 – Bridge School Benefit, Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, CA set: Masters Of War, Gone, Around The Bend, Thin Air, Lukin, Better Man, Black, Throw Your Hatred Down TFT Notes: This is Pearl Jam’s Eighth Bridge School Benefit appearance, and fourteenth performance. Pearl Jam starts in a somber mood, with the ripping “Masters of War” and Ed mentions they had to “get that out of the way”. S/T’s “Gone” is next, followed by No Code’s lullaby “Around The Bend”. Frequently mentioned by Ed at past appearances, Maricor gets a “Thin Air” dedication and notes that she is on her way to the University of California at Berkeley. Like many performances of “Black” in 2006, this performance ends delicately, with the “do-do-do”s accompanied by clapping. Neil Young joins the band again for “Throw Your Hatred Down” to end the set.

11/07/06 – Acer Arena, Sydney, Australia capacity: 18,000 opening act: Kings of Leon set: Release, Rearviewmirror, Severed Hand, Corduroy, World Wide Suicide, Animal, Marker in the Sand, Elderly Woman…, Given To Fly, I Got Shit, Daughter/(W.M.A.), Even Flow, Big Wave, Grievance, Wasted Reprise, Better Man, Do The Evolution first encore: Man of the Hour, Nothingman, Gone, Black, Alive second encore: Go, Why Go, Throw Your Hatred Down, Rockin’ in the Free World TFT Notes: Pearl Jam kick off the fourth leg of their tour supporting 2006′s Pearl Jam. This is the band’s first show in Sydney since February 2003. The “W.M.A.” “Daughter” tag is followed by Ed doing the call and response with the crowd. “Even Flow” featured an extended Mike McCready solo, followed by a Matt Cameron drum solo, with everyone else moving to the side of stage. “Big Wave” is dedicated to the famous surfer and Ed’s friend from Australia, Mark Richards. During “Grievance”, Ed flubs “break the innocent when they’re proud” line, and seamlessly changes the next line to “I’m not perfect I let you down”. Before “Man of The Hour”, Ed references that November 7 is election day (State/Local elections, not Presidential) in the United States, and jokes that he’ll be looking for a beach-side shack in Australia if the elections go poorly. Jeff and Matt take their turns gesturing to Ed that they want one for them too, and Ed jokes “we could get one for Jeff and Matt and then we’ll play for free every month”. At one point in the show, Ed references the Melbourne Cup horse race which was held earlier in the day, and says Matt “could beat them all – he’s one fine thoroughbred.”

11/08/06 – Acer Arena, Sydney, Australia capacity: 18,000 opening act: Kings of Leon Ed pre-set: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away set: Do The Evolution, Hail, Hail, Life Wasted, World Wide Suicide, Corduroy, Unemployable, Dissident, (A Sort of Homecoming)/Elderly Woman…, Even Flow, Army Reserve, Sad, Whipping, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Present Tense, Down, Comatose, Porch first encore: Low Light, Come Back, Daughter/(With My Own Two Hands), Alive second encore: Blood, Baba O’Riley, Indifference TFT Notes: For the second show in a row at the Acer Arena, the crowd is relatively sedate compared to the previous night. At times, Eddie is frustrated at the lack of response, commenting that they expected tonight’s crowd to be better, but it sounded like they were in church. The crowd didn’t seem to recognise the “Modern Girl” tag in “Not For You” and responded moderately to “Baba O’Riley” or “Indifference”, even after the lights had come up. Again, Ed became frustrated, yelling “come on”, maybe surprised at people not knowing the song. U2′s “A Sort of Homecoming” was used as a lead in to “Elderly Woman…”. References to the U.S. elections were made again, saying it seems like the better side has won the day (including in Montana, where Democrat Jon Tester – who Pearl Jam played a political fundraiser for – won a Senate seat over an incumbent Republican).

11/10/06 – Entertainment Center, Brisbane, Australia opening act: Kings of Leon set: (Interstellar Overdrive)/Corduroy, Last Exit, Animal, Life Wasted, Severed Hand, Elderly Woman…, Faithfull, Marker in the Sand, Even Flow, Insignificance, I Am Mine, Wasted Reprise, Better Man, Lukin, Jeremy, Rearviewmirror first encore: Off He Goes, Parachutes, Given To Fly, Do The Evolution, Go second encore: World Wide Suicide, State of Love and Trust, Black, Alive, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: The crowd is very energetic and participates throughout the show. During “Black”, the front row swayed with their arms around each other, and Ed made a comment that he’d never seen anything like it. “Black” ends with a modification of the delicate standard improv “we didn’t belong together”. There was a young boy in the front row during the second encore, and so Ed sang the “while you were sitting home alone at age 13″ line in “Alive” to him. Ed also threw him his towel and a tambourine, and Mike threw him a pick. During “Alive” Ed went into the audience up on the side of the stage, then ran down the pit slapping hands to the fans on the other side. Referring to a past show, Ed said “You know the good thing about having a shit crowd? … Which we might have had recently – is that it really makes you appreciate a great crowd. And you guys are great.” Ed also said he hoped that the exact same people show up tomorrow night. We’ll see… I can’t imagine a non-fan club show will be as good as this one.”

11/11/06 – Entertainment Center, Brisbane, Australia opening act: Kings of Leon set: Severed Hand, Corduroy, Given To Fly, Save You, World Wide Suicide, Dissident, Elderly Woman…, Gone, Wishlist, Even Flow, MFC, You Are, Not For You, Better Man, Wasted Reprise, Life Wasted, Do The Evolution first encore: Picture in a Frame, Daughter/W.M.A., Crazy Mary, Alive second encore: Why Go, Blood, Comatose, Porch, Kick Out the Jams, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Another loud, sold-out Brisbane crowd experiences a powerful and energetic show. “Save You” sees the front rows clapping with Ed during the middle. Following “Dissident” Ed comments that “… it didn’t feel like we’d even made it to Australia until the show here last night” (one of many references made during the Australian tour regarding the subdued Sydney crowd on Nov. 11). A beautiful “Wishlist” is tagged with “I wish I was Prime Minister / Give George Bush the middle finger / Get my soldiers back at home / To the land where they belong.” “MFC” delights those who were able to hear it faintly at the soundcheck. “You Are” is dedicated to a 10-month old girl named Charlotte: “This one’s for you sweetie”. A crunching “Not For You” has the ‘oh oh uh ohhh’ chant in the bridge. Ed returns after encore to play Tom Waits’ “Picture In A Frame” and dedicates it to his “best girl” Jill whose birthday he is missing for the first time. “Crazy Mary” and “Alive” end the first encore to rapturous applause from the crowd. The second encore starts and stays heavy with “Why Go”, “Blood”, “Comatose”, “Porch” and “Kick Out The Jams”, followed by a sweet “Yellow Ledbetter”, bringing yet another two-night party in Brisbane to a close.

11/13/06 – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, Australia opening act: Kings of Leon set: Wasted Reprise, Life Wasted, Animal, Spin the Black Circle, Corduroy, Severed Hand, Jeremy, Given To Fly, Marker in the Sand, Even Flow, Insignificance, Army Reserve, Daughter/(ABitWptII), Leatherman, Do The Evolution, Better Man /(Save It For Later), Rearviewmirror first encore: Inside Job, Once, Come Back, Black, Alive second encore: Dead Man, State of Love and Trust, Comatose, Why Go, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter/(Little Wing) TFT Notes: During the “Daughter” tag, Ed changes one of the lines in “Another Brick in the Wall, part II” to “President Bush, leave those kids alone”. Ed makes fun of the Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s close relationship with Bush, references Howard blaming the economic downturn on shortage of bananas, and referred to Howard as “Bush’s banana” to laughs and cheers from the crowd. Eddie comes on after the 2nd encore break alone on stage for “Dead Man”. During “Rockin’ in the Free World”, the crew tried to throw a tambourine for Eddie, but hit Stone in the head instead. During “Yellow Ledbetter”, Ed spots a security guard trying to remove an audience member for smoking, and cuts off from the song to let the guy stay since it’s the last song, and asks the guy to give him a cigarette. When the security guard pulled away, Ed went back into the second verse of YL and improv-ed this little episode into the lyrics, followed by a “Little Wing” tag, complete with full vocals. On the setlist but not played: “Parachutes” and “Know Your Rights”.

11/14/06 – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, Australia opening act: Kings of Leon set: Go, Last Exit, Brain of J, World Wide Suicide, Given To Fly, Severed Hand, Low Light, Elderly Woman…, Gone, Do The Evolution, Even Flow, Lukin, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Life Wasted, Better Man, Glorified G, Porch first encore: Thumbing My Way, Last Kiss, Crazy Mary, Alive second encore: Big Wave, Blood, Leash, Baba O’Riley, Indifference TFT Notes: Two High-Definition video screens are in place above the sides of the stage near the speaker stacks throughout the Australian tour. During the breakdown of “Go”, Ed pulls off his jacket and tosses it vigorously behind him, sailing it over and behind Matt’s drum kit. Regarding this second night in Melbourne, Ed says “For those of us who didn’t sleep last night, it’s just a continuation” and that the evening is “just encore number three”. The loud and unified crowd singing during “Elderly Woman…”, particularly a thundering “Hello!”, Mike turns and mouths “Wow” to his tech Donnie sidestage. After “Even Flow”, Ed gave props to Matt’s solo, saying “He’s never played the same thing once” further mentioning that Soundgarden were one of the world’s greatest bands, and “Matt’s helped us be so much better, thank you.” “Not For You” features a slightly extended section before “all that’s sacred…” During “Better Man”, solid white circles and triangles of light search the crowd. After introducing “Glorified G” as a “very American” song, Ed fashions his index finger, middle finger and thumb into a gun, pointing it at different sections of the crowd with each “Always keep it loaded”. For the final line, he rested the “hand” gun at his temple. During “Porch”, Ed uses his guitar’s scratchplate reflected from an overhead light beam to act as a mirror, shining it on members of the audience. Prior to the “hey…hey…hey” at the end, Ed leads the crowd in a call and response of “ohs”. “On behalf of us and the Kings of Leon” Ed dubs Melbourne Night 2 the “best crowd in Australia”. Ed introduces “Thumbing My Way” as a song about “what’s around the corner, you just don’t know it.” The crowd sings “Last Kiss” heartily, starting the “oh oh ooooohhhhh” at the end without prompting, leading him to say “Big finish, you got it!” “Wash” and “Come Back” are on the setlist but not played.

11/16/06 – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, Australia opening act: Kings of Leon set: Long Road, Corduroy, Hail, Hail, Do The Evolution, World Wide Suicide, Dissident, Given To Fly, Love Boat Captain, Unemployable, Even Flow, Sad, Present Tense, Save You, Jeremy, Why Go, Comatose, Rearviewmirror first encore: Man of the Hour, Off He Goes, Elderly Woman…, Black, State of Love and Trust, Kick Out the Jams second encore: Wasted Reprise, Life Wasted, Whipping, Alive, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: A slightly quicker tempo “Long Road” opened the show that began at 8:47 PM local time. Ed pushed his microphone and stand to his monitors with a thrust after the first verse of “Do The Evolution”, then grabbed the mic cord and pulled on it hand over hand to get the mic back in time to sing verse two. Lyrical addition at end of “Dissident” is “Escape is never the safest path, but you gotta do it anyway!” During “Given To Fly”, a cloud effect is created by the lights shining on the white screen that surrounds the stage behind Matt. GTF includes lyrical change: “Made it the ocean smoked a joint in a tree.” Ed comments about the unseasonably cold weather in Melbourne by mentioning that although the band weren’t allowed liquids on the plane, they did bring the Seattle weather with them. He thanked the crowd for filling the 15,000 seat arena for three nights, and that he hoped to play it with the roof open (the arena has a retractable roof as the venue is used for the Australian Open Tennis Championship), that they’d have to try it next time. He asked for help from the crowd for “Love Boat Captain” to aid his weary voice, telling them when he says “love” they should say “love”. The crowd claps along with Ed and Boom in the beginning. For Matt’s drum solo in “Even Flow”, solid royal blue light fills the screen behind him. Ed tells each of the band members of a setlist change, and introduces “Sad” as a request from row … correcting it to row 10 as he spotted the people with the sign. During the first verse of “Present Tense”, the video screen shows a close up of Ed’s hand, which he has positioned into the shape of a tree. When he says “tree bends”, he slowly bends one of his finger “branches”. The crowd strongly sings the end of the first chorus “makes much more sense to live in the present tense.” Matt joins in on verse two with some tribal drumming using timpani mallets. On the quiet “cuz there is just you” verse of “Save You”, the crowd claps a 1-2-1-2-3 beat the entire time. Ed hammers out 11 windmills to finish off “Rearviewmirror” and the main set at 10:05 p.m. Ed starts the first encore at 10:07 p.m. by telling the crowd “I reckon we ain’t gonna be here for yonks” so the band would play a bunch more songs. The crowd were booing, and Ed wondered if it was because they wouldn’t be back for a while or for his attempt to say it in “Australian”. During “Black”, Ed turned the mic around and let the crowd sing “I’m spinnin’, Oh I’m spinnin”. At songs end, Ed sings “Pull me up… pull me out … We didn’t belong together.” Stone strums along, and for the entire end of the song repeatedly puts his leg in front of him and then pulls it back, then bending at the waist and pointing to the floor in time with the music. Lyrical change on “State of Love and Trust”: “I don’t trust myself … myyyyyself.” During “Alive” a mirror ball bathes the crowd as everyone sings “Oh I, Oh I’m still alive”, and after the “yeah yeah yeah yeah” at songs end, Ed climbs up behind Boom and stands behind him with his hands on Boom’s shoulders while he plays the song out, hugging him from behind. Ed jumps off, landing pretty hard on his back, rolling over and lays there for a minute to recover before “Rockin’ in the Free World”. Ed seemed a little unsteady, and got two tambourines just toward the very end of the song to give out.

“The 50-cent Story”:

After “RitFW”, Ed said that he was going to do something that not only had never been done at a Pearl Jam show, but perhaps never at any concert ever. It was something he learned to do the night before in Melbourne with an Australian 50-cent piece… so he places a wide-mouthed yellow glass center stage, walks over to the mixing table, sticks the 50-cent piece between his butt cheeks and walks gingerly over to the cup, positioning himself over it, and releases to try to drop the coin in the glass. He misses! It hits the rim of the glass and falls away. He said he couldn’t take the pressure. As a consolation to the crowd, Jeff gave Ed his slightly over half-full wine bottle (filled with water) and Ed guzzled it all down in a long swig. After “Ledbetter”, the group took a bow center stage; Ed took the 50-cent coin out of his pocket, and Stone asked Ed for it. Stone walked over to the side of the stage, Ed grabs the cup and puts it in place, and Stone holds up the coin, sticking it firmly where the sun don’t shine. He does HIS version of the walk, releases, it drops right in the center of the glass but then bounces out! Stone throws his hands out in dispair as the rest of the band almost falls over laughing.

11/17/06 – “Make Poverty History Concert”, Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne, Australia set: Rockin’ in the Free World TFT Notes: Although a “surprise”, Pearl Jam confirm rumors and play at this benefit, the “Make Poverty History Concert”. The band performs “Rockin’ in the Free World” along with Bono and the Edge from U2. The band performs first on the bill ahead of many other bands, including headliner Jet. Edge starts out the song with the band, but Bono joins after the first chorus. Ed sings the standard first verse, and Bono modifies the second to “There’s colors on the street / green, white, and gold / I thought you can defeat / I thought that’s never growin’ old / You can write it on your t-shirt or write it on your heart / (unintelligible) baby let’s start / you used your vision or your visibility / we want to make poverty history!”. Edge and Mike trade solos and then Ed and Bono sing the last verse together.

Bono:	I’m over on the left Ed:	I’m over on the right Together:	But we both stand together, stand together tonight. Bono:	You can write it on your t-shirt or write it on your heart It’s a long, long way, but tonight we’re gonna start you gotta adjust vision or your visibility if you want to make poverty history! Ed:	I’m a singer in a band Bono:	I’m a father of 4 Ed:	I do what I can. Bono:	I want to do more Ed:	And when she wakes up in the night, I hold my little girl I want the same for her as I want for the world Bono:	you got to change your vision or your visibility Together:	If you want to make poverty history Video of the performance is currently available on the “Make Poverty History Concert” page at the Herald Sun. Under “Concert”, click “Part one: Bono fronts Pearl Jam” and it starts at approximately the seven-minute mark.

