Pearl Jam at Xcel Energy Center

How can it possibly be eight years since Pearl Jam was at Xcel with Tom Petty? We’ve seen both a number of times since then, but none in Minnesota. Colleen had tried to order Ten Club tickets for both Moline and St. Paul, but all she got was the latter (with the usual process of not knowing where exactly your seats would be until the day of the show). Halfway up section 117 wasn’t the best available non-GA area, but they were still pretty good. Apparently reserved fan club seats are assigned according to seniority and Colleen is “only” at ten years or so, since she dropped her membership for a few years when the girls were born.

The club had sent out an email earlier in the day showing a map indicting the location of the outdoor merchandise trailer (just like OKC), including a stated opening time of 1pm. She went down early to take a look and found a line already two blocks long. She waited and waited – they finally opened one window around 2:15, but it moved very slowly and she had to leave to avoid a parking ticket. Doors were scheduled for 6:30, so we both came back around 5:30 to wait in the will call fan club line, but that part was awesome – no line and we got to sit in the foyer by gate one and listen to sound check.

There were two merch booths inside gate one, so we headed straight there once our tickets were scanned. I picked up the cool St. Paul poster for $35 (plus a very reasonable $2 for a nice cardboard poster tube). Colleen got a red tour shirt, a button and a couple of stickers. We also picked up some mini donuts and a couple Cokes on the way to our seats. We settled in, expecting the show to start right away at 7:30 (no opening act). Roughly 45 minutes later, the band finally started off with Pendulum from the latest album. The lighting for the first few songs was just like Oklahoma – each musician was basically in the dark and difficult to see. The two video screens has some serious low-light cameras, though, which was great. The video production all night was very artsy and cool, providing unique, interesting views you don’t normally see (wide angle lens from the guitar pedals, for example).

This was definitely one of those “get your money’s worth” type of shows, with three plus hours of music and 32 songs in total. All of the reviews I saw were positive (Chris here, Ross here and City Pages here). I’m guessing Corduroy was probably the highlight for Colleen, as they haven’t been playing that one a lot lately. I was holding out for Black, which opened the second encore. Overall, I felt the setlist had a really nice mix of new and old, popular and obscure. No sound issues this time, either (thank goodness).

Such fun music times, no?

Set list (per Riemenschneider):