I have to admit, I wasn’t that crazy about paying a lot of money to see the Pearl Jam dude sing ukulele songs all night. I mean, I like Tiny Tim and all, but after you hear a couple, they all pretty much sound alike. My fears were unfounded, however, as the ukes were mostly put away after the first few songs. The very nice show program listed 21 instruments for Mr. Vedder, ranging from various acoustic and electric guitars to mandolin to banjo to five different ukeleles.
There were lots of Pearl Jam songs and covers (see the set list below) and solo opener Glen Hansard joined in several times over the course of the evening. This was the first time I’ve ever seen an opening act get multiple standing ovations, which was especially well deserved for his Van Morrison cover of Astral Weeks. Hansard’s hands were moving faster at the end of that song than any other guitarist I’ve seen live (including Richard Thompson, Prince, Mike Campbell and Robert Cray).
Not sure what the promoters were thinking, but they set up the lone merchandise stand immediately inside the doors to the Orpheum, which caused a huge backup. Add to that their inability to actually process transactions in a timely manner and you had a huge problem. Colleen was almost first in line, bought just one thing and didn’t get through there for almost 20 minutes.
Security was really trying to enforce the “no pictures” rule, but I think bands and venues just need to give up on that one. I also wasn’t too thrilled with the fan club policy of “pay us and we’ll give you a random set of tickets somewhere in the theater, but you won’t find out until you get there” deal. If the tickets were $20, fine, but I’d really like to know if I’m going to be way in the back before shelling out big bucks.
Enough bitching, though. It was an entertaining show by a couple of talented musicians who truly seemed to be happy performing in Minnesota. Love was all around…
Set List (from Chris Riemenschneider’s Star Tribune Review):
- Can’t Keep
- Sleeping By Myself
- Without You
- More Than You Know
- Goodbye
- You’re True
- Dead Man
- Just Breathe
- Off He Goes
- Better Man
- Love Boat Captain
- Long Nights (with Hansard)
- Setting Forth
- Far Behind
- Guaranteed
- Rise
- You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away (Beatles cover)
- Unthought Known
- The End
- Arc
- ENCORE 1:
- Long Road
- Wishlist
- Sleepless Nights (Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris cover with Hansard)
- Society (Jerry Hannan cover with Hansard)
- Falling Slowly (Hansard’s Swell Season opus with Eddie dueting)
- 4th Of July (X cover)
- Porch
- ENCORE 2:
- Hard Sun (with Hansard)
- Dream A Little Dream
