Pearl Jam N1 to open the 2025 mini-tour throughout the Southwest in Hollywood, FL, just west of Ft Lauderdale. I had the fortune to see the 2024 kickoff in Vancouver, which I don't think is possible to get further away in terms of major North America markets.
The venue was the Hard Rock Amphitheater. Capacity 8,000 which makes it the smallest indoor official tour stop in 30 years. At least that's what someone told me in the merch line. Best sounding room I have ever been in, other than the Ryman which is about a quarter of the size.
As for the show, it got off to a fantastic start in the dark with
Oceans. Same stage set up as last year's Dark Matter Tour. Next was a rousing performance of
Present Tense, which started as McCready only accompanying Vedder. Midway the rest of the band joined in and off we went.
Even Flow also made an early setlist appearance.
It was very similar to the Vancouver show with a heavy dose of Dark Matter, some big normally arena anthems with no fewer than 3 really deep cuts:
Down, Leatherman &
Footsteps.
Ed started the encore with a solo Petty tribute,
Won't Back Down. We also got one of my favorite covers from Sweet Relief,
Crazy Mary. There was even another Petty cover (sort of) with
So You Want to Be a Rock 'N' Roll Star, which sounded more like the Heartbreakers version than the Byrds. Probably done as an acknowledgement of Petty's home state as well as the venue.
The night ended with the house lights on for
Alive and
Baba O"Riley, only for them to go off again. The finale was
Setting Sun.
Oh what a night.

