2013-07-19: Wrigley Field: Chicago, IL

[VinylGuy]

This sounds like a such fun night, even with all the raining stuff...and the setlist is great...present tense, hold on..fuck i love those two, the new songs, Chloe/COT...really seems like an amazing night.

Congrats to those who were lucky enough to be there.

[Dr. Van Nostrand]

BTW, they completely lost the crowd with that 3hr break. London was much better.

It didn't help when they came out and played songs like All Night and Bugs -- I'm guessing people didn't wait 3 hours to hear those songs.

Yeah, should have come back with Wash. Crowd would have loved it.

They should have just treated the pre rain delay as a preset and came back out with a different opener and started a new show instead of continuing the delayed show. But i think the limited edition set list shirts kept that from happening, they were ok dropping songs from it because of the lack of time, but didn't want to add songs that weren't previously on it.

[Chris_H_2]

I think this was definitely a show that people won't necessarily appreciate being at until well after the fact.

[---]

Also, I stood next to the VIP section all night, and other than folks like Kenny Mayne, John Cusak, and a couple of Blackhawks, the amount of douchebaggery was unbelievable.

could you elaborate here

[given2trade]

Also, I stood next to the VIP section all night, and other than folks like Kenny Mayne, John Cusak, and a couple of Blackhawks, the amount of douchebaggery was unbelievable.

could you elaborate here

i was thinking same thing. do tell us some stories.

[MadTIGERmaN]

I think this was definitely a show that people won't necessarily appreciate being at until well after the fact.

appreciate, maybe not
but most around me were saying its a night they wont forget...
I kinda put it with the 2000 Alpine Valley ice bowl show...
coldest show they played, and the longest and possibly latest?

just a great fucking night amongst great fans and friends... any other band and thered have been a riot by 10pm and 1000 people left by midnight, but with Pearl Jam? only maybe 1000 left by 2am

[southp]

Also, I stood next to the VIP section all night, and other than folks like Kenny Mayne, John Cusak, and a couple of Blackhawks, the amount of douchebaggery was unbelievable.

could you elaborate here

i was thinking same thing. do tell us some stories.

I wanna hear about Patrick Kane puking on some ten-clubbers!

[MadTIGERmaN]

Also, I stood next to the VIP section all night, and other than folks like Kenny Mayne, John Cusak, and a couple of Blackhawks, the amount of douchebaggery was unbelievable.

could you elaborate here

i was thinking same thing. do tell us some stories.

I wanna hear about Patrick Kane puking on some ten-clubbers!

I had Dennis Rodman, for the 2nd time at a PJ show, use my isle in the stadium, to access the field level... glad he just kept walking this time that dude is one tall mofo and had a good 3 or 4 security guards with him lol (4th time ive seen him at a PJ show out of my 14 PJ shows... hes no longer a rare song for me LOL)

[Fuck You Jobu]

FWIW, I thought Ed sounded really good last night.

Yeah he was really on and into. He wanted really bad to make the nite special.

[broken iris]

I think this was definitely a show that people won't necessarily appreciate being at until well after the fact.

Maybe. Like I said, they gave it their all, it just wasn't enough to make a top ten for me. Original set list, maybe, though they casuals would have been lost in the first encore so I get why those were cut.

[evenslow]

Now that I managed to get a few hours of sleep, here's my take:


Good:
Hold On - I knew it was on the setlist that was circulated two days ago, but it was still a great treat. This was on my "never gonna hear it" list.
Low Light - Love Yield, love this song
Come Back dedication - It was great for Eddie to dedicate this one to the 10c who lost wife. Sets a dangerous precedence for the people who post there, but still very cool
MYM - Sounded better than London, crowd liked it
Bugs - ticked that one in StatTracker, now it can go away from the live show
Future Days - seemed a bit rough performance-wise, but I like the idea of Eddie writing love songs and the keyboards weren't nearly as bad as some made them out to be. Looking forward to hearing this one on LB
Chloe Dancer - First time hearing this, thought Eddie nailed it.

Bad:
Eddie's vocals on All Night and DTE - maybe there was a problem with the equipment after the delay, but he sounded bad on these two
Lightning Bolt - The crowd didn't respond well to this one, nor did I
Eruption - blah. A waste of time in a shortened set
Ed talking over the outtro of Black - WTH?
Why Go - felt like the weakest version I have heard in years
Cut songs - they cut songs the hardcores would have wanted to hear in favor of wishlist/UK/even flow #875

Ugly:
Rain delay - almost 3 hours, killed the crowd energy since it did not rain for the last 45 minutes of the delay.
Complete lack of communication for those in the stadium - Once word got out that Pitchfork ended early and Phish had given up, people were getting antsy. Would it killed them to just say something over the PA every 45-60 minutes? Shit, we got 30 emails about Wrigley merchandise, why not a few about the show itself?
Where was Alive? -
Crowd - just dead by the first encore break. Not that it was really good to begin with, but the band really tried. You could see it in Eddie's face, he wanted to make something great and was disappointed by the break just as much as everyone else, but they just wouldn't give the energy back to him. The crowd was just the picture of the bored, overexposed PJ fan base. They were there so that they could brag about on social media and to other PJ fans. And hopefully get a new badge in stattracker. Even the GA section looked bored. Hopefully the injection of newer fans into GA pits in the fall helps fix this.


