Pearl Jam re-entered their four-night stand at the Spectrum after a day off with perhaps their most diverse and awesome set of all time over the course of an epic three-hour show.
Determined to close out the Spectrum with a bang, the band filled the setlist with rarely played songs and fan-favorite b-sides, largely skipping over their well-known cuts and digging deep. This was the ultimate show for those of us hardcore fans. After opening with two cuts from the new album, Pearl Jam launched into the rare Tremor Christ, continuing with the never-before-performed Hold On, before blowing the roof off with the mindblowing trifecta of In Hiding (featuring a 20,000 person chorus), Deep (one of my all-time favorites and not played since a handful of shows in '03) and Habit, another favorite and performed for the first time since Pearl Jam was in South America in 2005.
As the band returned for the first encore, Ed Vedder recounted the story of an Australian fan in Maui for one of his solo shows earlier this year who got into a terrible car accident while there for the shows, who was in the Spectrum for the Pearl Jam shows all week. She was escorted to the side of the stage where she remained for the rest of the concert, receiving a big hug from Ed while he was running around during the jam at the end of Crazy Mary, only adding to the heavy and thick emotion permeating the building.
In that first encore, a string quartet was brought out to accompany the band on Parting Ways, played for only the 19th time and the first since 2006, and they remained to play on Jeremy as well. Breath was also performed, a rare song that whipped the entire crowd into an exuberant sing-along frenzy.
The second encore started with Whipping, played for the first time since Chicago earlier this summer, and ended with Ed mentioning the musical history of the building before honoring that history with a cover of the Dead Boys' Sonic Reducer and the Who's Baba O'Riley, performed for the first time all year.
With a setlist this rare and diverse, its almost scary to think what the band has in store for the Spectrum's last hurrah. One thing we know for sure- you'll find it all here, covered from all angles, on SpinEarth.
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