Pearl Jam In Indy – Finally

As hinted at in yesterday’s post, I got to do something insanely awesome Monday night that I’ve been waiting a long time for. Even with a short night of sleep, I’m still a little keyed up from it this morning. If you choose to proceed, prepare yourself for an overly detailed accounting of my evening watching Pearl Jam play live rock ’n’ roll music.

One of the funny things about me is that for as big a fan of music as I am – and I think the archives of this blog are testament to that – I’ve not been to tons of concerts in my life.

There are lots of factors that go into that, but I believe the biggest was because in the years I was coming of age with music, I lived with a single mom who both couldn’t afford concert tickets and didn’t have the time to take me. You would think as I got older that would change, but it never did much. In the mid–90s I went to tons of shows at local clubs, but even then I never became one of those music fans who went to a show a week or whatever. And I rarely went to big stadium/arena shows.

I also blame the years in the early ‘90s when I was a poor college student. A big group of friends went to the U2 show at Arrowhead in 1992, one of the greatest tours ever. I was offered a ticket last minute, but the $50 or whatever seemed like soooo much money at the time.[1]

I also just had some bad luck over the years. I was supposed to see Prince in 1998, but came down with the worst case of the flu I’ve ever had and had to sell my ticket.[2]

Anyway, that is all needlessly long prelude to the point of this post: Monday was the best concert I’ve ever attended. My total shows seen might be small, but this beat them all.

It was Pearl Jam’s first visit to Indianapolis in 14 years.[3] It was my first time seeing them in over 20 years. It was worth every second of those collective waits.

It’s hard to review a Pearl Jam show, because they are almost always incredible. While I’ve not seen them in person since 2000 – more on that later – I’ve watched tons of their shows online, both officially and unofficially. There is no better live band in music. They are a well-oiled machine that combines the spontaneity of a setlist that changes every night with a structure that allows for almost seamless transitions between most songs. They famously play epically long shows that often veer in unexpected directions depending on where the night and crowd takes them. Shows become near religious events as thousands of devoted fans scream out every word and react to every element of the performance.

Everything about Monday’s show lived up to the band’s reputation.

It was a fire-cracker hot night here in Indy, in the mid–90s during the day, and the air at Ruoff Music Center was thick and heavy when opener Glen Hansard took stage at exactly 7:30. He had the line of the night when he introduced his band: “We’re from Ireland and we’re happy to be here. We’re going to play for 45 minutes and then we’re going to fuck off.” And then they only played for 30 minutes! Under-promise, over-deliver!

His set was terrific. I didn’t know much about his music, mostly the more soft/folksy songs he did for the movie Flag Day, including “My Father’s Daughter,” a song he made with Eddie Vedder and daughter Olivia Vedder. But from the go, his band absolutely kicked ass. Roaring guitars, screamed lyrics. It was a good start to the night.

Pearl Jam took the stage at 8:40, just as the sun was disappearing and a nice breeze was beginning to blow through the partially covered main seating section. My buddy SK and I had been trying to guess what the opening song would be, a pointless exercise since PJ opens with a different song every night and can literally go hundreds of directions when you account for covers. He guessed “Low Light.” I didn’t take a real stab at it, but “Hail, Hail” had been in my head all day.

We were pleasantly surprised when Stone Gossard started strumming the opening lines to *Ten*-era B-side “Wash.” A terrific omen, as many of theirs shows on this tour have begun with slower songs.

Twenty-three songs followed. The band was in fine form, although the sound was a little muddy. Eddie was in great voice. The crowd was frenzied. On the biggest songs, “Alive” for example, you could barely hear the band because the crowd sang along so loudly. You couldn’t ask for a better show.

It was interesting to look at the show from above, as a long-time PJ fan, and see how far this band has come. They’ve been an incredible live band since day one. Those early Nineties shows were intense affairs, Eddie a brooding, distant, sometimes scary frontman. The band went through their difficult mid–90s period, where the performance was generally great but the band was going through a lot and you never knew how much joy and personality they would put into each show. There were a few notable meltdowns in this era when the band’s future was in question. Around 2000, they realized that touring was their salvation, and they began to enjoy it more, stretching shows out to Springsteen-esque lengths. About 10 years ago it seemed like Eddie was losing some of the power in his voice. He made allowances, but sometimes those were jarring to see/hear.

In the last five years that has changed again. Eddie has become more theatrical on stage. It’s hard to put into words, because that sounds a little cheesy and he is not cheesy. He just does a lot more from the start of the show to the end to interact with the crowd, to entertain with his actions rather than just sing from the bottom of his soul. The once reluctant star happily embraces everything about being the director for where each night’s show is headed.

His political monologues haven’t disappeared, they’ve just morphed. Monday he encouraged everyone to get out and vote, and noted that 30 years ago he was imploring us to vote, where now he is asking us to get our kids to vote. His most pointed comment of the night was about women needing to reclaim their right to choose. He never said any candidate’s name, nor espoused a particular ideology.

Of course last week while in Jeff Ament’s home state of Montana, the entire band wore Jon Tester shirts, so I think they just pick their spots these days.

Eddie’s voice seems to have recovered from whatever ailed it, too. I remember watching concert films from early in last year’s tour and being floored by how good he sounded. I think he’s found ways to strengthen his voice but also to adjust how he hits certain notes so that he can mask the effects of age. Not that long ago I worried about how much longer he could tour. The past couple years, he’s sounded as good as he ever has and I can see the band touring forever. His energy level is also insane for a guy who will turn 60 in a few months. He doesn’t climb lighting rigs anymore, but he’s in constant motion around the stage.

His energy and strength and stage presence translate to the rest of the band. The greatness of their live act has always come from their collective abilities. Every member of the band absolutely still has their A-games. Mike McCready in particular has an apparent endless reservoir of energy. There wasn’t a song, or even part of a song, where the band behind Eddie seemed to be half-assing it.

As we were walking out I told SK beyond the spectacular performance, what makes PJ shows so great is how many terrific songs they have to choose from, and even the ones that might not be your favorites are played so well that there aren’t really any down moments in the show. Even if you don’t hear all your favorite songs, you walk away thoroughly satisfied.

That was the case with me. Of my seven favorite PJ songs I listed a year ago, they played just one, “Corduroy.” And, you know what? I was not disappointed at all that I didn’t hear “Release” or “Elderly Woman,” or “Given to Fly,” etc.

I thought it was interesting they basically cut out an entire era of their career from the setlist. There was exactly one song from their albums that were released between 2000 and 2020, and that, “Lightning Bolt,” was a request from a couple who were attending their 57th PJ show.[4] I think most fans are fine with that large chunk of the band’s studio career getting nudged aside. “Lightning Bolt” did sound great, though.

The per-album breakdown was:
Ten/Ten-era: 6
Vs. – 1
Vitalogy – 5
No Code – 1
Yield – 1
Lightning Bolt – 1
Dark Matter – 7
Covers – 2

The beauty of Pearl Jam is their next show in Chicago will likely have a completely different mix, aside from the Dark Matter tracks.

A note about our seats. When PJ announced they were coming to Indy in May 2023, both SK and I signed up for tickets. With the band not hitting here in so long, we knew it would be a tough ticket. He is in the band’s Ten Club and hoped that would get us in. I didn’t get selected in the public lottery, but he got a notification that he would be able to get Ten Club seats. Until a week later he got another saying he, in fact, did not make their cut.

Fortunately he has a neighbor that has some serious connections in the music industry. Thanks to her assistance, last July he got an email from someone within the Pearl Jam organization saying that we had two Friends and Family seats.[5] When the September 2023 show was postponed, his contact said we would remain on the list for whenever the show was rescheduled. Sure enough, when this year’s tour was announced he got another note asking for confirmation that he still wanted those seats. Two weeks ago he got official word that we were in.

