My Three Thoughts - Pearl Jam in Fort Worth

32 years later, I finally got to see the band live in concert

Three Thoughts, as usual, is a tribute to the late, great Grant Wahl. Today, I test the limits of the question, “can I truly write about whatever I want?”

It took me roughly 32 years to finally see Pearl Jam live. I remember buying the Ten CD in Virginia during the start of my sophomore year in college and spending much of that year spinning it. I figured I would see them sooner or later and for whatever reason, here I am at age 51 finally getting to cross paths with that band I have enjoyed so much. These are my three thoughts:

• It was absolutely everything I wanted it to be and more. I have loved Pearl Jam for a long time, while reluctantly conceding that most every PJ fan I know has seen them numerous times and they all swear that the live experience is the entire point of the fandom. Yes, the live albums are my favorites and whether it is the “Let’s Play Two” album from Wrigley Field or the Portland show that I always hear, I do prefer those to the studio recordings. Live communal experiences in sports and music are what many of us love to get on our schedules. Technology has never come close to replicating being there and feeling the energy of the live scene.
  
  I thought the way that band goes about its show is perfect. There is minimal added bells and whistles and you won’t see elaborate video screens or pyrotechnics at all. Just a band that loves to play giving you everything they have got. And last night, that was a challenge as they were coming off a cancelled show in Indianapolis on Sunday due to illness hitting Eddie Vedder and Matt Cameron. Cameron was unable to go last night and replaced by a very talented Josh Klinghoffer. I won’t pretend to know one talented drummer from the next, but I imagined Josh was living the dream and he convinced me that he could fill in pretty well (then I found out that this was not exactly his first rodeo, either). Vedder let us in attendance at Dickie’s Arena that he was not feeling great and when the show started with some easy pacing and everyone was seated, I assume that they were taking it slow (I also concede they might start every show seated since I am a complete rookie at PJ shows). But, he either was being cautious or found a level of energy because it was not evident he was dragging. The show kept building and building and by the time we got to Black followed by Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town, we were really going strong. The stools were gone by Present Tense and when Corduroy hit, you would never know health was an issue for any of this.

  Since I love the website Setlist.fm to keep track of my scrapbook of concert experiences, I thought I would offer you a screenshot of their record keeping from last night.

  

  I couldn’t believe how great the setlist was. Sure, there were a few I would have loved to hear that didn’t, but any Pearl Jam enthusiast knows that every show is different and the catalogue supports many different routes of entertaining music. Whatever journey they decide to take us on will be wonderful, so let’s go. Mike McCready playing the guitar live was an experience in itself as his energy and expertise is perhaps not as widely known if you aren’t a show veteran. I found myself pretty locked in on what is clearly an elite player who captivated throughout. If I can see that he is incredible, I am sure it is more than obvious to the actual aficionados. Then, when the band winds down, it is the normal question of whether there will be an encore and if so, what three songs will they pick to put there? Well, the answer is eight songs. And it just kept going and it kept getting better as we went. Absolutely a pleasure. By the time they ended with a familiar Baba O’Riley cover and Indifference, it was over 2:35 or so of absolute top notch performing. Energy was out of this world which obviously gives you the feeling that this show meant a lot to the band – even if that is what they try to create every single time they play any show, anywhere. I had an extremely high bar and yet, they reached it. I am not music critic, but here is my review: I could not stop smiling. It was amazing.

Pictured here with radio superstar and Pearl Jam live show veteran (countless times over) Corby Davidson of the Ticket. We had quite a time!

• I think waiting 32 years to see Pearl Jam was an amazing personal mind experience. Our lives go by so fast that there are certain things that quickly take you back to places you have long since forgotten. When you have your 50th birthday, you begin to realize how quickly you are losing the battle with time and even though you don’t actually feel any differently in your body (sort of), the mirror tells you a story that isn’t quite so rosy and optimistic. But, finally seeing Pearl Jam live – as opposed to other bands from that era in my life that I have seen four or five times – was a wonderful time machine of thought. Hearing Oceans or Even Flow or Alive made the brain run through the early 1990’s again with vivid imagery in my head that I admittedly had not thought about in a long time. It is incredible how much our day to day checklists cloud our memory banks until a song unlocks it again as you sit there and enjoy the show. Same with dusting off an album that you had not popped on in decades. Well, Eddie Vedder and the band taking me through this tour of our mental relationship we shared on different sides of the US for my 20’s was part of the experience last night. And it was pretty deeply moving in that regard. Kind of wild how emotional a song can make us in a setting like that.

• There is no question that the venue matters. The last concert I went to was at the Death Star when I saw Metallica last month. Metallica was excellent, but the enormity of that place with nearly 100,000 people make it anything but intimate. The show was cool, but also weird and you couldn’t help but think you were miles and miles from the action. Even shows at the American Airlines Center can feel too big and less than ideal. I think Dickie’s is almost perfect. I have now seen the Killers, Greta Van Fleet, and Pearl Jam all there and honestly, I think it might be quickly becoming one of my favorites around here. It is big enough and small enough, if that makes sense. You really feel close to the band at that place and it was also easy to get in and out of the arena. Props to Fort Worth because that size venue (14,000) has been missing around here.

Well, that’s my report. I am no music critic at all (nor expert videographer) and don’t believe I will offer these concert reviews very often, but I am someone who has been waiting for this chance for a long time and in short, it delivered. I have now seen Pearl Jam live. And it was great.