Eddie Vedder

Last night I went to see Eddie Vedder in concert at the Riverside. I drove down to Milwaukee right after work. My first stop was at Oakland Gyros for a little dinner. After getting a good meal in me, I headed downtown. I went to Moe's Irish Pub but it was way too packed, so I headed over to Rock Bottom Brewery until the show started. I caught the first two innnings of the Brewer game, and it looked like things were well in hand when I left, but I was wrong. I was pretty excited about the concert until I got to my seats. I was in the very last row in the upper deck of the Riverside. But it is still a pretty small venue, especially as far as Eddie is concerned. So I dealt with it and enjoyed the show. I am a pretty big Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder song. While I don't always agree with Eddie's political views, I think you know my feelings on politics (I could really careless), I give Eddie a ton of credit because he is using the platform that he has to make a stand and a statement. And there is actually some rational and educated thought behind his political rants. Unlike some bands, I.E. Rage Against the Machine, who just say "F" the establishment. But really give no support or direction to their arguements. All night Eddie was very talkative with the crowd. He dealt with and put hecklers and those that were yelling things out, in there place as well as any stand up comic I have seen. Very quick with his comebacks. At one point, he said to a loud heckler, "As I said before, I am the captain of this ship and I will throw you off, so shut the 'F' up!!" All in all, I was very happy with the show. In case you were wondering, yes I was solo on this show as well. My friends all suck. I asked a number of people if they were interested in going and no one was on board. I guess it is no big deal any more. I just go and make new friends.

I was able to snap off a couple of pictures before the camera police went crazy. This one of the few I took that turned out. This was during the encore song "Hard Sun".Here is the set list

MAIN SET:

Sometimes

Trouble ( Cat Stevens cover)

Girl From The North Country

I Am Mine

Deadman

Man Of The Hour

Setting Forth

No Ceiling

Guaranteed

Far Behind

Small Town (Sing along with the whole crowd, pretty cool. Probably the highlight of the show)

Millworker (I believe this is a James Taylor cover)

Soon Forget

Broken-Hearted

Gone

Rise

Driftin'

Hide Your Love Away (Beatles cover)

Porch

1ST ENCORE:

Here's To The State (I have never seen/heard this one live. A great song and a Phil Ochs cover)

Blackbird (Another Beatles cover. I would have liked to see him do this one a little slower)

Forever Young

Won't Back Down (Tom Petty cover)

Wishlist (One of my favorite Pearl Jam songs, cool to see acoustic)

Society w/Liam

Throw Your Arms Around Me (Cover of a Mark Seymore song, he plays this on tour with Pearl Jam occasionally. I have seen and heard other versions, and I would have liked to see this one done a bit slower. But still a great song and I am not complaining that he played it)

No More

Arc (I had read on the internet that this was something to see. And it was pretty cool to see Eddie really getting into it while singing this.)

2ND ENCORE:
Hard Sun w/Liam and EJ

Here is part of the encore song, Hard Sun, that I video taped. I was too lazy to tape the whole thing, but I am sure you get the picture.

I ran into my friend, Liz, after the show. She talked me into going to Moe's for a beer. I finally said that I had to go at around 1 in the morning. I didn't get back up to Appleton until 3 this morning. Which made getting up for work this morning quite the chore.