May 28, 2024 – Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, WA, USA

Pearl Jam Show Notes 5/28/2024:

The first hometown show in nearly 6 years opens with Release, the crowd is loud and welcoming. Thin Air is a surprise, the first since 2022. After Low Light, Ed says “it’s about time we played this damn place,” and talks about how they were in the building a month ago getting the tour ready, saying they had thought about starting the tour here but decided to end it there “because it’s Seattle.” After Wreckage, he mentions “every street in this town is full of memories…wrote this song there, recorded that song there, broke up that fight there,” adding that he takes his daughters to school and will say “see that little apartment building, that’s where they filmed Singles,” joking that they act interested. He continues, saying “it’s always been a point of pride to be part of the musical community in this city, the artistic community…I hope we represented this town well…it really has been like a dream,” and then changes gears, talking about Trump and wondering when he’s “asleep in the courtroom, is he dreaming of being a rock star?” I Am Mine is one of the highlights of the night, Mike does so much in a short time. During the Even Flow solo, Mike runs over to the other side of the stage, and Jeff goes up to Mike’s pedal board and starts adding effects and hitting pedals with his feet, while still playing the bass line! When Mike runs back to his side after, Jeff gives him a playful shrug, as if to say ‘I did the best I could.’ After Even Flow, Ed mentions a 10-year-old drummer who’s in attendance. Ed goes down front and sings Daughter to a young girl, and the tag features him repeating the line “rise up,” a debut tag of Springsteen’s “My City of Ruins”, which has been done by the band and Ed, but not as a tag. Waiting for Stevie continues to be the breakout new song that we thought it would be, Ed prefacing it with “this is about a young woman who finds her calling.” He sits down and talks about Bill Walton, who recently passed, and a picture of him at a PJ show is shown on the screen. Ed calls him a “big man with a huge heart, a wide path of peace and love behind him,” and they dedicate Man of the Hour to him. Following that, Ed says he’s “nervous to play the next one…what would you call that, Satanic Panic?” and they break into Satan’s Bed. Jeff drives a propulsive RVM to close the main set. Ed dedicates Just Breathe to “our wives who used to be our girlfriends…who became moms,” then he jokes “now that we’re older…we’re excited they’ll be our girlfriends again.” The spotlight moves over to the pump organ, where Ed starts River Cross and the band gradually joins in and it gets heavy at the end. Ed dons a Kraken jersey during Alive and goes down to pour wine for the front row, and Mike adds the “War Pigs” tease. Deep Sea Diver comes on stage for Watchtower, Ed says “whoever knows how it goes…starts the song!” Stone points at Jessica from DSD, and she starts it, played at a slower tempo. Jeff’s sitting on the drum riser for Ledbetter, and as Mike is coming out of the first lead, he transitions into Little Wing, and the whole band follows, with Mike going back into the Ledbetter outro at the end. Ed says “you’re gonna make us want to make this a more usual occurrence…not just Thursday, but again and again and again…”