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Pearl Jam's 2011 South American Tour Leg

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November 24, 2011 – Foro Sol, Mexico City, MEX

Main Set: Release, Last Exit, Severed Hand, Corduroy, Given To Fly, Brain Of J., Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Faithfull, Even Flow, Setting Forth, Unthought Known, Red Mosquito, Daughter, Of The Earth, Nothingman, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Porch

encore 1: Just Breathe, Off He Goes, Do The Evolution, Black, Spin The Black Circle, The Fixer, Jeremy, Why Go

encore 2: Ole, Last Kiss, Leash, Alive, Rockin' In The Free World, Indifference, Yellow Ledbetter/(Little Wing)

Show Notes:

The 2011 tour closer kicked off with Ed joining opening band X wearing a luchador mask during Devil Doll. This is their only show played on American Thanksgiving in their history. Release kicks things off in the massive soccer stadium…

Show Notes: 

The 2011 tour closer kicked off with Ed joining opening band X wearing a luchador mask during Devil Doll. This is their only show played on American Thanksgiving in their history. Release kicks things off in the massive soccer stadium with a great sing along. The early set is Vitalogy (Last Exit, Corduroy) and Yield heavy (Given To Fly, Brain of J.) with both album openers bookending the section. A great soaring version of Faithfull gives the crowd another from Yield before a mid-set Even Flow. Ed would do his best translation by introducing “Rojo Mosquito” prior to playing the “Red” English version. The Mexico City fans are given a treat as non-album cut Of The Earth is broken out. The seldom played song has a powerful jam and brings the house down towards the end of the set. Ed changes up the lyrics in the Save It For Later tag. Crowd is wild when they return for the encore as the Just Breathe/Off He Goes combo brings a slow burn acoustic setting to ease back into the set. Do The Evolution has an excellent crowd response and brings a jolt back into the set. The crowd is up for Black as well, very strong on the We Belong Together tag. Jeremy is played with a faster bridge than usual, and Why Go was a thunderous ending to the first encore. Fans chanting “Pearl Jam” and clapping to a beat when the band comes back on. They deliberate on stage and choose to play Ole… which at best is at least appropriate for the setting. Leash gets a huge reaction used in a big spot before getting into your usual end of the set construction. John Doe and X are invited on stage to play RITFW. In a rare occurrence, both Indifference and Ledbetter are played to end the night and the 2011 tour year. Mike tags Little Wing on the backend of Ledbetter sounding top notch.

November 20, 2011 – Estadio Nacional, San Jose, CRI

Main Set: Go, Animal, Corduroy, Unthought Known, Comatose, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Given To Fly, The Fixer, Deep, Jeremy, Supersonic, Even Flow, You Are, Daughter/(Red Rain), Why Go, Rearviewmirror

encore 1: Just Breathe, Oceans, Do The Evolution, State Of Love And Trust, Black, Better Man/(Save It For Later)

encore 2: Last Kiss, Mother, Once, Alive, Rockin' In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter/(Little Wing)

Show Notes:

This marked Pearl Jam’s first time playing in Central America. There is a crowd surge at the gates during Animal where fans bypass the security checkpoint making a beeline for the GA. The crowd is up for Corduroy and Ed…

Show Notes: 

This marked Pearl Jam’s first time playing in Central America. There is a crowd surge at the gates during Animal where fans bypass the security checkpoint making a beeline for the GA. The crowd is up for Corduroy and Ed reacts by shrieking like a madman. After Unthought Known, Ed addresses the crowd in Spanish discussing the band’s venti amos (20th anniversary) and tells them to look out for one another. An oddity of setlist construction finds Comatose as the lead-in to Small Town, where on the latter the line is changed to “we finally see this place.” By the time Jeremy hits, Ed has exhausted just about all the power in his voice. Mike finally gets a moment to shine 12 songs in during Even Flow, a short but expressive version. Daughter has a great call and response on the tag which includes a snippet of Peter Gabriel’s Red Rain. While the crowd continues to sing towards the end, it transitions seamlessly into the drum intro of Why Go. A quick main set finishes with Rearviewmirror, featuring a majestic sounding solo from Stone during the bridge.

