Pearl Jam Rocks Night One Of Two At Wrigley Field

Just as it looked like once again their show at Wrigley Field would be upstaged by weather,  Pearl Jam brought  the goods for night one of the Eddie Vedder homecoming.

Pearl Jam made their return to Wrigley Field in Chicago Saturday Night.  The last time the band played there just three years ago, a major storm interrupted the show early on.   Clear skies and smooth sailing for night one.   Hitting the stage just after 8 p.m., the band started slow with the songs, "Low Light" and "Release" before  breaking out the first of many covers for the show The Beatles, "Rain".

Then a long list of band hits and favorites until the double punch of "Masters Of War" and "I Am A Patriot".    This is the first time I have experienced these songs live and in person and all I can say is wow!   Mike McCready was tearing it up on "Masters Of War".   At one point, he was ripping his strings off of his guitar, just one of his many great performances of the night.

Before the start of set two,  Eddie got the crowd to do the wave.  The fans comply doing the wave through out Wrigley.  There was a marriage proposal on stage, also an appearance  from friend of the band Steve Gleason.   If you are not familiar with him  he is a former player of the New Orleans Saints, who is dealing with ALS.  He introduced one of his favorite songs from the band, "Inside Job".

Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb", another great cover kicked off a rocking set into the second encore break.     The band comes back with the power of "Go",  "Black" and another great cover from Rockford's own Cheap Trick, "Surrender".

As the band winds down,  there is "Alive", then  Eddie comes out in a Cubs jersey.   He brings out his all time favorite Cubs player, Jose Cardenal and the children of Ron Santo.  They join Eddie for his song, "All The Way" written for The Cubs.  While they sing, there is a Cubs highlight video on the screens.  If the Cubs make it this year this will be the anthem of their season.

To wrap it all up they tore into The Who's "Baba O'Riley" .   Overall  34 songs total at just over 3 hours for the show.

This was only the second time I have seen the band live, also my first time at Wrigley Field.   I really enjoyed this show, but I still can't say it topped the first time I saw them in Grand Rapids in 2006.

Thanks guys for a great night in a historic venue .   I only wish I could be there for Night Two!