Pearl Jam

Last night, I saw Pearl Jam at the TD BankNorth Garden. When I was younger, I was never much of a Pearl Jam fan. I preferred Nirvana's music, and all of the popular jerkfaces in my high school just looooved Pearl Jam, so that gave them a negative connotation in my mind. Over time, PJ won me over. First, I met a couple of people in college who were big Pearl Jam fans and who weren't assholes. Then, I read a few interviews with Eddie Vedder and liked what he had to say. Next, PJ took on vile Ticketmaster (remember that?) and did some collaboration with Neil Young. So, they grew on me. The show last night was a lot of fun. The only complaint I had was with the sound quality- it was pretty muffled, and you could barely make out the vocals on several songs (good thing everyone in the crowd already knew all of the words). Then again, Pearl Jam always sounds like that. They played three sets and included many of their well known hits, like Alive and Can't Find a Better Man, and did a great job showcasing the guitarist on Evenflow. In honor of Bob Dylan's birthday, they covered Forever Young (not one of my Dylan faves) and Masters of War (that's more like it), and ended the night with Neil Young's Keep on Rockin in the Free World. Eddie Vedder kept talking about how great the crowd in Boston is ("I don't say this in any other city, I swear!") and congratulated the recent college graduates several times (apparently he didn't notice that the majority of the people in the crowd were in their late 20s and early 30s).

Here's the Boston Globe review of the show.

Some observations:
1. My Morning Jacket opened, and although I like their music, I felt sorry for them, as I always do for opening bands at big shows.
2. People still smoke pot in concerts, which I think is hilarious. I mean, in an indoor venue with no smoking, it's so obvious where it's coming from. I'm surpised people have the nerve.
2. For the first time in my life, there was a line out the door of the men's room, and the women's room was EMPTY.