2019-03-03: Tempe, AZ (Ed Only)

[Biff Pocoroba]

1. Keep Me In Your Heart
2. Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
3. In God’s Country-U2 (partial)
4. I Am Mine
5. Wildflowers
6. Wishlist
7. Maybe It’s Time-(Michael Jason Isbell) from A Star Is Born 2018
8. Far Behind
9. Something teaser on uke
10. Soon Forget
11. Rise
12. Just Breathe
13. Millworker- (Ed plays a sped up instrumental jam section which isn’t really part of the original song)
14. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
15. Unthought Known
16. Immortality
17. Lukin
18. Porch
-----
19. Isn’t It A Pity- {played on pump organ}
20. Last Kiss
22. Should I Stay Or Should I Go? {loud ukulele}
23. Open All Night
24. Hard Sun

[Biff Pocoroba]

Twice I've written something and it got zapped before posting.

Wishlist, Unthought Known, Immortality, and Last Kiss were all electric
Immortality was the highlight of the night for me.
I am Mine was the big lyric casualty of the evening. Midway through Ed had absolutely no idea what came next.
Soon Forget had a relatively minor misplay, enough that Ed stopped before restarting. It was also accompanied by the only poltical commentary of the evening.
I would have like to have heard some more Into the Wild or even Ukelele Songs other than so many covers. But some of them were new to me and the A Star is Born was especially well received by the crowd. It has a similar sound to other recent Ed solo acoustic work.
Something was more of a tease than the actual song. There was also an extended, fast, aggressive "improv" on acoustic guitar after Just Breathe. I thought it was a Porch intro, the guy next to me thought it was a sped up Setting Forth. Turns out it was taken from Millworker
The crowd was fine. A few wandering drunks, people trying to get closer, and overly chatty neighbors (this one woman in particular) but luckily that was kept to a minimum while Ed played.
I didn't decide to go until last week and probably would not have if it was not a one off. But I'm glad I went and really enjoyed hearing Ed sing and play again; he sounded fantastic. I'm already looking at going to Ohana.

[oasisfan35]

1. Keep Me In Your Heart
2. Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
3. In God’s Country-U2 (partial)
4. I Am Mine
5. Wildflowers
6. Wishlist
7. Maybe It’s Time-(Michael Jason Isbell) from A Star Is Born 2018
8. Far Behind
9. Something teaser on uke
10. Soon Forget
11. Rise
12. Just Breathe
13. Millworker- (Ed plays a sped up instrumental jam section which isn’t really part of the original song)
14. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
15. Unthought Known
16. Immortality
17. Lukin
18. Porch
-----
19. Isn’t It A Pity- {played on pump organ}
20. Last Kiss
22. Should I Stay Or Should I Go? {loud ukulele}
23. Open All Night
24. Hard Sun

First song is a Warren Zevon cover?

[mray10]

1. Keep Me In Your Heart
2. Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
3. In God’s Country-U2 (partial)
4. I Am Mine
5. Wildflowers
6. Wishlist
7. Maybe It’s Time-(Michael Jason Isbell) from A Star Is Born 2018
8. Far Behind
9. Something teaser on uke
10. Soon Forget
11. Rise
12. Just Breathe
13. Millworker- (Ed plays a sped up instrumental jam section which isn’t really part of the original song)
14. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
15. Unthought Known
16. Immortality
17. Lukin
18. Porch
-----
19. Isn’t It A Pity- {played on pump organ}
20. Last Kiss
22. Should I Stay Or Should I Go? {loud ukulele}
23. Open All Night
24. Hard Sun

First song is a Warren Zevon cover?

Yes.

Immortality was the highlight for me.

Also, Maybe It's Time, which was a nice cover but he also did it as kind of a wink. Beforehand he said the song was "by someone from around here." Isbell sure isn't from Arizona. But the character Bradley Cooper plays in the movie is supposed to be from Arizona, and Cooper is also affecting a lot of Vedder (his look, his voice) in that performance. So that was both funny, but also a nice performance of a good song.

Also really liked hearing Wildflowers and the bit of the U2 cover, which is sort of an Arizona classic.

[Monkey_Driven]

That seems like a lovely set for the setting.

[scrub12]

First time seeing Ed solo live. Thought he sounded great. I haven’t seen A Star is Born so I was lost during that song. Wildflowers was beautiful. I would agree that Immortality was the highlight. I was also surprised at how little of his solo stuff he played. Was reminded that Rise is a tremendous song.

I told my wife to be ready for some Ed screwups and the I Am Mine one was classic Ed. He looked legitimately confused and it took him a minute to figure out what the second verse is.

[run2death]

A few wandering drunks, people trying to get closer, and overly chatty neighbors (this one woman in particular) but luckily that was kept to a minimum while Ed played.
I didn't decide to go until last week and probably would not have if it was not a one off. But I'm glad I went and really enjoyed hearing Ed sing and play again; he sounded fantastic. I'm already looking at going to Ohana.

I'm not a prude and drink (probably too much), but alcohol should be banned at ALL Arizona sporting and concert events.