Starting the encore, Ed tees up Just Breathe by saying he misses his wife and misses holding hands with her. Matt sings backup vocals on the song without playing at the kit. Oceans is another of many Ten songs played on this night as eight out of eleven are featured at this show. Do The Evolution doesn’t quite have the same participation that the South American crowds present, but they bring their a-game on Black. Mike channels something deep during Black’s solo, absolutely ripping it apart. Mike continues a hot streak into Better Man obliterating the solo before the tag. Last Kiss gets off to a rough start on the technical side, but the crowd saves the performance. Ed continues to exhaust everything he has left towards the end as Once is a bit labored, but another strong performance from Mike on Alive includes a War Pigs tag. Matt’s son Ray joins for RITFW, which happens to be Boom’s best performance of the show, getting time to flourish a bit during the interludes. Little Wing is tagged off Ledbetter, and the crowd showers them with ole chants as they say goodbye.

November 18, 2011 – Estadio San Marcos, Lima, PER

Main Set: Interstellar Overdrive/Corduroy, Why Go, Hail, Hail, Do The Evolution, Severed Hand, Immortality, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, The Fixer, Even Flow, Setting Forth, Not For You, Lukin, Amongst The Waves, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Black, Go

encore 1: The End, Just Breathe, Daughter/(Blitzkrieg Bop)/(W.M.A.), Unthought Known, Ole, Blood, Jeremy, Porch

encore 2: Given To Fly, Last Kiss, The Real Me, Alive, Rockin' In The Free World, Indifference, Yellow Ledbetter

Show Notes:

Before Pearl Jam took the stage, Ed took the stage with X singing on Devil Doll to close their set. The band jumps into their first show in Peru wasting no time between the first four tunes kicking off with…

Show Notes: 

Before Pearl Jam took the stage, Ed took the stage with X singing on Devil Doll to close their set. The band jumps into their first show in Peru wasting no time between the first four tunes kicking off with Interstellar Overdrive into Corduroy and capped by Do The Evolution. Ed greets the crowd in Spanish by saying “Now I’m going to say something I’ve wanted to say for a long time: ¡Hola, Lima Perú!” Making the usual ask for everyone to take care of one another and prepare for a long night of music, he signs off with “¿De acuerdo? (All right?) Cool!” before signaling the start of Severed Hand. The crowd sounds excited to hear Immortality, and they deliver a very solid rendition. Ed checks on the crowd before counting off Elderly Woman in Spanish, which gets a strong singalong from the crowd. The enthusiasm keeps rolling as Ed introduces The Fixer as the next song, to which the crowd cheers and continues singing along to the melody. Jeff sounds a little more involved than usual during the quiet part of Even Flow, and Mike and Matt are introduced after the song wraps up. Setting Forth transitions into Not for You very nicely, with Matt already playing the latter’s beat between the former’s final two riffs. After Lukin and amid chants of “olé, ole olé olé,” Ed dedicates Amongst the Waves to all the surfers in the audience.

To start the encore 1, Ed thanks X for opening the concert on behalf of the band and crew, “Our heroes growing up, our heroes to this day,” and goes on to thank the crowd, “I don’t know why it took us so long, but thank you so much for coming.” While drawing out the first notes of The End, he continues: “Tonight, you’ve made us all feel really happy… this was written when maybe I wasn’t so happy.” As if having The End and Just Breathe back-to-back wasn’t contrast enough, Ed immediately erases this somber start with a special dedication (partly in Spanish):

“This song is for my friends who just got married… congratulations on your love, a good friend of ours, a good friend of Neil Young’s… this is for Dustin and Erica. This is their honeymoon.”

He beckons offstage and eventually the newlyweds appear and walk up, Ed presents them to the crowd and motions for them to sit in two red fold-out chairs that just happen to be waiting there. As the crowd chants “¡Beso! ¡Beso!” Ed offers Dustin the wine bottle, Dustin salutes the crowd, and gives Erica a kiss before taking a sip and handing his wife the bottle. After song, sips, and kisses, Ed gives each of them a hug and seems to tell them to take one last swig, as both immediately comply. At the end of Daughter, the crowd starts the usual humming before Ed and fully engages in the “hey, ho, let’s go” callback. Seeming to want to say something about the band’s only song with a Spanish-language title, he gives up and says (in Spanish) “This song… ¡Olé!” After a tight rendition of Blood, the crowd’s reaction and sudden flood of digital camera lights that follow the first notes of Jeremy suggests this was the song everyone was waiting for. Matt loses a crash cymbal stand somewhere in the second verse that gets replaced by the start of the breakdown, enough time for Mike to approach and tease him about it during the chorus. Ed does his mirror-spotlight-crowd number during Porch, and then approaches the left edge of the stage with the crowd going berzerk.

To start the final set, Ed reads a prepared message in Spanish, “This morning I dreamt there were many people standing in a park holding up a gigantic T-shirt and singing songs about Pearl Jam. Then I realized I was awake and it wasn’t a dream,” referring to a group of fans that had prepared an enormous T-shirt that read “We are the fans that waited” and that morning had brought it in front of the hotel where the band was staying. He goes on to thank everyone for the tremendous welcome and for making a dream our reality. During The Real Me, the band makes it look like it’s their favorite song of the night. Mike takes his Alive solo to the same unruly part of the crowd that Ed had teased during Porch. All the members of X wander onstage with tambourines during Rockin’ In The Free World and sing on the choruses. This night, Ed doesn’t introduce the whole band until after Yellow Ledbetter, with his jacket already on and beer and cigarette in each hand, and signs off with “For the first time we can say thank you, muchas gracias, Lima, Peru.”

November 16, 2011 – Estadio Monumental, Santiago, CHL

Main Set: Unthought Known, Why Go, Animal, Do The Evolution, Ole, Corduroy, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Cropduster, Even Flow, Daughter/(Red Rain)/(Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2), Setting Forth, I Got Id, Given To Fly, Nothingman, Public Image, The Fixer, Jeremy

encore 1: Just Breathe, Down, I Believe In Miracles, World Wide Suicide, Last Kiss, Black, Rearviewmirror

encore 2: Once, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Crazy Mary, Alive, Baba O'Riley, Indifference, Yellow Ledbetter

Show Notes:

With a ‘buenos noches’ introduction, the band takes a loud chanting crowd on the way with Unthought Known as the opener. The intensity continues through the set as the crowd drives the band through the set. Ole works really well…

Show Notes: 

With a ‘buenos noches’ introduction, the band takes a loud chanting crowd on the way with Unthought Known as the opener. The intensity continues through the set as the crowd drives the band through the set. Ole works really well here as a lead in to Corduroy. After Corduroy the crowd leads an Ole chant of their own. This is followed by Ed asking, and then pleading, the crowd to take three steps back to help alleviate some of the people up front. The crowd doesn’t listen at first, which leads to Ed begging the crowd to move, for which they oblige. Small Town is in a great spot after having to tell the crowd to move and look out for each other. Cropduster makes one of its last appearances in a set to date with only three more performances coming after this. Another Brick In The Wall pt. 2 is tagged to Daughter, which causes Ed to say:

“It’s not teacher leave those kids alone, it’s government let the teachers teach, it’s government pay so the students can learn.”

Peter Gabriel song Red Rain is tagged for the first time ever following the Pink Floyd tag. Setting Forth is introduced as ”about a kid named Chris McCandless, Into the Wild” while Nothingman is intro’d by saying “that this one is about a big mistake.” Jeremy is played as a rare closer to the main set. Encore 1 set begins with a beautiful version of Just Breathe and the energy is brought right up with a joyous Down. A quick “Para mi amigo Johnny Ramone, I miss ya” leads into one of the most rocking I Believe In Miracles renditions that they’ve ever played. Eddie says a guy from the crowd who had a sign was going to be on the stage, but he gets tossed up on the setlist as World Wide Suicide is played first. At the conclusion of the song, Eddie introduces Juan Pablo to play along with them on Last Kiss. Ed says that he also asked Mike McCready to marry him! He gets Ed’s guitar and slug of wine before the band kicks in. Ed gives a shout out to X who opened the show before Rearviewmirror ends a stimulating first encore.

