PJ Gorge Day 1

Sat. July 22

We left for the Gorge on Saturday morning to catch Pearl Jam play the final two shows of the second leg of their tour.




Along the way, we stopped to meet up with some friends and grab some groceries for the weekend.....we kinda went overboard on our supply of food.






We arrived at the Gorge campsite with little time before the show, so we headed straight for the venue and decided to setup the tent afterwards. There was a pretty long lineup to get in, so we were fortunate to pick up our tickets and be able to slide through some of the lineup in the process. Soon after getting inside the venue, we could hear the eruption of the crowd as Pearl Jam got onstage so we quickly rushed to our seats as the opening song Wash was played.

Eddie and company were on fire this night and performed an incredible set. The show was sold out and the Gorge was packed with 20,000 strong.



Mike McCready plays his guitar like a maniac, running laps around the stage while pulling off crazy riffs. Watching him perform is a show within itself. On this night, he did his sweet behind-the-neck solo during Even Flow.

The songs off the new album sounded great, especially World Wide Suicide and Life Wasted. Daughter was tagged with a rare version of It's Okay.



Driving up to the Gorge from Vancouver, the weather switched a few times from cloudy to sunny, and even had a bit of rain at one point. Down at the venue for the show, there were some scattered clouds in the sky mixed with the sun. As the sun began to set, it created a really beautiful red sky. That combined with the mountains and the Columbia River in the background made the view at the Gorge absolutely breathtaking.




During Porch, the last song of the first encore, Eddie used his guitar to reflect the light off a hanging disco ball onto the surrounding audience. For the start of the second encore, Vedder appeared on the roof of the sound mixer located in the middle of the audience and sang Last Kiss. The band also pulled out a rare performance of Dirty Frank. They ended the show with Yellow Ledbetter, tagged with a sweet instrumental version of Little Wing, followed by Mike playing the Star Spangled Banner.

Other highlights for me from the 2hr 50min show included Down, Black, Insignificance, Blood, Once, State Of Love And Trust, Go, and Baba O'Riley.



Setlist:

Wash
Corduroy
Hail Hail
World Wide Suicide
Severed Hand
Given to Fly
Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
Even Flow
Down
I Am Mine
Unemployable
Daughter / It's Okay
Gone
Black
Insignificance
Life Wasted
Blood

Footsteps
Once
Alive
State Of Love And Trust
Crown Of Thorns
Leash
Porch

Last Kiss
Inside Job
Go
Baba O'Riley
Dirty Frank
Rockin' In The Free World
Yellow Ledbetter / Little Wing / Star Spangled Banner

After the show, we walked back to the campsite, setup our tent and relaxed for awhile. We busted out some tunes on the guitar, then went on some drunken wanderings in the middle of the night.