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

Pearl Jam Show Notes 11/3/2011:

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.