November 19, 2013 – Jobing.com Arena, Phoenix, AZ, USA

Show at a Glance

  • Number of Songs: 34
  • Show Length: 2:55

Setlist

Main Set: Long Road, Release, Low Light, (Interstellar Overdrive)/Corduroy, Lightning Bolt, Mind Your Manners, Given To Fly, Getaway, Yellow Moon, Even Flow, Sirens, Daughter/(W.M.A.), Wishlist, Infallible, Do The Evolution, Once, ½ Full, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Go

Encore 1: Bee Girl, Around the Bend, Future Days, Hard To Imagine, Footsteps, Jeremy, Alone, Down, Unthought Known, Porch

Encore 2: Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Spin The Black Circle, Alive, Rockin’ In The Free World, Indifference

Pearl Jam Show Notes 11/19/2013:

For the first time in the band’s history, Long Road and Release open a show back-to-back. Corduroy cranks up the pace with an energetic finish and an extended sequence. Mike shines again on Lightning Bolt, already a mainstay of his repertoire. The Given to Fly line adaptation for the venue is “made it to the desert…” Afterwards, Ed greets the crowd, toasts to having the band back in Phoenix, just like Oklahoma City at the previous show, for the first time in 10 years, “filling up the place like a full glass of wine.” He predicts a good night and a couple of bottles, and mentions they’d thought about playing the Mason Jar “like old times.” Very tight performance of Getaway, after which Ed mentions that same-sex marriage is legal in Washington state and so is marijuana, adding that it’s going great and recommending trying it. Yellow Moon is introduced as a vision that’s rare in the Northwest but quite familiar to everyone in the Southwest. Stone seems really into his part of the Even Flow breakdown. Wishlist is changed to “all Phoenix’s hands upraised…” After Infallible, Ed tries to remember something “sharp and witty” he was going to say about Chicago: he sees a lot of people from Chicago present, all the young kids, one about his daughter’s age, and finally recalls it was about the recent crazy weather around the world and that hopefully we all agree that climate change is a real thing “because young people, it’s their world and it’s evolution, baby,” introducing the next tune. 1/2 Full is followed by a long bit of banter, talking about Jeff (crowd starts chanting “Jeff! Jeff!”), “we call him the sheriff, I don’t know why, but we call him the sheriff,” saying hello to Jeff’s parents, George and Penny:

“…there’s about a thousand and one reasons to love them…they’ve been together for 52 years. That’s just something you have to admire…Stone’s parents have been together for about 52 years, too. Jeff and Stone have been together about 51…48…a long time!” 

Ed makes a toast to “Jeff and Stone, long relationships.” He then intimates that a person at the show, Danny Long, had also known and been in a band with Ed’s father, and owned recordings of his father singing [these recordings were most likely used on the Earthling track “On My Way”], adding:

“…about 4-5 months ago I got to hear my dad sing for the first time…but the nice thing was, dad was pretty good, he was great!” 

With this, Ed dedicates Better Man to ”George and Penny and Danny and everybody who’s got a dad.” The first encore is full of rare gems and to start, Ed offers Jeff the wine bottle while introducing Bee Girl and as Jeff helps himself to a swig, Ed says “the first time we ever played this, yeah, we were doing that.” Around the Bend is heard for the first time since the 2006 Bridge School show! Ed dedicates Future Days to his two best friends, “Uncle Johnny who lives here in Phoenix, and my wife Jill,” before signaling Boom to start. Ed then play-gauges the crowd’s reaction for the next few with “I’m gonna let you weigh in here, we’ve got…I think one that you’ll like, but we’ve got another one that’s more for the ‘serious collector,’” before starting Hard to Imagine. Some nice touches from Stone at the end, and Ed makes the decision: “let’s do the other one, too” and goes right into Footsteps to the crowd’s delight. Unthought Known is introduced with “…here’s to all the teachers out there, especially the ones teaching music, you know who you are.” After the second break, Ed comments “it’s been 10 years, we’re not going to just leave like that…it could be another 10 years.” This earns some thorough booing and Ed backpedals with “I know what Stone’s thinking…‘how could you even say that, Ed, what kind of frontman are you?’” Small Town is dedicated to Yuma, Scottsdale (which gets a mix of cheers and boos), “Stone thinks there’s an artists’ colony called Martha, Murtha? How ‘bout all you people that hang out at the Grand Canyon?” Black is on the setlist but Spin the Black Circle is played instead. After Alive, Ed thanks the crowd and recognizes how lucky they are to play in front of so many people, introduces the band, and then welcomes Nils Lofgren on stage to play Rockin’ in the Free World. On his way offstage, Lofgren finds a mic and says “Pearl Jam, one of the greatest bands around on the planet.” As Indifference begins to close the night, Ed observes “so, we have friends in Arizona…we gotta hang out more…call me up, or call Mike.”

Eric Stevenson González

Writer & Contributor

Sometime in 1994, a friend lent me two CDs to keep me entertained during a family road trip/vacation: Superunknown and Vs. A little later, Vitalogy became the first album I ever bought myself and the rest was my music history. I've missed a lot of shows in recent years, but 2020 made one thing clear: life is too short to miss Pearl Jam concerts.


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