* Portland, OR Fanviews Here 5.10.24 *

Sea · May 11

Pearl Jam
Moda Center
Portland, OR
05/010/2024
Show
Set List

Opening Bands: Is This Real (w/Matt Cameron on guitar and vocals. Wipers cover band)
Deep Sea Diver

Pearl Jam
Onstage: intro music 9:33 onstage 9:34
Offstage 12:03
Walk on intro music: Dark Entree

01. Release
02. Nothing As It Seems
03. Present Tense
04. Given To Fly
05. Scared Of Fear
06. React, Respond
{Ed talks about Gerry Lopez the surfer who now lives in Bend, OR}
07. Wreckage
08. Dark Matter
{Ed praises Mike and mentions it is the 19th anniversary of Mike and Ashley’s wedding}
09. Daughter/WMA 1:58 music and lyrics
10. Not For You/Modern Girl-(Sleater Kinney) 1:00
{Ed talks about the inspiration for Even Flow and local politician Jesse Cornett}
11. Even Flow
{Next song is a request and dedicated to Connie Keller}
12. Seven O’Clock
13. Upper Hand
{for Glory(? sp??)
14. Waiting For Stevie-live debut
15. Running
16. Last Exit
{Discussion about grief and losing his brother}
17. Porch

overhead projector notes: Keep Portland Weird-er than Seattle, Any Song Requests? louder, can’t hear, wait, one at a time. We love Sleater Kinney, We love Quasi, We love Mudhoney, We love Steve Albini. How about this for a request? … more reasonable laws about gun access & safety… and less laws about a woman’s body!!!! C’mon!!!

{Ed talks about Tom Petty’s guitar that he is holding. This song is dedicated to Dr. David Gunn}

18. I Won't Back Down-(Lynne, Petty) Ed solo electric guitar
19. Mind Your Manners
20. Do The Evolution
21. Crazy Mary-(Williams)
22. Once
23. Alive
24. Footsteps
25. Setting Sun

Please share your experiences of the show here...the Fanview threads are preserved on the board.
Please keep the Fanview threads for Fanviews. It's ok to begin another thread on discussions of other topics and/or debates. Thank you!
Thank you, John for the set list & notes.

Spags · May 11

Wow, what a set list!

BloodMeridian80 · May 11

Waiting for Stevie!!! Yes, sounded sooooo good!

McGanahan · May 11

Just got home from the show. Too amped to sleep. So...

The band clearly enjoyed watching Matt do his thing with Is This Real.

I was on the rail, Stone side, and during the Is This Real set, I saw a guy in Orlando Magic basketball shorts, hightops, blank ankle socks, and a hoodie pulled up over his head sneakily run along the front of the stage (between the rail and the stage, where security was) to take pictures of the band. I was like "who is this goofily dressed hoodlum?", and it wasn't until he turned around and headed back in my direction that I saw that it was Jeff!! He then proceeded to watch a portion of the set from side stage with a big smile on his face.

Ed later referred to Is This Real as "my new favorite band". I have to admit, they did fucking wail!

Ed mentioned a few times that all the band members' wives were in attendance, and they felt obliged to try to put on a good show to impress them. I'd say they succeeded on that front!

There was a big explosion of audible approval throughout the arena when Ed mentioned that they had purposely held off on debuting one of the Dark Matter tunes until Portland, and then played Waiting for Stevie. Lots of folks around me were stoked about that one.

The new songs were dope live. The Mind Your Manners/Do The Evolution pairing was great and high energy. The Mamasan Trilogy is always awesome to hear together.

Ed mentioned that it was a high energy, attentive, amazing crowd, and he was right. No talkers or turds around me. Just happy, smiling, lovely people. And likewise, the band was high energy, in high spirits, and on their game. It's so refreshing and fun seeing them tour support an album and play new material that they're excited about.

Shout out to the lovely souls that made the big bag of word bracelets with song names and Pearl Jam related phrases on them and passed them around to everyone in the pit. Awesome. I got three. "Come Back", "PJ" with wooden beads, and "We Rock Portland". Pearl Jam fans are some of the best humans around.

Love this band, love this extended musical family, love seeing live music. Thanks, Pearl Jam, Thanks Deep Sea Diver, and thanks Matt fucking Cameron and Is This Real !!!

e360727 · May 11

Footsteps at the end of a set?!?!?!?! Wow. What a show. Band is clearly having a blast. Good for them and for us as fans.

Halifax2TheMax · May 11

Pearl Jam unnywears.

