Pearl Jam sold out three nights in July at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. The last time they had a response like this was the Golden Gate Park show in 1995, back when Pearl Jam was indeed the biggest band in the world. If local fans had any sore feelings regarding the band's lengthy absence, Pearl Jam definitely made it up to them with a blistering set of old and new tunes.

 

With Sonic Youth warming up the crowd, Pearl Jam wasted no time jumping into hits like "Of the Girl", "Go" and the new album's first single, "World Wide Suicide." Eddie, who seemed very happy to be back performing in the City by the Bay, delivered his strongest Bay Area performance in years. With is mysterious bottle of wine by his side Vedder never faltered.

 

Guitarist Mike McCready, as usual, was right there by Vedder's side and delivering the kind of high energy that other alt-rockers can only dream of. The band performed 17 songs during the first set—which would have been a full show at today’s standards. The catch was that Pearl Jam was moving at such a rapid pace that it finished its main set in just over an hour.

 

Thankfully, the group returned to play two lengthy encores that combined to last even longer than the first set. The first encore had faithful Pearl Jam groupies going nuts, as the band returned to its debut to play both "Even Flow" and "Alive."

 

The next encore proved to be even better as the group embraced the second half of its name--"Jam"--and really tore into versions of Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" and the concert-staple "Yellow Ledbetter."

 

We hope it isn’t another 11 years till Pearl Jam comes back to San Francisco. Shoreline is great but it’s no City by the Bay.