Encore 2 seems like they are trying to get in as many songs as possible before a curfew as there is very little chatter in between the songs. McCready and Boom have an excellent back and forth on their solos during Crazy Mary. Alive and Baba are great and lead into the double closers of Indifference and Yellow Ledbetter to cap off a crazy evening in Chile. Ed compliments the crowd calling them a perfect crowd, and the crowd returns the favor with a chant of their own. Ed sends some muchos gracias forever to the crowd on their way off the stage.

November 13, 2011 – Estadio Unico La Plata, Buenos Aires, ARG

Main Set: Release, Go, Interstellar Overdrive/Corduroy, Hail, Hail, Given To Fly, The Fixer, Amongst The Waves, Immortality, Even Flow, You Are, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Lukin, Unthought Known, Do The Evolution, Wasted Reprise, Life Wasted, Jeremy, Porch

encore 1: Just Breathe, Garden, Last Kiss, Supersonic, I Believe In Miracles, State Of Love And Trust, Blood/(Atomic Dog)

encore 2: Smile, Mother, Black, Better Man/(I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend)/(Save It For Later), Why Go, Alive, Rockin' In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter/(Little Wing)

Show Notes:

The sound of the crowds in Argentina always makes you wonder if they think they’re watching a one-on-one World Cup final between Maradona and Messi—that’s the level of passion they bring to a show, and this one was no exception.…

Show Notes: 

The sound of the crowds in Argentina always makes you wonder if they think they’re watching a one-on-one World Cup final between Maradona and Messi—that’s the level of passion they bring to a show, and this one was no exception. Humming along to the most recognizable riffs from nearly every song like another of the band’s instruments, they jump right into the first notes of Release. Ed dedicates the song in the third verse “Oh dear John” presumably for Johnny Ramone as he did earlier on this tour. The crowd’s hum, along with the intro to Go, is loud enough to compete with the band, and the next few tunes skip along at an energetic pace, with the crowd humming along unfailingly to every well-known riff. They’re even trying to squeeze their own chants in between songs. Ed either gets distracted or slips up on the last verse of Given to Fly, laughs and jumps back in at “hey, fuckers.” He greets the crowd in Spanish between chants of his name, “It’s good to be back. The stadium looks great, but you all look better,” gets the crowd to take three steps back for safety and announces that they’re live on the radio. As The Fixer wraps up, he seems to reach out, catch something and say de nada, de nada. Here the crowd breaks into an improvised adaptation of a popular football chant—they’ve been trying to do this on and off since the beginning of the show—that translated in English closes with “…oh, Pearl Jam, it’s a feeling, I can’t stop” and repeats. The band lets them go a few rounds until Ed says gracias and Amongst the Waves starts. A solid solo and overall rendition on Immortality, and Matt gets the first band introduction afterwards. The crowd’s energy remains steady and rising, and they even take the lead as Ed joins their riff humming as the breakdown of Even Flow transitions to the final chorus. The usual crowd singalong on Elderly Woman also has an extra energy underneath that swells right back up to the surface with Lukin. Stone gets the second introduction after Do the Evolution, Ed says hello to everyone in the back, and dedicates the Wasted Reprise intro (over some very audible chanting) to comparing the current moment to their small beginnings:

“[we] didn’t really pay attention to the globe or the planet because we knew we’d never get there…. And to come back here for the second time and have this kind of response from all of you is, if you could see what we see right now, you wouldn’t fucking belive it.”

Mike is on point on Life Wasted and the crowd’s energy continues straight through the close of the first set. Just Breathe opens the encore and receives applause during the instrumental part and Garden closes out strong, after which the third band introduction goes to Jeff. Ed flubs the start of Last Kiss and, of course, the crowd picks it up and sings the rest of the first chorus as it is played through before restarting. Before I Believe in Miracles, Ed tells the crowd in Spanish:

[translated] “Fifteen years ago I came to Argentina for the first time with the Ramones. I miss Johnny, Dee Dee, and Joey a lot. They loved all of you very much.”