11/18/06 – Acer Arena, Sydney, Australia capacity: 18,000 opening act: Kings of Leon set: Better Man(Save it for Later), Last Exit, Animal, World Wide Suicide, Corduroy, Severed Hand, Given To Fly, I Am Mine, Green Disease, Even Flow, Marker in the Sand, Gone, Daughter/(Beds Are Burning), Grievance, Comatose, Rearviewmirror first encore: Soon Forget, Inside Job, Elderly Woman…, Last Kiss, Alive second encore: Jeremy, Lukin, Do The Evolution, I Got You, Smile, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Pearl Jam returns to Sydney for their third show on this leg of the tour. The other shows were earlier in the month, November 7 and November 8. Ed had hinted shows after the Nov. 8th one that the Sydney crowd was somewhat subdued, and started this show off with a big singalong “Better Man”. Following the song’s last chorus and over the “Save It For Later” chords, Ed addresses the crowd right away “Hello Sydney. I don’t know about you, but I got a feeling. We got a feeling tonight. It’s a Saturday night! (cheers) It’s our last show in Sydney, so let the singing begin.” The end of “Better Man” has the crowd singing along loudly. The beginning of “Given to Fly” includes the changes “A bad time, nothing could save me … uh, him” and “Made it all the way to Sydney, smoked a joint in a tree”. Ed addresses the crowd “Don’t get cocky now, but this is without a doubt the best Syndey crowd we’ve played for in quite some time(cheers) … this is the Sydney we remember!” He instroduces “I Am Mine”, saying that “in America, we know a lot about selfish people. The big difference between being selfish and knowing your rights and knowing what belongs to you by the laws of nature. (“I Am Mine”) is kinda about that.” “Daughter” includes a tag (with call and response) of “Beds Are Burning” by Australia’s Midnight Oil. Ed tells Sydney that “Peter Garrett ” (Midnight Oil’s singer) would be proud.” During the encore break, Ed jokes about his selection of wine, “I’m going to thank a nice young woman for making this bottle of wine for us. Young woman called “Margaret” … “Margaret River” (crowd cheers). Margaret River is a wine region in Western Australia a few hours south of Perth. He continues “And I’d like to a friend of mine, this is Luke the Uke. This is a tribute to feeling like it’s a campfire we got going here, and because of friends like Margaret, I’m kinda known for fucking this one up.” leading to a flawless “Soon Forget”. After “Inside Job”, Ed talks about his past collaboratios with Mike, saying “(Mike and I) have written a couple songs – some words together, I help him a bit – but he’s never ever offered me a guitar lesson, not once! (crowd laughs) He says ‘No I’m keeping the magic to myself’. If I could just learn how to play this …” Almost on cue, Matt then plays the drum intro to Eddie Van Halen’s famous solo “Eruption”, leading Mike to play the signature tapping part. Ed references the “Make Poverty History” concert he played with The Edge and Bono and tells Australia that they have “so many reasons to be proud of your continent. (An) incredibly rich and wealthy country with so many natural resources and it’s gonna be in flux is what I’m hearing. It’s up to you guys to make sure that the rich guys don’t take over and take everything for themselves in the next 10 to 15 years. ‘Cause once the pendulum swings it’ll be tough to swing it back. …. we’ve just seen a lot of activism here and you should be proud of yourselves to have so much hope and keep it going. We’re rooting for you.” “Do The Evolution” includes the lyric change from “Those ignorant indians got nothing on me” to “(they) don’t give a fuck about Aborigines”. During the second encore break, Ed salutes the revitalized Sydney crowd: “After the first two (concerts) – glad to be forgotten – we bumped into Bono in a bar and he said ‘How’s it goin, how’re ya goin?’ … it was our first show here. I said ‘Sydney fucking sucked, was just awful.’ And then we saw him yesterday and I said ‘How was Sydney for you?’ and he said ‘Aww it was fucking great!’ I was absulutely furious! And I can’t wait to call him tomorrow and say ‘We got ‘em … they’re back!’” to thunderous applause. A cover of the Split Enz’s “I Got You” is dedicated to April Cameron who, when Pearl Jam has an album ready, always “asks to OK the record, so the quality of the records is determined by Matt’s wife. Kings of Leon join Pearl Jam for “Rocking in the Free World”. At the end of “Yellow Ledbetter”, Mike does some more crazy 2-hand tapping. Ed bids farewell to the Sydney crowd “Take care of one another ’til we see you again. Buy each other drinks. Make love, have kids. Don’t let the bad guys take over. We love you, good night.”

11/19/06 – Newcastle Entertainment Centre, Newcastle, Australia opening act: Kings of Leon set: Alive, Life Wasted, Severed Hand, Save You, Insignificance, Unemployable, Brain Of J, Red Mosquito, Given To Fly, Last Exit, Hail Hail, Elderly Woman…, Better Man, Daughter/(War), Whipping, Leatherman, Down, Do The Evolution, Undone, Rearviewmirror first encore: Thumbing My Way, Masters Of War, Footsteps, Crown of Thorns, Alone, Even Flow second encore: Corduroy, Fuckin’ Up, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter/(Little Wing) TFT Notes: After two previous tours in Australia, Pearl Jam plays for the first time in the city of Newcastle. “Alive” starts the show, which doesn’t happen often (Dallas ’03 and a handful of times in 1991. The set contains lots of Newcastle shout-outs, including “Alive” – “Said I’m ready … to play for you” and “Here in Newcastle, you’re all still alive!” – and “Given To Fly” – “made it to Newcastle had a smoke in a tree”. Ed embraces the crowd early on “We’ve flown and we’ve landed in Newcastle.(Cheers) How is everybody? It’s not every day – and of course we’ve never had a day where we got to play Newcastle before. We’re very happy to be here and experience your piece of paradise. We were taken around town today and just want to let you know we’ll be telling everybody that we meet and anybody who asks that Newcastle is … I have the exact words right here… (reading off paper, sarcastically) that Newcastle is a wretched wasteland of crap coastline. Just so you can keep it all to yourselves. If anybody’s moving to town, I think you should just save room for us. And it would be a great place to disappear to which is the theory behind this next song which is called ‘Last Exit.’” “Elderly Woman…” is introduced as a “message of love”. The “Daughter” tag contains the lines “Mother give me peace / Mother and Father just let me have peace” followed by some call-and-response with “War”. Following “Daughter”, “Whipping” is “another song about taking a beating.” The band convenes and improvises the setlist with “Leatherman” and “Down”. “Do The Evolution” includes “Admire me, admire Stone” to big applause. Ed jokes about their debut in Newcastle: “I sure am glad that our band … actually me… I sure am glad that I had the idea to come play Newcastle. (Sarcastic) There’s nothing selfish about it. It had nothing to do with having a very good friend who surfs here, who’s going to take me out surfing tomorrow. It had nothing to do with that whatsoever. (laughs, end sarcasm) Actually it wasn’t my idea and I’ll tell you more about that later.” After “Footsteps”, Ed talks about the real reason why they played Newcastle: “I’d like to give some credit where credit is due.

Ed and Surfer Mark Richards

Skull! Skull! Skull!

There is a reason… there’s a number of reasons. There’s 2,277 reasons why we’re here tonight. (Cheers) It’s great to see activists in action, even if it’s something as trivial as getting your band to play their hometown; but there’s three gentlemen – one called Rob Wilson, another called Andrew McMullum, another called Mark Waddingham – collected 2,277 signuatures in order to secure our presence here tonight.(Cheers) Where are they … (not seeing them up front) alright, they got shit seats, they’re way in the back – (sees them about 5th row Stone’s side) there’y right there. Good on ya! Thanks for the encouragement, it’s nice to be needed. Sometimes you need to hear it every once in awhile. So real quick before we start the next song, I’m gonna read the 2277 names (crowd laughs). 1. Andrew McCullum, Josie Bollens(?), Robert Wilson, Ian Foster, Amanda Lloyd, Mark Wilson, Shane Brighton … stand up (Crowd laughs). Steve Coyle, Dale Lloyd …get your diplomas over here. Amy Lloyd, Shane Linton … that’s 13. And the rest of them you know who you are. Means a lot, we’d like to dedicate (“Crown of Thorns”) to you but especially the three interrogators.” Newcastle is the home of World Champion Surfer and Ed’s friend Mark Richards. Ed first thanks Mark’s family who “let this guy come to all but three of our Aussie shows.” He continues, saying that Mark’s “inspired us each night as he’s done for about 25 years or so. We are going to name this concert after him, the ‘Third Annual Newcastle Mark Richards Invitiational’. (Cheers) Please welcome Mark … the mayor of Newcastle, the prime minister of all things ocean, Mark Richards. We’ve stayed in touch over the years and he knows our music well, and we offered him the opportunity to put together a setlist, so this was his setlist tonight. But if we were gonna play his setlist he was gonna have to do something for us.” Ed then hands mark his wine bottle and Mark starts vigorously chugging to a chant of “Skull! Skull” (the Australian equivalent of “Chug! Chug!”). Mark hops on the microphone and makes the whole band blush by asking the crowd “Is this the best fucking band on the planet or what?” to huge applause. Ed recognizes the great atmosphere at show’s close “I don’t know if it’s gonna get better than this. Take care of your town, take care of each other. Bring our soldiers back.” “Yellow Ledbetter” contains a long “Little Wing” tag.

11/21/06 – Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide, Australia opening act: Kings of Leon set: Elderly Woman…, Go, Do The Evolution, Gods’ Dice, Once, Immortality, State Of Love And Trust, Wishlist, World Wide Suicide, Even Flow, Severed Hand, Army Reserve, Daughter/(Beds Are Burning/War), Why Go, Given To Fly, Interstellar Overdrive, Corduroy first encore: Man of the Hour, No Woman, No Cry, Better Man/Save it for Later, Black, Life Wasted, Alive second encore: Last Kiss, Don’t Gimme No Lip, Sad, Last Exit, Jeremy, Baba O’Riley TFT Notes: The band is met with a raucous Adelaide crowd who are revved and ready to go. The band spits out an endless number of tags and mini-covers throughout the night, evidence that the band are in a fun, relaxed mood. “Elderly Woman…” opens with the lyrical change “all these changes takin’ place… we’re here in Adelaide…” and Ed lets the crowd belt out the main parts. After ripping through “Go”, “Do The Evolution”, “Gods’ Dice” and “Once” (the latter two were on the 2003 Adelaide setlist but not played), Ed improvs and leads into “Immortality”, a song played only twice thus far in 2006. The fanclub sections are in a frenzy as the band continues with “State of Love and Trust” and a superb “Wishlist”, which Ed tags with: “I wish I lived in Adelaide / Take a break from the USA / Write some songs and catch some waves / Walk on the beach and get laid.” “Daughter” is tagged with “Bed’s Are Burning” by Australia’s Midnight Oil and the “War” chant made famous on the 2003 tour. The crowd is in fine form on “Why Go”, Ed and Jeff visibly impressed at their participation during the chorus. “Corduroy” closes the main set for the first time in the band’s history. After “Man of The Hour” Ed plays the instrumental chorus to “No Woman, No Cry” by Bob Marley. The crowd takes hold and begins to sing the words, and Ed joins in. Mid-song, he says “OK… this is a version for all the new parents” and alters the lyrics to “no baby, no cry”. Mike was in stitches and rubs his eyes, pretending to cry. Ed is taken aback during the “Better Man” singalong, pausing at the mic smiling to loud applause. A full “Save It For Later” is tagged, with altered lyrics after the main part: “Baby, don’t run away / I can change / I will change / I will feel your pain / But please don’t runaway runaway… / Don’t let me down.” An amazing “Black” ends with “We belong together…”, and the crowd continues the “do do do do do dooo” chant and clap well after the song has finished. Powerful versions of “Life Wasted” and “Alive” end the first encore. Before “Last Kiss” Ed quips “the next time we come to this continent, Adelaide should be the first place we play… and before the gigs we can have campfires and sings songs like this.” After calling for him all night, the crowd gets Stone to sing on “Don’t Gimme No Lip” which is preceded by a heartfelt speech from Stone about Ed. A sign request from the front row gets “Sad” played. “Last Exit” and “Jeremy” are late surprises before they launch into a great “Baba O’Riley” with the crowd doing their bit. A near 2-1/2 hour show for the first of two nights in Adelaide.

11/22/06 – Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide, Australia opening act: Kings of Leon set: Porch, Animal, Spin The Black Circle, Hail Hail, Do The Evolution, Nothing As it Seems, Love Boat Captain, Throw Your Hatred Down, World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, 1/2 Full, Thin Air, MFC, Present Tense, Not For You(Modern Girl), Elderly Woman…, Even Flow first encore: Inside Job, Wasted Reprise, Better Man, Crazy Mary, Alive second encore: I Believe In Miracles, Satan’s Bed, Blood, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: coming soon…

11/25/06 – Subiaco Oval, Perth, Australia opening act: Kings of Leon set: Go, Animal, Do The Evolution, Comatose, Corduroy, Severed Hand, Given To Fly, Marker in the Sand, Elderly Woman…, World Wide Suicide, In Hiding, Even Flow, Daughter/(Mother), U, Insignificance, Jeremy, Big Wave, Lukin, Rearviewmirror first encore: Throw Your Arms Around Me, Last Kiss, Better Man/(Save it for Later), State Of Love And Trust, Black, Alive second encore: Wasted Reprise, Why Go, I Got You, Blood, Rockin’ in the Free World TFT Notes: coming soon…

11/30/06 – Waimea Falls, Oahu, HI set: (Interstellar Overdrive)/Corduroy, Do The Evolution, World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Even Flow, Elderly Woman…, The Amerikan In Me, I Believe In Miracles first encore: Can’t Keep, Soon Forget, Crazy Mary, Indifference second encore: Better Man, Baba O’Riley, Rockin’ in the Free World TFT Notes: Unannounced performance at the 2006 Opening Ceremony of the Big Wave Invitational. Kelly Slater joined on vocals and guitar for some songs in the first and second encores.

12/02/06 – Blaisdell Center, Honolulu, HI set: Oceans, Corduroy, Animal, Do The Evolution, World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Given To Fly, Love Boat Captain, Wishlist, Even Flow, You Are, Unemployable, Jeremy, Wasted Reprise, Elderly Woman…, Hawaii 78, Better Man, Porch first encore: Inside Job, Man of the Hour, Last Kiss, Crazy Mary, Black, Alive second encore: You’re True, Smile, Why Go, Big Wave, Life Wasted, Rockin’ in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter/(Little Wing) TFT Notes: coming soon…

12/09/06 – Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, HI opening for: U2 set: Interstellar Overdrive, Corduroy, Life Wasted, Do The Evolution, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Big Wave, Even Flow, Hawaii 78, Better Man, World Wide Suicide, Given To Fly, Crazy Mary, Alive, Baba O’Riley U2 set: Rockin’ in the Free World TFT Notes: This show is the finale of U2′s Vertigoand Pearl Jam’s Pearl Jam world tours. Mike and Ed join U2 for “Rockin’ in the Free World”, which has similar lyrics to the performance at the “Make Poverty History” concert.

2007

06/08/07 – Passeio Maritimo Alges, Lisbon, Portugal soundcheck: Big Wave, Severed Hand, Blood, Elderly Woman, Crazy Mary set:(Interstellar Overdrive)/Corduroy, Do the Evolution, World Wide Suicide, Animal, Elderly Woman…, Severed Hand, Even Flow, Big Wave, Daughter, State of Love and Trust, Life Wasted, Alive first encore: Given to Fly, Why Go, Better Man, Crazy Mary, Rearviewmirror second encore: Black, Rockin in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Audio and video of the first three songs of this concert were broadcast over the internet; albeit with poor quality. The band appear in front of a backdrop of the “surfboard Pearl Jam logo” and a big wave. This festival is played at a large venue along the ocean, paralled by residential hillside, with the sun setting behind the stage. The “Daughter” tag has Ed singing “the shades go up” while the crowd sings “the shades go down”. Also, Ed sings two lines of (presumably) Elton John’s “Don’t let the sun go down on me”.

06/09/07 – Festimad, Madrid, Spain set:Porch, Animal, World Wide Suicide, Hail, Hail, Corduroy, Elderly Woman…, Severed Hand, Given to Fly, Green Disease, Even Flow, Daughter/(W.M.A)/(ABitWpII), Alive first encore: Last Exit, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Comatose, Go second encore: Black, I Believe In Miracles, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Audio of this concert was broadcast over the internet in 96kbps quality. Ed addresses the Madrid crowd in Spanish, saying “It’s good to be herre tonight – better to be out of Portugal … it’s a joke, it’s a joke.” George Bush is the theme of the “Daughter” tags including “W.M.A” with lyrics “White Male President … starts a fuckin war and it comes right off” and “ABitWpII” with “George Bush leave this world alone.” “Daughter” glides to a close with a hushed chant “peace, please … peace, please”. Ed mentions that tonight he is drinking wine provided by Spanish actor Javier Bardem. “Comatose” includes the modified line “If it’s illegal for us to fuck / leave the hatred on the cross.” Javier Bardem comes onstage to introduce “Black”, which ends with:

What could have been, what could have been, will never be It could have been here, I could have been there Well, I want to be here, fuck you and there I’m with my friends, (unintelligible) What coulda been, what coulda been… No longer can, I no longer care It’s alright it’s alright It’s alright it’s alright And I sing … doo doo doo doo…

Ed introduces the band to the Madrid crowd and bids farewell, “We thank you deep down. Take care, we love ya, peace!”