This post might soundly overly negative, it's not meant that way. I am glad I was there and there were some great moments, but thanks to the clusterfuck rain delay, this one did not turn out "Epic". And to everyone who was at London but not Wrigley, you guys got the better end of the deal.

I mostly agree with most of this. Most(ly).

I would add that I thought they recommitted to some of the old tracks with a new focus and a tighter leash. Last night was as much enjoyment I've gotten out of Corduroy and Even Flow in a while. They weren't racing through it like they normally do. Also like how they've added little flourishes to Present Tense.

And Chloe/Crown might have been the highlight.

[evenslow]

I think this was definitely a show that people won't necessarily appreciate being at until well after the fact.

appreciate, maybe not
but most around me were saying its a night they wont forget...
I kinda put it with the 2000 Alpine Valley ice bowl show...
coldest show they played, and the longest and possibly latest?

just a great fucking night amongst great fans and friends... any other band and thered have been a riot by 10pm and 1000 people left by midnight, but with Pearl Jam? only maybe 1000 left by 2am

this is basically right - it will go down as a "memorable" show that you're glad you were there for, but the actual show itself was without a compass.

[csblackb]

I would add that I thought they recommitted to some of the old tracks with a new focus and a tighter leash. Last night was as much enjoyment I've gotten out of Corduroy and Even Flow in a while. They weren't racing through it like they normally do. Also like how they've added little flourishes to Present Tense.

Even Flow was definitely fast last night. I think it just didn't seem as fast because everything was fast last night.

[BurtReynolds]

maybe they'll start playing lots of indoor shows instead of one big outdoor stadium show!

[Lament]

Like I said earlier, it was fun, and makes for a great story, but I think we've all seen this band play too many truly AMAZING shows to act like this was anything more than a solid show in bizarre circumstances. And honestly that's more than enough for me.

[Viller]

Now that I managed to get a few hours of sleep, here's my take:


Crowd - just dead by the first encore break. Not that it was really good to begin with, but the band really tried. You could see it in Eddie's face, he wanted to make something great and was disappointed by the break just as much as everyone else, but they just wouldn't give the energy back to him. The crowd was just the picture of the bored, overexposed PJ fan base. They were there so that they could brag about on social media and to other PJ fans. And hopefully get a new badge in stattracker. Even the GA section looked bored. Hopefully the injection of newer fans into GA pits in the fall helps fix this.

It was fucking 2am in 40+ weather all day long. Everyone that was in the GA was soaken wet(around me anyway).
GA was fine till about 1am, people aren't machines. For the last hour ofthe show I had to concentrate on staying the fuck up, it was that bad. Burned the fuck out by that time in other words.
I can only imagine how tired/frustrated the band was.

[digster]

I was hanging out at a friend's house across the street, but managed to grab a ticket from someone who left an hour and a half after they postponed, assuming the show wouldn't go on (ticket re-entry, at least at the gate where I entered, was pretty simple. You just flashed a ticket; someone with a counterfeit good have easily had some good fortune had they entered after the rain delay. A lot of people I talked to were pissed about the lack of communication...it definitely seemed like there was a good hour to hour and a half, from Wrigley Field employees on down, where no one knew for sure what was going on or if the show was even gonna continue. I can understand the frustration, despite knowing that weather prediction in Chicago is a fool's errand.

Anyways, it was a strange vibe; everyone was pretty burnt (and tons of people had been drinking since early afternoon). I was kind of surprised that they didn't just pull a Corduroy, Go, Evolution or something right out of the bat and wake people up. That Evolution --> Corduroy run might have been the part of the show that was the most fun.

The new songs...I guess I've been talking about them elsewhere, but they did nothing for me. Mind Your Manners was definitely a fun time live. I guess, the experience made it worthwhile, but it'd be nice to see them come up and try it without such a massive mishap gumming up the works.

On a side note, though I wasn't in the venue for it, Release --> Nothingman --> Present Tense sounded incredible. It was a great idea, IMO, to have a mellow start as the sun was going down.

[evenslow]

I would add that I thought they recommitted to some of the old tracks with a new focus and a tighter leash. Last night was as much enjoyment I've gotten out of Corduroy and Even Flow in a while. They weren't racing through it like they normally do. Also like how they've added little flourishes to Present Tense.

Even Flow was definitely fast last night. I think it just didn't seem as fast because everything was fast last night.

It was fast, but that's different from rushing through it without focus.