Blood gets the Atomic Dog tag to fill the breakdown, before “Paint Ed big”—at this point, one has to wonder if he was hoping to start a callback, but this time the crowd doesn’t seem to catch on. Smile starts the second set with a dedication, “this one is for everybody” and afterwards Mike and Boom get their introductions to the crowd. Mother is introduced with “we’d like to borrow a song by someone named Roger Waters” and gets a big crowd reaction at “Mother, should I trust the government?” Black is the standard tour de force, and nearing the crowd still shows no signs of settling down, breaking out into various chants simultaneously, including the adapted football chant from earlier. The band stops and soaks it in for a while, until Ed responds:

“we have no words… maybe next time we’ll pay you”

Ed thanks and re-introducing the members of the opening act, X, and his guitar tech Ricky Ramone, all “to share this energy you give us.” And as the love that’s received is the love that is saved, the energy remains alight and flowing right through Why Go, Alive, the send-off and farewell to radio listeners after Rockin’ In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter with a Little Wing tag at the end, and Matt and Ed pretending to take running jumps into the crowd before they all take a final bow. The crowd even finds time for one more of its new favorite chant: “Pearl Jam, es un sentimiento, no puedo parar.”

November 11, 2011 – Zequinha, Porto Alegre, BRA

Main Set: Why Go, Do The Evolution, Severed Hand, Corduroy, Got Some, Low Light, Given To Fly, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Even Flow, Unthought Known, Present Tense, Daughter/(Blitzkrieg Bop)/(It's OK), 1/2 Full, Wishlist, Rats, State Of Love And Trust, Black

encore 1: Just Breathe, Oceans, Comatose, Light Years, I Believe In Miracles, The Fixer, Rearviewmirror

encore 2: Last Kiss, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Crazy Mary, Jeremy, Alive, Rockin' In The Free World, Indifference, Yellow Ledbetter/(Little Wing)

Show Notes:

A brawny run of Why Go, Do The Evolution, Severed Hand and Corduroy wastes no time hot wiring this lengthy show played under a low hung moon. Low Light cools things down with Ed greeting the crowd in Portuguese afterwards.…

Show Notes: 

A brawny run of Why Go, Do The Evolution, Severed Hand and Corduroy wastes no time hot wiring this lengthy show played under a low hung moon. Low Light cools things down with Ed greeting the crowd in Portuguese afterwards. He mentions this is the fifth and final show in Brazil, and that they have the best fans in the world prior to launching into a raucous crowd singalong to Given To Fly. Daughter is punctuated by Ed letting out a vintage “She will rise abooovve!” scream and the audience perfectly hitting their cues as the song transitioned into It’s OK. The tag was as good as you would imagine from a passionate South American crowd with the call and response sung loud and proud. Rats pokes its head out of the storm drain for its first appearance on this tour and provides a funky change of pace after a leisurely Wishlist. Mike lights up ½ full with Jeff and Matt lurking heavily underneath for a great version of the underplayed gem. Ed caps off the outro using a reflecting mirror on the crowd after the “Won’t someone save the world?” part. Black closes the set with Ed getting crossed up a bit lyrically, mistakenly singing the “twisted, thoughts that spin ‘round my head” in the first verse but recovers like a pro. Mike provides a wrenching, slow boiling solo with Ed nailing the We Belong Together outro with the crowd right there with him.

Encore 1 has Ed donning his Walter Payton jersey as he leads the crowd in a Happy Birthday chant for wife, Jill, segueing into Just Breathe. Then the rarely performed Oceans is played in an encore spot, unusual from its normal spot in the opening sequence. Ed introduces it by simply saying “this was a request”, creating a beautiful pairing with Just Breathe. A heartfelt Light Years is dedicated to Johnny Ramone. As the song concludes, the band leaves some swirling feedback, seemingly to prime the upshift into I Believe in Miracles.

An overstuffed encore 2 features eight songs, all heavy hitters, rewarding the crowd for their endurance. During Boom and Mike’s soloing stand-off during Crazy Mary, Ed invites a young boy up on stage saying “This is Victor. He was down in front all night. We’re going to make him more comfortable” as Ed sets him up with a side stage spot for the rest of the night. This section feels like an endless PJ party with great crowd singing, especially on a deafening Jeremy. The band opted for a monster triple closer of Indifference/RITFW/Yellow Ledbetter to close the show which was a popular set choice for this part of the 2011 tour. Also to note, Ed joined X for a performance of Devil Doll. Overall, this was going-the-distance night of classics highlighted by another screaming cannonball of a South American crowd.

November 9, 2011 – Estadio Parana do Clube, Curitba, BRA

Main Set: Go, Arms Aloft, Animal, Ole, Why Go, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Corduroy, Given To Fly, Dissident, The Fixer, Even Flow, In Hiding, Setting Forth, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Red Mosquito, Got Some, World Wide Suicide, Porch

encore 1: Just Breathe, Off He Goes, Unthought Known, Breath, Supersonic, Black, Jeremy

encore 2: Better Man/(Save It For Later), Leaving Here, Footsteps, Once, Alive, Baba O'Riley, Yellow Ledbetter

Show Notes:

A South American Pearl Jam show is always packed full of energy, from the band to the audience and back to the band. This show was no exception. The band came out with a bang opening with Go, followed by…

Show Notes: 

A South American Pearl Jam show is always packed full of energy, from the band to the audience and back to the band. This show was no exception. The band came out with a bang opening with Go, followed by Arms Aloft and Animal. The crowd sings along loudly during Animal. The band was already feeding off the crowd’s energy, locking in with a great rendition of Ole. After Why Go, Ed addresses the crowd in Portuguese before starting Elderly Woman. The crowd then erupted with energy as Ed hit the first notes of Corduroy. The band got into a groove with Given To Fly, Dissident and The Fixer. Ed introduced Mike and Stone before Even Flow rolled out. Not for You is played with an excellent extended jam before the Modern Girl outro. Ed cheers the crows with his bottle of wine and the band cranks into Red Mosquito. The first set wraps up with Got Some, World Wide Suicide and Porch. During Porch, Ed has a problem with his guitar right before the first verse starts, which extends the song a bit as the band regroups with Ed singing sans guitar.

After the encore break, Ed checks on the crowd, thanks them for having the band back, and breaks into Just Breathe, followed by a request of Off He Goes. The band then breaks out some rare songs in Breath followed by Supersonic, before breaking out a string of hits with Black, Jeremy and Better Man. Jeremy finds the band at its most energetic of the night with the crowd chanting and jumping up and down with the song. The band follows the hits with Leaving Here, giving Jeff three of the solo riffs towards the end of the song and a Matt drum fill. The set is wrapped up with the reverse Momma-Son Trilogy starting with Footsteps, then Once and finishing with Alive. Baba O’Riley and Yellow Ledbetter are great anchors for this energized 32-song set.

November 6, 2011 – Apoteose, Rio de Janeiro, BRA

Main Set: Unthought Known, Last Exit, Blood, Corduroy, Given To Fly, Nothingman, Faithfull, Even Flow, Daughter/(Blitzkrieg Bop), Habit, Immortality, The Fixer, Got Some, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Why Go, Rearviewmirror

encore 1: Just Breathe, Come Back, I Believe In Miracles, State Of Love And Trust, Of The Earth, Do The Evolution, Jeremy

encore 2: Mother, Better Man, Black, Alive, Rockin' In The Free World, Indifference, Yellow Ledbetter

Show Notes:

You can feel the energy in the crowd as Eddie walks out with wine and notebook in hand and grabs a guitar to kick off the night with Unthought Known. The crowd immediately shouts along and claps. While Eddie is…

Show Notes: 

You can feel the energy in the crowd as Eddie walks out with wine and notebook in hand and grabs a guitar to kick off the night with Unthought Known. The crowd immediately shouts along and claps. While Eddie is offstage during Last Exit, the crowd helps out and sings the chorus until Ed comes back. The band and Ed clap and “hey” along during the breakdown of Blood. Only after Corduroy does the band stop for break, and Ed addresses the crowd in their native tongue. The crowd responds with uproarious cheering. During GTF, Eddie lifts the back of his shirt over his head as he and the entire audience scream, “Well fuckers we still stand.” There is a great singalong during Nothingman. At this point the vibe between the band and crowd seems obvious through the interplay of the clapping, dancing, and singing along with one another. Lots of singing along and dancing during Even Flow. During Daughter, the connection between the crowd and band is clear as Eddie plays off the crowd and follows the crowd a bit into an It’s OK tag. Immortality is dedicated to “someone over there,” and Ed seems to lose himself in Mike’s killer solo. The crowd is really into the newer music, and Eddie really gets into the groan on Got Some. During the beginning of Why Go, the crowd and Eddie sing the heys at a thunderous volume.