RB182283 · May 11

Release-NAIS-Present Tense was incredible. They were on point tonight. Mike and Stone looked as happy and engaged as I've ever seen them. Waiting For Stevie was a hell of a live tune. Stoked for others to hear it. Of my sixteen shows this one maybe had the best sound quality--crisp and sharp as hell. This band is happy to be playing, and what a joy to see them.

Was baffled by an entire section of seated fans (sorry to call you out, 217). Sorry to be that 6,5" guy standing in front of you, but this is the best band in the world, and sitting feels sacrilegious.

Love this gd band.

e360727 · May 11

And yes…recognize that footsteps was played as part of mama son. Just unreal. How lucky are we?

just_one · May 11

Edit

BlueLedbetter · May 11

e360727 said:

And yes…recognize that footsteps was played as part of mama son. Just unreal. How lucky are we?

Just saw that wow would love that at one of my shows this year

Johnny Abruzzo · May 11

Really cool set! Stevie!!!

kramerica4 · May 11

Sea said:

Please keep the Fanview threads for Fanviews.

This seems so hard to understand for some fans...

iwasatpj20 · May 11

Another fun show, this show will hold me over until the Wrigley shows around my birthday. Definitely enjoyed Waiting for Stevie and Momma-Son trilogy.

enddem · May 11

That opening four, as someone else mentioned, worked so so well together. Mind Your Manners into Do the Evolution just doused the place in kerosene before (and following an always awesome version of Crazy Mary) setting it ablaze with Once and Alive.

And thanks to the dude in the hotel lobby who shared a bracelet!

PN3987 · May 11

They boys don't dissapoint. Opening with release is always a jem. I think they should call the front ga by another name than the pit because it's nothing like the old days. Something like the frontier land.

iOnlyownMymind · May 11

My first show of the Dark Matter tour and had a blast. First 3 songs had the place losing it and were amazing. Got Mikes pick during Present Tense and a couple during Not for You later. Poor Mike was definitely hurting still from his fall at Vancouver. He lifted his shirt at one point to adjust a compression band or tape job underneath around his torso and was in visible pain. Guy is a warrior out there playing through it. I would have much preferred Immortality and Rats that were soundchecked but not played in the setlist instead of MYM and Seven o clock. Getting Mama Son was a nice surprise. First Waiting for Stevie was great. Also really enjoyed Is this Real? Ed came out and introduced them and they were a lot of fun and a cool unique bonus for this show. Enjoyed seeing Matt on guitar and vocals. Oh and forgot to mention I enjoyed seeing Josh fan boying and videoing Mike with his phone soloing during Alive. I know he does that from time to time but he was down on the floor at stage level getting some sweet video. He’s definitely a fan like all of us.

curmudgeoness · May 11

They’re absolutely killing the four opening tracks. Each night has been amazing.

Running is an amazing, killer live song. I wondered if that was a Jeff song because the bass part is incredible. I’d like to see this be a regular set fixture, it’s so fast paced and energizing.

I was glad we arrived early to watch Is This Real? That was a lot of fun and they sounded great.

runstaples · May 11

So I guess they rocked Portland?

LizosaurusRex · May 11

Mike appreciation time

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021252/uploads/editor/v1/8k1j5jhacwob.jpg

curmudgeoness · May 11

Mike has been the highlight of these first few shows for me.

thomascbullock · May 11

Halifax2TheMax said:

Pearl Jam unnywears.

It’s a rear view mirror! But apparently gets used for Porch as well as they’re both the “main set closer” slot.

thomascbullock · May 11

enddem said:

That opening four, as someone else mentioned, worked so so well together. Mind Your Manners into Do the Evolution just doused the place in kerosene before (and following an always awesome version of Crazy Mary) setting it ablaze with Once and Alive.

And thanks to the dude in the hotel lobby who shared a bracelet!

Crazy Mary with Boom and Mike trading lines at the end was so good. I could have listened to that for an hour.

Pap · May 11

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44aV7K7NzzQ

BloodMeridian80 · May 11

thomascbullock said:

enddem said:

That opening four, as someone else mentioned, worked so so well together. Mind Your Manners into Do the Evolution just doused the place in kerosene before (and following an always awesome version of Crazy Mary) setting it ablaze with Once and Alive.

And thanks to the dude in the hotel lobby who shared a bracelet!

Crazy Mary with Boom and Mike trading lines at the end was so good. I could have listened to that for an hour.

Agreed, I hadn’t seen Crazy Mary in awhile and was pleasantly surprised by it. Used to really love it, but think I was burned out with it. Hit me fresh last night.