06/12/07 – Olympiahalle, Munich, Germany set: Sometimes, Porch, Why Go, Gods’ Dice, Given to Fly, Dissident, Severed Hand, Elderly Woman…, Sad, Unemployable, Even Flow, I Got Id, Whipping, Down, Present Tense, Save You, Rearviewmirror first encore: Inside Job, Do the Evolution, Better Man/(Save it for Later), Alive second encore: No More, Footsteps, Throw Your Hatred Down, Blood, Baba O’Riley TFT Notes: coming soon

06/13/07 – Stadion Slaski, Katowice, Poland set: Rearviewmirror, Animal, Hail Hail, Corduroy, Given to Fly, World Wide Suicide, Elderly Woman…, I Am Mine, Lukin, Even Flow, Comatose, Nothingman, State of Love and Trust, Spin the Black Circle, Severed Hand first encore: Leatherman, Improv, Daughter/(ABitWpII), Whipping, Black, Jeremy second encore: Indifference TFT Notes: coming soon

06/15/07 – Heineken Jammin’ Music Festival, Venice, Italy TFT Notes: This festival was cancelled when lighting and speaker towers collapsed during My Chemical Romance’s set because of heavy winds and rain, causing injuries to fans.

06/16/07 – Nova Rock Festival, Vienna, Austria set: Better Man, Go, Save You, MFC, Given to Fly, Severed Hand, Dissident, Elderly Woman…, Corduroy, Even Flow, Light Years, Jeremy, Why Go, Rearviewmirror encore: Do The Evolution, Blood, Porch, Rockin’ in the Free World TFT Notes: coming soon…

06/18/07 – Wembley Arena, London, England set: Long Road, Severed Hand, Grievance, Comatose, Given to Fly, Low Light, I Got Id, Faithfull, Green Disease, Marker in the Sand, Immortality, Down, Present Tense, State of Love and Trust, Why Go, Save You, Porch first encore: Inside Job, Parachutes, Crazy Mary, Do the Evolution, Alive second encore: No More, Bu$hleaguer, World Wide Suicide, Rockin in the Free World, Indifference TFT Notes: This show at Wembley Arena was the first “normal” concert in England since 2000, having played only Festivals and a small promotional club show in 2006. The ten club members – occupying the entire floor – sing the echo part of “we all walk the long road” in the show’s opener, “Long Road”, wonderfully. Ed welcomes all the friendly faces before the rarity “Low Light”, saying “So the last time we were back … when we came through this part of the world, we played the thing called Reading (Festival) and the thing called Leeds (Festival); those felt pretty good and only because of you guys, whoever was tehre, thank you for that, thanks for going there. (Cheers) It’s been seven years since we’ve played this building and it doesn’t seem that long, but because we’re playing these other festivals, we couldn’t be happier to get in a room this size with this kind of people”. “Low Light” is dedicated to Jeff’s wife, who is at the show. The vocal crowd shines during “Faithfull”, singing most of an entire chorus. Ed segues “Green Disease” and “Marker in the Sand” saying “so that song was about greed and this song’s about religion. And in America, sometimes they’re the same thing.” “Porch” contains a nice improv during the jam: “Oh, I never thought… (x4) / As a kid growing up … (x4) / I’d see London (x3), but here we are / We’re playing london (x3)”. After “Parachutes”, a big shout-out for Stone starts, Ed saying: “They’re talking to you.”, Stone replying: “Whaddya wanna know?” and Ed hinting “They said ‘Don’t Gimme No Lip’, so don’t talk back!” “Alive” closes out the second set, dedicated “to a good American who’s in the audience, Marky Ramone.” The band makes a strong political statement in the second encore by playing three anti-war, anti-Bush songs starting with the solo “No More”, then “Bu$hleaguer”, followed by “World Wide Suicide”, all played in quick succession. Ed prefaces all of this with a take on Tony Blair, “You know more about Mr. Tony Blair than I do (some boos) because he’s here in your country. I was watching him today answer questions about the war and I got this feeling. It’s like … if you’ve ever – I’m sure you have – you’re out really late at a bar and you don’t have any way home. And the only way home is with this guy who has a car and he happens to be really, really drunk. And yet it’s your only way home and you have to kinda get in the passenger seat – this would be George Bush behind the wheel (mock cheers). And of course he gets into a horrible, horrible crash. Don’t let Presidents start wars drunk … on power or on greed or whatever it is. Take the keys away… it’s not too late, take the keys away.” He continues to talk about his recent work with Tomas Young, Iraqi war veteran and the focus of the movie “Body of War”, to which Ed contributed two songs, including “No More”. “It really was brought home to me recently by meeting a young man who came back from Iraq and he was paralyzed from the chest down. His name is Tomas Young and he went over there to fight the good fight – and he thought he was going to Afghananistan and he ended up in Iraq – now he lives and will live the rest of his life with incredible challenges, and he’s doing great as well as he could, and he’s also being very vocal speaking out against the war. Hopefully some day you’ll get to hear him speak, or get to meet him, and until then, I’m just going to play a song that was written based on some of our conversations, it’s called “No More”. Ed later introduces and thanks the band, especially the crew saying “it’s been a tough road, when they booked this tour, (management was) thinking of the band, not necessaryily the crew. The crew’s been tremendous the last couple of weeks.” When he gets to himself, Ed admits, “I’d just like to thank you for putting up with my voice for all these years. I think I’ve written a few shit lyrics in my day, but I will say this: this wasn’t one of them (laughs)” leading to the finale “Indifference”.

06/21/07 – ISS Dome, Dusseldorf, Germany set: Sometimes, Whipping, Brain Of J., Do the Evolution, Insignificance, In Hiding, Severed Hand, Sad, I Am Mine, Inside Job, Why Go, Daughter, Breath, State of Love and Trust, I’m Open, Come Back, Once, Life Wasted first encore: I Believe In Miracles, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Wasted Reprise, Black, Alive second encore: Elderly Woman…, Given to Fly, Rats, Comatose, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: coming soon

06/23/07 – Southside Festival, Neuhausen ob Eck, Germany set: Go, Do the Evolution, Animal, Corduroy, World Wide Suicide, Insignificance, Given to Fly, Lukin, Not For You/(Modern Girl), 1/2 Full, Severed Hand, Glorified G, Spin the Black Circle, Life Wasted first encore: Even Flow, Comatose, Why Go, Alive, Rockin in the Free World TFT Notes: Pearl Jam perform at the Southside Festival. Before “World Wide Suicide”, Ed jokes with the German crowd, saying “I’m going to speak in English if that’s ok, but I’ll sing in German. There’s been a lot of great bands on this stage tonight, and a lot of great bands on the other side and we’re proud to be here. And I know it’s late but we’ll try to keep you awake. Thanks for being here.” Ed introduces “Glorified G”, saying “(Severed Hand) was a number about drugs. (no crowd response) Sometimes that gets a round of applause. Don’t clap for this one, (Glorified G) is a song about guns.” Following “Even Flow”, Ed lauds Mike and his instrument, “Mike McCready on guitar … the guitar on Mike McCready, I meant.” Although it’s a shortened Festival set and there isn’t much crowd interaction, Ed thanks the crowd and sums up the night during the breakdown of “Rockin’ in the Free World”: “It’s beautiful … we’d like to thank the planet for giving us such a beautiful evening to play with, a beautiful sky to play under. I’d like to thank the planet for giving us such beautiful people t play in front of. I’d like to thank the planet for creating a band like Sonic Youth … creating a band like Kings of Leon (up from the sludge) … for creating a band like Queens of the Stone Age … for creating a man like Neil Young. (all get big cheers) It almost makes up for the fact that this planet produced a person named – let’s say – George Bush or Dick Cheney (crowd boos). We can forgive them but I imagine that the planet and the people will take care of those two … with unity, and stength, and power, and peace (repeated again, and to the beat, before returning to the song). There’s a thousand points of light …”

06/24/07 – Hurricane Festival, Scheessel, Germany set: Why Go, Save You, Severed Hand, Grievance, Dissident, Interstellar Overdrive, Corduroy, Faithfull, Green Disease, Given to Fly, Throw Your Hatred Down, Jeremy, Elderly Woman…, Even Flow, Black, Rearviewmirror first encore: World Wide Suicide, Better Man, Life Wasted, Blood, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Pearl Jam headlined the third day of this three-day festival. After five upbeat songs to start the show, Ed says “hello” to all the campers, and gets a loud response. He urges the crowd to take a look at the “beautiful moon in the back row”. In the outro to “Faithfull”, Ed changes the line “What’s a boy to do” to “What’s a grown man to do”. Ed decribes “Given to Fly” as a Mike McCready song that’s “always nice to play in the deep blue sky, underneath it anyway.”. “Throw Your Hatred Down” is introduced as a song “by our Uncle Neil … Neil Young” and contains a energetic, three-phase noisy ending (Ed: “We just wanted him to hear that loud enough in America.”). During “Elderly Woman…”, Ed sings that “lifetimes they’re catching up with all of us.” Like other times in 2007, possibly to make it easier to sing, “Life Wasted” is played tuned a half-step lower. Ed sings to the fans during “Black”, singing “I’m surrounded by you kids at play / I can feel your laughter, so why do I sear.” “Black” ends with “We belong together (2X)/ Maybe we don’t belong (2X) / So for the better … (3X)”. The band appreciates the singing at the end of “Black”, with Ed mentioning “There’s a lot of power up here – a lot of electricity to get the sound and the lights for all the bands that have played over the last few days. Out there, up here, there’s wires this thick (holds up hands) to get all this electricity up here, all this power. But there’s absolutely more power out there. You have the power and don’t you forget it. And we know this because we felt it just now.” Ed nods the other bands on the bill, saying “before we continue, there’s been kings (Kings of Leon) on this stage, licks (Juliette & The Licks), and gods (Sonic Youth), so I guess that makes us jewelry.” Mike throws the riff of “Voodoo Chile” into the end of Baba, and the show ends with “Yellow Ledbetter”.

06/26/07 – Forum, Copenhagen, Denmark Ed pre-set: Throw Your Arms Around Me set: Long Road, Corduroy, Why Go, Do the Evolution, In Hiding, Love Boat Captain, Love Reign O’er Me, Severed Hand, Light Years, Marker in the Sand, Given to Fly, Breath, I Am Mine, Elderly Woman…, Hard To Imagine, Life Wasted, Porch first encore: No More, World Wide Suicide, Down, Once, Black, Alive second encore: Better Man/(Save it for Later), Rockin in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: coming soon

06/28/07 – Goeffert Park, Nijmegen, Holland set: Release, Go, Hail Hail, World Wide Suicide, Whipping, Do the Evolution, Given to Fly, Not For You, Wishlist, Even Flow, Insignificance, Unemployable, Jeremy, Nothingman, Better Man/(Save it for Later), Corduroy, Why Go first encore: Comatose, Daughter/Another Brick In The Wall/War, Leash, Rearviewmirror second encore: No More, Blood, Alive, Rockin in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: coming soon

06/29/07 – Werchter Festival, Werchter, Belgium set: Go, Animal, Brain Of J., World Wide Suicide, Once, Dissident, Do The Evolution, Gods’ Dice, Corduroy, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Why Go, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Life Wasted, Porch first encore: No More, Smile, Better Man/Save it for Later, Alive second encore: Baba O’Riley (with Josh Homme) TFT Notes: coming soon

08/02/07 – Vic Theater, Chicago, IL set: All Or None, Education, Sad, In Hiding, Parachutes, I’m Open, Wishlist, Down, Undone, Off He Goes, Hard To Imagine, Gods’ Dice, World Wide Suicide, Rats, Gone, Why Go first encore: No More, Inside Job, Low Light, Love Reign O’er Me second encore: Comatose, Black Diamond, Sonic Reducer third encore: Indifference TFT Notes: This club show was announced just days before the date, with Ten Club providing a fan club presale. The show was a warm-up to their headlining appearance at Lollapalooza on August 5. Among a set full of ultra-rarities, Pearl Jam covers Kiss’s “Black Diamond”, with Matt Cameron on vocals and drums. “Indifference” closes the show as a third encore with Ben Harper sharing lead vocals.

08/05/07 – Lollapalooza 2007, Grant Park, Chicago, IL set: Why Go, Corduroy, Save You, Do the Evolution, Elderly Woman…, Severed Hand, Education, Even Flow, Given To Fly, World Wide Suicide, Lukin, Not For You, Daughter/(Another Brick In The Wall), State of Love and Trust, Wasted Reprise, Alive first encore: Better Man/(Save it for Later), Crazy Mary, Life Wasted, Rearviewmirror second encore: No More, Rockin’ In The Free World TFT Notes: Pearl Jam headlines Lollapalooza 2007 – 15 years after the summer-long tour with the second Lollapalooza in 1992. The festival is webcast using AT&T services, and causes a stir when they censor Ed ad-libbing during the “Daughter” tag singing “George Bush, leave this world alone.” The issue becomes big news and AT&T later admits to past “mistakes”. More notes coming soon.

2008

06/11/08 – Cruzan Amphitheatre, West Palm Beach, FL soundcheck: Who You Are, Light Years, Blood, Present Tense, Save You set:Oceans, Severed Hand, Save You, Gods’ Dice, Given to Fly, Faithfull, Unemployable, Sad, Dissident, Who You Are, Even Flow, Low Light, Gone, Grievance, Glorified G, Do The Evolution, Why Go first encore: Inside Job, Better Man, Comatose, Rearviewmirror second encore: It Rains On Me, No More, Alive, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Coming soon…

06/12/08 – St. Pete’s Times Forum, Tampa, FL set:Sometimes, Corduroy, Why Go, Severed Hand, Elderly Woman …, Marker in the Sand, Light Years, Down, Wishlist, Given To Fly, Daughter, Even Flow, Present Tense, Insignificance, Better Man, Do The Evolution first encore: Nothingman, Black, Life Wasted, Porch second encore: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Alive, Yellow Ledbetter/(Star-Spangled Banner) TFT Notes: “I think I speak for the whole band and even the crew … we’re not quire sure …. we’re here, we’re playing in Tampa. (Does) the name of the building have something to do with St. Petersburg? I know we’re spending the night in St. Petersburg. Then there’s a Canadian flag? I don’t know where the fuck we are! I asked Matt Cameron ‘Matt, where the fuck are we?’. (he said) ‘Ed, we are in the here and now‘. So welcome to the here and now, we’re glad you can be here with us. This is dedicated to anyone who happens to be from Bradenton, FL.” leading to “Elderly Woman…”. “Light Years” is played after no appearances the last two legs of 2006 and only two appearances in 2007. Boom is prominent on “Down” with a lot of added piano arrangements. “Wishlist” includes an improvised verse about the President, the War and the need to bring the troops home (“This is their home / bring them home / we’re waiting for you at home”). He also ad libs the line “I wish I was as fortunate as fortunate as J.C.” referring to former 1970s Chicago Cubs outfielder Jose Cardinal who apparently is in attendance. After the song, Ed explains “I was gonna mention a little something about hope. When I was a kid, I got taken to the bleachers, so I can relate to these people (in the upper sections). I never got to be behind home plate like these people (in the front row). My uncle used to take me to Chicago to Wrigley Field. But the best thing about the bleachers … you were far away from home plate, but you were the closest to the guy who was my fav player, kinda the first hero I had as a young kid… he was in Right Field and I got to sit right in front of him, and I’d go to all these games and see him, this guy, his name was Jose Cardinal. And he wore the Number 1, he had a great Afro, he was Cuban – but i didn’t know if he was white, black, whatever – it didn’t matter. He was just the coolest fucking guy I had ever seen. Kinda reminds me of this Barack Obama guy – it doesn’t really matter, he’s just a cool (guy). So I’d go to the game with my uncle, and I was maybe 4-5-6 (years old), and my uncle would tell me (Uncle-voice) ‘my favorite guy Jose, he’s going blind, he’s going blind and that’s why at the start of every game they say ‘Jose, can you see?” (For those outside the U.S., this is an old joke on the first words of the National Anthem “Oh say, can you see?”). (To sarcastic applause) Alright, that’s not that funny, it’s not really worth tellin’, but I didn’t know any better at 5! My hero was this Right Fielder with this huge Afro who was going blind and he played Right Field for the Chicago fucking Cubs and that gave me hope that I could do anything. So, I met Jose a number of years ago, we’ve ended up being very very close friends, I’ve gotten to know his son a bit. I have to mention this too because for the very first time he gets to see us play tonight. He’s here, Jose Cardinal somewhere over there (pointing, then spotting) that’s Jose! Jose, Jesus, we play this one for you.” leading to “Given To Fly”. The crowd response is recognized – “you’re doing your part, times ten … such a shame that we only come here once every 8 years (boos). It’s alright, it’s our short term memory that’s failing us. We’ll remember this one, I believe.” As another nod to Jose Cardinal, Ed sings “I am ahead, I am advanced, I am the first to wear number one on my back.” Ed taunts the crowd, “We’ll never forget this night in Toronto” and “Nothingman” and “Black” are played by request. “Nothingman” includes Matt Cameron on backing vocals, signing the harmonies and echoes (“She don’t want him”) true to the recorded version. Pearl Jam plays a “short” first encore with four songs, but with near ten-minute versions of “Black” and “Porch”. During the next encore break Ed mentions that you can register to vote at booths set up by an organization called Headcount for those “on the fence, under the fence or if you just want to break through the fucking fence”. He ponders if that “the future’s in a booth right in the back of this very arena that we’re all standing in, it’s right there. Good or bad, it’s right there”. He also mentions a political movie called Recount saying that “Florida’s the biggest star of the movie.” With a few political references in a row (and lackluster response), he placates the audience saying he “won’t mention politics one more time this evening … unless you want me to?” to a big ovation. After “Alive” Ed introduces the band as “Boom Gossard, Stone Gasper, Matt Vedder, Eddie Cameron, Jeff McCready, Mike Ament”. A sonically-charged “Star-Spangled Banner” appends “Yellow Ledbetter”.