[VinylGuy]

I was hanging out at a friend's house across the street, but managed to grab a ticket from someone who left an hour and a half after they postponed, assuming the show wouldn't go on (ticket re-entry, at least at the gate where I entered, was pretty simple. You just flashed a ticket; someone with a counterfeit good have easily had some good fortune had they entered after the rain delay. A lot of people I talked to were pissed about the lack of communication...it definitely seemed like there was a good hour to hour and a half, from Wrigley Field employees on down, where no one knew for sure what was going on or if the show was even gonna continue. I can understand the frustration, despite knowing that weather prediction in Chicago is a fool's errand.

Anyways, it was a strange vibe; everyone was pretty burnt (and tons of people had been drinking since early afternoon). I was kind of surprised that they didn't just pull a Corduroy, Go, Evolution or something right out of the bat and wake people up. That Evolution --> Corduroy run might have been the part of the show that was the most fun.

The new songs...I guess I've been talking about them elsewhere, but they did nothing for me. Mind Your Manners was definitely a fun time live. I guess, the experience made it worthwhile, but it'd be nice to see them come up and try it without such a massive mishap gumming up the works.

On a side note, though I wasn't in the venue for it, Release --> Nothingman --> Present Tense sounded incredible. It was a great idea, IMO, to have a mellow start as the sun was going down.

Those three in a row are such a treat...and adding Hold On there is cool too. Great.

[AndySlash]

definitely the most unique show experience i have had, for a variety of reasons.

this show will be memorable, and in a good way, though the weather factors and how it affected the scene in general played an important role in preventing it from being what it could have been. as others have mentioned, the band put up as good an effort as they could, but the energy level was just never able to rise to the level everyone was capable of. had the weather not been an issue, i think we're talking "epic" show, but the long delay really did kill any chance of this show reaching or sustaining significant highs. and that's too bad. you could definitely see eddie wanted this to be much more than what it was, and i feel for him. but he shouldn't be too disappointed- i think we'll all feel lucky to have been there.

my rain delay story is a bit different than most- the ladyfriend fainted during the middle of release, and we spent the remainder of the first set of songs as well as most of the rain delay in the first aid room so she could recover. the heat had taken its toll on her, and because we got into town late and rushed to the show we didn't do a good job of fueling up beforehand- she was dehydrated and we hadn't eaten since lunchtime. thank you to the folks around us in the back of GA who showed concern and helped out- it was scary (i'd never seen someone so devoid of normal color- even her lips were blue) and i appreciated the support. once she got an icepack, water and some food, she recovered and we were back in the crowd for the restart of the show. suffice it to say, we both were not disappointed the show was stopped- if one was going to pass out during the first song, this was the show to do it at.

i thought the band sounded as practiced and tight as i have seen them in some time. songs like even flow and corduroy were not rushed as they have been for the last few years. i've seen crown of thorns a few times and to me it was the best performance of that song i have seen and one of the definitive highlights of the show. eddie had a couple nice speeches, especially the one about the fans during faithfull. the new songs sounded like they had some creative spark that was not present on backspacer, though i thought the opening lyrics to both lightning bolt and future days were cringeworthy. future days will probably not be a favorite of mine, but i did like the music for lightning bolt and were glad both songs were not 2-3 minute throwaway tracks. mind your manners was a great performance and made me like the song more than i did going in.

as a pink floyd fan, i was very excited they played mother, and i thought they nailed it. it's a personal highlight of my entire pearl jam concert going experience. i was a floyd fan first, and pj's another brick... tag on daughter was what got me to pay attention to them back in the day, so it was definitely a "full circle" experience for me. despite not being from chicago or much of a cubs fan, seeing ernie banks in person was really cool and the video that played during all the way was a nice enhancement. i'd never been to wrigley before so getting to stand in centerfield and soak in the stadium was pretty special. the new stage lighting was well done, though they're definitely getting used to using it. the bird thing was kind of cheesy when they had the wings "flapping" during some songs, but it is a neat addition to the setup- it does look really cool, especially with the lighting in it. i'm not at all disappointed by the cut songs from the setlist- the fact that the show actually happened after the delay is enough for me to understand the whys.

i will say the crowd activity in the GA section was very disappointing. we were toward the back and could see a lot of people just standing around. not everyone, but a lot more than i thought there would be. maybe it was all the room we had- seriously, they could have put hundreds of more people in there and we'd still have plenty of space to move around- combined with the delay but there definitely wasn't the excitement or energy emanating from that space. i am fairly certain eddie looked over us several times with a bit of incredulity, and both he and mike took different opportunities to try and liven the crowd up with their movements. the crowd was far more lively at the end than the first few songs after the restart, so the band was at least successful in bringing out some excitement. and to the 10c members who brought the "rare shit" and "play bugs" signs that were held up when the band first took the stage-

i love this band, i love their shows, and i am really glad i got to be a part of this one, warts and all. it's one i'll be talking about for a long time.