We had no idea where our seats were until we picked up the tickets at Will Call Monday. Even then, Ruoff’s seating scheme is so odd we couldn’t figure it out by just looking at ticket. So we kept showing them to ushers and they kept waving us further forward. We ended up about ten rows behind the pit section, stage left. They were pretty fucking great seats.

Oh, and not to brag too much, but the tickets were somehow comped to us. SK thought he paid for them a year ago, but went back and looked and he never sent anyone money for them. My previous all time best show was U2 in Kemper Arena in 2001. We got free tickets to that show. Yep, I haven’t had to pay a dime for the two best concerts I’ve ever attended. The Music Gods must be rewarding me for all those concerts I did not go to.

This was just my third Pearl Jam show, which seems dumb. SK, in comparison, has now been to 14. I saw them in Kansas City in both 1998 and 2000. I famously missed their appearance in Lawrence in May 1992 because 1) they had not yet become huge and 2) I spent the day playing basketball with one of my best friends who was about to graduate and move to California. Oh, and 3) I’m an idiot. Less than two months later they were my favorite band, a belt they’ve held off-and-on for over three decades now.

In 2003 they were in Kansas City three days before S and I got married and moved to Indianapolis. Didn’t seem like the right time to sneak away for a concert. I missed their Indy stop on that tour because we were on our honeymoon. I think they’ve been in Indy just once or twice since then, during our “lots of little kids in the house” phase and I never even considered going to those shows.

Show number three was a long time coming. And totally worth it.

A few other notes:

SK and I got excited when songs four, five, and six of the night were the first three songs from Vitalogy, in order. Every now and then PJ will play an entire album in order. This was a tease, though, and they moved on to new songs.

“Black” was a song I got sick of in the Nineties because I thought it got super overplayed. It was truly fantastic Monday.

Gossard said before the Dark Matter tour began that they would begin to pare back their shows a bit, with Ament already 60 and Eddie right behind him. They still played nearly two-and-a-half hours Monday. The biggest bummer about not seeing them last year was they were still pushing three hours in those shows.

The audio-visual portion of the show was excellent. At most Ruoff shows there are a few cameras shooting video that show up on the auxiliary boards for fans up in the lawn. PJ shot this like a concert movie, with tons of cameras that were constantly switching feeds on the boards. I now see why so many of their shows end up with high quality movies on one site or another. They take that part of the presentation very seriously.

As we walked out there was a dad with a college-aged son in front of us. We overheard the dad tell the son, very seriously, “I hope you realize that was a fucking incredible concert!” We couldn’t hear what the kid’s response was. He better have recognized, though.

Eddie has been wearing a Walter Payton jersey at all their shows on this tour. It was Jeff Ament who made the local connection, wearing a shirt that had Larry Bird’s face on one side and his number on the other.

Speaking of shirts, I’ve never bought a concert shirt before. Again, I’m a man full of contradictions and surprises. I bought one last night, though, because they were perfect.

Shout out to the merch arm of the PJ empire. That thing is as well-oiled as the band’s performances. They opened up at noon for people who wanted to get there early and get the limited edition items. Inside the venue there were multiple spots to purchase items with crazy long lines before the show. We stopped at one after the show and despite the line, had to wait less than five minutes to purchase my shirt. There was another still open outside the gates that had no wait. And although they were short a few sizes, you could still buy just about anything you wanted almost 12 hours after they sold their first shirt of the day.

Also cool was the special stand that printed up setlist shirts. SK told me the band hands off their final setlist when the show begins and by the time they are done, there are stacks of shirts with that night’s unique collection of songs listed. Genius way to make fans eager to fork over another $40 for a unique memento of the night.

PJ still does the “official bootlegs” of every show. I think I still have all the early 2000s ones I bought somewhere in the basement. I believe I will be buying this one when it is released in a few weeks.

Both times I saw PJ in KC, they closed with “Rockin’ In The Free World.” Which was great. But I was going to be disappointed if I heard it again. Fortunately they closed with a spectacular “Baba O’Reilly” – “Yellow Ledbetter” double. Finally hearing “Baba” live was a big checkmark on my all-time PJ must hear list.