Concert Review: Pearl Jam at the Wells Fargo Center on Monday, September 9th

Pearl Jam took on the sold out Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia for two nights back to back. On the second night, team DHA’s Nick Polis was there to capture the magic that is a Pearl Jam show so he can tell you all about it! Here is what he has to say:

Starting off the night was the Irishman Glen Hansard and his band. The former frontman of The Frames and half of The Swell Season turned solo artist brought a high energy, high emotion performance to the second of two nights in Philly. The group perfectly used a combination of acoustic and electric guitars, drums, bass, keyboard and violin creating a uniquely heavy folk style that complements Pearl Jam’s own unique style. 

Glen put on a performance that appealed to all of the rock fans in the house while still staying true to his folk roots. He brought an energy and stage presence that many modern metal and hardcore bands could only dream of having, jumping around, headbanging, and more. Despite it being his solo project, Glen was far from the center of attention, even going as far as acknowledging the keyboard player Mia for that night being their last show with the group. They also opted for a setup that had the whole the band practically in a straight line, with nobody really “up front” despite enough room for a more traditional setup, and the lights were more focused on his band while he was singing and playing in near darkness at center stage in moments. Pearl Jam made the right choice to bring Glen out, because after dropping his guitar and throwing his mic, he left the stage to the sound of heavy feedback and a standing ovation from the sold-out Wells Fargo Center. 

As the minutes ticked by, you could feel the anticipation for Pearl Jam to take the stage. Despite it being a Monday night, the second night of two, and a Phillies game right outside the walls of the arena, the Philadelphia Pearl Jam fans came out in droves and packed the Wells Fargo Center to the gills. Even with traffic of nearly 30 minutes to go the last mile to the parking lot, not even a single extra guitar pick could fit in the building. And then, at 8:48, the sound of feedback echoed through the arena, the lights dimmed and went out, the projected curtain pulled back and Pearl Jam took the stage. 

The first thing, and honestly the only thing, you could hear was the thunderous applause from the crowd as the backlit Pearl Jam kicked the night off with “Of the Girl”. They remained only backlit through the entire song, allowing them to appear as silhouettes, further teasing the fans beyond the front row. Then, with the first strum of “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town”, the whole band was lit up, as with much of the crowd thanks to their stellar FX set up.  

Time for me to nerd out a little, sorry, but I need to explain just how amazing their setup was. Rather than opting for LED video screens, Pearl Jam opted for a massive projector setup, with at least nine projectors and a projector screen that stretched from the 15^th row of one section of the lower bowl to the 15^th row on the other side. The screen was used for anything from adding a little extra color to the stage, to adding intricate visuals like a wave crashing during “Wreckage”, to showing the band and crowd during the performance. 

The actual performance was spectacular, with Eddie and the rest of the band proving early on that he has not lost a single ounce of talent in the near 35 years they’ve been performing together. The set highlighted every possible sound the band has used through the years, from the punk tinged “Mind Your Manners”, to the slower moody “Wreckage”, to their classic grunge sound of “Jeremy”. Pearl Jam expertly designed their setlist to keep even the most casual fans interested, mixing hits and new big singles in with deeper cuts like “In My Tree”. After 17 songs, and with a jump and slamming the microphone to the ground, the main set ended, but not a soul left because there was still plenty more to come. 

By the time the encore came around, Eddie had done his fair share of crowd work, something I would come to realize he was an absolute master at. For example, he noticed a sign in the crowd mentioning it was their 150^th show, he responded with “I’ve been to 149 myself”. Vedder also gave a toast to the city and shouted out to the owner of a local music school who took a piece of wall from an old club set to be demolished that was signed by the members of Pearl Jam. The stage banter continued into the encore, as Eddie came out and first told a story about one of the last shows at The Spectrum.  

During his story, he used the phrase “None of the toilets worked, and rats were running everywhere”, which was met with a roar of laughter, quickly followed by a growing chant of “Rats”. With Vedder now on the spot having mentioned the rare deep cut, he told the crowd that the band works as a democracy, and the call for “Rats” came “from the lobbyists to the senate” and that he was “gonna see if we can get this law passed”. Low and behold, the track was swapped in towards the end of the set, which was met with thunderous cheering from the Philly crowd. 

Two of the most memorable moments of the night, however, came from an onstage collaboration between Eddie and the rest of Pearl Jam and Glen Hansard and his band. After being bombarded with chants for “Rats” and playing the emotional “Just Breathe”, Vedder brought Glen back up to cover his own song “Song of Good Hope”, a song that was dedicated to the West Memphis 3. A few songs later, after the house lights were turned on following “Alive”, the band went into a cover of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World”.  

This slowly devolved into purely magical musical madness, as Glen, followed by the rest of his band, took the stage to join in the fun. What was originally just Glen’s band dancing about while Pearl Jam played the music, changed into an impromptu supergroup forming, with some of Glen’s band taking over for some of Pearl Jam. While the instrument swapping was happening, Eddie was running around the entire stage singing as well as throwing at least 30 tambourines into the crowd. There wasn’t a person standing still, everyone was dancing or jumping around, bands included.  

Now, if Pearl Jam said “thank you, good night” after that, I wouldn’t have been surprised, however that is not at all what they did. Instead, they regained their composure, politely kicked Glen and his band off the stage, and gave the crowd just one more song in “Yellow Ledbetter”. With the song fading out, Vedder told the crowd that it was “not goodbye, but see you later” and after one last series of thank you’s, told everyone to “be good to each other” and thus ended the night.  

Pearl Jam played a 26-song set that consisted of: 

Of the Girl 

Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town 

Corduroy 

Mind Your Manners 

Scared of Fear 

Dark Matter 

In My Tree (dedicated to Pierre, Nick and Matt) 

Wreckage 

Even Flow 

Better Man (with The English Beat’s “Save It for Later” tag) 

Wishlist (with The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood” tag) 

Dance of the Clairvoyants 

Once 

Upper Hand 

Alone 

Jeremy 

Porch 

Encore:

Just Breathe (Eddie, Boom and Josh only) 

Song of Good Hope (Glen Hansard cover with Glen Hansard, dedicated to West Memphis 3) 

Waiting for Stevie 

Crazy Mary (Victoria Williams cover) 

Animal 

Rats 

Alive 

Rockin’ in the Free World (Neil Young cover, with Glen Hansard) 

Yellow Ledbetter 

To find out when the band will be in your area, check out pearljam.com.

Want more Pearl Jam? Click HERE to check out 5 standout moments from their latest album Dark Matter (2024).