To begin encore 1, Eddie says “we have to argue about the songs we want to play, because we want to play many more of them.” He goes on to talk about Matt Cameron playing drums in another legendary band. He says that while Pearl Jam is 20, X is 35 and this is their first time in Brazil. Eddie says, “you were perfect!” Ed introduces Just Breathe by talking about an asteroid coming to Earth. At the end of the story, he says that you need to tell the person next you that you love them. The crowd sings along for the entire song almost louder than Ed. The band is super tight during I Believe In Miracles, but the crowd seems unfamiliar; this is one of the few songs they don’t sing along to. During State Of Love And Trust, Mike comes over to Ed towards the end of his solo for Ed to scream “He na na na na, there’s somethin’!” into Mike’s guitar as as he shreds. Ed introduces Of The Earth by prefacing, “you may not know this song,” but the band has a big time jam during the breakdown. Do The Evolution is full of dancing in the crowd and on stage. Mike jumps, Eddie moves back and forth strutting like Mick Jagger and Jeff is grooving and doing some jumps of his own. Even Stone starts dancing during his brief solo. Jeremy continues the sing along section, and the crowd continues singing the “Oh’s” after the song is over. And Eddie says, “From here to there to there from here to there…One of the best groups of people we could ever play for. The most active. Thank you. We’re very grateful for you.”

Ed introduces Pink Floyd’s Mother as a song they’ve never played before a large crowd before, the only time it was covered was for The Tonight Show back in September. During Better Man the crowd provides the perfect vocal accompaniment to Ed’s strumming on the entirety of the first verse until Ed points at himself to say it’s his turn and he holds the note. It’s a beautiful moment. During Black, Eddie and the crowd go back and forth on the vocals towards the end including the We Belong Together tag, and Eddie sways back and forth with his wine bottle in hand. Black Balloons somehow enter the audience before Stone kicks off Alive. During RITFW, Ed throws what seems like dozens of tambourines, guitar pics, and more memorabilia to enthusiastic audience members while the band jams. Ed asks if they can handle one more and they go into Indifference. Ed forgets the first lines and looks to the audience for help and the audience provides confusing direction; Ed picks it up for “One more day in hell.” It was awesome how neither the audience nor Ed knew the first verse at that moment. Yellow Ledbetter ends with Mike seated on the edge of the stage strumming and waving goodbye to folks.

November 4, 2011 – Estadio do Morumbi, São Paulo, BRA

Main Set: Go, Do The Evolution, Severed Hand, Hail, Hail, Got Some, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Given To Fly, Gonna See My Friend, Wishlist, Amongst The Waves, Setting Forth, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Even Flow, Unthought Known, The Fixer, Once, Black

encore 1: Just Breathe, Inside Job, State Of Love And Trust, Ole, Why Go, Jeremy

encore 2: Last Kiss, Better Man/(I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend)/(Save It For Later), Spin The Black Circle, Alive, Baba O'Riley, Yellow Ledbetter

Show Notes:

The band hit the stage with a blast of energy starting the show with Go followed by Do The Evolution. Stone sets the tone with a blistering solo. From there, the band burned through Severed Hand, Hail, Hail and Got…

Show Notes: 

The band hit the stage with a blast of energy starting the show with Go followed by Do The Evolution. Stone sets the tone with a blistering solo. From there, the band burned through Severed Hand, Hail, Hail and Got Some. Ed addressed the crowd commenting how beautiful they are. The energy slowed for Elderly Woman, but quickly picked back up with Given to Fly and Gonna See My Friend. The crowd got involved singing on Wishlist, carrying the “ah ah oh oh” after the band wrapped up the song. The band continued selecting songs from Backspacer, breaking out Amongst the Waves, and Setting Forth seamlessly transitions into Not For You. The band has back-to-back false starts for Unthought Known and The Fixer, before the home stretch of the first set with Once and Black.

