With Gems and Rhinestones
Pearl Jam 07/19/2013 : Wrigley Field – Chicago, IL
by Brenton Goodrich
The waiting drove me mad…the months leading up to the show I mean…yeah those feelings will come into play again later. It had been some time waiting to see the guys again but not really, it just feels that way. Twice in 2009, 3 times in 2010, and the two 2011 PJ20 shows in Alpine Valley means I’ve seen them quite a bit recently for a band that doesn’t tour often anymore. There are always these questions in the overly crowded space for music in my mind; I’ve branched out, like different genres, always exploring for something new and more interesting. Will I still love live Pearl Jam?
It was a heavy, scorching hot day with the chance for storms. Known and discussed at length ahead of time. Whatever. After some pre-show food and drinks with great friends, my girl and I make our way past the street vendors and previously overly crowded official merch tents into the ballpark, a ballpark I’ve entered many times for a different reason. It was perfect fusion. I observed before the show, in risk of sounding fanatical, teenage memories of watching Cubs games on my parents’ floor and retreating thereafter to my room for long encounters with headphones and this album named ‘TEN’. Just a little extra sentiment.
I called an ‘Unthought Known’ opener, but ‘Release’ should have been obvious. Didn’t think it was dark enough yet, and this burning but triumphant song excels with just a faint glow on stage. Definitely felt good when they started even though I wasn’t in my normal first 15 rows locality. Evidently, the always generous Fan Club has gotten too big, and they want to share the love with a lottery system. Hard to complain with all the seniority benefits over the years! At least there were video screens. I had checked out the recent setlist they played so was prepared for something similar….a set of slower tunes to start. ‘Nothingman’, one of the great lost tunes, followed and it was obvious they had reworked this a little and enjoyed playing it. Very nice! Really loved ‘Present Tense’ (still wish the jam was extended further), but this version was tight and intense. Not a huge fan of ‘Hold On’, but ‘Low Light’ was a nice surprise in this chill starting set. It was around here that Eddie Vedder mentioned the coming storms and how “we’ll all get through it together”. I was hoping to hear ‘Come Back’, and this may be the definitive live version. This excellent song has even more meaning to me these days. ‘Elderly Woman’, with its sing-along participation, was a perfect end to this first mini-set. Eddie referenced the coming storms and “getting through it as a team” again before the song. After the song….well, things got interesting.
I love that we got to hear most everything from Ed. Can’t help but once again thinking that this band gives a shit and wants the entire experience to be as organic as possible. Paraphrasing Ed, “There’s some heavy weather coming in. It’s only going to last a half hour. We want safety….trust me on this. The curfew has been extended”.
Sweet! Take a piss and get a beer between sets with an entire show left…rock and roll. There were more instructions from the stage crew, and everyone had to take cover in the concourse….including the general admission fans on the field who had been in line all day to get to the rail.
165 minutes, 30 conversations, 8 beers, 2 storms, and 1 sausage later…….
They were back….just before midnight. The waiting indeed…..
It’s really unbelievable trying to put together what we did during that entire time. Shout out to the Wrigley staff for their patience and smiles while continuing to serve food and beverages until there was no more. Twitter updates from the band kept everyone around, but let’s be honest, I wasn’t going anywhere anyways.
“You’re back!” Ed said. “We’re back. It’s great to be back!” People were pouring back into their seats and Ed started some dialogue about his love of the Cubs and Wrigley Field. “Ernie Banks used to say let’s play 2…..we can say tonight, let’s play till 2.” What followed was a really cool moment which I could only imagine would have been better had the delay not been so ridiculous. Ed told the story of Ernie asking him to write a song for the Cubs, and then played the song ‘All the Way’ with video of legendary Cubs moments on the screens. *Cue the jokes about how short a video it must have been.* 🙂 Afterwards, he welcomed Ernie to the stage. Mr. Cub said a few humorous things and thanked everyone. I’ll take this time to comment on how hackneyed and trite this entire section could have been, but wasn’t because Pearl Jam is class.
Then, finally, they were off. ‘All Night’ was perfect here and just rocks. Probably my favorite of the rarities and I’m happy it’s around still. ‘Do The Evolution’ launched the kicks and jumps and running around we expected from the younger version of the band. ‘Setting Forth’ from Ed’s first solo album was unexpected and quite honestly in a weird spot. I was thinking “Um, we just got going….right now we need you to bring every extremely fast song you can.” I have always wished for a little more loose jamming, and they took a step in that direction with the reworked ‘Corduroy’. Took their time with an extended bridge, breaking it down and building it back up. Not that it didn’t rock, the ending jam was also extremely extended and really freaking wailed! Next up was Faithfull and again I’m thinking this is an odd placement for an exhausted crowd that you just got going. I guess I prefer when they string similar-tempo songs together which makes that run of mid-to-slower-tempo songs seem more epic. Anyways, enough on that. Faithfull is one of those great lost songs, and it was played with a renewed sense of purpose. Something they had been practicing to break out. Ed thanked the faithful for being so fanatic for so long.
I assumed new song ‘Mind Your Manners’ would show up soon. Showed up it did! The production on the studio track has some flaws in my not so humble opinion, but this song fucking rips (with melody, since it’s Pearl Jam). I feel like the band started to get into the show at this point. Large doses of jumping and running around stage like it was ’93. Matt Cameron lays down a ferocious beat on this track and Mike McCready rips each section up. I often complain this band doesn’t surprise me enough, and I’m seeing on this night that has changed, starting with another new song, ‘Lightning Bolt’. Title track from the soon to be released new album (first time they’ve had an album titled after a track) was thrilling to hear. I’m not a fan of the single line repeating choruses sometimes, but this song builds and swells on a great melody like PJ does so well. More importantly, this tune contains tasty guitar licks and more jamming than I normally see from them. Let me clarify, not jamming in improv-fashion, but considerable more instrumentation with everyone just going off. I need to mention again that the band looked renewed and ecstatic to be there. Mike is allowed quite a bit of room to roam on this track. Jeff Ament seemed to lead the song with his bass playing, and Stone Gossard was throwing himself around while hammering out the main riff. ‘State of Love and Trust’ is always welcomed and ‘Wishlist’ was pretty and enjoyable due to its rarity in setlists these days. ‘Even Flow’ is always a crowd favorite and just plain fun even if I’ve gotten tired of it over the years. The required Mike McCready solo was delivered, but something was becoming quite obvious over the chorus of this show. Mike is a man possessed more so than usual. MVP of this show and not just because I tend to pay more attention to guitar playing than the average fan. Every song to this point seemed to be driven by Mike’s playing and enthusiasm on-stage and he dug into ‘Even Flow’ with the usual reckless abandon. The difference here was technical wanking was replaced in part by real passion to bring the soul out of the notes. An intense beautiful mess in a way.
‘Leatherman’ was completely unnecessary, especially when it’s 1AM and you’re running out of time. Maybe I need to be backstage as musical director to modify setlists in case of a large storm delay. 🙂 Also unnecessary, Mike’s solo ‘Eruption’ cover. Eddie Van Halen is overrated and his whole thing has been done better before and after. There, I said it! I guess McCready was heavily influenced by EVH, so I get it. My jaded music snobbery and worries about tangents that cut into the already shortened evening don’t always apply I guess, evident by what happened next. Ed walks out with an accordian strapped on and lays down the first few notes of ‘Bugs’. Really!? I was hugely influenced by ‘Vitalogy’ in ’94/’95 in no small part to this track. I remember thinking how cool it was that a band could record this and release it with confidence and, in part to my beginning obsession with Sonic Youth during this time, made me think Pearl Jam was different than most other bands. Turns out I was right. The creepy tune pleased me. Best 30 songs…no. An experience you will never see again…absolutely! ‘Why Go’ was next and has seen a resurgence in setlists over the past several years and is always frantic and fun.
Next up was ‘Unthought Known’. It’s hard to describe the uplifting feeling this song provides. Especially after a long trying night like this. I thought about the ups and downs of this entire night, or day, or week, or year, or hell, lifetime. Then I looked up and exclaimed “Feel the sky blanket you,… With Gems & Rhinestones. See the path cut by the moon,… For you to walk on.” I also truly feel like the doctrine of life should be: “Dream the dreams of others then,… You will be no ones rival.” Always a feel good song for me. The opening licks of ‘Rearviewmirror’ led to again being lovingly reminded to not fall over the first row railing of the upper deck. Smiles. This was a commonly jammed-out intense version with the three guitar attack and a chaotic driving jam. Song comes to a crashing end and the guys walk off stage.
Encore break was short. We were getting a long show regardless of the situation and as mutual respect goes, I made note of the still near capacity crowd. Another new song leads off the encore set, ‘Future Days’, which is a late 70s soft-rock influenced song with producer Brendan O’Brien on keys. Then comes the mother of covers, ‘Mother’. Was stunned when the band first covered this a few years ago…but quickly realized how perfect it was for Ed’s baritone and the classic rock leanings of every band member. Stone laid down a great acoustic guitar track, Ed was emphatic and haunting, and Mike’s already Pink Floyd-toned leads were gripping. Loved every minute of it. Mother Love Bone’s ‘Chloe Dancer > Crown of Thorns’ is not a huge favorite of mine but always played extremely well in honor of the band’s history. Some fans love this song and the band really seems to. One of my favorite live tunes, ‘Porch’, made its appearance next. The intro was the funky Vedder riff version. Few songs make me feel rock and roll like this one. Their absolute best jam and really stellar playing from the entire band throughout. Ed started swinging on the giant bulb light fixtures that had been dropped from above and ended up in the first few rows of fans. He was passed along by fans with Pete (the bodyguard) holding securely onto his legs. A modified 48-year-old-huge-star crowd surf.
Some more kind words about Wrigley followed since he had grown up going to games. Basically saying good night. ‘Wasted Reprise’ led off ‘Life Wasted’, then ‘Black’ got its turn. ‘Black’ is always an epic live song and was great to hear but hurried somewhat. Pearl Jam were out of time. “We want to just keep going, but we don’t want to fuck it up for the next time. Only 5 minutes!” Couldn’t have asked for more than a ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ closer. All the lights were brought up as they rocked the outro, and then the band took its customary bow. It was 2am.
The setlist from the stage and the one printed on the back of t-shirts they mailed to Fan Club members later showed that ‘Speed of Sound’, ‘Sleight of Hand’, ‘Man of the Hour’, ‘Daughter’, ‘Better Man’, ‘Alive’, ‘Baba O’Riley’, and ‘Yellow Ledbetter’ were all supposed to be part of the evening. Wow. I mean WOW. They were clearly trying to make it an epic night. Was it epic? When it comes to comparing shows or expressing how inspired I feel after a musical performance, I’ve found it’s sometimes lost. So many external factors play into it, such as what is on my mind for tomorrow or how tired I am after a near 3 hour rain delay. I’ve seen a few better shows, but Pearl Jam were great on this night! I continue to be amazed with the effort, craftsmanship, and charisma of this band after so many years. You truly get the feeling they want each person to leave amazed with the time they had. On this occasion, that amazing time was more than expected!