I refuse to go to events like these and basically limit myself to the smaller concert venues in the area that I know don't put up with public drunkenness.

[Bammer]

I have never been to a concert, festival, or any other event that had so many bars. Turn around and you trip over 5 of them in any direction. I can’t even venture a guess as to the alcohol income.

[Bammer]

Shakey Graves were great. I love Jimmy Eat World, nice set from them.

(Band of Horses meh. Not my thing.)

Never seen Eddie solo and I think this was way too large of a crowd. His solo set is more suited for a theater (for me, anyway). It was a huge step back in momentum in this setting especially after the two aforementioned bands. He played a few PJ songs which was nice, but Ed solo is an entirely different experience. I prefer PJ exponentially. That said I got quite a few laughs out of his banter and his voice was on point.

[run2death]

Shakey Graves were great. I love Jimmy Eat World, nice set from them.

(Band of Horses meh. Not my thing.)

Never seen Eddie solo and I think this was way too large of a crowd. His solo set is more suited for a theater (for me, anyway). It was a huge step back in momentum in this setting especially after the two aforementioned bands. He played a few PJ songs which was nice, but Ed solo is an entirely different experience. I prefer PJ exponentially. That said I got quite a few laughs out of his banter and his voice was on point.

I was fairly tempted to go for the JEW performance.

They always put on a good show for the hometown audience, but I knew the crowd would be horrendous in a big/festival setting.

[evenslow]

thanks for the reviews guys.

[Biff Pocoroba]

Pearl Jam and Ed solo is like comparing lemon cake with lemon pie and I enjoy both very much. As long as they keep playing I plan on keep going.
No question that Ed solo plays better to a smaller setting than a festival though. The Florence clips I've seen from a couple years ago seem to be an exception and when I went to the first Ohana I thought it was just a wonderful day all around with a super chill but very friendly audience. This weekend was not a bad crowd by any stretch but there are things you're going to have to put up with at a festival/general admittance performance that can really distract from seeing him play solo. You get the drunk bros and the chatterboxes at Pearl Jam too but it's less noticeable when there is a full rock band playing.

[JuanHamm]

Lemon pie?

[mray10]

I was chatting with someone about how Ed solo at a festival is such a totally different concept than an Ed solo show at a theatre. In a theatre, you can pretty well assume that the vast majority know what kind of show they're going for at this point. When he first started playing solo shows they were essentially marketed around the uke album and ITW was new so all that stuff was expected and now he's been doing these for a decade and it's a known quantity.

But at a festival there's bound to be a resonable number of people who go, "Eddie Vedder, huh? I liked some Pearl Jam 25 years ago," and they wander over and ... then they're just confused as fuck for an hour while this guy plays covers and solo songs and maybe recent or obscure Pearl Jam songs. If you're a casual fan of 90s music who knows some Pearl Jam songs and you looked at this set, you'd know Elderly Woman ... and maybe Porch. And there's a reasonable chance you'd recognize a few of the covers. What a weird experience that must be if you're just expecting to walk over and hear a guy do solo versions of Even Flow and Daughter.

[oasisfan35]

Lemon pie?

Meringue I'd say.

[VinylGuy]

I was thinking about how Ed seem to be a live performer these days and not a studio guy anymore. We know PJ is writing songs, and he is not there. He hasnt released anything new since Uke Songs, and those were already 10 years old songs....and his live shows are pretty much PJ songs by this point and new covers.

I love these shows, hell im dying to go to Ohana but still its kinda weird that this guy is almost done as a recording artist.

[Monkey_Driven]

I was thinking about how Ed seem to be a live performer these days and not a studio guy anymore. We know PJ is writing songs, and he is not there. He hasnt released anything new since Uke Songs, and those were already 10 years old songs....and his live shows are pretty much PJ songs by this point and new covers.

I love these shows, hell im dying to go to Ohana but still its kinda weird that this guy is almost done as a recording artist.

I really wonder if he will ever address this.

[VinylGuy]

I was thinking about how Ed seem to be a live performer these days and not a studio guy anymore. We know PJ is writing songs, and he is not there. He hasnt released anything new since Uke Songs, and those were already 10 years old songs....and his live shows are pretty much PJ songs by this point and new covers.

I love these shows, hell im dying to go to Ohana but still its kinda weird that this guy is almost done as a recording artist.

I really wonder if he will ever address this.

Yeah who knows what in his mind. I know he talked about going back to studio last year in Italy...But i wonder really if he doesnt want to because of family or because his motivation these days is playing live. He seemes stocked to be playing live for sure he is not phoning anything there. Maybe thats the case.

[bodysnatcher]

considering they're already pulling all the stops on their recent tours (full album setlists, super rare songs, baseball stadiums), there's not much else for them to do to keep the element of surprise at this point. a new album is the only inevitable way to keep the live show moving forward. the beast needs food to live.

[Monkey_Driven]

considering they're already pulling all the stops on their recent tours (full album setlists, super rare songs, baseball stadiums), there's not much else for them to do to keep the element of surprise at this point. a new album is the only inevitable way to keep the live show moving forward. the beast needs food to live.

Might explain why they've only played 25-30 shows in the past three years.