This past week, I haven’t exactly been on a live music hot streak.

On Tuesday, the news came down that The Eagles and Phish are headlining Austin City Limits (Here’s a message for the crack geniuses who made that decision). I’ll never buy tickets to a festival when the line-up is site unseen ever again.

On Thursday, I went to see Pearl Jam at Madison Square Garden, and it was just OK. Then – and this is where non-Pearl Jam nerds can just scroll down and watch the video with Ben Bridwell – I saw the set-list for the show at MSG the following night.

Here are the set-lists from the two shows:

Thursday night:

1. Sometimes
2. Breakerfall
3. Last Exit
4. Animal
5. The Fixer
6. Severed Hand
7. Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
8. I Am Mine
9. Comatose
10. Force of Nature
11. Even Flow
12. Low Light
13. Down
14. I Got Id
15. Army Reserve
16. Insignificance
17. Unthought Known
18. Do The Evolution

Encore:
20. The End
21. Lukin
22. Just Breathe
23. You Are
24. Love, Reign O’er Me (The Who cover)
25. State Of Love And Trust
26. Once
27. Porch

Encore 2:
29. Jeremy
30. Leash
31. Mankind
32. Crazy Mary (Victoria Williams cover)
33. I Believe In Miracles (Ramones cover)
34. Alive
35. Indifference

Friday night:

1. Corduroy
2. Hail Hail
3. Do The Evolution
4. World Wide Suicide
5. Got Some
6. Breath
7. Nothingman
8. I’m Open
9. Unthought Known
10. Grievance
11. Amongst The Waves
12. Present Tense
13. Not For You
14. Push Me, Pull Me
15. Rats
16. Daughter
17. The Fixer
18. Why Go

Encore:
2. The End
3. Just Breathe
4. Lukin
5. Black, Red, Yellow
6. Sweet Lew
7. Given To Fly
8. Spin The Black Circle
9. Rearviewmirror

Encore 2:
2. Wasted Reprise
3. Better Man
4. Black
5. The Real Me (The Who cover)
6. Hunger Strike (Temple of the Dog cover) (with Ben Bridwell)
7. Alive
8. Kick Out The Jams (MC5 cover)
9. Yellow Ledbetter with Star Spangled Banner guitar solo

My girlfriend and I made the decision to go Thursday night for a number of reasons, not the least of which was to see Black Keys over Band of Horses. Eddie mumbled a shout out to Dan Auerbach at one point – pittance compared to this:

Don’t get me wrong, Thursday had some highlights (Reigh O’er Me through Porch), but the set-list as a whole is just pale in comparison. I should’t even be complaining considering that I was at this show in 2008. At $90 a ticket to sit in the 400 level, I reserve the right to sulk a little.

Maybe my timing will be better next tour. I leave you with a quality video of Breath that someone took on Friday:

Pearl Jam was scheduled to come on at 8:45. They were on the stage, full-bore, at 8:45. And they stayed there for practically three hours. The intermission was barely long enough for me to go pee.

It was about :38 seconds into the show before Eddie Vedder’d the mic

This was the first time I dabbled in arena rock since the U2 Elevation Tour in 2002. At first, I was little apprehensive about my seating location – behind the stage. But it was actually pretty cool, and you get a real sense for the spell that Eddie Vedder has over the crowd. Mike McCready could have his guitar propped up on his shoulder blades shredding, and if Eddie crept back stage for a smoke the sections around me went ballistic for him. I also had a great view of Eddie getting booze from the crew. (it was sort of a well-oiled, assembly line of stagehands feeding him bottles of Moet).

The highlight of the show for me was hands-down when they closed the first set with ‘Do The Evolution’, which they dedicated to George Carlin. If anybody has this video, I IMPLORE you to post it to YouTube. Here’s the setlist (via Stereogum):

01 “Hard To Imagine”
02 “Save You”
03 “Why Go?”
04 “All Night”
05 “Corduroy”
06 “Faithfull”
07 “Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town”
08 “Down”
09 “Unemployable”
10 “Given To Fly”
11 “Who You Are”
12 “Whipping”
13 “1/2 Full”
14 “Even Flow”
15 “Present Tense”
16 “Daughter” (with the Rangers chant!)
17 “Do The Evolution”
—-
18 “Love Reign O’er Me”
19 “W.M.A.”
20 “Leash”
21 “Spin The Black Circle”
22 “Wasted Reprise”
23 “Porch”
—-
24 “No More”
25 “Crazy Mary”
26 “Comatose”
27 “I Believe In Miracles” (with CJ Ramone on bass)
28 “Alive”
—-
29 “All Along The Watchtower”
30 “Indifference”

Here are some photos from last night. I emailed Ryan Muir – who for my money takes some of the best photos around of New York City rock shows – to see if he was going to be there. He didn’t end up going, but I did find these beauts on Flickr: