Pearl Jam Live – Toronto Gets Rocked – Sep 12 2011

Sep 12 2011 – Last night Pearl Jam played their second night in a row in Toronto’s Air Canada Center (ACC). The big news the previous night was that Neil Young joined the band on stage for an earth shattering 20 minute rendition of “Keep On Rocking in the Free World” – on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. The anticipations were high for tonight’s show as rumours were circulating that perhaps Bono or Chris Cornell would join Pearl Jam on stage. Both were in town for the Toronto International Film Fest which attracts a huge number of celebrities to Toronto every year. Interesting to note that tickets for the concert were a flat $90.50 for any seat in the house, regardless if you got front row center or nosebleeds at the top of the arena behind the band with a view of their backs. (The ticket itself is $69.50 and then good ole Ticketmaster charges a $13 “convenience” fee, another $2.25 for the “facility fee” and yet another $5.75 processing fee – total fees $21 for a $69.50 ticket – 30% markup!!! So much for the bands highly publicized battle against Ticketmaster). This flat pricing structure was really welcome and in all reality paying only $90 to be on the floors for a major act like Pearl Jam is a bargain (we recently payed $275 to be on the floors for Roger Waters’ The Wall tour). Needless to say this was a fully sold out show. The merchandise stands were full of t-shirts with a  distinctively Canadian angle. Below you can see examples such as the Pearl Jam Baseball shirt with the Blue Jays logo or the Molson Canadian logo with Pearl Jam written in the logo. Cool stuff!

Tonight’s opening band was Seattle veteran grunge band Mudhoney who have had very little commercial success but are memorable in the annals of rock history as having influenced Kurt Cobain who was a big fan. They played a 45 minute set (from 7:30-8:15) in front of a largely apathetic crowd which was filled only about 10% of the ACC’s seats.

At 8:45 pm the headliners hit the stage with a bang and kick it off with a 1-2 punch of Go and Animal from the band’s sophomore album Vs. This got people up from their seats and every single person in the arena stood the rest of the night.

It is interesting to note that the stage was very basic and did not feature any projection screens. Since the arena was in a 360 degree seating configuration there were people sitting behind the band watching the show. We assume the lack of projection screens was probably in order to not block the view of the eager fans sitting behind the stage. (I guess its better to be in the building listening tot he gig and watching Eddie’s ass rather than being outside the building listening to pearl jam on your Ipod). We are notified that guitarist Mike McCready’s dad is in the building, and everyone gives him a loud standing ovation (although everyone was standing to begin with).

Eddie Vedder – iconic on stage pose

A high point of the night is when the band kicked off Evenflow (again from the album Ten) which raised the roof, it actually blew it off and stirred a frenzied audience sing along unlike any I have ever seen at a concert. Right after that was the downtime “Present Tense” which was a natural potty break about half way through the show.

No Pearl Jam concert would be complete with Eddie’s “Cause of the Day” – Tonight we hear about how 26 days ago three men were freed in Arkansas after 18 years. Eddie thanks this part of the world (Canada) for its support and letters and explains how he has been at the cause for 15 of those 18 years. I admit I had no idea what he was talking about and I am fairly sure nobody around me did either. It turns out he is talking about the West Memphis Three which refers to three teenagers that were wrongfully imprisoned for 18 years and were finally freed. 10:15 on the dot  the first set ends and as expected nobody in the audience sits down.

Can you see anyone at all sitting down?

When the band returns for their first encore they did something as classy as I have ever seen a band do. I previously mentioned that every seat in the arena was being used. This means there were people (allot of them) sitting right behind the band. For the whole night they did not get to actually see the faces of the band they payed to see. All 5 members of Pearl Jam turn around to face the people behind and dedicate the next song Last Kiss (a Wayne Cochran cover) to them. They actually perform the whole song facing the back of the arena! Kudos to respecting your fans guys!

Other highlights of the half hour encore was the Just Breathe the 2nd song of the set in which lighters (not Blackberrys or Ipods) come out for massive sing along. Eddie then teases us a bit by mentioning that NYC means Neil Young Country around these parts of the world, but Neil had to work tonight. The set ends with two more massive songs from the Ten album; Jeremy (arguably the bands’ most recognized song) and Why Go. The band leaves the stage but nobody in the audience is fooled, we all know there is more to come.

Pearl Jam’s second encore

At 10:52 the band returns with the second encore set which kicks off with Do the Evolution followed by yet another monster hit from Ten – Alive. In the end the band’s best selling album (and my favorite) was very well represented with 7 songs featured from it. To everyone’s slight disappointment the special guest was not Chris Cornell as many thought, but a couple of the dudes from Mudhoney that came on to play Kick Out The Jams. Pearl Jam wrapped up the two and a half hour show at 11:15 with an excellent cover of The Who’s Baba O’Riley and the band’s signature good night song Yellow Ledbetter.

Verdict: Pearl Jam is the Led Zeppelin of this millennium. Easily the most rocking show of the year.