May 6th, 2010
Nationwide Arena
Columbus, Ohio

Mike Pre-Set...
Dead Flowers/Untitled "Son Song"
Main Set...
Oceans/Given to Fly/Corduroy/Got Some/World Wide Suicide/Faithfull/Elderly Woman/Amongst the Waves/Even Flow/Comatose/Marker in the Sand/Unthought Known/Grievance/Alone/The Fixer/Do the Evolution
First Encore...
Just Breathe/Black/State of Love and Trust/Spin the Black Circle/Go
Second Encore...
Come Back/Once/Hail, Hail/Crazy Mary/Alive/Yellow Ledbetter

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If you looked up "rock show" on Wikipedia, this show should be in the definition. Seriously. ROCK SHOW.

I guess you can say "third time's the charm."
This was the third show I had seen in Columbus (2000, 2003 and now 2010). Bowman and I had a terrible crowd experience in 2000. 2003 was uneventful from what I remember (save for the terrible singing from the guy in the parking lot before the show on top of the trailer and the fact that I was on the chip from the 2000 show). This is not to say the past two Columbus shows sucked (in fact, the setlist from the 2000 Columbus show was pretty darn solid), but I wasn't thrilled with Columbus as a whole.

First, I must say, I had not really explored downtown Columbus at all prior to this show and I was surprisingly impressed. I got to say, I am not the world's biggest Ohio fan (note my history of barfing the first time I ever remember going over the state line when I was a kid), so I guess part of me was just like, "Eh. Columbus. Ohio. Oh well. I'm there for a show."

Our hotel was walking distance to the venue (SUCH a luxury) and the city was definitely happenin'. Met up with Scott, Jess and Dolin to grab pizza at Dolin's favorite pizza joint from college. We got to get a good little tour from Mr. Dolin. Columbus = super nice city! On top of that, the venue was AWESOME! The concourses were stupendous and they even sold us bottles of water WITH the caps on! Seriously?!? Was this like a dream sequence we were experiencing? Wow.

Haha, these are all very important things that contribute to the show experience.

As soon as we had emptied the bladders and purchased our waters, the lights went out and Ed was onstage introducing Mike. I swear we almost fell down the stairs getting down to the floor. Not from excitement but from the darkness surrounding the stairs. Good effort put on by Mikey.

I did know what was soundchecked which these days pretty much means you know what's going to be played that night. I kind of liked that, thoughÉno freaking teases like the old day. Getting all worked up and excited for a song that was soundchecked and it not getting played.

Wasn't SHOCKED that Oceans was played since I knew it was soundchecked but holy crap, any show that is going to start off with Oceans is gonna be a good one. Only my 4th Oceans ever and I was so thrilled for it to be the opener.

And how cool was it that right after Oceans, they went into Given to Fly and then Corduroy. Hello Columbus, we're here to rock your socks off.

Immediately, coming right off of Jazz Fest, I was so grateful that this show was heat and humidity free. There's something to be said about seeing a show on ice. Hells yeah.

I know this show was a great show, but looking as I write this I'm like, "Holy crap! Got Some was next?!?" World Wide into Faithfull. Shows that have a great start like this one are only amplified by a performance of Faithfull.

Some other highlights from the main set included Amongst the Waves and Unthought Known (two of my favs off of Backspacer. And HELLO: my very first Alone. I don't ask for anything out of this band but a freaking good show. Play me some Inside Job or Hard to Imagine every once in awhile and I'll be happy as a lark. This was one of those bonus moments: I've been to enough spectacular shows and they've been responsible for so much happiness in my life that when they play something I HAVEN'T heard before, it's just awesome and unexpected. Never anticipate them anymore. Very, very cool.

Closing out with the set with Do the Evolution was great. I was too far back at Jazz Fest to see anything really "detailed" but it was entertaining that during the 2010 line, Ed looked his wrist as if there was a watch on. We're at 2010 people! Oh yeah!

First encore started with Just Breathe which I was happy about. I'll take it anyway at any point in the setlist even if it's predictable. I'm not a hater. I'm a lover.

So many nice gems in the encores - State of Love and Trust (a request by some baseball player I don't know shit about, but at least it was a good request), Spin the Black Circle, Come Back (dedicated to that fan that disappeared from Ohio) and Hail, Hail.

If I haven't mentioned it yet (ha ha), this was a great great show. At some point, during the main set, Ed talked about "religion" and said that the band was contemplating making Pearl Jam a religion. It was just some funny banter that was actually fun to listen to. The show experiences are like a religious experience. I know as fans we've either talked about it or felt it so it was funny to have it acknowledged. Though I don't think Stone should be the Jesus as Ed suggested. That should probably be Boom.

Joke.

 
 

05.07.10

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