Pearl Jam Vancouver, BC Concert History

Surrounded by water, the Oceans opener is no surprise. Ed has a ukulele for Can’t Keep. A stage light and mood switch occurs with Corduroy. The band teams up with each other to come together for a wild Corduroy outro. Perfect call and response by the audience on MYM. Ed takes a moment to crack open some wine and offers a quick hello, “we’ll be home soon enough but we’re in Vancouver, we’re not going anywhere. We’ll talk later. Let’s keep going,” keeping the energy up with Gods’ Dice and Lightning Bolt. Stone leads the way into In Hiding and Ed reaches for the wine and gestures to his throat and chest and mouths something about his voice. It looks like Boom is reading the sheet music. Ed tells a joke about meeting someone from Mexico and a couple from Sweden who have come to Vancouver for the “tropical weather.” He reminisces about an early 1991 show at the Town Pump in Vancouver where the audience was the size of the first row and they remember playing this song…cue Even Flow. During the solo, Ed speaks to a tech who fixes something while Ed shares an enormous bottle of wine with the front row. Mike tiptoes out of the solo as do the backing guitars, leaving Matt’s mastery on display. Stone gets pretty bluesy for the Not For You solo and Ed does a yodel call and response with the audience. Lights go out to spotlight Ed on his guitar for After Hours. He asks for the crowd to help with lyrics for Gonna See My Friend, has a mini jam session with Stone at the end and they sneak in a few chords of Porch. Mike is on his knees for the Porch solo, Matt maintains the beat with otherworldly precision during a super extended bridge. Jeff swats at the hanging globes and Ed plays front row bartender and proceeds to climb the lighting, mic in hand.

After the break, he toasts the bartender/guitar tech who brings him the wine and grabs his ukulele to play Soon Forget, last played in 2006! A tech issue follows and he eggs on the audience with some hockey-talk and a shout-out to friend Chris Chelios which the crowd jokingly disapproves of. Each member of the band is highlighted on a beautifully mellow Thumbing My Way. After Mother, Ed says “as a taxpayer, you might contribute to things you don’t necessarily agree with…bombs dropping on children…now we have drones…I’m not getting into it,” and jokes that he will leave the crowd with a tale of a 4.5 hour concert with 3 hours of music and 1.5 hours of politics, leading into an energetic Insignificance. Ed struggles a bit with the lyrics and the chords during Better Man, gets the audience to assist, states “I fucked up, I know,” and continues to take long pauses, playing with the audience. Stone joins Mike and Jeff’s side of the stage and then Ed joins in, creating a little guitar posse. The song continues and Ed asks “Should we stop now?” The “don’t run away” line has a list of tags:

“like my father did…like my brother did…like my sister did…like my uncle did…like all my friends…like my first girlfriend did…”

Ed windmills, rests on Mike before the final guitar push of the outro and we get not one, not two, not three, but four signature jumps.

Ed introduces “Mr. Stone Gossard and Andy Wolf who looks after Stone’s shit and is a total champ tonight,” in reference to the tech issues. Ed thanks Mudhoney for opening for them and again braving a storm to get there. Mike’s Black solo is bluesy, yet wailing towards the speakers and has Ed crying out at the very end. Alive becomes interactive with Mike going right down into the front section and Ed catching gifts being thrown at them and climbing speakers and pointing to people. The lights go on and Mudhoney’s Mark Arm and Steve Turner join in for Kick Out The Jams. Ed teases the audience “they sometimes say leave them wanting more…well fuck that shit,” and acknowledges how they’re “fortunate to have these gatherings based on music” and jokes about a young fan with headphones on who is “probably listening to Katy Perry.” Ed wishes the crowd a “Happy Christmas and Happy New Year….until next time.”