06/14/2008 – Bonnaroo Music Festival – Manchester, TN set: Hard to Imagine, Corduroy, All Night, Why Go, Elderly Woman…, Down, Who You Are, Severed Hand, 1/2 Full, Animal, Even Flow, Daughter, Gone, Love Reign O’er Me, Do the Evolution, Rearviewmirror first encore: W.M.A., Better Man (Save it for Later), Black, Life Wasted, Crazy Mary, Porch second encore: No More, Release, Alive third encore: All Along the Watchtower

06/16/2008 – Colonial Center, Columbia, SC set: Can’t Keep, Why Go, All Night, Hail Hail, Sad, Severed Hand, Red Mosquito, I Am Mine, Even Flow, Off He Goes, Elderly Woman…, Present Tense, Whipping, I Got Id, Army Reserve, Glorified G, Do The Evolution first encore: Inside job, Given To Fly, Education, W.M.A., Better Man, Save You, Porch second encore: No More Footsteps, Alive third encore: Indifference

06/17/2008 – Verizon Amphitheater, Virginia Beach, VA set: Long Road, Corduroy, Severed Hand, All Night, I am Mine, Elderly Woman…, Faithful, Low Light, Evacuation, Given to Fly, Green Disease, Not for you/Modern Girl, Sleight of Hand, Even Flow, Wishlist, Insignificance, Do The Evolution, Rearviewmirror first encore: Comatose, Why Go, Better Man, Jeremy second encore: Guaranteed, Alive, Rockin In The Free World

06/19/2008 – Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, NJ set: Hard to Imagine, Corduroy, Severed Hand, Do the Evolution, All Night, In Hiding, Elderly Woman…, Gone, Who You Are, Unemployable, Even Flow, Light Years, Grievance, Given to Fly, U, Rats, Why Go first encore: Love Reign O’er Me, Better Man(Save it for later), State of Love and Trust, Black, Leash second encore: No More, Crazy Mary, Porch, Yellow Ledbetter

06/20/2008 – Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, NJ set: Severed Hand, Brain of J, Animal, Dissident, Low Light, Down, Nothing as it Seems, Green Disease, Love Boat Captain, Corduroy, Even Flow, Thin Air, Daughter(War), Insignificance, W.M.A., Do The Evolution, Whipping, Better Man, Why Go first encore: Lukin, Comatose, Given to Fly, Rearviewmirror second encore: Footsteps, Once, Alive, Baba O’Riley

06/22/2008 – Verizon Center, Washington, DC set: Hard to Imagine, Severed Hand, Hail Hail, Do The Evolution, Elderly Woman…, Evacuation, Corduroy, I’m Open, I Am Mine, I Got Id, Daughter, Light Years, Even Flow, Green Disease, You Are, U, Who You Are, Why Go first encore: Comatose, Sad, Given to Fly, Come Back, Grievance, Black, Rearviewmirror second encore: No More, Last Kiss, Crazy Mary, Alive, All Along the Watchtower, Yellow Ledbetter

06/24/2008 – Madison Square Garden, New York City set: Hard to Imagine, Save You, Why Go, All Night, Corduroy, Faithful, Elderly Woman…, Down, Unemployable, Given to Fly, Who You Are, Whipping, 1/2 Full, Even Flow, Present Tense, Daughter, Do The Evolution first encore: Love Reign O’er Me, W.M.A., Leash, Spin The Black Circle, Wasted Reprise, Porch second encore: No More, Crazy Mary, Comatose, I Believe in Miracles, Alive third encore: All Along the Watchtower, Indifference

06/25/2008 – Madison Square Garden, New York City set: Release, World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Corduroy, All Night, Cropduster, Garden, Marker in the Sand, I’m Open, Wishlist, State of Love and Trust, Even Flow, Who You Are, Rats, Given to Fly, Do The Evolution, Go first encore: Inside Job, W.M.A., Lukin, I Believe In Miracles, Better Man(Save It For Later), Rearviewmirror second encore: No More, Last Kiss, Why Go, Black Diamond, Alive, Yellow Ledbetter

06/27/2008 – Dodge Music Center, Hartford, CT set: Can’t Keep, Breakerfall, Last Exit, Gods’ Dice, All Night, Elderly Woman…, Sad, Brain of J, Big Wave, In Hiding, Not For You(Modern Girl), Daughter(Another Brick in the Wall), Why Go, Jeremy, Gone, Immortality, Porch first encore: Garden, Better Man, Even Flow, Comatose, Leash, Blood(Atomic Dog) second encore: Smile, Do The Evolution, Alive, Fuckin’ Up, Yellow Ledbetter(Little Wing)

06/28/2008 – Tweeter Center, Mansfield, MA Ed Pre set: Throw Your Arms Around Me set: Hard to Imagine, Why Go, Hail Hail, Comatose, Low Light, Elderly Woman…, Corduroy, Faithful, Off He Goes, Given to Fly, Down, I’m Open, I Got Id, Even Flow, Do The Evolution, Once, Rearviewmirror first encore: Love Reign O’er Me, Come Back, Insignificance, Black, Better Man(Save it for Later) second encore: No More, State of Love and Trust, Alive

06/30/2008 – Tweeter Center, Mansfield, MA set: Wash, Last Exit, Save You, Severed Hand, Animal, MFC, Elderly Woman…, 1/2 Full, Corduroy, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Education, Satan’s Bed, Whipping, Glorified G, Do The Evolution first encore: Bee Girl, Who You Are, Better Man(Save It For Later), Garden, Why Go second encore: No More, Once, Footsteps, Alive, Rockin In The Free World

07/01/2008 – Beacon Theater, New York, NY set: Low Light, Small Town, Sleight Of Hand, Harvest Moon, Masters Of War, Down, All Night, Corduroy, Even Flow, Light Years, Army Reserve, W.M.A, Marker In The Sand, Wasted Reprise, Wish List, Why Go, Do The Evolution first encore: Undone, Who You Are, Given To Fly, Black, Crazy Mary second encore: No More, Last Kiss, Alive, Baba O’Riley

07/12/2008 – “VH1 Rock Honors: The Who”, Pauley Pavilion, Los Angeles, CA set: Love Reign O’er Me, The Real Me TFT Notes: Pearl Jam perform two Who covers as part of the VH1 series “Rock Honors”, along with Foo Fighters, Incubus, Tenacious D and The Who themselves. Sean Penn introduces Pearl Jam, and “Love Reign O’er Me” is played with a large String ensemble. Boom is not present so Brendan O’Brien – who plays piano/keyboards on the studio recording – is present tonight. “The Real Me” is played with a three-piece horn section. Towards the end of the song, Mike sends a 50th Anniversary Les Paul airborne and it comes crashing to the ground, smashed to bits.

2009

Added August 8, 2009 08/08/09: Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Canada Olympic Park – V-Fest opening act: Festival set: Why Go, All Night, Dissident, The Fixer, Got Some, Severed Hand, Sad, Unemployable, Even Flow, Rats, Save You, Given To Fly, Daughter/(W.M.A), Down, Elderly Woman…, Do The Evolution, Alive first encore: Better Man, Brother, Black, Spin The Black Circle second encore: Crazy Mary(Victoria Williams), The Real Me (Pete Townshend), Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: About 3 songs in Ed says (paraphrasing), “So usually we keep these things a surprise, but we’re feeling pretty good tonight so we’ll just tell you. We’re gonna play a song we’ve never played live before, and a couple of songs that are old enough to drive. This is a newborn.” Cue The Fixer. WMA tag in Daughter: Ed sings “White Male CANADIAN” Ed quote: “We picked a flight to Europe with a stop over in Calgary because we were told there would be a festival of Virgins. Virgin Fest and not a Jonas Brother in sight.” During Rats and Ben, Ed did a shoulder to shoulder cross over his heart. Regarding Real Me, Ed mentioned when he was a teen, the song was played as a closer at his first show First encore Ed comes out and says, “We’re at Olympic Park, and I have to say that we’d give you a gold medal for this evening. No, actually, we’d give you an Olympic Platinum”, some in the crowd wondering if that would be the ‘song they’ve never played before’. Ed comes on after the second encore and tells the crowd that they’ve been told they can break curfew and play the songs the way they want to play ‘em. Eddie stopped a few times to make sure the audience was safe. Comment around 9:00pm: To a dad holding up his son for two hours. “Hey Kid, You Got A Good Dad.” Taken from official message board posts from Scott/edwouldgocalgary and breathgal; Mike’s Bloggity Blog

Added August 22, 2009 08/11/09: Shephard’s Bush Empire, London, UK opening act: Gomez set: Sometimes, Interstellar Overdrive, Corduroy, The Fixer, All Along The Watchtower, Why Go, Dissident, Severed Hand, Given To Fly, Low Light, Even Flow, Present Tense, Save You, Down, Elderly Woman…, Brother, Do The Evolution, Got Some first encore: The End, Inside Job, Better Man, Alive second encore: Soldier Of Love, State Of Love And Trust, The Real Me, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Pearl Jam offered a Ten Club presale for this intimate show at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire, a venue with a capacity of only 2000. Users who pre-ordered Backspacer from HMV.com were also provided a link to an exclusive pre-sale. The result was an energetic show packed with PJ fans. “Sometimes” opened following intro music “Metamorphisis Two” by Phillip Glass. “Corduroy” featured an “Interstellar Overdrive” intro that had a lot more flanged-delay soloing from Mike than in year’s past. Ed relishes the return to London and the old friends and new friends in the audience, as “The Fixer” is introduced as “new friend”. Only three songs into the set, things get interesting as the Rolling Stones’ Ron Wood is introduced … “We worked together, I wrote some words for him. To return the favor, he’s going to pay this next song with us tonight. What’s really spectacular about it is, we ended up doing what they call ‘indian giving’ and we took the song and used it for our own record but he’s still going to play with us anyway”. A terrific version of “All Along the Watchtower” is performed, with Ron Wood adding his signature touch to the nearly 7-minute rendition. Mid-set, “Severed Hand” is played with the pre-recorded intro. “Even Flow” is introduced as a song that was written in 1793. After a raging Even Flow, Ed says that if he “could play the drums that well, then I have every right to be a complete fucking asshole prick (laughter), but not only can he play like that but he’s one of the better humans you’ll ever meet.” Like “The Fixer”, “Got Some” is age-referenced as a “newborn” and ends a great first set. Returning from a break, Ed plays “The End” solo, saying the “new record’s pretty upbeat, but this takes it down to really fuckin’ sad.” Ed revels in London’s music history, saying that “so much of the music we heard when we were kids came from this part of the planet” and names Billy Childish (painter, poet, musician) and his bands the Headcoats and Headcoatees as influences. Ed mentions that it was Billy that turned the band on to Arthur Alexander’s “Soldier of Love”. A stellar version of “Soldier of Love” is played for the first time since July 3, 2003 and includes the crowd “cha-cha-cha” at the end. Simon Townshend (Pete’s younger brother) joins the band for “The Real Me”. “Thanks for sticking with us all these years and thanks for your support and inspiration and … you’re fucking goddamn pretty handsome and good looking at the same time.” “Yellow Ledbetter” caps off a great night for 2000 lucky fans, most of whom will also enjoy Pearl Jam at the 02 Arena the following week.

Added August 22, 2009 08/13/09: Sportspaleis Ahoy, Rotterdam, Netherlands opening act: Gomez set: Elderly Woman…, Last Exit, Animal, The Fixer, Given To Fly, Severed Hand, Why Go, Dissident, Brother, Gone, Even Flow, Wishlist, Nothingman, 1/2 Full, Black, Got Some, Go first encore: Life Wasted, Better Man/(Save it for Later), Daughter, Lukin, Comatose, Alive second encore: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Love Reign O’er Me, Do The Evolution, The Real Me, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Sportspaleis Ahoy (10,000) was sold out within minutes, and hosted Pearl Jam for the third time in its history. It could have been the fourth, but the scheduled concert for 3 July, 2000 was canceled because of the Roskilde tragedy. Eddie Vedder mentions it’s the fifteenth concert of the band in The Netherlands. But at the same time, it’s only the third one since 1996 (excluding the 2000 Pinkpop festival participation) and they hadn’t played in The Netherlands until 2006. Although it’s only the third concert of the band in 2009, after the Calgary V-Fest and the one at Shepherd’s Bush Empire two days before, there’s no need for adaptation. “It’s good to be back”, Vedder claims. The show is loud and lively. After three songs, “Last Exit” and “Animal” already have set the tone. Backspacer‘s “The Fixer” and “Got Some” are played with much enthusiasm, but the band has a focus on the nineties’ material. Tally: four songs off Ten, five off Vs, three off Vitalogy, only one off No Code, three off Yield are played and add “Brother” and “Yellow Ledbetter” to this. No songs from Binaural are played and only one off Riot Act (“1/2 Full”). Pearl Jam gets it share with four songs. Covers are “The Real Me”, “Love, Reign O’er Me” (both of The Who) and “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” (Beatles). Vedder apologies for not having prepared some lines in Dutch, but adds that at least he doesn’t have “a Texas accent”. He’s talkative and in good shape. He jokes that, when the band stepped out of the hotel, they noticed two lines of people waiting and started to shake hands with them, but they appeared to be waiting for the bus. “Alive”, “Better Man” and “Black” get the crowd wild. The Backspacer songs fit in perfectly. “Wishlist” is performed superbly. “Daughter” includes a short jam but has no tag. During McCready’s solo in “Even Flow”, Vedder takes a smoke at the side of the stage. With the lights already on, Yellow Ledbetter gets every last person on their feet. Vedder gives a solo performance of “You Gotta Hide Your Love Away” and talks about acceptance of homosexuality. Before “Lukin” starts, Vedder asks the crowd how many of them have been to Seattle and have seen Mudhoney play. During one of the songs, Vedder claims he’ll settle in Rotterdam. He promises to come back within one and a half year, or ten days, and after a set of more than two and a half hour, the impressive show comes to an end.

Added August 22, 2009 08/15/09: Wuhlheide, Berlin, DE opening act: Gomez set: Why Go, Hail Hail, The Fixer, Corduroy, I Am Mine, Nothing As it Seems, Untitled->MFC, Gods’ Dice, Even Flow, Unemployable, Severed Hand, Light Years, Daughter/(Blitzkrieg Bop), Got Some, Glorified G, Brother, Insignificance, Do The Evolution first encore: Bee Girl, Better Man/(Save it for Later), Given To Fly, Hard To Imagine, Alive second encore:, Angie, Elderly Woman…, Faithful, Sonic Reducer, Rockin’ In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: This concert in the outskirts of the German capital was the only outdoor concert of the European tour. Besides, it was only the fourth concert of the band in 2009 for their Backspacer tour. But playing in Germany must have felt like playing at home, because this concert was the 24th of the band on German soil. The band and the country have a special relationship since 1992, the year in which the band played no less than 11(!) concerts in the country and established its fame. Pearl Jam start their fourth concert at Wuhlheide on a sunny Saturday afternoon, the same period the 2009 World Championships in Athletics takes place in the city. But contrary to the crowded city centre, the Wuhlheide venue is situated in a forested area and breaths an atmosphere of music and relaxation. The summer day makes it an intense wait for many, and the crowd reacts relieved and excited when the band takes stage. “Why Go” kicks in, and the crowd goes nuts. It looks and feels like 1992 again! “Hail, Hail” keeps the crowd going, and “The Fixer” seems a well-known song already before Eddie shouts “Guten Abend!” towards the 20,000-strong crowd. The band continue with Vitalogy-classic “Corduroy”, after which Eddie salutes the crowd in English and says: “From here it looks very, very beautiful. For you, I don’t know… I’m very ugly”. He continues in German, by saying “at least we’re back in Berlin and we’re happy with this summer night!”. The band then plays several millenium-era songs: “I Am Mine”" (2002), “Nothing As it Seems” (2000), “MFC (1998)” and “Gods’ Dice” (2000). With the crowd pumped, Vedder checks the stands if everything is all right and warns the crowd to watch out: “Keep your footing and an eye on your neighbor. I was out there earlier and it can get pretty tight at the front”. On his cue, the crowd takes three steps backs. They seem to get their reward with “Even Flow”, and Vedder introduces the band members. When the crowd seems to be booing, Vedder says “he’s not up here yet, but let’s bring him out on the keyboard”, and “Boom”  Gaspar appears. Vedder explains that “he must have been smoking something left over from Rotterdam.” “Unemployable” is the first song being described: “This is of the last record we put out, and it’s about having no jobs in the US. It’s about jobs, it’s about religion, it’s about a few things”. They are followed by “Severed Hand”", “Light Years” and “Daughter”, when Vedder gets interactive with the crowd, including The Ramones’ with “Hey Ho, Let’s Go”. Vedder calls Joey Ramone “a great singer”, and asks the crowd to sing along with the next song too: “Got Some”. “Glorified G” is played, and afterwards related to Dave Abruzzese: “That song was written by one of our former drummers … but he didn’t know he was writing”. “Brother” is introduced as “even older than the last one”. Meanwhile, Vedder checks on the crowd again and tells the men to take care of the women. “It’s part of what they do … and then the women … When you get home, they take care of you!”. “Insignificance” and “Do The Evolution” are the final songs before the band leaves the stage. Vedder thanks the audience for their response and acceptance and suggests to take a breath with the next song. He refers to 1993 when Pearl Jam played at the venue with Bad Religion. He calls them ‘still a great band’ and adds that ‘religion is still bad’. Vedder admits that they haven’t practiced the next song in a while, which is a rare one: “Bee Girl”. Before playing “Better Man”, Vedder invites the crowd to take the first lines. “Given to Fly” is dedicated to a newly married couple. “Hard to Imagine” is also, like “Bee Girl”, a rare song to be played. The first encore is closed with the classic “Alive”. Vedder then teases the public by thanking it and hinting that the band is picking the next tour. He tells the crowd that he has just heard that a fan (Daniel) is in the crowd, who was critically injured before a cancelled concert in Italy three years ago. Vedder adds that ”this young man has a lot of guts”. A snippet of the Stones song “Angie” is played and followed by “Elderly Woman”. “Faithfull” is a request. The nights ends, with the sun already down, in a memorable way: three classics are played with “Sonic Reducer”, “Rockin’ In The Free World” and “Yellow Ledbetter”. Vedder adds that they never have played “Rockin’” at this venue, but it has a special meaning. McCready gets the crowd nuts again. Vedder wishes the crowd “a great, great summer” and thanks them for letting the band be part of it.

