August 8, 2018 – Safeco Field, Seattle, WA, USA

Show at a Glance

  • Number of Songs: 32
  • Show Length: 3:10

Setlist

Main Set: Long Road, Release, Low Light, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Corduroy, Go, Do The Evolution, Throw Your Hatred Down, Mind Your Manners, Lightning Bolt, Given To Fly, All Those Yesterdays, Even Flow, (Help!)/Help Help, Black, Setting Forth, I Am A Patriot, Porch

Encore 1: We’re Going To Be Friends, Nothing As It Seems, Let Me Sleep, Breath, Again Today, State Of Love And Trust, Rearviewmirror

Encore 2: Wasted Reprise, Better Man, Comfortably Numb, Alive, I’ve Got A Feeling, Rockin’ In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter/(Little Wing)

Pearl Jam Show Notes 8/8/2018:

First hometown show in almost 5 years. Huge cheer following Corduroy is met by Ed commenting,

“We are Pearl Jam. We are from Seattle, Washington. I guess that must mean we’re home.”

Ed later jokes that Safeco is beautiful, unlike the old Kingdome, quipping

“The old concrete gray lady…she was kind of a bitch.”

Former Mariner Randy Johnson is in attendance, and Ed jokes that Randy’s favorite band is actually Soundgarden (at which point Mike busts into a Superunknown riff). Before Even Flow, Ed tells a story about the song’s origin:

A homeless man Ed used to see in town way back in the early days named Eddie, a Black Vietnam vet who used to walk around in a strange blue tarp and a shopping cart. Ed used to talk to him while he was out getting lunch and coffee, and eventually, he couldn’t find Eddie anymore. Later he found out that the man passed away and never got to hear the song written about their conversations.

After a stirring Black, Ed talks about how Jeff moved from Montana to Seattle in the early ‘80s and met a guy working at the local coffee joint by the name of Andy Wood. A slowed-down, Ed-only, vocals and guitar rendition of Help! serves as an intro to Help, Help.

Patriot is full band, very energetic. Ed brings two of his daughter’s teachers on stage after the break and dedicates We’re Going To Be Friends to them. Let Me Sleep is introduced as “a song we wrote a long time ago, and it was one of those things about where you wrote about what you know.” Brandi Carlile joins for Again Today, exclaiming “This is a dream come true!” Before the second encore kicks off, Ed talks about the $11M raised by the 2 shows to fight homelessness, and encourages the crowd to keep the momentum going and get out and vote, and that we can do it together. He mutters “It could have been me” before Wasted Reprise. Betterman has the cool, extended Save It For Later tag. I’ve Got A Feeling is played in Seattle for the first time in 25 years.

Brian Horwitz

Writer & Contributors

Winter 1991, 15 years old: I heard Alive on the radio and had to go out and buy the CD. I will never forget sitting on the floor in my room and listening to it for the first time. I skipped right to track 3 so I could hear Alive again, and my father walked in the room. He looked at me and proceeded to give it a thumbs down. I knew I was on to something. (He now likes the song, so it all worked out in the end)


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