My God It's Been So Long.......

Today marks the ten year anniversary of my first Pearl Jam show in Charlotte, NC. This was back in the days when they still were not using tickemaster, each ticket stub was personalized (mine obviously did not say Abhay Shaw but I have not scanner). Ben Harper was opening the show supporting an actual good album!

Lest you wonder, I do use this kind of useless information for good. I remember my friends Matt & Leah's wedding anniversary because it is the day before this concert anniversary

attendance: 25,000
support act: The Fastbacks, Ben Harper
soundcheck: Throw Your Arms Around Me, Better Man
set: Long Road, Last Exit, Animal, Spin the Black Circle, Hail Hail, In My Tree, Corduroy, Lukin, Not for You, Jeremy, Better Man, Red Mosquito, Black, State of Love and Trust, (MFC riffs), Habit, Rearviewmirror, Immortality, Alive, Porch
enc 1: Who You Are, Even Flow, Whipping, I Got Shit, Leaving Here, Daughter/(The Real Me)/(Noise of Carpet)/(The Real Me)
enc 2: Yellow Ledbetter
notes: With the election less than a month away, this show had a definite cause: Jesse Helm's going away party (it didn't work). Gloria Steinem spoke in an effort to get people to think and register to vote (Rock the Vote). Concerned about the barriers breaking, people getting crushed, and the fire marshall threatening to cancel the show, someone on the crew pleads with the crowd to back up and chill out. After the first song, Ed says, "... we're about 30 seconds from kicking in here and I just want to make sure that everybody watches their neighbor ... that everybody keeps up. Don't do too much of this spinning pit stuff or someone's going to get hurt, and that would suck." Then later: "...I would like the audience myself to just take two steps back. Can we all do that? On the count of three ... one, two..." (crowd steps back and cheers). Ed says something to the effect of, "I knew this was an intelligent crowd." The crowd does listen and the show continues without further problems. The mirrorball is set into motion during a cranked 'Better Man' and drops down midway through 'RVM.' Ed is into a lot of Townshend windmills and jumps and tags 'Habit' as "speaking as my own bad self." Brendan O'Brien helps out on bass on 'I Got Shit.'

http://www.twofeetthick.com/tour/cc/t1996.do