May 9, 2022 – Gila River Arena, Phoenix, AZ, USA
Show at a Glance
- Venue: Gila River Arena
- Location: Phoenix, AZ
- Number of Songs: 24
- Show Length: 2:25
Setlist
Pre Set: Far Behind
Main Set: Wash, Given To Fly, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Corduroy, Quick Escape, Why Go, Superblood Wolfmoon, Alright, Even Flow, Dance Of The Clairvoyants, Black/(We Belong Together), I Got Shit, Red Mosquito, Sleeping By Myself, Daughter/(W.M.A.), Porch
Encore 1: Smile, Eruption, Do The Evolution, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Leaving Here, Alive, Yellow Ledbetter
Pearl Jam Show Notes 5/9/2022:
Ed comes out for the pre-set and Far Behind makes its debut at a Pearl Jam show. Wash is dark and eerie to open, the 4th different opener in 4 shows so far. Corduroy has the new intro jam again and an incendiary Mike solo, it’s been one of the standouts of this run so far, it feels rejuvenated. Ed does a spoken space shuttle countdown-style spiel during Quick Escape. Ed says that they’re in the land of coyotes, mentioning NHL Coyotes players Christian Fisher and Clayton Keller before Superblood Wolfmoon, saying wolves are close to coyotes. Ed goes on a passionate rant about freedom before Alright, which makes its tour debut. Prior to Even Flow, Ed mentions the highway signs around the area that had been changed to “Even Flow on the gas, keep left to pass”. Mike and Ed take turns getting the sides of the arena to out-cheer each other, Ed adding,
“We’ve never done this kind of cheesy bullshit before…”
Josh is rocking out behind the amps during Dance of the Clairvoyants, adding some drum accents and background vocals. Astronaut Scott Kelly is in attendance, and Black is dedicated to him, Ed does a little improv based off of We Belong Together. He stresses the “FUCK” during I Got Shit. He says they’ve got mosquitos here, but they’re in the land of scorpions, adding “…don’t get too excited, Mike” (referring to Mike’s fandom of the 80’s hair metal band Scorpions), leading into Red Mosquito. Before Sleeping By Myself, Ed talks about testing positive for COVID, isolating and thinking to himself “…why did I ever smoke cigarettes, what the fuck is wrong with me…,” saying that Sleeping By Myself was running through his head the whole time he was quarantined.
The number for voting information is put on the screens in the venue as Ed talks about supporting freedom to choose. Mike has some skronky guitar tones during the W.M.A. tag, and Ed changes the lyric to “..police stopped my daughter again…” Matt ends the song with a powerful drum rhythmic outro. Ed talks a lot about his niece Molly, who’s in attendance, choosing to come to the show instead of her graduation from Arizona State, and she gets a spotlight and a nice roar from the crowd. Ed changes up the setlist, saying they were going to play a sad one but he doesn’t want to anymore, and they play Smile instead. Mike goes back behind his amps to play with Josh for a while during Jeff’s solo. The Eruption solo seems a little longer than previous versions. Ed mentions Taylor Hawkins before Better Man, saying he’s seeing a lot of Foo Fighters shirts in the crowd, adding that he had only gotten to know him a little over the last year but Matt was close with him. The intro to Leaving Here is a train wreck, but they get it squared away, Jeff takes all the solos. After Alive, it feels like the show might be over, but they put the instruments back on and close with Yellow Ledbetter. In Hiding, Come Back, and River Cross were on the original setlist but not played.
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Hi! I´m from other country and we traveled with my friends to assist to the concert. We love Pearl Jam. Maybe you can help me. We bought the official poster and I researched to the web, and discovered these poster are coleccionable. My doubt is… Pearl Jam select a artist to do that?, why select this artist for the show in Arizona, who is the artist?. Could you help me please. Sorry for my english… thanks!
Hi Daniela, you are correct. Ever since about 1996, Pearl Jam has offered unique posters for each one of their shows. In the modern era of the band, every single poster from a tour year has had a different artist to put their artistic input on the show they were picked to create for. These posters quite often after the date of the show sell out pretty fast and will be marked up for higher prices than if you were to purchase from the merch stand. The Arizona poster specifically designed by Brad Klausen. Hope this helps.
It’s hard to headline my reaction to this show with the tough scratches, but there is certainly a reason everyone else is doing that. In Hiding is easily one of their most underplayed tracks, and it especially hurts knowing at this point how much the band shares in our love for that one. Of course, I’d take an album debut over some bread and butter — especially when Ed’s actual shoutouts, despite his mood when as things rambled on, actually did fit for the song and encore to still be played through as planned.
Biggest highlights for me included Wash, I Got Shit, and Red Mosquito — Mike is just on another level right now, with both unmatched energy and exploration of new sounds. At the end of the day, this show made me grateful that this band is still exploring new things, whether it’s songwriting, set construction, making up for lost time on dedications, etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get to the end of this run and they’re still debuting different openers, not to mention songs in the middle. My hope is that it carries into a return of RVM in place of Porch at some point, and removing any of the little monotony that remains.
The second two-night stand of the tour awaits. Let’s do this!
Last night was my 25th PJ show and first PJ show since 2013. The band sounded great. Ed’s voice seems to be getting stronger. Maybe he quit smoking? The crowd’s energy really seemed to push the band during the second song Given To Fly. The fans were really giving the song all their energy. Really great mixed setlist and I enjoyed the new songs from Gigaton. All in all a great show. The band and the fans really showed up. Hopefully the next show won’t be 8 years away.