Added August 22, 2009 08/17/09: Manchester Evening News Arena, Manchester, UK opening act: Gomez set: Long Road, Last Exit, Why Go, All Night, The Fixer, Low Light, In Hiding, World Wide Suicide, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Even Flow, Present Tense, Save You, Grievance, Sleight Of Hand, Got Some, Given To Fly, Rearviewmirror first encore: Go, Daughter, Do The Evolution, Alive second encore: Smile, Black, Leash, The Real Me, Indifference TFT Notes:

Added August 22, 2009 08/18/09: O2 Arena, London, UK opening act: Gomez set: Release, Animal, Corduroy, Why Go, Elderly Woman…, Immortality, The Fixer, Even Flow, I Got Id, Rats, Got Some, Whipping, Light Years, Insignificance, Black, Life Wasted, Blood/(Atomic Dog) first encore: Supersonic, Hail Hail, Footsteps, Love Reign O’er Me, Do The Evolution, Alive second encore: Better Man/(Save it for Later), Crazy Mary, Leaving Here, Porch, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: One week after the much smaller Shepherd’s Bush show, the boys were back in London town for their first show at the O2. The arena is huge, and is contained in an indoor resort with clubs, shops, exhibition halls. But the best thing (apart from the bars) was that the Ten Club queue was located inside the resort, no wind or rain for the faithfully devoted. “Release” opened the show and the sound was magnificent, especially for such a huge place. “Animal” followed, and tore the place apart. An out-of-breath Ed starts to address the crowd after a frantic “Why Go”, praising the supposed sound quality of the venue and then gets boos after saying they wouldn’t be back in Europe for quite some time. Fortunately, he would be proven wrong a few months later. He ends his first speech of the night by referring to their first London show ever (Borderline ’92), with an eight-song setlist. After that, “Small Town” gives the crowd a breather before “Immortality” raises every hair in the arena. They mess up the intro to the next song “The Fixer”, which prompts Ed to try to fix it and restart. Mike OWNED the “Even Flow” solo, but that’s nothing new. After “Even Flow”, Ed finally addresses the crowd and asks them to take three steps back to “relieve the pressure”. It was indeed pretty rough at times. Ed introduces “Rats” with Michael Jackson’s “Ben”, dedicating the song to him. Michael Jackson was supposed to stage his “This Is It” series of shows in this very arena. He messes it up, starts it again and then it was time for Jeff’s bass intro. A mid-set “Whipping” might have been a mistake – the song was great, of course – but Ed was pretty much out of breath again. He dedicated “Light Years” to his surfer friend Jeff Johnson, and the following “Insignificance” gave us a much too rare Binaural one-two punch, before “Black” takes the whole arena to… somewhere else, where we were all stars. “Life Wasted” is “about appreciating every second of every second”. “Blood” is dedicated to Ed’s “good friend Tim” (probably Tim Robbins, who was in attendance) does the job rather well, with a soaring Mike McCready solo. The first encore starts with a surprise: the first-ever appearance of “Supersonic”, from the as-yet unreleased Backspacer. “Footsteps” didn’t get a lot of cheers at first, but those who cheered were the passionate ones. Ed introduces Boom, who kickstarts “Love Reign O’er Me” – what better place to play a Who song. Emotions turn to energy, with “Do The Evolution”, and “Alive” (“one of these eight songs we played seventeen years ago”) caps it all perfectly, with everyone standing, singing, fist-pumping, crying, or simply quietly enjoying the moment. Ed introduces the second encore by saying the band still has more songs to play to make it complete. “Better Man” fits the bill, and starts with the crowd singing the first verse and chorus, before Ed and the full band take over, as usual. More crowd participation is required and delivered for “Crazy Mary”, while Boom and Mike play with each other perfectly. Ed introduced the band, then a song “by Holland-Dozier-Holland”, obviously “Leaving Here”, yet another Who reference. Jeff played the first two solos, with Matt filling in the third. Ed was waiting for a guitar, the band started jamming, and he had the bright idea of having them play a little bit of Jazz Odyssey (in G minor). Ed then gets a guitar, starts strumming the intro to “Porch”, and the place goes out of this world. “Yellow Ledbetter” ends it all, as usual, but do you really, really want it to end any other way? Lights out, smiles all over. The Pearl Jam experience is over for now… until, of course, the next time.

Added August 22, 2009 08/21/09: Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto, CAN opening act: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists (cancelled) Ed preset: Sugar Mountain, Needle and the Damage Done Mike preset: Unknown song, Unknown song set: Of The Girl, Corduroy, Severed Hand, Why Go, Brain Of J., I Am Mine, The Fixer, Given To Fly, Off He Goes, Even Flow, Unemployable, Faithful, Down, Got Some, 1/2 Full, Lukin, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Do The Evolution first encore: Inside Job, Wishlist, Black, Alive second encore: Elderly Woman…, Wasted Reprise, Better Man/(Save it for Later), Porch, Rockin’ In The Free World TFT Notes: Ed comes on stage early and introduces the pre-opener by explaining that Ted Leo had trouble at customs getting into Canada because he didn’t have his passport, so the band agreed to play some songs. Then he told a story about he and Neil Young going on a Ferris Wheel together before playing “Sugar Mountain”. Eddie gave a pre-emptive apology for “Needle and the Damage Done” and said that if he screws it up he would go into something else, but he hoped that it wouldn’t happen. Mike plays two acoustic songs, one he mentions is written about his daughter. Stone’s up next and plays the Johnny Thunder cover “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory”. Ed explained that Matt was going to conserve his energy, before playing “bee girl” with Jeff, dedicated to “(the fans) and all the beautiful insects of the world”. He also mentions that after this song “you are going to see the debut of a new band “Eddie Vedder and the Pharmicists”. Since the Pharmacists *did* make the trip, they played a few of their originals, “Blitzkrieg Bop” and The Stooges’ “Search and Destroy” with Ed and Mike. All this, and Pearl Jam’s set hasn’t even started yet! As “Of the Girl” starts Ed jokes, “Its good to see you, its been a long time.” After “Brain of J.” Ed mentions they started late because fans were caught in traffic, and they there were granted permission to break curfew, to the audience’s delight. “I Am Mine” is introduced as a “song is about being safe.” “Given To Fly” is dedicated to “everything above sea level”, with lyrics changed to “Made it to Toronto, had a smoke in a tree”. Following “Even Flow”" Ed says, “He can play acoustic, he can play electric, he can fucking sing, Mike McCready on the Guitar”. Ed talks about how Canada must be watching the U.S.’s healthcare debates and it must be “like watching your dog chase its tail around, over and over… actually, worse its more like, and especially if you had guests over, lets say Uncle Neil, Neil Young came over to the house right…so you had some distinguished guest over at the home and then the dog sits right next to Neil and starts licking his own asshole, it must be like that right?” Pearl Jam drive their piont home with “Unemployable”, a song “about not only not having health care, but not even having a fucking job”, which Stone apologizes for “really fuck(ing) that one up.” “Got Some” is introduced as “a little song about sharing the wealth.” Ed, under his breath says, introducing “Lukin”, “This is about a guy who says he doesn’t like Canada, but I know he likes it, because he hates it, so he loves it, because you couldn’t love something without hating it” and changing lyrics to “Got a spot at Chelios’”. “Wishlist” has the sound of “50 million hands up raised and opened up to the summer sky”. “Black” has the extended tag at the end of black, “Did we belong, did we belong, together, together, We didn’t belong together”. During the second encore break, Ed says, “Recently I had the opportunity to play Mancy Hall and that was quite a beautiful experience and on that trip, a friend of mine and myself we went for a bit of a paddle on these boards that you stand up on and you paddle, and we ended up on … we got on the water, and we ended up at this little tiny village, this little, just out of nowhere, it’s the strangest thing, I guess they call it Toronto island, there’s a lot of people over there and I’m sure you’ve all been, but it was like a mirage and I’ve been told that they… that maybe that’s in jeopardy that maybe they want to get the people out of there, so I hope you hang on to that and provide that atmosphere, because its very rare…so we’d like to dedicate this song to Toronto Island”, introducing Elderly Woman”. Ed rocking out with the newish “Porch” intro… during the main jam, Ed came out and stood on the barricade holding onto some fan’s hand for support and sang the last verse. Lyric change for “Rockin’ in the Free World” is “A lot of people saying they’re Canadian…” and Ed thanks Toronto for “letting us be a part of your summer.”

Updated April 8, 2010 08/23/09: United Center, Chicago, IL opening act: Bad Religion set: Long Road, Corduroy, Why Go, Gods’ Dice, Dissident, Elderly Woman…, Sad, The Fixer, Given To Fly/(Happy Birthday), Come Back, Even Flow, Save You, In Hiding, Man Of The Hour, Insignificance, Got Some, Spin The Black Circle first encore: Love Reign O’er Me, Life Wasted, The Real Me, Alive second encore: The Needle and The Damage Done, Rats, Supersonic, Smile, Rearviewmirror, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Pearl Jam returned to Chicago for the first time in over two years, since closing Lollapalooza in 2007. This show featured three big covers of songs by time-honored PJ mentors, and poignant tributes to some friends who had recently passed on. The band took the stage with a warm “Good Evening” from Ed. Fashion roundup: Stone wore a purple T and blue jeans, with hair nearly reaching his shoulders; Jeff wore a black tee shirt and black jeans; Matt a blue tee shirt with army green shorts; Mike in dark long sleeve shirt and dark pants; and Ed in brown surf-style shorts with a black short sleeve shirt. There was a ton of interplay between Stone and Jeff at Matt’s drum riser all night. Telling the sold out crowd “we’ve got a lot of emotion to get through tonight; we’ll get through it together,” they launched into an especially meditative “Long Road”. During “Why Go”, the crowd is very loud in calling back “Why Go Home.” Ed interrupts Matt’s intro to “God’s Dice” to say: “Why go home? I am home. I gotta tell you, it feels fucking great to be home… If you’re born in Chicago, you’re always from Chicago. And even if you don’t live in Chicago, Chicago will always live in you… To come back here and see this many people assembled to take part in this kind of event means the world to us so thank you very much for being here.” … “God’s Dice” includes a maniacal “hahaha”. Ed closes “Dissident” by singing “Escape is never the safest path, but you gotta do it anyway.” Ed introduces “Small Town” by name checking a number of Chicago suburbs and other Illinois places before quoting Lou Reed: “the best thing about growing up in a small town is it really makes you want to get the fuck out.” Following “Sad”, Ed introduces “The Fixer”, saying, “This is the good news.” Backspacer is about a month from its US release, but “The Fixer” is out and the crowd greets its first US performance enthusiastically. “Cheers to all the singers out there.” Before “Given to Fly”, Ed says, “We thought these songs were gonna be played under a midwestern summer sky in the outdoors. We tried to set up these gigs for that little place called Alpine Valley up the road a bit. For one reason or another, or ten reasons, it didn’t work out as much as we tried. So the next song was supposed to be out in the outdoors. So I guess we can imagine this (the roof) isn’t here or imagine those Chicago Bulls championship flags are right behind us. There’s some magic in this room so think about that too, maybe. That’s what I’m thinking about.” After “Given To Fly”, Jeff Ament takes the microphone: “I’m gonna ask a small favor. Over the last 20 years, every time I came to Chicago, part of the fringe benefit of coming here was getting to see my best friend, Mike Richter. This is the first time that we’ve come to Chicago that he hasn’t been able to make it to the show and its his birthday, and I was hoping that you guys could all sing happy birthday to him. Jeff leads the crowd in singing Happy Birthday to his friend, who passed away earlier in the summer in Milwaukee. Richter is also honored in the night’s poster that shows his body on Michael Jordan’s legs. His initials, in reverse (RJM), are blacked out on the poster. Ed introduces “Save You”, saying it “was written for a good friend.” “I was high as hell” replaces “They were upside down” in “In Hiding”. “Got Some” also makes its US debut. Ed introduces “Spin the Black Circle”: “This one’s about records. Does anybody remember records?” Jeff and Matt really pound on it, closing out the first set. Returning to the stage, Ed says, “We just needed a minute to argue back there about what we’re gonna play next. That’s just what we do back there.” He goes on to talk about playing with Bad Religion for the first time in 13 years. Last time was “at a little place you might have heard of, Soldier Field.” “They’re still great, religion’s still bad. Very excited to be back on the same stage with them.” “Love Reign O’er Me” concludes with a hair raising “loooooove” from EV, finishing with “Thank you to Pete Townsend.” Ed is all over the map on the lyrics to “Life Wasted”, at one point saying, “I fucked up. I knew that.” Introducing the second Who cover, Ed begins “The Real Me” saying, “This is another song we got on loan.” After Jeff dominates on bass, doing John Entwistle proud, Ed says, “Thank you Roger. Those are the songs I … was listening to in the freezing cold on the L trains, waiting for that fucking thing to come at 2 in the morning, about 40-below (degrees). Riding my skateboard to work in Evanston…so that’s why we played them tonight.” “Alive” closes the first encore set. Back on stage, the band greets the crowd in the nether regions of the cavernous United Center. “At least we got screens so you can see our ugly fucking faces. That’s OK, I’ll be getting botox tomorrow.” The botox reference prompts a thought from Ed about Michael Jackson, who passed away a few months before the show. “When I was up in Evanston I have these big big memories of being a really little kid. I was in a house that had a lot of older brothers, like step brothers, brothers who were African-American kids and irish kids. They were all much older than me. I was 6 and they were 12. Down in the basement we had a turntable, and they turned me on to a lot of good music because they were much older. We listened to tons of James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone and all the Motown stuff. And of course as a kid, the thing that i was attracted to because the singer was only three or four years older than me was this band called The Jackson 5. You know there’s been some sadness lately about that, but it feels like we lost him a long time ago actually.” That led into Neil Young’s “The Needle and The Damage Done,” for the first time ever in the US. The first notes of MJ’s hit “Ben” follow, the theme song to the 1972 horror film of the same name, about a killer rat before the band launches into “Rats”. Introducing “Supersonic”, Ed says, “This is for the nice young lady here who wants to hear more new stuff. I bet we’ll fuck it up.” This is its second live performance ever, first time in the US. Jeff and Stone trade instruments for “Smile”, and Ed tells how the song was written by Jeff and Dennis Flemion of the Frogs (who played with PJ in Chicago previously). Dennis, who is at the gig tonight, wrote the lyrics in Ed’s notebook and Ed stole ‘em. After “Rearviewmirror”, Ed says, “You did great. We did OK?” The crowd roars back. “If we knew all your names we’d thank you individually. Thanks for letting us be just a small part of your summer.” McCready says goodbye by tagging “The Star Spangled Banner” onto the end of “Yellow Ledbetter”. Poster

Updated March 30, 2010 08/24/09: United Center, Chicago, IL opening act: Bad Religion set: Hard to Imagine, Corduroy, In My Tree, Last Exit, All Night, Nothingman, The Fixer, Even Flow, Present Tense, Whipping, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Daughter/(ABitWpII), Brother, Gone Got Some, Do The Evolution, Alive first encore: No More, Comatose, Grievance, Black, The Real Me, Porch second encore: Wasted Reprise, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Crazy Mary, State of Love and Trust, Fuckin´ Up, Yellow Ledbetter/(Star Spangled Banner) TFT Notes: On the second of two nights in Chicago, the band continued playing with high spirits, and Ed and was very talkative on this night. As the band takes the stage to Philip Glass intro music, Ed starts out the show announcing “Here we are once again, good evening. Yeah!” and the band eases into a rare opener of “Hard To Imagine”. During the Corduroy intro, Ed yells “Is Anybody Out there???”, and as “Last Exit” begins Ed yells “let’s get this fuckin thing going, come on, yeah!” – really trying to get the crowd revved up. During Even Flow, Ed notices a guy wearing a shirt saying “No Even Flow”, and starts a bit of an exchange with him, after the line “I can’t help when I’m happy, look insane.”, he yells “saw you too late, man”, then introduces Mike’s solo, “Once again, Mr. Mike McCready whether you like it or not”. After the song, Ed continues at the guy, “How’s that for Mr. Mike McCready on the right-hand guitar? He has to play that song or else he’ll fucking kill somebody. And I have a nominee, for ah… Mike, next time you don’t play that song, this guy right here, this guy.. he’s wearing a shirt that says “no even flow”, I suggest you kill him first. (rim shot) I know you can take him by yourself, but if you need help, I’ll help. You know the thing is sir, we take requests not orders, you should know better than that.” Then introduces Matt, “And how about this gentlemen behind me, this ain’t no Volkswagan engine, this ain’t no Ford Taurus, this ain’t no Subaru, the goddamn Lambourghini behind us, Mr. Matt Cameron!, vintage.” Ed precedes Present Tense with this introduction, “Alright this is about, ah… living in the moment which is what you’re forced to do up here. We force ourselves to every day, seems to be working.” Ed speaks fondly about Bad Reliion, “I watch them play not only today, but like they’re still 16, makes me feel like 16, it’s a powerful thing this music deal, and ah… we just wanna dedicate this one to them. July 11th was the last time we played with them, July 11th 1995, little joint called Soldier Field, I don’t know if anyone was there. I think we played this one that day too.” into “Not For You” (which “got so croweded, we better make room.”. Ed introduces “Brother” with some analogies about how old it is, “this is older than our oldest song. This song, it certainly can drive, and soon it’ll be able to drink.” During “Do the Evolution” Ed sings “admire my clothes.. (pulling at his boy scout shirt) cub scouts, go cubs!”. Ed talks about disabled war veteran Tomas Young (Body of War documentary) and that Tomas’s younger brothers are in attendance – one who did “2 different tours of duty and he made it back safe and I got to meet him yesterday for the first time, that’s is Mr. Nathan Young. He’s right there, Nathan Young everybody, can we get the lights stand right there, in the white shirt. and then his ah… youngest brother Timmy’s right there too, there’s Timmy. This is the first time Timmy’s ever been to a Pearl Jam gig, I believe. And ah.. if I can get you to sing this song, ah.. sing it with me, then maybe we can make sure that Timmy will never have to do, be asked to do what ah… his brothers signed up to do. ah… this is one called “No More”, and … when a soldier asks you to play this song, you play the fuckin song.” Then he starts the opening chords, and says, “Sorry Timmy, I didn’t mean to say ‘fuck’, sorry.” During “Comatose”, Ed changes up the lyrics with an anti-war message, “We’ll break the law, if it’s illegal, to not go to war”. After “Grievence”, Ed makes another Young family introduction, “You know I just realised one thing too, ah.. Thomas and Nathan, and Timmy who I introduced before, their mom Kathy’s here too, that’s a big, big deal. Ah, I think she’s over here, sorry Kathy, was thinking about you.” Ed dedicates “The Real Me” to … himself! “I’d like to dedicate this next one to me, when I was 14 years old.” Ed speaks fondly of Chicago during the 2nd encore break, “As beautiful as it looks, watching a day game, on television at Wrigley Field, there’s just nothing like being in the bleachers, but of all the times I wished I could of been in Chicago was recently that beautiful, beautiful night in Grant Park when Barrack Obama took that stage in front of those flags, holding our kids on our laps, and shedding a tear, Chicago looked so fucking beautiful. It’s like a dream come true, but I’m too based in reality to have dreams like this, so it’s beyond the beyond, really. Ed addresses the city of Chicago once again, “All right we’re here on hallowed ground, our last song, you got Phil Jackson’s flag right up there, we had many good, great, beautiful nights here with Phil, all the flags up behind us, Michael, Scottie, amazing shit happened in this room and ah. probably our best friend of all, we’re gonna dedicate this one to him, he couldn’t be here tonight, but this one’s for ah.. #91″, and they appropriately play “Fuckin’ Up” for Dennis Rodman, before closing the stand with “Yellow Ledbetter” and “Goodnight, goodbye, be safe, have a nice summer, cheers”. Poster

Updated April 1, 2010 08/28/09: Outside Lands Festival, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA set: Why Go, Animal, Severed Hand, Corduroy, Low Light, The Fixer, In My Tree, Elderly Woman…, Even Flow, Got Some, I Am Mine, Given To Fly, MFC, Down, Black, Save You, Do The Evolution, Go first encore: Wasted Reprise, Better Man, Daughter, The Real Me, Crazy Mary, Alive second encore: Throw Your Hatred Down, Rockin´ In The Free World TFT Notes: Pearl Jam headlined the first night of the 2nd Outside Lands Festival. A beautiful day in San Francisco with the sun starting to go down over the field as Pearl Jam takes stage. Ed says “Let’s get it on…” and the band rips right into “Why Go”, crowd is loudly singing along and they take the “fuck” lyric as Ed steps back and as they go into chorus Ed says “you got some??” and the crowd sings the rest of the chorus. Ed’s voice is slightly ragged as he addresses the festival crowd…”Alright, good evening everybody, everybody good out there? Safe and sound? All that kinda stuff? Looking after your neighbor, all that good stuff? You all got that under control…there’s a hell of a lot of you out there, it looks that way from here, so uh, most important just keep track of each other and make sure nobody goes down, ok? Thank you very much, it looks like you’re doing great…I’ve also been asked to tell you, don’t take the brown acid” (Woodstock reference) and as the song starts says, “but the mushrooms are fine” as the band goes into “Corduroy”. After the song there as a slight pause as the band changes the setlist. Mike sounds as if he’s going to play “Brain of J” as Ed says “Thank you very much, we’re gonna switch up Mikey, did you get that?…we were gonna play this one a little later but we’re gonna catch it now because the light is right…I’m a little pissed off that my throat ain’t what it always is so I will take any help that you offer…”and the band goes into “Low Light” as a beautiful sunset washes over the Polo Field. “Alright, fix me” is the intro to “The Fixer”. “Here’s a number that was written just north of here, in a tiny little room with no window, no not Seattle, not that far north,… apparently Stone heard it and thought it was worth keeping…”, which is the intro to “Small Town”. After “Even Flow” Ed introduces Mike, and a “Mike” chant breaks out. “I don’t know what the fuck he’s gonna do for the next 3 weeks off without being able to do that…” Lyric change in “MFC” “there’s a lot to be said for right here”. “Black” features a sing-along with the crowd helping Ed before Mike goes into the solo. Ed thanks “Built to Spill and all the other bands that were on this stage today”… and the set closes with “Go”. As the band takes stage for the encore Boom plays “Wasted Reprise” as Ed says “I don’t know why but for some fuckin’ reason, this brought memories back of 15 years ago, one of the harder days I remember…luckily we had a guy n called uncle Neil Young to come help us out…and I just want to thank him publicly again for putting himself in harms way…” referring to the ’95 Polo Field show. “ He also thanks the Bridge School and mentions many of the students and people they have met over the years. Ed thanks the crowd again as they sing the first verse of “Better Man.” And says “you got the job” as he starts singing. “Daughter” only has a short call and response as a tag. Ed asks for help from the crowd during “Crazy Mary” as his voice can’t quite get the high notes. Ed sings “I’m barely alive…” before Mike’s solo in “Alive”. “It looks like Amsterdam, it smells like Amsterdam, good on you San Francisco.” Ed says after leading the crowd in a quick call and response before the second encore. Second encore is a tribute to Neil Young featuring the rarely played “Throw Your Hatred Down” followed by “RITFW”. Lyric change to “there’s a thousand points of light for the American, there’s a kinder, gentler president…”.Ed closes the show by saying “Have a great summer, take all the credit, you guys were great.” There were fireworks after the set to close out the first day of the festival.

North America Leg 2

Added September 22, 2009 09/21/09: Key Arena, Seattle, WA set: Long Road, Corduroy, Gonna See My Friend, Got Some, Hail, Hail, Amongst The Waves, Daughter, Even Flow, Johnny Guitar, Unthought Known, World Wide Suicide, Elderly Woman…, Off He Goes, Down, Save You, The Fixer, Life Wasted first encore: Just Breathe, The End, Inside Job, Rearviewmirror second encore: Given To Fly, Do The Evolution, Better Man, The Real Me, Indifference, Alive TFT Notes: The first of two shows in the band’s hometown of Seattle occurs the day following the release of their ninth album Backspacer. “Gonna See My Friend”, “Amongst the Waves”, “Johnny Guitar” and “Unthought Known” (full band), and “Just Breathe” make their live debut. The stage setup includes new backdrops and Ed is very chatty throughout the entire show (see here and here). The beginning of the show is full of energy with “Corduroy”, “Gonna See My Friend”, “Got Some” and “Hail, Hail” all in top form. After “Hail, Hail” Ed addresses the crowd: “It’s kind of the beginning of this whole tour and we’re trying to get this rocket ship off the ground here. I see some friends and I think I see a couple of neighbors. I don’t see any enemies though, not yet. It’s good. We’re a bit nervous not really about our playing but you know this is a bit of a different look and we’re worried that we … something might go wrong with the inflatable space needle. But uh…we could always just tear the roof off of this fucking place and see the real one. (About Backspacer) We don’t really care about what’s said in the press but a few people have been spreading the word that this is about surfing and it’s not. In fact it’s like one of two that isn’t…it’s called Amongst the Waves”. After “Amongst the Waves” Ed says “It’s nice to finally be playing these songs for the first time. We’ve played this one once before” leading into “Daughter” (which does not include a tag). “Johnny Guitar” and “Unthought Known” blend in seamlessly with older material and afterwards Ed quips “We weren’t going to bring up anything up politically because we have these positive songs and all that but there’s something that … our president Obama right now he’s got a lot to deal with and he’s got an economy, continued strife in the middle east, he’s got this health care debate that will go on forever unless somebody takes the risk and does the right thing and there’s a lot on his plate. But you know there was something that he said recently that the band as a whole we wanted to show our support for him and it’s something that we’ve had experience with and we’re gonna stand behind him on … We too think Kanye West is a jackass.” After “Elderly Woman” Ed notices a boy on his father’s shoulders about eight rows back, center stage. “Hey will you do me a favor, there’s a kid he looks like he’s 6 or 7 years old will you give this guitar pick to him? Just pass it….don’t steal from children! He looks about 6 or 7 I think this is about his 14th show. How many? I’m gonna sing this one for some of my friends” leading into “Off He Goes”. When “Save You” ends Ed says: “You know one of the things I did yesterday? I went down to Target and bought me a record – vinyl – it was this big (holds out hands). First time I ever saw a vinyl record in that store. Now if we can just get them to sell record players, it’s gonna be great.” At the beginning of the second set a group of people with string instruments join the stage. Ed says: “I heard you recognize Mr. Boom Gasper there. I’m taking it that you’ve got some time for a few more there, yeah? I figure these gigs are like summer we should try to extend them as long as we can. You know there’s something really, you’ve probably seen it before – there’s something really special when you see a couple on stage playing music together. I think back to seeing Johnny cash and June Carter, and they look into each other’s eye. Or Kim and Thurston from Sonic Youth up there playing together. We have that happenin’ here tonight because we’ve got these strings that I think we’re only doing here in Seattle because we ‘know some people’ and that’s Chris, Natalie and Trevor over there. The last woman I’ll introduce here Matt Cameron and she met back in 1984 and they’ve been together all this time. That’s Matt Cameron over there and Ms. April Cameron on the viola. So we’re gonna try this one for the first time.” Leading into “Just Breathe” and “The End”. After Inside Job Ed jokes: “Mr. Mike Mcready wrote that one (Mike plays Stairway) did you write that one too? (Mike replies “No no no” laughing) We’ve done some press and one thing about when you read some articles and you learn a few things and I didn’t know when Stone gave Mike McCready a call that he was actually ready to hang up his guitar which is such a terrifying reality to imagine, so thanks Stone for giving Mike a call. And while we’re at it 18 years later, I want to thank Jeff and Stone for giving me a phone call when they heard about some knucklehead in San Diego. As a matter of fact I’d like to thank Matt Cameron for picking up the phone when we called him! That’s all it took was four phone calls.” The third set begins with four horn players joining the stage with Ed saying: “We’ve got a few local friends that are going to join us. Raise your hand when you hear your name called: Hans Tuter, Dave Carter, Craig Florey. I’ve been wanting to play with on stage for years and years. he’s a genius. Just call him Skerik. We did this one before in L.A., flew down together, it was a song in celebration for this band called The Who, we did it there and we did it here and we’re saving on airfare” with the group playing “The Real Me”. Ed’s final rant of the evening comes while the band is playing the beginning of “Indifference”. “There’s a band that played this room years and years and years ago. I don’t know if any of you were here to see Nirvana play the Key Arena here. Well, I wanna tell ya I got a phone call the other night from Krist Novaselic of Nirvana and he’s no longer playing rooms like this but he’s got a great life and he’s working incredibly hard to do great things for the state of Washington and for human beings in general. We admire him a lot and respect him a lot and he asked me to tell everyone tonight about the local election coming up I think in November and he wanted me to tell ya who he thinks we should support and I heard his arguments and I absolutely believe he is right. See and I told you we weren’t going to talk about politics right? You know what if it’s something that’s good and could happen for our state if you’ve got a microphone you’ve got to say something I’m sorry. Actually I’m not sorry, you should do it! We all do it in our daily lives! So when this vote comes up he is suggesting that in no way we should vote for someone called Susan Hutchinson and that for sure we should vote for a guy called Guy Constantine just so ya know. There is trust here.” Great show with the new songs receiving an excellent response. The band is on fire and all seem to be in good moods and happy to be playing their new material.

Added September 23, 2009 09/22/09: Key Arena, Seattle, WA set: Sometimes, Why Go, All Night, The Fixer, Dissident, Johnny Guitar, Faithfull, Lukin, Not For You/(Modern Girl), No Way, Unthought Known, Unemployable, Comatose, Insignificance, Present Tense, Got Some, Go first encore: Just Breathe, The End, Black, In My Tree, Spin The Black Circle second encore: Supersonic, Do The Evolution, The Real Me, Porch, Yellow Ledbetter/(Star Spangled Banner) TFT Notes: “No Way” makes its first appearance since 1998′s Yield tour and only its fourth appearance in the band’s live history. “Supersonic” lyrics are changed to reference the Seattle’s former NBA franchise the Seattle Supersonics. “Just Breathe” and “The End” is accompanied by the Octava String Quartet, including April Cameron. “The Real Me” is accompanied by the Syncopated Taint Horn Quartet. More notes soon…

Added September 28, 2009 09/25/09: GM Place, Vancouver, BC set: In My Tree, Save You, The Fixer, Severed Hand, Johnny Guitar, Given To Fly, MFC, Even Flow, Amongst The Waves, Sad, Unthought Known, Light Years, Elderly Woman …, Grievance, No Way, Got Some, Rearviewmirror first encore: I Got Shit, Love, Reign O’er Me, Breath, State Of Love And Trust, Alive second encore: Last Kiss, Indifference, Wasted Reprise, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes:

Added September 28, 2009 09/26/09: Clark County Amphitheare, Ridgefield, WA (Portland Area) set: Gonna See My Friend, Last Exit, Why Go, The Fixer, In Hiding, Johnny Guitar, Green Disease, Amongst The Waves, Even Flow, Off He Goes, Unthought Known, Daughter, Supersonic, Present Tense, Got Some, Once, Life Wasted first encore: Golden State, The End, Red Mosquito, Inside Job, Go second encore: Do The Evolution, Not For You /(Modern Girl), Black, Porch Yellow Ledbetter/(Star Spangled Banner) TFT Notes:

Added September 29, 2009 09/28/09: E Center, Salt Lake City, UT set: Of The Girl, Breakerfall, Hail Hail, Severed Hand, The Fixer, Low Light, Marker In The Sand, Even Flow, Unthought Known, Elderly Woman…, Got Some, Given To Fly, Immortality, Satan’s Bed, Amongst The Waves, Do The Evolution, Blood first encore: Bee Girl, Just Breathe, Red Mosquito, Daughter(Sympathy For The Devil/W.M.A), Supersonic, Spin The Black Circle second encore: I Believe In Miracles, Crazy Mary, Alive, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Although Backspacer tunes have dominated the setlists, Binaural tracks from Pearl Jam’s back catalog have been few and far between. This show saw two Binaural openers “Of the Girl” and “Breakerfall”. From all reports, this was a highly energetic show although the venue was far from sold out. Fans were treated to 2009 premieres such as “Breakerfall”, “Marker in the Sand”, “Satan’s Bed”, and “I Believe in Miracles”. Ed was aware of the band’s 11-year hiatus from playing Utah: “It’s been 11 years since we’ve been here. Time flies when you’re making records. You could go to high school, college, get a job and get fired in 11 years.” “Red Mosquito” is played again with Ben Harper and Ed sitting down (although animated and barely able to stay seated). “Daughter” tags include the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy For The Devil” and “W.M.A” (to be confirmed). A wedding proposal takes place on stage after “Bee Girl” and “Just Breathe” is played for the soon-to-be-married happy couple. During “Crazy Mary”, the “bottle passed around” is a Corona.

