Pearl Jam Columbia, SC 6/16/08

Its been a long time coming, about 4 years anyway, and Pearl Jam knows how to deliver.  Avoiding the southeast on the past couple of tours with the exception of maybe Florida, I can't help but feel a little snubbed but it just felt good to see them again, especially sitting 12th row center (thank you D-Dog).  Eddie was visibly frustrated with his guitars at the beginning of the show and in the middle of a song, took it off and looked over at his tech and shook at him and laid it on the ground.  Later, at the end of  "Present Tense," Vedder started just ripping out the strings and I was half expecting him to smash it on stage.  He then took a breath and explained to us that Saturday night they played Bonnaroo and Sunday hung out with the nights opening act, Kings of Leon, at there place in Nashville and decided to have a contest to see who could be the most hung over.  Well, Eddie proclaimed, "I fucking won!"  So he took the blame for his thoughts of his guitars being out of tune.  After that he seemed to relax and get into a groove and finished out the first set with "Glorified G" and "Do the Evolution" back to back, a couple of my favorite songs to hear live.  But, of course, it wouldn't be a Pearl Jam without a little political preaching from the front-man, which, hey, its a free country and I believe he is more educated about current events and politics than myself and probably an alarming amount of people out there, so he can say what he feels.  Even if his opinion is extremely bias.  There were some people in front of us a couple of rows that had signs requesting obscure songs "W.M.A." and "Footsteps" which they played in the first and second encores respectively which I thought was pretty cool of them.  They played "Alive" to end the second encore and brought the house lights on about half way through the song and left them on for the single song 3rd encore of "Indifference."  They kind of fooled us and the Colonial Center (where the South Carolina Gamecocks play basketball, surprisingly large venue) employees in between those tunes because the house music came on we heard a few notes of a song before it was abruptly turned off and the band returned.  In the end, it was a trek to and from the show but well worth it, especially if they keep overlooking Atlanta.  Sorry this e-mail is later than usual, but I didn't get home until about 4 in the morning and I'm still pretty tired.