Pearl Jam set list at Gibson Amphitheatre on September 30 is a force of naturePearl Jam’s sold out show last night at Gibson Amphitheatre, the first of their four-gig stints at the venue, fell within the first week of the band touring to promote its new album, Backspacer. With just a couple of slight kinks to iron out while delivering their new material, the band performed an electrifying show that had two encores and lasted until 10:48 pm.
It remains clear that despite great success and countless gigs under his belt over the years, lead singer Eddie Vedder still sings with as much conviction as is equal to the band’s fans' fierce reverence towards him. Stage diving was not part of the gig last night, but Vedder’s voice is more powerful ever upon the release of the band's ninth studio album.
With its prescient title, Pearl Jam’s new album Backspacer has proven to take them back to the past, as Vedder announced last night that the new album had landed at Number 1, yielding the group its first release at the top of the charts in thirteen years. After its second week out, it reached the peak position, a fact Vedder noted on stage last night. “So now we can say to our kids, ‘Hey, just remember your dad is number one now.”
Certainly the band was number one to its fans last night, as the entire audience stood on its feet during the entire show. Throughout most of the songs, the audience sang along with the band. Whether numbers were more sedate or uptempo was irrelevant to the frenzied crowd.
The present tense is working out quite well for this group that has staunchly managed to retain their integrity when it comes to their fans, a feat that has not been accomplished by numerous acts that have achieved the level of success that Pearl Jam enjoys.
True to form, Vedder dissed Dick Cheney, and then made a reference to Los Angeles being close to the ocean just before the band broke into “Amongst The Waves,” from their new album. “It’s a song about healing,” he explained. “It’s not about surfing, it’s about surfing relationships,” he clarified. Vedder, himself, has long been an avid surfer. With its lyrics, “You’ve bled yourself, the wounds are gone. It’s rare then where is nothing wrong, survived and you’re amongst the fittest,” the song is in keeping with Pearl Jam’s lyrics about survival in a sometimes brutal world, and coming out on top, a recurrent theme to members of the band in their music, as well as in their professional and personal lives. Witnessing last night's show, it is not hard to understand why this band is on top.
The fluid guitar solos from Mike McCready and Stone Gossard during songs like “Even Flow” had a perfect backdrop with the band that includes keyboardist Kenneth E. Gaspar, bassist Jeff Ament and drummer Matt Cameron, who also made it into the spotlight during the show. McCready primarily played lead as Gossard played rhythm. Vedder also played guitar during a few songs, and at one point, gave several tambourines he played on stage to members of the audience, one of which he signed while performing.
Vedder announced to the crowd that he had gone to the doctor, and the results came back positive. He proclaimed that the doctor said of his diagnosis, “You have some heavy metal in your blood stream.” Vedder then quipped, “I think you got me confused with Michael McCready.” The audience roared with laughter. “The only way to get rid of this is to listen to some Yanni,” he continued. The band then broke into “Present Tense,” with Vedder’s trademark voice solely accompanied by guitar.
The encore included a four-member string ensemble, which Vedder said would “kind of class up the joint.” The arrangement, used for “Just Breathe” and “The End,” worked perfectly. Ben Harper, the show’s opener, joined the band, contributing on “Red Mosquito.”
Vedder enlisted a guest from the audience to join him on stage, a young fan named Jacob.
Just before performing their final song of the evening, Vedder discussed a newly made friend, John McCullough, of whom he explained, “His battalion is going off to do another nine months in the Middle East.” Vedder added, “We made mistakes and we’re doing the best we can to fix them.” Vedder then opened up his button-down shirt, exposing a t-shirt that McDunn had given to him, which had “USMC” imprinted on it. With this, the show ended with Pearl Jam’s longheld custom of playing a cover song. Accordingly, the band broke into their last number of the night, Neil Young’s “Rockin’ In The Free World.”
“We belong together,” Vedder sang during “Black.” Therein was the most realistic statement that could be made about Pearl Jam and their veracious audience.
par Olikatie » Jeu Oct 01, 2009 12:06 pm 
Jeremy est né le 28.04.06 et Fanny le 17.07.09 