Added October 1, 2009 09/30/09: Gibson Amphitheater, Universal City, CA set: Why Go, Animal, World Wide Suicide, Got Some, Tremor Christ, Force Of Nature, Elderly Woman…, Unthought Known, Even Flow, Amongst The Waves, Insignificance, Rats, Present Tense, Big Wave, Down, The Fixer, Porch first encore: Just Breathe, The End, Red Mosquito, Black, Life Wasted second encore: State Of Love And Trust, Alive, Rockin’ In The Free World TFT Notes: This show marks the first of a four-show run at the Gibson Amphitheater. “Force of Nature” makes its live debut. “Just Breathe” and “The End” are accompanied by a String Quartet (TFT is confirming which musicians). More notes soon.

Added October 1, 2009 10/01/09: Gibson Amphitheater, Universal City, CA set: (Interstellar Overdrive)/Corduroy, Severed Hand, Got Some, Do The Evolution, Dissident, Given To Fly, Johnny Guitar, Amongst The Waves, I Got Shit, Daughter, Jeremy, Unthought Known, Small Town, Driven To Tears, The Fixer, Rearviewmirror first encore: Just Breathe, The End, Lukin, Red Mosquito, Jazz Odyssey, Better Man/(Save It For Later) second encore: Gonna See My Friend, I Believe In Miracles (Ramone, Ray), Once, Alive, Yellow Ledbetter/(Star Spangled Banner) TFT Notes: “Just Breathe”, “The End” and “Lukin” are played with a string quartet. “Jazz Odyssey” is played by the band as Ben Harper’s equipment is being taken down following “Red Mosquito”.

Added October 5, 2009 10/03/09: Austin City Limits TV Taping, Austin, TX first set: Walking The Cow, Just Breathe, The End, The Fixer, Johnny Guitar, Amongst The Waves, Unthought Known, Army Reserve, Driven To Tears, Do The Evolution, Got Some second set: Lukin, Red Mosquito, Inside Job, Better Man, Gonna See My Friend, Porch, Crazy Mary, Star Spangled Banner TFT Notes: Ed and Jeff came out ahead of the band and played a nice rendition of “Walking The Cow”. Before starting the song, Ed gave acknowledgements to Austin musician, Daniel Johnston (wrote “Walking The Cow”, and performed on Day 1 of the festival). He jokingly mentioned that the ACL camera crew might be a bit upset because by adding this song they were already changing the set list. A string trio accompanied the band for the first two songs. Before starting “Just Breathe”, Ed seemed very nervous, wiping his palms on his pants and restarting the song a couple of times… in between restarts asking the crowd, “Does it sound good to you?” He had his eyes closed for the most of the song. The camera crew does a fabulous job at ACL; that said however, the cameras get very close to the musicians at times and perhaps Ed’s proximity to the cameras and the history of the venue accentuated his initial nervousness. After “Just breathe” and “The End”, the strings left and the rest of the band came to the forefront, Ed seemed to relax at this point and they launched into “The Fixer”. Before a fantastic version of “Johnny Guitar”, Ed introduced the band and told the audience about the inspiration for the song. Ed was very chatty and interweaved several jokes into the “Johnny Guitar” story… he related the spandex-clad women Johnny would hang around to Mike’s spandex wearing days in his band Shadow. The difference being that Mike was soooo skinny that the spandex he wore were loose and baggy. The gritty and energized version of “Do The Evolution” seemed to really get the crowd excited. After a break in the set, Ed came back out and reintroduced what he called “real musicians” (the string trio). “Lukin” was played acoustically and with the trio. Ben Harper joined the band for “Red Mosquito”. Ed mentioned that they felt honored to be on the same stage as Ben, as it was Ben’s fourth time to play ACL. Ed went on to praise Ben by adding that he was only 20 his first time playing ACL (with Taj Mahal). Inside job was introduced as a song written my Mike McCready… “music and words”. “Crazy Mary” didn’t appear on the set list but was played. Perhaps it was added for Boom, as Ed told a story about Boom and his father watching ACL long ago, and how Boom couldn’t believe he was playing ACL. Ed joked often with the crowd and the Iraqi war vets quite a bit. The performance closed with an especially rockin’ version of “Porch”. Ed started the song on guitar (slow version style). After “Porch”, Mike stayed on stage and gifted the audience with the “Star Spangled Banner”. The band really seemed to be enjoying the evening and gave thanks to the audience and the venue staff. Notables in the audience. Lance Armstrong, Meg Ryan, Luke Wilson.

Added October 5, 2009 10/04/09: Austin City Limits Music Fest, Austin, TX set: Why Go, (Interstellar Overdrive)/Corduroy, Got Some, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Elderly Woman…, Given To Fly, World Wide Suicide, Even Flow, Unthought Known, Daughter/(WMA), Hail Hail, Insignificance, Present Tense, State Of Love And Trust, The Fixer, Go encore: Jazz Odyssey, Red Mosquito, Do The Evolution, The Real Me, Alive, Mountain Song, Rockin’ In The Free World TFT Notes: Pearl Jam play the Austin City Limits Music Fest for the first time. Ed joined Kings of Leon the previous night during KoL’s headlining set for “Slow Night, So Long”. Ben Harper joins PJ for “Red Mosquito”. Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell joins Pearl Jam for a terrific version of the classic “Mountain Song”.

Added October 8, 2009 10/06/09: Gibson Amphitheater, Universal City, CA set: Sometimes, Breakerfall, (Interstellar Overdrive)/Corduroy, Save You, Elderly Woman…, Got Some, Unthought Known, Faithfull, Even Flow, Unemployable, Daughter, Johnny Guitar, Given To Fly, Off He Goes, Comatose, The Fixer, Do The Evolution first encore: Just Breathe, The End, Lukin, Red Mosquito, Jazz Odyssey, Rearviewmirror second encore: Once, Footsteps, Hunger Strike, Alive TFT Notes: A string quartet accompanies the band for “Just Breathe”, “The End” and “Lukin”(!). Chris Cornell joins Pearl Jam for “Hunger Strike”, revisiting the California magic of their previous performance in 2003. To make the Seattle reunion complete, Mike McCready shed his guitar during the “Alive” solo and handed it off to Jerry Cantrell, as the band rocked an extended version of the song to round out the show. More notes to come. TFT Kathy’s Pictures Setlist

Added October 8, 2009 10/07/09: Gibson Amphitheater, Universal City, CA set: Long Road, Animal, Hail Hail, Gonna See My Friend, Got Some, Alone, Nothingman, Amongst The Waves, Even Flow, Untitled, Unthought Known, All Those Yesterdays, Why Go, Wishlist, Present Tense, Force Of Nature, The Fixer, Spin The Black Circle, Porch first encore: Just Breathe, The End, Lukin, Red Mosquito, Jazz Odyssey, Love, Reign O’er Me, Blood/(Atomic Dog) second encore: State Of Love And Trust, Crown Of Thorns, Kick Out The Jams, Alive, Indifference TFT Notes: After the warmly familiar “Animal” and “Hail, Hail” (lyric change: “I can only be as good as you let me – so why don’t you fuckin’ let me?”), Ed said “we have a setlist but…” we’re only gonna fuck with it… he spoke to the “head of this whole deal”, one of the higher-ups at Universal said you can “tear that place down on the last night…feel free”. Ed told us it felt less like an option and more like a responsibility. He told us the setlist was “requests”, however TFT Kathy later learned that the setlist was written by actor and big fan Patrick Warburton (“The Tick”, “Seinfeld” (Puddy) and currently “Rules of Engagement”), who was taking his son to his first Pearl Jam show. Only requests not played: “Black” and “Yellow Ledbetter”. What can we say but “well done Mr. Warburton“! Ed told us before “Amongst The Waves” that Jeff encouraged him to watch the movie about some activists trying to prevent the slaughter of dolphins in Japan called “The Cove“, and Ed watched it that morning. It showed “human beings at their absolute worst” and he thought he “couldn’t wait to get to the show and see us being better than that”. He dedicated “Amongst The Waves” to the dolphins. Ed said they were “going off script” before the seldom-played “Force of Nature”. Before “Just Breathe” Ed spoke about how the “music evolves from different places” and song he wrote for “Into The Wild” “helped me get to this”, and the man who wrote the book that launched the movie, Jon Krakauer was in the house tonight. Ed told us this was a “Pearl Jam Book Club moment”, because although Jon would never ask for it, Ed highly recommended we read his latest, about the life and times of NFL football player turned solder Pat Tillmand called “Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman” which just came out. After “The End”, Ed said “this song was brought in acoustic”, and Brendan O’Brien “took it and made it better”, and he was here tonight or “at least he was here.” Pre-”Lukin”, he called the next song accompanied with strings “who knew this was a classical song?” and “Beethoven’s 60th”. Ed claimed they were originally aiming for “fucked-up-ed-ness” but it became something else, a “one minute opus”. The String Quartet stayed onstage – but did not play – during “Red Mosquito” (with Ben Harper), and was hanging around to join the band in turning “Jazz Odyssey” into “Classical Jazz Odyssey”. Ed introduced Jerry Cantrell, who joined the band for the MC5 cover “Kick Out The Jams” as his “first roommate in Seattle” in the basement. Being L.A., the stars were out: Sean Penn, Hopper Penn, Sasha Baron Cohen, Catherine Keener, Jason Thompson (General Hospital), Nancy Wilson, Tom Morello, Darryl Hannah.

Added October 20, 2009 10/09/09: San Diego State University, Viejas Arena, San Diego, California set: Last Exit, Corduroy, Severed Hand, Brain Of J., Elderly Woman …, Amongst The Waves, Johnny Guitar, Even Flow, Unthought Known, Parachutes, Daughter/ (Blitzkrieg Bop), I Got Id, You Are, Force of Nature, Got Some, Do The Evolution, Rearviewmirror first encore: The End, Red Mosquito, Happy Birthday to LuLu, Given To Fly, Last Kiss, The Fixer, Life Wasted second encore: Why Go, Black, Better Man/ (Save it for Later), Little Wing, So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star, Alive, Yellow Ledbetter/ (The Star-Spangled Banner) TFT Notes: During Ben Harper’s set, Ed joined for Queen’s “Under Pressure”. Ed gets the crowd going by saying “it’s Friday night, in San Diego, and we have a shitload of guitars and amps, so lets blow the f*cking roof off this place” “Black” had an extended ending with a group clap by the fans, and the “doo doo doo doo” fading out. “Happy Birthday” to LuLu Wismar who is the daughter of former PJ crew member Keith Wismar (remember “Keith, put up the house lights”, now working with Ben Harper). Ed recalls a story of a time when he held her when she was very young, and she gets to blow out the candles of her cake onstage. Matt and Ed – who both lived in the San Diego area at different points in their lives – pay homage to their music teachers by dedicating songs to them. Later, “Little Wing” is peformed with the help of Matt’s drum teacher – San Diego Symphony percussionist Jon Szanto – and Ed’s guitar teacher – Bud Whitcomb. To quote a fan: “The numerous stories that were shared by Eddie made the show more personal. The setlist was great, but instead of just a concert, it felt more like a shared experience.”

Added October 28, 2009 10/27/09: Wachovia Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA set: Corduroy, Whipping, Hail Hail, Supersonic, Dissident, Unthought Known, Faithfull, Parachutes, Unemployable, Immortality, Green Disease, Not For You/(Modern Girl tag), Rival, Nothingman, Ghost, Do the Evolution, Why Go first encore: Bee Girl, Just Breathe, The End, All Those Yesterdays, State of Love and Trust, Mankind, The Fixer, Go second encore: Daughter, Love Reign O’er Me, Black, Leash, Rearviewmirror, Rockin in the Free World TFT Notes:

Updated April 8, 2010 10/28/09: Wachovia Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA set: Animal, All NIght, World Wide Suicide, Elderly Woman…, I Am Mine, Johnny Guitar, Nothing As It Seems, Gone, Evacuation, Even Flow, Come Back (stopped), No Way, 1/2 Full, Down, Wishlist, Grievance, Given to Fly, The Fixer, Save You first encore: Just Breathe, Lukin, Speed of Sound, Push Me Pull Me, Garden, Blood second encore: Last Kiss, Wasted Reprise, Better Man/(Save It For Later), The Real Me, Porch, Yellow Ledbetter/(Little Wing) TFT Notes: Welcome to night 2 of the band’s historic four-night run to close the Spectrum. It also happens to coincide with the first game of the 2009 World Series between the hometown Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees. The combination of these two huge events created a palpable sense of excitement in the air. The band takes advantage of that by coming to the stage again with their “Rocky” intro before ripping through the first few songs, including an unusual opener, “Animal”. After “World Wide Suicide”, Ed greets the crowd with a “Good evening, Philadelphia! Nice to have you here on the Spectrum countdown as we try to end this thing in fashion.” It doesn’t take long for Ed to mention the baseball game and introduce the Philly crowd to “the score card lady”! The crowd erupts at the sight of Vegas-dressed woman prancing across the stage with a scorecard of the game, in this case, an early lead for the Phillies. Some really random songs make an appearance during the main set, including “Evacuation”, a messed-up and quickly-stopped “Come Back” and a rare appearance by “No Way” which sounds amazing and as if the band had been playing it for years! McCready is the hero of the first set, first with his transcendent lead work on “NAIS” and then he just absolutely shreds “1/2 Full” with Ed barking and howling the lyrics with even more intensity than usual. Mike Ness (Social Distortion) joins the band for “Down”, trading verses with Ed. Chants of “RRAAAUUULL” erupt before “Wishlist” in honor of the band’s friend (and Phillies player) Raul Ibanez. Ed changes one of the lines in “Wishlist” to “I wish I was a sailor with someone who waited for me…I was I was the one who beat the Yankees!” Other Phillies dedications includes “Given to Fly” (for Shane Victorino) and first set closer “Save You” for Phillies relief pitcher, Brad Lidge. The string quartet joined Ed for a beautiful, breezy version of “Just Breathe” before Ed challenged the musicians to “try to follow me on this one, fuckers!” leading to “Lukin”. “Speed of Sound” makes its debut and goes well, after only one false start! The crowd reaction to “Push Me, Pull Me” is surprisingly loud given that the song hasn’t been played live in its entirety since September 19, 1998! At the start of the second encore, Ed talks about the history of the Spectrum, about Dr. J “playing on this floor, showing us what it was to rise, bring yourself up to another level”. Lots of love for the city of Philadelphia tonight, obviously. Crowd carries entire first verse/chorus of “Betterman” leading Ed to remark, “That was fucking beautiful!” Before a brief “Save it for Later” tag, Ed again talks about the upcoming demolition: “They’re gonna take a wrecking ball to this fucking place…I say, Let’s start the destruction! Let’s raise the roof on this place! They’ll be thankful.” Ed seems really into “The Real Me”, saying that The Who had played it here in 1973. Before “Ledbetter”, Ed gets in one more reference to the baseball game, telling the roaring crowd, “Good luck tomorrow,…kick their fucking asses! (meaning the Yankees)”. McCready’s “Ledbetter” solo includes a snippet of “Little Wing”. Overall, the show is quick and powerful. A setlist that looks odd on paper translated into a great night in Philadelphia, with the rare songs sounding like nightly standards. Great crowd, great energy. After one day off, the band will be back for two more magical nights to close down the Spectrum.