Love the opening trio. I guess it’s still a ‘slow open’ but mixing in songs like NAIS, PT adds a bit more intensity than songs like Low Light and Elderly. Footsteps towards the end of set was also great, regardless of the outta order Mamasan.

Zod · May 11

A little Jealous you all got Waiting for Stevie, my favourite song on the album, but we didn't get it in Vancouver :(

BloodMeridian80 · May 11

Zod said:

A little Jealous you all got Waiting for Stevie, my favourite song on the album, but we didn't get it in Vancouver :(

He said something about purposefully saving it for Portland, I think, but I didn’t catch the reasoning.

heartofadog · May 12

Not to be maudlin or melodramatic, but to preface this post with a brief story:

I saw Petty and the Heartbreakers play about a dozen times or so, that last of which being one of the 2017 shows in Berkeley, CA. I took my wife, who had never seen the band before. During American Girl, I asked if she wanted to head for the exit, just to get a few minutes' start on leaving (we were staying within walking distance of the gig). She said, "Absolutely not. How many more times are we going to see Tom Petty?" At the time I'm sure I was probably like, "another dozen, I hope" or something. Obviously, that did not turn out to be the case.

I've been seeing Pearl Jam shows since I was 13 years old (30 years ago). If all goes well, by the end of the September run, I'll have seen them 50 times. Saw them with my dad, who is no longer with us; seen them alone; seen them with friends; seen them with partners. Last night's Portland gig is among my favorites. My metrics for a good show are pretty simple:

Did the band play well? (Yes)
Was the crowd any good? (Definitely)
Did it seem like both longtime fans and first-timers were enjoying themselves? (Yep)
Did I personally enjoy the show? (I did!)

Pretty simple equation for me. Band sounded great; tight but not robotic. Ed's voice, to me, sounded stronger than it has the last couple tours. Their energy seemed great, and the crowd's enthusiasm didn't seem to wane much during the new tunes. I'm really not sure what more you could ask for from a group of 60 year old dudes, 30 years into their career. They're still writing great songs. They're still great live; inarguably still among the best live bands on the planet. I get that if you're passionate enough about the band to follow them around the world then you're likely passionate enough to notice and care about setlist variation and a song showing up in the third spot in the encore set three nights in a row, and whether some of the show's pacing and arrangement is due to visuals etc etc etc. I get that. But, man, that all starts to feel pretty nitpicky to me when I consider that I'm still able to go see my favorite band play, thirty years on, and they're still a great band. They haven't turned into some embarrassing caricature; they're not playing casinos and county fairs (no disrespect intended to any of the acts who are on those circuits); they're not playing to empty houses; there are still people weeping openly at songs that mean the world to them; still people seeing the band for the first time and coming away euphoric. If you're seriously so upset by the setlist that you're going to stop following the band that meant enough to you for you to start following them around the in the first place, that sounds like your issue, not theirs.

A couple of show-specific notes:

- Backing vocals at the end of Wreckage sound better live than on the record. They sound absolutely fine on the record but, at least to my ear, having the BVs in the same register as Ed was an interesting production choice. If you've got a group of capable singers in the studio — and they did — having those layered vocals in a higher register than the primary voice would give that section a bit more of a lift. That dynamic/lift is kind of accomplished in the live mix, at least in the house.

- "Seven O'Clock" felt to me like the only time in the set the crowd energy dipped a bit. Great tune but I think folks were just collectively expecting something else in a slot that was a request.

- Ed mentioned they'd never played "Release" in Portland before, which had not even occurred to me. Strange that it wasn't in the set the first couple times they played here, prior to the '93 gig with Neil.

- They really do seem to get a lift out of playing the new tunes, which is cool to see. The band's enthusiasm about the new record is infectious and I'm glad it's getting as much play during the set as it is. Upper Hand and Stevie both stood out but all the new tunes sounded great. Setting Sun is a beautiful, perfect show closer. I hope it sticks around in that slot longer than this year's gigs.

thomascbullock · May 12

Great write up, heartofadog.

Agree that seven o’clock sucked all the energy out of the room. I think it’s a good song, but it didn’t really catch on with people. And the “sitting bullshit” bit sounds odd now…

curmudgeoness · May 12

I really like seven o’clock but it doesn’t seem to translate well live, I don’t know why. I think the studio version is great.

I’m looking forward to the LA shows.

iwasatpj20 · May 12

Does anyone know the setlist from Is This Real?

Milestone · May 12

*** Portland, OR Fanviews Here 5.10.24 ***

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* Portland, OR Fanviews Here 5.10.24 *