Coming back from the encore break, Ed gives thanks to those in the crowd who came out five years ago to see them. He also thanks X, the opening band, going into a story about his younger days of getting a fake ID to get into a show to see X, ending up on the rail and ending up holding a beer for the lead singer and passing it back and forth to her all night. Just Breathe opens the encore, but leading into Inside Job, Ed shares the first time he heard the song when Mike played it for him in a hotel room in São Paulo. Matt jumps ahead in the set by starting the drum beat for Why Go before the band resets and jumps into State Of Love And Trust. Being in South America, Ole makes an appearance with a lot of energy from the crowd. The first encore wraps up with Why Go and Jeremy.

Starting encore two, Ed leads the crowd in a chant and the band breaks into Last Kiss. Halfway through the song, the band gets out of sync. However, the crowd continues singing the song, allowing the band to regroup and continue playing the song. The set wraps up with Better Man, Spin the Black Circle, Alive, Baba O’Riley and Yellow Ledbetter to end the show.

November 3, 2011 – Estadio do Morumbi, São Paulo, BRA

Main Set: Release, Corduroy, Why Go, Animal, World Wide Suicide, Got Some, Even Flow, Unthought Known, Whipping, Daughter/(W.M.A.), Ole, Down, Save You, The Fixer, Do The Evolution, Porch

encore 1: Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Just Breathe, Come Back, I Believe In Miracles, Alive

encore 2: Comatose, Black, Better Man, Rearviewmirror, Rockin' In The Free World

Show Notes:

Night one of this South America 2011 leg is actually the second scheduled São Paulo show after the 11/4 gig sold out. The cavernous Estadio do Morumbi was not quite full for this added show, but the energy and performances…

Show Notes: 

Night one of this South America 2011 leg is actually the second scheduled São Paulo show after the 11/4 gig sold out. The cavernous Estadio do Morumbi was not quite full for this added show, but the energy and performances more than filled it up. Release sounds huge with Ed’s vocals sounding well rested and raring to go for this next tour leg. This version includes an “oh dear John” lyric for Johnny Ramone. Primed by Release, the band offers a classic escalating run of Corduroy, Why Go and Animal to get the crowd pogoing. Ed then leads a brief swirling feedback drenched e-bow jam before the band drives hard into World Wide Suicide with Stone particularly locked in. After Got Some, Ed greets the crowd in some approximate version of Portuguese saying good evening we are happy you are in São Paulo, thank you for being so devoted. Ed misses a lyric in Unthought Known singing the “swallowed whole” part early instead of “working hard”, but stays on beat so it’s barely noticeable. Ed appears to indicate Small Town is next with the “1-2-3-4-2-3” count off, but pulls back as the crowd breaks into an “ole, ole” stadium chant with the band joining behind them for an extended fun jam. Matt then stands out with a controlled pummeling of his kit on Whipping, which makes its sole appearance on this leg. Ed uses a lyric sheet during the strobe heavy South American debut of Ole. Jeff and Stone’s backup vocals in the outro add some frantic energy to the new song. A late in the set Save You highlights the back end with Jeff and Matt throwing down hard. There was no traditional South American guitar sing along in Do the Evolution.

Ed introduces the band at the start of encore 1 in Portuguese leading into a vibrant Small Town. Just Breathe is a full band version and afterwards Ed tips his cap opener X. Ed then switches to Portuguese and mentions The Ramones playing Brazil and says Come Back was composed for Johnny Ramone. Alive features Mike switching over to Stone’s side during his solo to sear both sides of the crowd equally. Black closes with Ed doing a wordless high register vocal and Mike stinging it with a few piercing notes. Better Man is concise with Ed opting for a windmill Townshend finish in lieu of a tag. Ed then remarks:

“Obrigada. You know most Americans are a bit stupid when it comes to languages. We don’t know many. That’s I guess why we are so thankful that we play music which seems to communicate to people just about everywhere… It’s been five or six years since we’ve been here…. we see the Brazilian flag at more of our shows than any other flag, so we are very happy to be back with all Brazilians.”

The show finishes up with RVM getting an under-used nod as an encore 2 anchor before RITFW finishes things out featuring a Brazilian flag lyric reference “There’s colors of the street, green, yellow and blue”. Setlist edits for encore 2 had RVM moving from after Comatose to before RITFW, Spin The Black Circle being switched to Black and Wasted Reprise being cut before Better Man.