1 Night 1: Pearl Jam @ Key Arena (9-21-09)

Last Night at the Key Arena in Seattle, Pearl Jam played the first of two shows in front of their home town crowd following the release of their 9th studio album “Backspacer”. The Seattle dates mark the beginning of a tour that will include the West Coast, a stop at Austin City Limits, 4 shows at the Wachovia Arena in Pennsylvania and then 7 shows down under in Australia and New Zealand.

This show contained many highlights but most importantly the debut of 5 new songs, played live for the first time ever. These included “Gonna See My Friend”, “Amongst the Waves”, “Johnny Guitar”, "Unthought Known” and “Just Breathe”, which was accompanied by an “only in Seattle” Octava String Quartet that included April Cameron, Matt Cameron’s wife. All together PJ played 8 of the 11 songs from “Backspacer”, also including “Get Some”, The Fixer, and “The End” in the set. The new songs sounded phenomenal, and mixed very well the older favorites. The only drawback was you could tell the majority of the crowd was still learning the new songs, and weren’t quite as energetic during them. I guess that could be because the record was released only one day prior.

Ed was his usual humorous, charismatic self, at one point making mention of that whole MTV VMA’s fiasco by agreeing with President Obama, stating that “We too think Kanye West is a jackass”. He also said something to the tune of being nervous about the inflatable Space Needle and that we should tear the roof off the arena to look at the real one. My favorite banter of the night was when Ed thanked the band for the phone calls; Stone for calling Mike right before he almost hung up his guitar, then Jeff and Stone for calling Eddie, and Matt Cameron for picking up the phone when the band called him, “all it took was 4 phone calls”, or three but who’s counting?

Ed had his usual 2 bottles of wine on stage, one he even shared with the audience on a few occasions which is a trademark move for him. He also made a point to call out a youngster in the crowd and made the audience hand back one of his guitar picks, saying something along the lines of—the kid is like 6 or 7 years old and this is already his 14th show.

The band sounded amazing of course, but Stone really stood out last night. He got to showcase some of his amazing guitar chops, and took over some of the guitar solos, that I don’t remember seeing him do before. Mike was of course energetic as always and seemed to have some friends in a side section adjacent to his side of the stage because they were going crazy. Jeff rocked as usual and even played his sit down fretless bass on some of the slower numbers. No drum solos for Matt as they have moved away from the “Evenflow” drum barrage from the 2005-2006 tours, though he sounded amazing despite. Boom who was met with numerous “Boooooom” chants, manned the keys despite being absent on Backspacer.

Some of the other highlights included opener “Long Road”, probably my all time favorite PJ songs, “Corduroy”, “Given to Fly”, which was dedicated to Ben Harper and the Relentless7 who opened the night, a scathing cover of “The Real Me” by The Who, which included more special guests, a four man horn section anchored by Hans Tuber. Hans is one of the composers who have been working with Stone in the Hank Khoir, and on his never-released solo project. The night also included a beautiful version of “Indifference”, in which Ed took a moment prior to tell the sold out crowd to vote for Dow Constantine in the upcoming local elections. This recommendation came courtesy of Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, who is a major local political advocate. Stone was amazing on “Indifference”, but no Ben Harper to help out this time. Ed’s voice was very strong last night, and I’m beginning to think his secret is his American Spirit breaks during some of the extended signature PJ jam sessions. Ed also looked to be in great shape, as he channeled Bruce Springsteen’s mic stand flexibility tricks, much to the enjoyment of the females in the audience.

The night was capped in an unusual way; there was no Yellow Ledbetter, or Rocking in the Free World this go around. The show was closed on a rather impressive note by non-other than one of the songs that started it all, ALIVE! It was an incredible way to end their first proper Seattle gig since 2002’s 4 show Riot Act extravaganza. Pearl Jam pulled out all the stops in their 27 song set, though concentrating mostly on the new material. I am still reeling from a great show and am anxious to see what they have up their sleeves for night 2.

Side Note:
The Ames Brothers were set up and selling a special addition poster commemorating both nights at the Key. The poster features a likeness of Seattle Supersonic legend Shawn Kemp. A signed and numbered poster and a copy of their poster book went for only $60, I couldn't resist the temptation. See the Night 1 posters below:

Main Set: Long Road, Corduroy, Gonna See My Friend, Got Some, Hail, Hail, Amongst The Waves, Daughter, Even Flow, Johnny Guitar, Unthought Known, World Wide Suicide, Elderly Woman…, Off He Goes, Down, Save You, The Fixer, Life Wasted

First Encore: Just Breathe, The End, Inside Job, Rearviewmirror

Second Encore: Given To Fly, Do The Evolution, Better Man, The Real Me, Indifference, Alive

Videos of "Corduroy", "Amongst the Waves", "Unthought Known", "The Fixer", and "Just Breathe" will be up soon....