Pearl Jam/Tom Petty Review from 6/26/06

Well that was a fun concert! The evening was rocking up in St. Paul with two of the bigger touring groups hitting the Excel Energy Center at the same time last night. Could anyone take the Energy level even higher than that of the Minnesota Wild games? I think this was my 6th concert at the Excel Center and the place was definitely hoppin' like it usually is. It's a great place for concerts because of the ease of getting in and out of downtown St. Paul, the abundance of parking that is close, there are no bad seats, and the venue itself is really good for acoustics (especially when compared to the poor Target Center).

So the big question of the night was who would open for who? It had been rumored that Pearl Jam was the opening act but nobody knew of a new Tom Petty album in the last 4 years to speak of. Pearl Jam just released their album Pearl Jam (how original). Sho' nuff - Pearl Jam was out right at 7:30 (an unusual occurrence at concerts - starting on time).

I've listened to the newest PJ album and while not impressed, I had prepared myself to hear a lot of songs from this album since it's the tour that is associated with it. The set list from two nights prior in Ohio had most of their new songs listed, and only one song from Ten that is owned by 90% of us that consider ourselves "fans of alternative era". The only more popular album is Nevermind (in case you're wondering Mom, this was the album by Nirvana - it pretty much began the rage into alternative music in the 90s). PJ kicked it off with Last Exit which was a fine way to get the crowd into it. Their complete set:

Last Exit (from Vitalogy)
Life Wasted (from Pearl Jam)
Why Go (from Ten)
World Wide Suicide (from Pearl Jam)
Do The Evolution (from Yield)
Given To Fly (from Yield)
I Am Mine (from Riot Act)
Army Reserve (from Pearl Jam)
Even Flow (from Ten)
Better Man (from Vitalogy)
Sad (from Lost Dogs among others)
Present Tense (from No Code)
Daughter / (I Won't Back Down) (from Vs.)
Jeremy (from Ten)
Comatose (from Pearl Jam)
Alive (from Ten)
Rockin' In The Free World (by Neil Young for anyone that didn't know)

For the most part, the crowd was lovin' it. I did notice that even though Pearl Jam is what I would consider "main draw material", they took 2nd billing to Petty last night and will for a couple of weeks on this leg of the tour. Here's how I gauged this conclusion: 1) The lighting effects were there, but they weren't anything great like they were for Petty. This is typical of any opening band. 2) The stage was bigger than what Pearl Jam was allowed to cover. 3) Pearl Jam took until the 4th song before I caught my first sniffing of the "wacky tobaccy", with Tom Petty - it pretty much began when he walked on stage.

Pearl Jam is easily the best opening band I've ever seen if that's the case:) My favorite part of the night was when Eddie (no, not the Polish Eddie that we all know and love) played the opening to Better Man and asked the crowd to sing along. We ended up singing the entire first verse without him and I was impressed with the crowd. Usually when it's "fan sing" time, it only lasts about two stanzas before the musically inept people take over and it all falls by the wayside. But the folks last night held together right till he came back in on the 2nd verse. I was impressed:)

Petty was pretty good. I am not a huge Tom Petty fan, but I could instantly tell by the crowd's reaction that most of the people there were buying tickets to see him. He definitely had more of the crowd participation at times. But there was also about 15 minutes where he and his band were playing the blues and the crowd started acting bored. Happens at some concerts, where everyone sits down, starts talking, runs to get more beer..... I wish the bands would pay more attention for that point in the concert and move on (or hopefully change for the next night's set).

The biggest disappointment for the night was the changeover. I'm always interested in the structure of running a concert so I always pay attention to details like this. PJ was on right around 7:30. They played till about 8:40. Tom Petty took the stage at 9:45. Yeah, that's right. A freakin' hour+ to change the sets. Petty played till about 11:15. To top it off, I have NEVER seen as many stage hands trying to help get the switch made. I am not exaggerating when I say there were 30+ people on stage trying to "help" but most were standing around doing nothing.

I was also disappointed in the failure of the television screens. Petty had some neat effects, but they also had a long half circle display that they were showing close ups of the band members along with some cool special effects. I am a big fan of symmetry and I know most of the displays like this are symmetrical. Even during the first song I could see that they were having issues. Then in the 3rd song, you saw the word "Link" all over the screens. I looked over at the guy running the light board and he had his hands over his head and was shaking it so I figured that wasn't part of the show. Then the screen froze and wouldn't turn off at the end of the song. From that point on, they turned the screen off and all the camera folks took the rest of the night off.

It was a great concert though. I did recognize more Petty songs than I thought I would. And now I can cross Pearl Jam off of my "still need to see live" list.

Have a great Tuesday!