Pearl Jam, June 24th, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY

Pearl Jam was scheduled to come on at 8:45. They were on the stage, full-bore, at 8:45. And they stayed there for practically three hours. The intermission was barely long enough for me to go pee.

It was about :38 seconds into the show before Eddie Vedder'd the mic

This was the first time I dabbled in arena rock since the U2 Elevation Tour in 2002. At first, I was little apprehensive about my seating location - behind the stage. But it was actually pretty cool, and you get a real sense for the spell that Eddie Vedder has over the crowd. Mike McCready could have his guitar propped up on his shoulder blades shredding, and if Eddie crept back stage for a smoke the sections around me went ballistic for him. I also had a great view of Eddie getting booze from the crew. (it was sort of a well-oiled, assembly line of stagehands feeding him bottles of Moet).

The highlight of the show for me was hands-down when they closed the first set with 'Do The Evolution', which they dedicated to George Carlin. If anybody has this video, I IMPLORE you to post it to YouTube. Here's the setlist (via Stereogum):

01 "Hard To Imagine"
02 "Save You"
03 "Why Go?"
04 "All Night"
05 "Corduroy"
06 "Faithfull"
07 "Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town"
08 "Down"
09 "Unemployable"
10 "Given To Fly"
11 "Who You Are"
12 "Whipping"
13 "1/2 Full"
14 "Even Flow"
15 "Present Tense"
16 "Daughter" (with the Rangers chant!)
17 "Do The Evolution"
----
18 "Love Reign O'er Me"
19 "W.M.A."
20 "Leash"
21 "Spin The Black Circle"
22 "Wasted Reprise"
23 "Porch"
----
24 "No More"
25 "Crazy Mary"
26 "Comatose"
27 "I Believe In Miracles" (with CJ Ramone on bass)
28 "Alive"
----
29 "All Along The Watchtower"
30 "Indifference"

Here are some photos from last night. I emailed Ryan Muir - who for my money takes some of the best photos around of New York City rock shows - to see if he was going to be there. He didn't end up going, but I did find these beauts on Flickr: