Man I miss CDs

You can still buy them

Who in the band could do the most push-ups in one set?

Not Stone

Stone would do them on his knees and still not get the most push-ups

i want to believe.

That's the only thing I want so much

I was at the 9/14 show at Camden, my first Pearl Jam show since the Brooklyn Shows in 2013. It’s been nine years, which is crazy since I had been a three shows a tour guy since 1998. Life just got in the way. I had small kids and felt bad about traveling. Work was stressful and money was maybe a little tight. I got shut out of a few shows, and I was at a place in my life where moving heaven and earth to go see Pearl Jam just didn’t seem necessary. I wanted to go, and the shows have always been among the highlight of my year, but missing them didn’t seem like a big deal anymore. There would always be next time.

COVID put ‘there will always be a next time’ into perspective, as did the realization that in my nine year absence the guys in the band somehow kept aging and are now pushing sixty. I can’t count on next time. So when my Baltimore show was cancelled and I didn’t get into the Camden pre-sale, I decided to try my luck on the general admission. It felt important to be there again, even without privileged seats. It’s been nine years, but I am fortunate enough that I can still see my favorite band. Pearl Jam has endured. Not everyone has.

I am so glad I went. The show was incredible. I forgot how astonishingly good they are at this, and how much I had taken that for granted. There is an encompassing resonance to Eddie’s voice live that no album (and certainly no concert bootleg) has ever been able to capture. Mike is one of the last great guitar gods, and he plays with an emotional, improvisational fury that is only rarely found on the more carefully crafted studio solos. Jeff was a beast, and the power of his playing really shines. Matt and Stone are machines, somehow keeping everything grounded and moving forward, the sturdy support that lets the others shine – Eddie’s description of Stone, after Mike’s Even Flow solo, was the guy who created the wave that Mike got to surf. That feels right. Just incredible performances all around, somehow magnified by their incomprehensible humility and gratitude. They play like a band who remembers every performance, and every connection, even though there have been about a thousand shows. Somehow every show is special to them, because they know how special it is for the people who are there, and they care so much about honoring the commitment the audience has made to them.

It was a pleasure to be reminded of all this after my long absence, and how little the setlist bullshit I used to obsess over matters . The real truth is that when you’re there, it doesn’t really matter what was played, so long as they are playing. The live experience can MFC and Inside Job feel like the most important songs in the world because they play them like they are, and so the audience experiences them the same way.

Having said that – it was a special show. The two people I was with have each seen Pearl Jam 3 times over the past twenty years. Not their first show, but hardly regulars. They songs they wanted most were Wash and State of Love and Trust, and they got them. Knowing the history, getting Breath and Leash in the same night was incredible, and they played the hell out of the both. The new songs sounded great. The classics sounded fresh. I was a little bummed I wasn’t going to get Alive, since I figured Breath took that spot. But then they kept going, and there it was.

Alive is my favorite song. And it is invariably my concert highlight. But I had an emotional reaction I didn’t really expect (it’s not like I haven’t gotten it 15 other times). Maybe it was the time away. Maybe it was the storm and stress of the last two years. But it felt earned, like a victory, in a way I’m not sure it ever had before, even though that’s literally the core message of the song. Pearl Jam concerts are quasi-spiritual experiences for me – vaguely out of body and otherworldly. I am an atheist, this is much church, and I was so grateful for the chance to take communion with tens of thousands of other believers – even out there on the lawn, where I felt a powerful connection to the three huge, intoxicated men dancing and singing their heart out to every song, embracing the moment and taking advantage of the space given to them while respecting the boundaries of the people around them. Or the stranger who had to high five me twice, he was just so overcome. I didn’t know these people. But their joy brought me joy. And half way through Alive I started to cry just a little bit.

We’ve all come through a lot together, and every time we put something down there is more waiting to be carried. We are none of us through the trauma of the past two years, and more awaits us. But for a few hours I was fortunate enough to watch my favorite band go out there and be the best band in the world. While they were playing none of that other stuff mattered, and when they were done, it mattered just a little less.

God I fucking love Pearl Jam.

Ghost is fucken amazing

Beautifully said.

About No Code…

"Pearl Jam concerts are quasi-spiritual experiences for me – vaguely out of body and otherworldly."

This is exactly how i feel about them too. reading about your experience, and...really...everyone else here, and seeing the videos has me more excited to see them than ever.

Thanks for posting. Whilst I've seen ed solo a couple of times over the last ten or 12 years, I haven't seen em since 09. Camden would have been a great one to break a dry spell.

Hey guys I like going to Pearl Jam concerts, too

Going to, and enjoying Pearl Jam concerts seems to be all the rage on RM lately. But Bammer was doing it before it was cool!

he’s a real trailblazer, that gut

great write up Stip, and exactly my experience with PJ live all these years....still, this year at Wertcher the show was so fucking impressive, tight, wild, heavy....They played like they got something to prove, like they were about the gain new fans, like all the fucking setlist was new songs, there was a ferocity and intensity that knock me down.

And yes, that moment of " we are still alive" resonates more with everyone after covid for sure.

one of my friends once told me at a pearl jam concert i remind them of a black woman at church. it made so much sense, b/c that's exactly how i feel. i'm not big into god or religion or anything else really, i was raised roman catholic, but I got over that BS pretty quickly. the most i've ever felt any type of out-of-body experience or connection to a 'higher power' is at concerts, especially pearl jam. i've been listening to this band for a good majority of my life, singing their songs at a show with thousands of people who feel similar is one of the most spiritual experiences i've ever had. i'm sure people say "it's just music", but that's like telling someone "it's just god". Music is my religion.

and of course the holy trinity is Pearl Jam, DMB and Radiohead

Few crowds feel like rock n roll church. Pearl Jam and Springsteen both feel that way but in very different ways.

Yes yes we all raise our hands during DTE. We get it.

I was getting excited to see Pearl Jam again but you guys are making it sound terrible.