September 3, 2022 – Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa, ONT, CAN

Pearl Jam Show Notes 9/3/2022:

Stools are out again for the first 5 songs, looks like this will continue going forward, at least for the rest of this leg. Garden is a surprise for the acoustic set, although Mike is on an electric. Alright has a very chilled out, relaxed feel. Ed says they’re going to do a couple like this (seated), “but once we get going…no turning back.” After NAIS, he gives credit to Jeff, saying “those were some compositions by Mr. Jeff Ament. Can we get a little…low light here,” teasing the next song and pointing out a woman in the front doing a “Beyonce dance” that he noticed while singing, and dedicates Low Light to her. The line in Given to Fly is changed to “…made it north of the border…” Stone takes the spotlight with dynamite solos on Evolution and Throw Your Hatred Down. Ed talks about Neil Young before the latter, saying

“as long as we’ve been together, there’s been a few disagreements over the years…we have strong opinions, we don’t always agree…but there’s one thing we all agree on, hands down, no doubt, that one of the greatest humans on the planet Earth is Mr. Neil Young…”

Afterwards, Ed tells a quick story about being a kid and his parents not letting him go see the Jackson 5, who were his favorite, joking “I never really forgave them,” and Wishlist is dedicated to Sienna and Cole, 8 and 10-year olds whose dad brought them to the show. Mike takes a long solo on Even Flow, going back to his amp for part of it, stretching the song out to 8 minutes. It’s storytime again, Ed talks about waiting tables in Chicago at 18 years old and having to sing happy birthday to all the various tables and how he hated doing it, but they’ve had a lot of birthday requests on this tour and he’ll make an exception, and then goes on to mention a few birthdays. The call and response on Corduroy has a little extra emphasis behind it from Ed, who leads the crowd up and down. Mike takes over Immortality and Black. Following Jeremy, Ed talks about a woman named Ashley who was in the front in Quebec City and motions for her to come up to the front, playing a short improv about her as she makes her way up to the stage. He says he got a note from her,

  “and she said in this note that our music has saved her time and time again…but I just want to tell you all this: that it’s YOU who keeps US healthy to keep playing, that keeps us together so we can keep playing…that makes us friends still, so we can still be here to keep playing…all you folks have really kept us alive, so WE thank YOU…it’s the truth…”

He mentions Ashley again and a couple more people, and says this next one is dedicated to them, before kicking right into Porch. After the break, Ed talks about the livestream of the Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins tribute show and the “indelible energy that Taylor had, the infectious energy, the undeniable energy that this guy had,” and also mentions Gord Downie from the Tragically Hip, which gets a nice crowd response. Ed says that Taylor had sent him a video of his son Shane playing drums on a David Bowie song with his side project, and “he was so proud of him, as he should have been” (Shane played drums on the Foo’s song “My Hero” at the tribute show). He continues, sending well wishes to Taylor’s family and the Foo Fighters family before Better Man. Small Town is played to the back. Josh and Boom get a shout out before Crazy Mary, with Mike and Boom dueling and then combining for the finish. Fuckin’ Up makes its first appearance since 2018, and Ed makes sure to thank everyone in the back before Yellow Ledbetter ends the night.