Added October 31, 2009 10/30/09: Wachovia Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA set: Gonna See My Friend, The Fixer, In My Tree, Given To Fly, Tremor Christ, Untitled/ MFC, Hold On, Unthought Known, In Hiding, Deep, Habit, Cropduster, Off He Goes, Force Of Nature, Present Tense, Got Some, Do The Evolution first encore: Just Breathe w/string quartet, Parting Ways w/string quartet, Jeremy w/string quartet, Breath, Light Years, Rearviewmirror second encore: Whipping, Crazy Mary, Footsteps, Once, Alive, Sonic Reducer, Baba O’Riley TFT Notes: Coming soon… TFT Review

Added November 1, 2009 10/31/09: Wachovia Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA set: Why Go, Last Exit, Corduroy, Severed Hand, The Fixer, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, You Are, Amongst The Waves, Even Flow, Pilate, Unthought Known, Daughter/(ABitWp2), Johnny Guitar, Rats, I’m Open, I Got Shit, Glorified G, Out Of My Mind, Black, Insignificance, Life Wasted first encore: Just Breathe, The End, Low Light, Speed Of Sound, Jeremy, Inside Job, Bugs, Spin The Black Circle, Porch second encore: Whip It, Got Some, Crown Of Thorns, Satan’s Bed, Sweet Lew, Do the Evolution, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Smile, Alive, Rockin’ In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter/Star Spangled Banner TFT Notes: Coming soon…

Australia / New Zealand Leg 3

Added November 14, 2009 11/14/09: Member Equity Stadium, Perth, Australia opening acts: Ben Harper and the Relentless 7, Liam Finn set: Breakerfall, Why Go, Corduroy, Gonna See My Friend, Small Town, Amongst The Waves, Even Flow, Pilate, Unthought Known, Daughter/(W.M.A.), Big Wave, Force of Nature, I Am Mine, Grievance, Garden, The Fixer, Save You first encore: Just Breathe, Red Mosquito, Love Reign O’er Me, Whipping, Got Some, Do The Evolution second encore: Throw Your Arms Around Me, Given to Fly, Betterman/(Save It For Later), Alive, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Notes soon…

Added November 18, 2009 11/17/09: Adelaide Oval, Adelaide, Australia opening acts: Ben Harper and the Relentless 7, Liam Finn set: Release, Why Go, Gonna See My Friend, Brain Of J, In My Tree, Severed Hand, Faithfull, Got Some, Even Flow, Johnny Guitar, Amongst The Waves, I Got ID, Small Town, No Way, Unthought Known, Lukin, Blood first encore: Just Breathe, Red Mosquito, Indifference, State Of Love And Trust, The Real Me, The Fixer, Rearviewmirror second encore: Smile, Life Wasted, Alive, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: Returning to Adelaide to play for the 6th time, the band put on a very tight, energetic show with plenty of song requests and quite a few surprises in the set. After opening with a strong version of “Release” and a “How you doin’?” from Ed, the band explode into a great trio of songs; an energetic “Why Go”, a very tight “Gonna See My Friend” – with Matt absolutely owning the kit - and a fiery “Brain of J”, with some great guitar work from Mike & Stone. Ed praises the karma of the crowd for the good weather and describes the venue as “The most beautiful Oval we’ve ever played!” “In My Tree” is dedicated “to the birds” and sounds great, played in its original form. One of only two songs from Avocado played tonight, “Severed Hand” is dedicated to Nick Cave with Ed correcting a newspaper’s reference to something he said in Perth, claiming that Nick is “One of the greatest writers on the planet of our time”. The first crowd check of the night comes from Ed as “Faithfull” starts up, a great some to hear live which as tonight confirms, showcases Jeff’s exemplary bass work. During the outro Ed calls out a guy in the crowd with “Hey, behave yourself down here, I got my eye on you asshole. Behave yourself.”, leading to the now infamous “Asshole Speech”:

“Uh, just one second, one second here. Can you give us some light here? Uh, you know in uh….yeah….well…you can make some noise and let me know if I’m correct in the assumption that most people here are getting along this evening, it’s all…you’re giving each other space and you’re looking out for your neighbour, yeah? Uh, y’know, we had a, we had a night to remember in Perth, everyone seemed to get along but then we found out after there was a few fights and a few disruptions here and there…uh…we can leave that shit in WA, right? We don’t need that here tonite, and I see you, you’re excited and I called you an asshole a minute ago…I’m not going to apologise becase I might be right, but I will tell you you’re about 2 feet taller than the 3 young women in front of you, so watch your fucking elbows bruda’ and ain’t no man gonna get no sympathy for bruising young women right in front of them, you saw what happened to Kanye right? You don’t wanna get fuckin’ Kanye’d. Are we showing him on the screen? Let’s show everybody the potential asshole that you might see on the train later on if you don’t mind your business (crowd boos) cos we got a long night ahead of us and we don’t wanna play fuckin’ slow songs all night just to keep the peace, so maintain yourselves please, thank you very much.”

As if to prove that slow songs are far from the band’s collective mind, another great trio of rockin’ songs follows; “Got Some”, “Even Flow” (with Mike absolutely going off on an extended jam leading Ed to ask “Is that a fuckin’ guitar player or what?!” to which we of course all know the answer), and “Johnny Guitar”, yet another super-tight song. Ed introduces “Amongst The Waves” nicely, mentioning how they all got in the water that day and it was beautiful. Then he completely fucks up the lyrics of the first two lines, reprimanding himself with an “Aww fuck”, followed closely by a “Fuck me, man!”. After another semi-rarity - “I Got ID” -  Ed apologises with “Sorry I fucked up the lyrics, at least you know there’s no lip synching going on…although I’m dying to try it someday”. Having its 7th public play ever and its first ever in Oz, “No Way” is dedicated to “Julie” who Ed met in the pool hall the night before, although it’s not the song she asked them to play! The “Lukin”->”Blood” coupling brings the first set to a rapid close. Opening the second set, “Just Breathe” is dedicated to author Tim Winton, after which Ben Harper brings his slide talents to the band for “Red Mosquito” and lends vocal help on “Indifference”, before the band explode into a speedy version of “State of Love and Trust”. Another pool hall request is granted with “The Real Me”, which is yet another tight version. Before launching into “The Fixer”, Ed speaks about Mel Leckie, an athelete and Uni student from Adelaide and that the band received a letter that night about Mel’s fundraising to train and compete in the paralympic games in London and mentions that the band are donating a few grand to help her cause, raising a big cheer from the crowd. An eight-minute version of “Rearviewmirror” brings the first encore to a close, with some nice interplay in the extended jam. Another rarity “Smile” opens the second encore, with “Life Wasted” and “Alive” bringing the show to its familiar closer of “Yellow Ledbetter”. Overall a great show with some less frequently played songs putting in an appearance from No Code and Yield, yet no songs at all from Vitalogy, Binaural or Riot Act!

Added November 24, 2009 11/20/09: Etihad Stadium, Melbourne, Australia opening acts: Ben Harper and the Relentless 7, Liam Finn set: Elderly Woman…, Corduroy, Animal, Got Some, Brother, Amongst The Waves, Even Flow, Oceans, Lukin, Green Disease, Force of Nature, Present Tense, Gonne See My Friend, Given To Fly, Daughter/(ABitWpII), Glorified G, The Fixer, Do the Evolution, first encore: The Needle And The Damage Done, Just Breathe, Red Mosquito, Indifference, Jeremy, Deep, Why Go, Porch second encore: Throw Your Arms Around Me, Black, Spin The Black Circle, Alive, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter / AC/DC Medley TFT Notes: Notes soon…

Added November 24, 2009 11/22/09: Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney, Australia opening acts: Ben Harper and the Relentless 7, Liam Finn set: Why Go, Hail Hail, (Interstellar Overdrive)/Corduroy, Severed Hand, Small Town, The Fixer, Given To Fly, Dissident, Even Flow, Untitled->MFC, Unthought Known, Down, Garden, Whipping, Mankind, Got Some, Do The Evolution first encore: Happy Birthday, Red Mosquito, Indifference, State of Love and Trust, Light Years, Last Exit, Porch second encore: Throw Your Arms Around Me, Crazy Mary, Rockin’ In The Free World TFT Notes: Notes soon…

Updated March 1, 2010 11/25/09: QSAC Stadium, Brisbane, Australia opening acts: Ben Harper and the Relentless 7, Liam Finn set: Why Go, Animal, Got Some, Small Town, In Hiding, In My Tree, Save You, Even Flow, Amongst The Waves, Off He Goes, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Daughter/(Another Brick In the Wall)/(School’s Out), Rats, Unthought Known, Insignificance, If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It), Blood first encore: The End, Just Breathe, Red Mosquito, Indifference, Gonna See My Friend, The Fixer, Rearviewmirror second encore: Throw Your Arms Around Me, Jeremy, Alive, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: With a quick “good evening” from Eddie and Matt Cameron beating out the opening drum beat to “Why Go”, the band started intense out of the gate. McCready is scorching on the solo and the crowd cheers their appreciation. After a solid “Animal”, which included a short crowd singalong, the band tore through “Got Some” marking the first of seven tracks from the Backspacer album to be performed tonight. Ed jokes “this would be their last show on this big beautiful green island surrounded by blue so lets vibrate this whole building by playing a slow song” followed by a reminder to the crowd of 35,000 strong to “take care of their neighbour” leading into “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter of a Small Town”. During “In Hiding” Ed changes the lyrics to “I was high as hell” and “In My Tree” is done in the original Jack Irons style. Ed asks “How’s the weather?” before the bands rips into “Even Flow” featuring some behind the neck guitar work from McCready. Ed mentions that “Mike has been surfing every day” and that he got a new tattoo that day. “Amongst the Waves” is introduced as “part love song, part surf song” Ed mentions his appreciation for the same faces down front from show to show and says they’re gonna take requests and leads into “Off He Goes” followed by “Not for you” during which mentions he had never heard the word “schoolie” before and that on the news they talk about them like they are “thieves and rapists and convicts”. Ed thinks they are “just some young men and woman who got through school and just want to have it and feel freedom for a few weeks.” Sleater Kinney’s “Modern Girl” is tagged at the end of “Not For You” which leads into “Daughter” which featured tags from “School’s Out” and “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2″. “Unthought Known” starts with Ed mentioning how he saw the sunrise that morning and he nails the throat-stretching “gems and rhinestones” lyric. “Insignificance” is followed by an cover “If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)” by Australia’s own AC/DC, introduced as “an experiment” by Eddie and leads into “Blood” as the closing track for the main set. Ed is very talkative tonight and mentions that he was going to invite a young man on stage to squeeze his testicles at the right times during the AC/DC cover. “The End” is played as Ed says “this next one has never been played on this continent before” and is paired, as per usual on this tour, with “Just Breathe”. “Red Mosquito” is accompanied by Ben Harper on the steel pedal guitar who sticks around to accompany Ed on vocals for “Indifference” The 1st encore picks up steam quickly with a solid “Gonna See My Friend” and “The Fixer” combo followed by encore closer “Rearviewmirror” which featured some excellent jamming between Ament, Gossard and McCready. Coming out for the 2nd encore Ed introduces Boom to the crowd saying “we bring him around so you can see what a big, Hawaiian, motherfucker looks like” and then brings out Liam Finn to help perform “Throw Your Arms Around Me”. An excellent “Jeremy” is followed by more Ed talk where he mentions that Fox News is “spewing bullshit non-stop” and that “for them it’s entertainment and I don’t even think they believe in what they are saying”. A textbook version of “Alive” leads into “Baba O’Riley”. Mike then starts into “Yellow Ledbetter”. Ed changes “make me cry” to “make like the oceans” and Mike takes over ending the song and show in style.

Added November 27, 2009 11/27/09: Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland, NZ opening acts: Ben Harper and the Relentless 7, Liam Finn set: Daughter, Severed Hand, Corduroy, Hail Hail, Faithfull, Got Some, Hold On, Even Flow, Johnny Guitar, Elderly Woman…, Unemployable, Unthought Known, Black, Given To Fly, Grievance, Amongst The Waves, Wasted Reprise, Better Man/(Save It For Later) first encore: Just Breathe, Red Mosquito, Love, Reign O’re Me, Do The Evolution, Why Go, Porch second encore: Not Given Lightly, The Fixer, Rockin’ In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: “Not Given Lightly” – a 1990 song from New Zealand artist Chris Knox – was performed with Liam and Neil Finn. Notes soon…

Added November 30, 2009 11/29/09: AMI Stadium, Christchurch, NZ opening acts: Ben Harper and the Relentless 7, Liam Finn set: Given To Fly, Got Some, Animal, Once, Unthought Known, Tremor Christ, Small Town, Worldwide Suicide, In My Tree, Marker in the Sand, Even Flow, Force of Nature, I Got Shit, Life Wasted, Garden, Do The Evolution, Go first encore: The End, Happy Birthday Matt Cameron, Red Mosquito, Indifference, State of Love and Trust, The Fixer second encore: Jeremy, Better Man, The Real Me, Better Be Home Soon, I Got You, Alive, Rockin’ In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter TFT Notes: The last show of the 2009 tour has an unusual opener in “Given to Fly”, Ed pauses to let the crowd sing “fuckers” in the second verse. Everyone is locked in and the band rips through the next couple, Ed only pausing to let the crowd sing the chorus in “Animal”, saying “it’s all you.” After “Once” Ed addresses the crowd, “Well good evening it looks like we have quite a gathering here tonight…Welcome to, not only our last gig in the Southern hemisphere but, our last gig on this tour on this last record. Certainly ah, not our last tour as a band but ah the last shows for quite some time, so uh, thanks for being a part of it…uh and for coming back and supporting us after all those years, because, uh, it’s been a while I believe. The one thing that marks the time since we’ve been back was uh, Matt Cameron on the drums joined us in 1998 and we’ve never played here with him before so…and also on the keyboards, Mr. Boom Gasper, his first time in Christchurch, NZ. And when we pulled in today it felt uh, it felt quite cold, almost bitter, but uh it feels like it’s heating up and I know body heat is a natural resource so hopefully it’s working for you, feels a bit cozier now, I think… another natural resource is love and respect please watch after your neighbors tonight, if you find any problems, ya know, look for the nearest security guy, but uh, you’re their lifeline to hope… so if somebody goes down, just make sure to get right on top of it, we’ll stop the show whatever, we’ll start it again, no problems, we ain’t got a curfew, we’ll keep playing, that all make sense? I read today that there’s 384,000 people in Christchurch and it looks like you all made it so thanks very much. ” “Tremor Christ” makes its 3rd appearance on this tour with the intro “This song is called Tremor Christ-church “. He also notes someone in the crowd saying “I’m watching you” and changes the last line of the song to, “puts his faith in love and Tremor Christ-church”. After “World Wide Suicide”, Ed again looks out for the GA crowd on the floor and asks for people to try not to push forward into the front, “like these poor folks in front who have nowhere to go except into themselves. So just this little group right here, I got you brothas, I’m watching you. Up and down great, on the side it’s like a big rock and it causes waves and ripples up to the front…The same goes to you guys too, it’s all good right? Thank you for listening.” “I’m not sure what we were thinking when we wrote this next song but the flight down here was so long that I read the bible on the way down, at least the first book of Genesis, and that’s what I think this next song is about…” before “Marker in the Sand” and after says, “I have to admit we’ve played that one better before once or twice, but maybe because we only played it once or twice, this song, I think we know this one…” and they go into “Even Flow”. He intros Mike and says “I think the clouds are trying to cool him off so he wouldn’t burn up his guitar…this next song wasn’t written about Mike McCready but the title applies to him, it’s called “Force of Nature”. “I should tell you I woke up this morning and there was violence on TV, as per usual… but this time it was Parisians getting their French asses kicked by the All Blacks (NZ Rugby team).” Before “Garden”, Ed notes the size of the crowd and says he wants to try his NZ accent at the risk of embarrassing himself but he only knows six words, and tries them out, saying “Liam Finn, Ben Harper, and Eddie Vedder” with a NZ twang. “You’re very, very, very, very, very kind and I don’t say that lightly. We’re getting close to the finish line and we’re not leaving this oval until we win the fuckin’ game, I’ll tell you that. In spirit of this being the last night of the tour, I’ll play this one on my own here, it’s called “The End.” After the song Ed says, “Joining me right here, uh, you know him as a musician he’s also a great father, great husband, great fuckin’ singer, us in this band we get to know him as a great friend, so happy to be on tour with him and his band the Relentless 7, welcome to the stage, Mr. Ben Harper. And before we get into this thing back in America (where it’s the 28th)… it is Matt Cameron’s birthday he’s our longest drummer, not to mention the genius of Soundgarden…” and Ed leads as the crowd sings “Happy birthday” to Matt. Ed notes, “That’s much better than the version we did backstage.” Ben sits in on slide during “Red Mosquito” which includes a long solo. “The first time we played this with Ben was sometime last century…and Ben’s gonna sing it with us, but we invite all of you too, jump in please…” as the band starts “Indifference.” Ben and Ed trade verses, than trade lines on the last verse before harmonizing the outro. The band takes stage for the 2nd encore and Ed address the crowd again, “I gotta tell you uh…you’re just being tremendous champions tonight throughout…it’s something we’ll remember…coming in today, you could see everyone’s faces, all the looks on your faces, handsome bunch of people I gotta say…handsome group of people… like you don’t even need to have 2 or 3 drinks to want to fuck ‘em…Sorry. Glad we didn’t bring the kids tonight…we want to thank you for your support over the years, it means a lot to us, you’re a hearty bunch.” “This is about a kid,” is the intro to “Jeremy” and he says “help me” on the high notes at the end as the crowd sings along. Ed says, “one last time” and sings the first line of “Betterman” and then lets the crowd take it. Ed introduces Neil & Liam Finn to the stage and thanks Liam for being on the road with him the last two years and for coming “on this rock n’ roll field trip.” They join for the Crowded House & Split Enz songs “Better Be Home Soon” and “I Got You” to the delight of the crowd. They thank Pearl Jam as they leave the stage and Liam thanks “Uncle Eddie”. During the breakdown in “RITFW”, Ed says, ” You gotta admit this is kinda fucking beautiful, yeah? It’s all you…” and adds few lyric changes, “we’re all a thousand points of light for the soldier man, let’s bring ‘em home while we can…we got no fuel, no fuel to burn.” Ed thanks all the bands again and the crowd and says we’ll see you next time, one year, two years, not…” and Mike starts “Yellow Ledbetter” to close out the show. “We’re going home, but it felt like home, thanks so much.” Ed names all the bands members and includes himself as “me, myself and I” before thanking the crew and one last goodbye, noting, “drinks on me.”