Well it’s the first show of Pearl Jam week here at Media Decay and we’re kicking it off in Newark, NJ.  This was a sort of last minute show.  It was announced after the rest of the tour and went on sale several weeks after the rest of the tour as well.  Eddie Vedder mentioned at one point that this show almost didn’t happen but they were glad it did.  Anyway there was some trepidation going into this show.  Last night in Boston the band put on an incredible show (and also had incredible one off t-shirts made to look like Red Sox shirts, Newark got the shirt above, hopefully they’ll pull out something awesome for NYC) so a lot of the hardcores were worried this show wouldn’t be as great.  We’ll I wasn’t at the Boston show so I can’t speak to anything but the setlist, but the band certainly didn’t let it show they’d just done an epic show the night before.

Band of Horses at Prudential Center May 18th 2010

Let’s take it from the beginning.  The doors opened at 6:30, exactly when they were supposed to.  I’d never been to “The Rock”, officially known as The Prudential Center, located in Newark, NJ, a place you have no reason to ever go to unless you want to get shot.  That’s really not much of an exaggeration.  Anyway the arena is brand new, only been open for a short amount of time and is super close to public transportation from NYC (and the route between the train and the venue has a very heavy police presence).  So I was interested in checking it out.  It seemed like a nice place.  I couldn’t find a detailed seating chart online so I only had a vague notion of my seat, which unfortunately was a lot worse than it looked on the seating chart which only showed sections (I bought this ticket through Ticketmaster and not the 10 Club).  It would be a great seat for a hockey game, but not so great for a concert.

Anyway Band of Horses was on first.  They took the stage at 7:29, a minute early.  Yay them.  I’ve never really listened to any of their stuff but they seemed alright.  I recognized one song that I guess I’ve heard on a tv show or in a movie or something.  They have a new album and today was the release date.  If you’re interested it’s available on and Amazon(for only $8.99!).  Apparently tomorrow is Ben’s daughter’s second birthday and he brought her out and had everyone sing happy birthday to her.  Then at the end of the set he brought her out again, this time with Eddie Vedder who sang their final song with them. They played a total of 45 minutes.

But I doubt many people were there for Band of Horses.  Nope, this was a Pearl Jam show.  And at 8:50 they took the stage.  Some bands would have waited that extra 10 minutes and gone on at 9, but that’s the PJ difference.  They wanna pack in as much music as they can before they’re kicked out.  They opened it up with the slow Of The Girl and then Brain of J.  Brain of J is one I’ve never heard live so that was great.  For the most part the set was a nice mixture of kinda obscure stuff like the awesome Leatherman and hits like Even Flow.

The band was on fire though.  Their energy level was crazy and they seemed to be having a great time.  The crowd though was dead.  During singalongs you could barely hear anyone singing along, even to hits, and just overall it was not a good crowd, especially since the band was putting their all into the show.

I compare Pearl Jam shows to a religious experience.  It’s just a complete emotional purging.  They really are the best live band out there.  They capture an entire arena with a word, and have you hanging on every note of a guitar solo.  They effortlessly hit the perfect combination of music and lyrics, of power and emotion.  And just the charisma coming off the stage.  You as an audience member are drawn into the show and become a vital part of it.  It’s ok to sing and dance, laugh and cry, scream out a particularly great line of a song.  In fact Pearl Jam manages to keep songs they play almost every single show, and ones even minor fans have heard on the radio a billion times fresh.  For example I never listen to Alive.  I heard it enough in the 90′s to last me the rest of my life, but live it’s a whole new song.  It’s suddenly about being alive in that moment with these people around you and how great it is that no matter what you are alive and screaming that out to the world.

One thing I enjoyed personally about the show was hearing a lot of stuff I hadn’t heard in a while live.  Like Glorified G for example.  I also really liked hearing the stuff from the new album live for the first time (in person at least).

Perhaps my favorite part of the show was the first encore, which was paced really well.  It started with Eddie telling a story about a fan and his father and how they’d connected over this song and that’s why they were playing it (apparently they read their message boards).  That song was Just Breathe and it was beautiful, so much more perfect than I could have imagined.  Then they went into Footsteps, another slow emotional song, followed by Inside Job which starts off slow and beautiful but winds up rocking, after that they put the pedal to the metal and did Got Some and Go.  They opened the second encore with Tom Waits Jersey Girl, which afterwards brought chants of “Bruce” and Ed corrected that it was in fact by Waits originally, even though most are familiar with the Springsteen version.  The 2 hour and 20 minute show ended with a cover of All Along The Watchtower with Ben of Band of Horses joining in.

Setlist and photos below (sorry the photos suck, my camera sucks).  I am not bringing you audio because Pearl Jam is officially releasing all the shows on this tour.  This one should be available to buy shortly at their website.

Setlist
Of The Girl
Brain Of J
Do The Evolution
The Fixer
Alone
Amongst The Waves
Immortality
In Hiding
Even Flow
Insignificance
Supersonic
Brother
Glorified G
Daughter/Blitzkrieg Bop (The Ramones)/WMA
Unthought Known
Leatherman
Lukin
Once
First Encore
Just Breathe
Footsteps
Inside Job
Got Some
Go
Second Encore
Jersey Girl (Tom Waits)
You Are
Whipping
Life Wasted
Alive
Indifference
All Along The Watchtower with Ben Bridwell (Dylan)