A friend of mine has seen Pearl Jam 20 times in concert. On one of those occasions it was the second last night of their tour. Eddie Vedder told the crowd that night, “You might think tomorrow night, being our last show on the tour, is the craziest show on the tour. Well what you don’t know is, when it’s the last show we all just want to go home, which means TONIGHT is about to be the craziest show on the tour.”
This only heightened my anticipation for the May 10th show at the ACC, the second last night of their current tour celebrating 25 years since “Ten” was released.
Why would one see Pearl Jam 20 times? It was not something I would have ever thought of doing with any band, honestly… until I started to learn more about how each show is a uniquely crafted experience completely designed to please both the casual fan as well as reward the most faithful Ved-heads.
I think I just made that term up… it fits.
My Ved-head buddy is texting me through the whole show. He has already seen them on this tour in Quebec City and Ottawa and has tickets to both Toronto shows.
I had only heard some of the songs off of Binaural before and so the fact that they were playing the album start to finish was lost on me at first. As I got the text third song in informing me of this, when Eddie drew a parallel to what was happening with the fires raging in For McMurray, my appreciation for how the band crafts a show grew tenfold, and then even moreso after reading how it was their third full album performance on the tour. Not to mention some of the best banter and audience interaction I’ve ever seen in a show.
From the fires in Alberta (and the promise that money from the tour was going to help those affected) to political jabs at Donald Trump to just guzzling down bottles of wine and encouraging front row superfans to sing into the mic, it was one hell of a show.
And for those of us aching for the classics and the covers, well, we had our fill in an amazing 33 song set.
SET LIST
- Go
- Do the Evolution
- Mind Your Manners
- Breakerfall (Binaural begins)
- Gods’ Dice
- Evacuation
- Light Years
- Nothing as It Seems
- Thin Air
- Insignificance
- Of the Girl
- Grievance
- Rival
- Sleight of Hand
- Soon Forget
- Parting Ways (Binaural ends)
- Corduroy
- Once
- Rearviewmirror
ENCORE:
- Imagine (John Lennon cover)
- Let Me Sleep
- Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd cover)
- Even Flow
- Down
- Better Man
- Porch
SECOND ENCORE:
- Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town
- Given to Fly
- State of Love and Trust
- Black
- Alive
- The Real Me (The Who cover)
- Keep On Rockin’ In The Free Word (Neil Young Cover)
My Top Five Moments In The Show:
5. Elderly Woman… played facing everyone who was sitting behind the stage.
4. The insane, insane, insane, insane guitar during Even Flow.
3. Soon Forget – a song that was new to me and an instant favourite.
2. Closing the show at the three hour mark with the house lights up and everyone wondering if we were ever going to be released from the band’s magical hold during an amazing cover.
1. This.
My first Pearl Jam show is now behind me and, while I’ll never catch up to my buddy at this point, I won’t miss another opportunity to see them live again.
Further Reading – This show in context of the entire tour.