Pearl Jam at the Comcast Center, Mansfield, MA, 6/28/08 & 6/30/08

June 28, 2008 setlist:

Pre-Opener	Throw Your Arms Around Me
Set 1	Hard To Imagine, Why Go, Hail Hail, Comatose, Low Light, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Corduroy, Faithfull, Off He Goes, Given To Fly, Down, I’m Open, I Got Id, Even Flow, Do The Evolution, Once, Rearviewmirror
Encore 1	Love Reign O’er Me, Come Back, Insignificance, Black, Better Man (Save it for Later)
Encore 2	No More, State Of Love And Trust, Alive

June 30, 2008 setlist:

Set 1	Wash, Last Exit, Save You, Severed Hand, Animal, MFC, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, 1/2 Full, Corduroy, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Education, Satan’s Bed, Whipping, Glorified G, Do The Evolution
Encore 1	Bee Girl, Who You Are, Better Man (Save it for Later), Garden, Why Go
Encore 2	No More, Once, Footsteps, Alive, Rockin’ In The Free World

Thanks to pearljam.com for the actual setlists for these two shows.

It is always a special time whenever Pearl Jam comes to town. These were the 11th and 12th PJ shows that I have seen.

Saturday 6/28 – Eddie did his solo preset, doing “Throw Your Arms Around Me.” The regular set opened with a song I have never heard them do before, “Hard To Imagine.” They rocked hard with the next couple of songs, and then slowed things down a bit. Ending the first set with “Once” and “Rearviewmirror” was awesome. The first encore started with “Love Reign O’er Me,” which they did an amazing version of. “Black” of course was amazing, but the show stealer was “Better Man” – I have never heard the crowd at any PJ show get so loud and so crazy with the singalong and right after the singalong – the place was shaking! Eddie looked genuinely surprised. The show ended with “No More” (from “Body of War”), SOLAT and Alive. I was surprised that “Alive” was the closer, but I think that had to do with the stupid Mansfield curfiew. PJ can play for up to 3 hours, and this show only clocked in at 2 hrs 15 min. Eddie was upset about that too, even flinging his wine bottle against the back wall of the stage. It was a solid performance, and the Ten Club seats were pretty good.

Monday 6/30 – Another song I have never seen live before, “Wash,” opened up this show. The next five songs I was happy to hear – starting with “Last Exit” and ending with “MFC.” The rest of the first set was average in song quality – it was nice to hear some songs I haven’t heard them do in awhile though (“Satan’s Bed,” “Whipping,” “Glorified G”) and one I never heard before (“Education”). The first encore started off with a surprise, with Eddie and Jeff coming out to do “Bee Girl.” “Better Man” was good but nowhere near Saturday night. A nice original version of “Garden” and “Why Go” closed out the first encore. The second encore had an old favorite of mine, “Footsteps,” following by “Alive” and an awesome version of “Rockin’ In the Free World” (joined by members of the opening act, Ted Leo & the Pharmacists). These seats were great – sat right before the soundboard, which was good and bad (good because we had an awesome view, dead center, bad because we got to see the setlist which took away the surprise).

Overall, these shows were great. I could have done with a little more song variety (but I have been spoiled, especially in 2003 when they didn’t repeat a song during the Mansfield shows). The shows also could have been longer (but that is Mansfield’s fault). And the cool thing is that I am not done with all things Pearl Jam related just yet – I got tickets to see Eddie Vedder solo at the Opera House on August 1st. That should be special!

And here are some pics from the two shows: