March 4th, 2003 Osaka, Japan

Setlist: Oceans, Love Boat Captain, Do The Evolution, Ghost, Even Flow, Grievance, Off He Goes, Wishlist, 1/2 Full, Once, Nothingman, Leatherman, Betterman, Insignificance, Go, I Am Mine, Thumbing My Way, Faithfull, Porch, Save You
Encore 1: Breakerfall, Corduroy, Thin Air, Elderly Woman, State of Love and Trust, All or None
Encore 2: Last Kiss (Ed solo), Smile, Alive

Notes: It is very exciting when a band plays an epic performance like the one last night. Many times, it is just as interesting to see how they follow an epic performance. This one comes the day after a powerful set at Budokan in Tokyo. Given that performance, it is even a wonder that the members of the band even woke up the next day to play, let alone play a set that is worthy of their potential as a band.

But deliver a very high quality show they did. They opened the show with a song not played since 2000, “Oceans”. Without any signs of rust on the song, they set the tone early that this set was going to be as interesting as the night before. At one point early on, they admit to be making the set list up as the show went along, which would undoubtedly reveal some surprises throughout the set.

Next, another mellow song in Love Boat Captain, which featured strong leads from guitarist McCready. From there, the band picked up the pace, trying to match the intensity from the night before with strong performances of “Do the Evolution”, “Ghost”, “Even Flow”, and “Grievance”. After those songs were played masterfully, the band slowed it down with a rare appearance of “Off He Goes”, and also with “Wishlist”, which featured an extended jam with Eddie Vedder tagging improvised lyrics to the end.

The first real absolute highlight comes next with “1/2 Full”, which is the strongest performance of the song of the tour. It clocked in at nearly 7 minutes, and really featured an amazing amount of passion and energy from every member in the band. The band then kept up the pace with “Once”, and followed that with the first performance of the “man trilogy” of the tour (that being “Nothingman”, “Leatherman”, “Better Man”). The band continued in fine rocking format with strong versions of both “Insignificance” and “Go”. Again, the band mellowed out a bit, playing the mid-tempo single “I Am Mine”, which has come into its own since last night, and “Thumbing My Way”, which features a complete breakdown at the beginning, but recovers for a nice version in the end. Another gem follows, with “Faithful” making its first appearance of the tour, followed by a closing out of the first set with “Porch” and then directly into “Save You”. The former featured exceptional jams in an extended version, and the latter featured great energy as well.

The band returned to stage for the encore to the sound of clapping fans, and they come back with a strong rocker to open the encore, “Breakerfall”. From there, they seamlessly start into tour staple “Corduroy”, which features a wonderful jam at the end of the song. From here, the band decides to start whipping out the songs rarely played on this tour with the first performance of “Thin Air” in 2003, and the second performance of “State of Love and Trust”. Both show no rust and come across well. Sandwiched in between those songs was the tour staple “Small Town”. To close out the encore, the band chose the closer of Riot Act, “All Or None”. While musically, the songs sounds great, it was a bit frustrating to hear Vedder forget the lyrics at times to such a pretty song, and apt closer.

After a short break, Eddie Vedder came back out by himself, and lead the crowd in a pretty version of “Last Kiss”, played by Ed solo. From there, they decided to whip out one more first appearance of the tour, that being the No Code rocker “Smile”, which sounded great, despite it not being played since 2000. For the second night in a row, the band decided to close the set with the anthem “Alive”. It features the entire band on fire, especially Mike McCready, who tears up the solos at the end, and provides an exciting finish to another powerful Pearl Jam performance.

Cropduster Grade: A