Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Top Ten Pearl Jam Moments of 2013, #4

AN EVENING WITH PEARL JAM AT WRIGLEY STADIUM


Being born in Evanston, Illinois outside of Chicago, Eddie Vedder is a lifetime Cubs fan, and has always dreamed of playing at Wrigley Field.  Even though Ed was able to take the stage with his hero, Bruce, in 2012, his dream really came true this July when Pearl Jam became the tenth musical artist in history to play the stadium and the fastest to sell out the venue.

Wrigley Field was one of the most anticipated Pearl Jam shows ever, and despite its problems (a two hour rain delay and hours-long lines for merchandise) Pearl Jam brought fans one amazing show.  They debuted two songs from their new album, Lightning Bolt, the title track and Future Days (with Brendan O'Brien on the piano).  Mind Your Manners and All The Way were played live for only their second time (the latter with Ernie Banks on stage), and Bugs got its third appearance.



The full setlist was front loaded with lower tempo rarities, but when the band took the stage after the rain delay, they pulled out several harder rocking hits.

Release, Nothingman, Present Tense, Hold On, Low Light, Come Back, Elderly Woman // RAIN DELAY // All The Way (Eddie Vedder), All Night, Do the Evolution, Setting Forth (Eddie Vedder), Corduroy, Faithfull, Mind Your Manners, Lightning Bolt, State of Love and Trust, Wishlist, Even Flow, Leatherman, Eruption (Van Halen), Bugs, Why Go, Unthought Known, Rearviewmirror // ENCORE BREAK // Future Days, Mother (Pink Floyd), Chloe Dancer/ Crown of Thorns (Mother Love Bone), Porch, Wasted Reprise, Life Wasted, Black, Rockin' in the Free World (Neil Young)



Pearl Jam was so excited for the show that they created dozens of Chicago-centric merchandise items including four concert posters by four different artists (Ames Bros., Emek, Munk One, and Kevin Shuss), rally towels, trading cards, and even a t-shirt with the setlist on the back (a bold but iffy experiment being that changes during the show caused the actual setlist to vary significantly from what was printed on the shirt).

In the end, it's pretty hard to find someone who will complain (OK, one guy).  Now the only complaint is the lack of an official bootleg from the show.  Bootlegs from the other 2013 shows have already started to become available.  Is this one getting special treatment?  I guess we'll look for this right after we get the bootlegs from Pearl Jam's 2011 Destination Weekend.