What Becomes an Epic Most?

I had planned to start off this blog with a theory on the perils of seeing the same artist twice in one week (a.k.a Billy Joel-itis), but then I actually attended my second Pearl Jam show of the week and a new point emerged.

Madison Square Garden 2 probably has already taken its place amongst legendary Pearl Jam shows. In fact, it was predicted in fan circles to do that before it even occurred. So what gives a show that distinction? Is it the venue, the fact that it's the last show of a tour leg, the setlist and/or the performance?

In the case of all four, MSG shoots and scores. (Of course on the music front, since the Blueshirts didn't even make the playoffs. Really, how far did anyone who knows me think I'd get without a flip Rangers remark?)

But back to the show. Even before Pearl Jam had taken the stage, it was obvious that the sound in the Garden outpaced The Rock in Newark. Tuesday's show had its sonic moments, but it also made some songs seem very small and boxed in.



Enjoyed some pre-show amusement when a couple complained about the hallowed venue, saying it's basically a sports arena and not the old-fashioned theater they thought it would be. (Maybe they were thinking Radio City Music Hall.)

And for the end of the first leg of the 2010 tour, the guys pulled out all the stops. The setlist was a great blend of rarities and high-octane rock 'n' roll.

Set List: Corduroy, Hail Hail, Do The Evolution, World Wide Suicide, Got Some, Breath, Nothingman, I’m Open, Unthought Known, Grievance, Amongst The Waves, Present Tense, Not For You/Modern Girl, Push Me Pull Me, Rats, Daughter/WMA, The Fixer, Why Go

1st encore: The End with string quartet, Just Breathe with string quartet, Lukin II with string quartet, Black Red Yellow, Sweet Lew, Given To Fly, Spin The Black Circle, Rearviewmirror

2nd encore: Wasted Reprise, Better Man/Save It For Later, Black, The Real Me (Townshend), Hunger Strike, Alive, Kick Out The Jams, Yellow Ledbetter/Star Spangled Banner

"Corduroy" as opener signaled that they wanted to rock out the finale and the steady stream of pulse-pounders kept everyone on their feet. Noticed somewhere along the line that almost all the first singles from each album were represented.


The first evening shocker would probably be the one that I was hoping for. "Breath," another top five Pearl Jam song of mine came into play pretty quickly after being scratched from the Newark setlist. Gorgeous and it got the anticipation bug out of my system relatively early.

A bunch of songs that I wouldn't have put at the top of that list were truly dazzling. The audience helped out greatly with "Nothingman," it just kinda reverberated around your soul. Multiply that by like five when we eventually got to "Better Man," definitely one of my least favorites, but one of the many highlights of the night as the audience sang a verse and a chorus before Eddie chimed in with some urgent and throaty vocals and the band raised the song's usual tempo really drive the point home.

Back to the rarities: "Push Me, Pull Me" from my all-time fave Pearl Jam album, "Black Red Yellow" AND "Sweet Lew" in quick succession, Pete Townshend's "The Real Me" and "Kick Out the Jams." When you're in the middle of these kind of songs, you just kinda stand there with your mouth open going, "Really?"


Don't want to leave out the string quartet, which joined the fray for three songs during the first encore. Eddie's spiel on there being more than one way to skin a cat ("Who the fuck is out skinning cats?") led to the gorgeous reinvention of raucous "Lukin" as an acoustic number, and seemed unrecognizable to a huge faction of the audience until he got to the chorus.

On a personal note, it seemed like I got a lot of songs in the show that I'd rarely seen: "Spin the Black Circle" (which I apparently had never seen live), "Hail Hail," "Not for You," "Black," "Present Tense." Every single one of them just resonated. Like my good friend Liam said the other night, the band always brings it and, with all the rarities, it would be easy to sort of overlook the rest, but that would be wrong, wrong, wrong. Every song was just out of the park.

And then the monster. I've been to one other epic Pearl Jam show in the band's almost 20-year existence -- the 10-year anniversary show in Las Vegas. At that show, they tackled Mother Love Bone's signature song, "Crown of Thorns." On Friday, it was Temple of the Dog's "Hunger Strike," with Band of Horses frontman Ben Bridwell doing a great job handling Chris Cornell's chores.

The video's linked at the top of this blog. I don't know if it captures it for anyone not there, but it's still kicking my ass. Going right from that into "Alive" and singing the chorus was cathartic.

I'm so blown away, that I almost forgot the mention the harbinger of things to come -- the kick-ass poster. There's not enough room at Casa Park to hang every poster we have, but if you're gonna have a Kong reference... And unlike my first epic show, I managed not to leave my treasured keepsake in the cab.

Now I just gotta figure out a way of upping that epic ratio.