Pearl Jam’s second show at Fort Worth’s Dickies Arena: Eclectic set of rarities wows fans

Two nights, 52 songs. And a thousand rock-and-roll dreams come true at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth.

Pearl Jam finished its two-night run Friday in front of another packed house with another exceptional and original career-spanning, two-hour-plus show.

Between the two sets, including the first set list from Wednesday, they performed 50 different songs. Only two songs were repeated – “Even Flow” and “Alive” – which are two of the most well-known staples from their 1991 smash debut “Ten.”

Drummer Matt Cameron was back with the band after missing Wednesday’s show because of COVID. The crowd erupted with appreciative cheers as soon as he took a seat behind his kit when the band took the stage just before 9 p.m.

And singer Eddie Vedder, himself shaking off the flu, appeared to be much improved.

[MORE: Pearl Jam’s first-ever Fort Worth show was magical, even with setbacks]

Over the two nights, the band played five hours of music, mixing deep cuts and rare tracks with their biggest hits and radio classics.

Friday’s two-hour, 25-minute show again started with the band sitting down for the first batch of songs, including their hymn-like opener “Long Road.”

By the fourth song, Vedder was alone on stage for an acoustic version of “Just Breathe,” which he dedicated to multiple people in the audience, plus bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard, who have been band partners for nearly 40 years, pre-dating Pearl Jam.

After concluding the sit-down portion with the ultra rarity “Hard To Imagine,” the band eschewed the stools for the evening with a crunching run through “Breakerfall,” the opener from their 2000 release “Binaural.”

[MORE: My ‘All-Encompassing Trip’ following Pearl Jam finally comes home to Fort Worth]

Unlike Wednesday’s set, in which Josh Klinghoffer admirably sat in for Cameron, the band included more songs from their most recent albums. They played “Dance of the Clairvoyants” and “Seven O’Clock from 2020’s “Gigaton,” “Pendulum” from their 2013 release “Lightning Bolt,” and “Just Breathe” and “Unthought Known” from 2009’s “Backspacer.

Some of the night’s highlights included a scorching version of “Red Mosquito,” from 1996’s “No Code,” and a fan request from a recent show in Saint Paul, Minnesota, for “Undone,” a very rare B-side from 2002 that Vedder made good on. Vedder light-heartedly warned the approximately 13,500 in attendance that if the band couldn’t appropriately pull it off, blame the fan, who made the request two weeks ago and was on the front row Friday night. No need. They nailed it.

The 18-song main set finished with an eerie cover of Pink Floyd’s “Brain Damage” that led into “Inside Job,” the stark epic from their 2006 eponymous album. Honoring another request, albeit in an odd fashion – by throwing a fake severed hand onto the stage at Vedder’s feet on Wednesday – the band played “Severed Hand,” a guitar-driven song from 2006. Vedder revealed the hand from Wednesday and tossed it deep into the pit of fans in front of the stage. They closed the main set with “Better Man” as the audience was already singing nearly every word the entire night, took it up a notch and loudly and proudly belted out the words to Vedder’s delight.

For the encore, Vedder performed Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” solo before the band rejoined him for a quick, stunted version of “Spin the Black Circle,” which fans behind the stage had creatively spelled out with big block letters. Only, by the time Vedder got around to addressing it, the “S” on “Spin” had fallen, so he jokingly told them the band didn’t know “Pin the Black Circle.”

Near the end of the night, Vedder read a lengthy, moving message from Joaquin Zihuatanejo, the first-ever Dallas poet laureate. Zihuatanejo’s message, Vedder explained, detailed how he became homeless as a teenager, living on the streets in Austin and Dallas, and how he found the hope to survive with the power and hope in Pearl Jam’s music. Vedder brought Zihuatanejo on stage for a hug and the story provided ample juice to “Alive,” with the houselights lighting up the entire arena for a life-affirming singalong.

During a cover of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ In the Free World,” members of the opening band Deep Sea Diver, who provided lusty, guitar fuzz noise rock (think Yo La Tengo) to both Fort Worth shows, joined Pearl Jam on stage and helped sing (and play drums), as did Zihuatanejo. Vedder tossed tambourines to all of them, and danced with a couple of them, as guitarist Mike McCready and bassist Jeff Ament raced around the stage in a frenzy and guitarist Stone Gossard deftly laid down the rhythm.

With the houselights still up, and the band again alone on stage, they closed the evening with “Yellow Ledbetter.” Vedder thanked Fort Worth for treating the band so kindly, including a local nurse who helped him and Cameron recover, and he thanked fans at both shows for helping sing along so passionately.

As McCready wound down his noted guitar flourishes in Ledbetter, Vedder stood center stage, his hand tapping his heart to the crowd.

It was more than a frontman stage gesture. He was genuinely moved by the passion of the audience. Of course, it’s Pearl Jam’s passion that has always evoked that type of emotion. They summoned it again during two unforgettable nights in Fort Worth.

Pearl Jam setlist at Dickies Arena, Fort Worth, Texas, on Sept. 15, 2023

1. Long Road

2. Lowlight

3. Pendulum

4. Just Breathe

5. Hard To Imagine

6. Breakerfall

7. Why Go

8. Dance Of The Clairvoyants

9. Brain of J

10. Red Mosquito

11. Garden

12. Undone

13. Even Flow

14. Seven O’Clock

15. Brain Damage (Pink Floyd)

16. Inside Job

17. Severed Hand

18. Better Man

Encore

19. I Won’t Back Down (Tom Petty)

20. Spin the Black Circle (Short version)

21. Jeremy

22. Unthought Known

23. Alive

24. Rockin’ In the Free World (Neil Young)

25. Yellow Ledbetter