*** Pearl Jam Fresno, CA Fanviews 5/16/22 ***

Still processing all of it after a few days. Was supposed to head to Vegas tomorrow and I'm sad about the outright cancellation. But the main thing is that I hope Jeff and Matt get better and all is well for the remainder of the tour. 

Woke up the morning of the show with a strong feeling that I was finally going to get to hear Deep. Of course, nobody could've predicted the context for which that would happen. Shortly after I got into the GA line, the band started their soundcheck. First song I hear was Once, then Porch. Not thinking much of that since both are commonly played songs, but then the next song is Garden. This now makes me think we could be getting the album! Next they play Evenflow and then Jeremy and I'm thinking holy shit, this really could actually be happening. 

The show was incredible. It was immediately obvious from the first time you heard Ed that he was not feeling well, which he acknowledges and says they weren't about to cancel the show after 25 months. The beginning started off pretty standard and you knew Elderly Woman would be played in Fresno. It made sense as the opener and it continued the streak of unique openers, but I was really hoping we'd get Go. Ed sang about having friends in Fresno as an intro to Corduroy. Stone singing for the first time this tour was fun and I was happy it was Don't Gimme No Lip instead of Mankind. Was pretty sure I heard Don't Gimme No Lip soundchecked but it was short and wasn't completely sure. And then Ed lit the place up when he brought out Dave Krusen and talked about the impact of the album on so many people and how Dave only played these songs live in a limited amount of shows but that this week with Matt out that they would get to make up for that. Then they launched into Once and the show just started to become something special. Why Go was next, which immediately didn't follow the album order so we knew it wasn't going to be the full album like Greenville, but getting 9 out of the 11 songs was amazing. After Black, Ed said that Dave would be back later, but then Richard came on and Mike did Eruption while they switched drummers. Purple Rain was another special moment and the crowd ate it up. Ed sounded great before giving way to Josh. Ed's rant about abortion where he encouraged women to impose a sex embargo was a great way to channel some anger into Porch to close the set with Dave back out on stage. The second 10 mini-set continued into the encores with Jeremy and Deep, the latter featuring an origin story of the song, which was cool. Dave played on SOLAT, which was the first time he ever played on that song live and then Alive was his final song of the night. Baba and Ledbetter closed out what was a special night that would, unfortunately, end up serving as the end of the first leg of the tour.