September 26, 2021 – Ohana Festival, Dana Point, CA, USA

Show at a Glance

  • Number of Songs: 19
  • Show Length: 2:00

Setlist

Main Set: Retrograde, Dance Of The Clairvoyants, Quick Escape, Seven O'Clock, Corduroy, Alright, Daughter/(W.M.A.), Red Mosquito, Superblood Wolfmoon, I Got Id, Even Flow, Immortality, Given To Fly, Do The Evolution, Better Man

Encore 1: Let Me Sleep, Black, Crazy Mary, Alive

Pearl Jam Show Notes 9/26/2021:

Pearl Jam’s second show back is the proverbial exclamation point on the weekend’s festivities, closing Ohana on a Sunday night. It feels like the band is eager to perform their new songs and this night drove that point home firmly, as five of the first six songs of the evening hailed from Gigaton, including the opener, the live debut of Retrograde, a gentle yet soaring build into the oceanside evening air.  Dance of the Clairvoyants follows, transitioning well from the atmospheric outro of Retrograde. Quick Escape is already becoming an explosive crowd pleaser, it feels drenched with years of setlist veteran status, giving fans everything they wanted from Mike, Stone and Jeff. The guitar and bass onslaught in the culminating jam is harmonic disharmony. Ed quickly addresses the crowd, saying “if it feels good out there, it feels great up here…we’ve been looking forward to this for a long, long time,” leading to Seven O’Clock. Like Retrograde, it bends towards the soaring energy through its peak and climax. Alright, introduced by Ed as a beautiful song written by his friend and bassist Jeff Ament, is the second debut of the evening. It’s gorgeous in the open air, and showcases the atmospheric elements Josh Klinghoffer will provide for the new songs. Daughter with Stone notably on his duo-tone harkens back to the Binaural era sound-wise. Red Mosquito makes its third consecutive Pearl Jam set with Danny Clinch on harmonica. Superblood Wolfmoon KICKS live, expect it to be a mainstay during the Gigaton shows. Josh plays Ed’s guitar parts on this, freeing up Ed to emote and dance around during the entire song. Before I Got Shit, Ed shows off a guitar he got from Joan Jett, and turns it over to show her signature. Matt Cameron absolutely crushes Immortality with a blistering percussion display. The main set culminates with Ed referencing a statement he overheard Brandi Carlile make, that this day was blessed with “Power Bitches” on stage. Ed, being a man, shows a “signed” authorization from Brandi giving her permission for him to say this. Brandi joins the band on stage, sharing vocals on a powerful Better Man. After the break, Ed takes a drink from his bottle, saying you “can’t do that ‘drink a bottle and pass it around’ thing anymore, unless it’s Purell,” hinting at Crazy Mary, before mentioning his participation in the Global Citizen vaccine awareness concert back in the spring, saying:

I stayed near the ocean up north near Santa Monica, and I got outside, and when you went through Venice it got really intense, and since then I heard that all those people were relocated, and I could never find out the details on where and how they were relocated, but I just keep thinking about them and I really hope they’re okay and healthy and able to get whatever assistance they needed to get back on their feet, so I’m gonna drink to their resilience, and dedicate this one to them…

California has been dealing with extreme homelessness issues in several city areas, and it resulted in people being removed. Let Me Sleep is played for only the 8th time ever. Ed remarks about a nice note and picture he was given from a girl named Nicole, with a request for Black, and dedicates it to her and her mom and dad. Mike’s solo is poignant and emotive, gaining the rapt attention of Earthling producer Andrew Watt, who’s watching from the side of the stage. Just as the band was hitting its stride on Crazy Mary, the song is stopped so that a fan can get some medical attention just in front of Mike’s stage side. The band picks up right where they left off, and Boom gets to lay out the entire solo on the B3. Alive closes out the evening, and features both an array of band hiccups and one of the more explosive endings to a Pearl Jam show ever. Someone (or perhaps everyone) is slightly off time in the buildup of the intro before the first verse. The ship is seemingly righted, and then Ed jumps up a full verse, and the band gathers around Matt’s drum kit. Hashing it out, Ed realizes he messed up and can be audibly heard saying into his microphone, “…oh I fucked it up! I owe each of you guys $100.” He addresses his blunder hysterically to the front of the house, with a sarcastic, self-effacing acknowledgement: “Who, me? Never….” As the band fires into the distinctive outro jam, McCready points to Andrew Watt, walks towards him, lifts his guitar over his shoulders, and places it around Watt’s neck. Watt then, with the joy of a million fans given the opportunity of a lifetime, absolutely slays the solo as the band extends the jam out feverishly, ultimately handing the guitar back to Mike for the final few moments.

Patrick Boegel

Concertpedia Writer & Horizon Leg Patron

When Pearl Jam first rose to prominence post Unplugged and during Lollapalooza it was their live tapes that indicated something more, something real was happening here. The first "bootleg" I owned was a great sounding board tape from 10.6.1991 at the Hollywood Palladium, I was captivated by the passion in the bookends of the short set, Wash and Porch. Then it was 3.2.1992 from Den Haag which included the incredible jam on I've Got a Feeling. The original bootleg actually edits a big portion out, around 1999 the tape trading community rectified this with a complete patched copy of the show. There were lots of us back in the day, stamps, padded mailers, tape trees, then CDR trees. Ah the good old days. If I had known then what I know now.


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