Here is the full concert on YouTube.
The above photo is not actually from the Pearl Jam concert we saw at the Cynthia Wood Pavilion in The Woodlands on October 14, 2000. This was back before we had cell phones and cameras weren’t allowed in concert venues, so we don’t have anything to show for our Pearl Jam concert experience.
The photo is from the Seattle Pop Culture Museum’s exhibit on Pearl Jam, which Jason and I saw together on our engagement trip in September of 2018.
Our Pearl Jam concert experience lives as one of the worst concerts I’ve ever attended, sadly. The Woodlands is an outdoor venue in Southeast Texas, where even late evenings in the autumn, the heat and humidity can make people pretty miserable. This was definitely the case for the members of Pearl Jam. They probably could handle the humidity, but nothing could prepare them for the Texas heat. Add to that droves of mosquitos, and everyone present on stage and in the audience felt pretty peeved by the end of the evening.
Pearl Jam played their standards without a lot of enthusiasm, then left the stage to return for an encore of Neil Young’s Keep On Rockin’ in the Free World before vanishing without a further word.
It was disappointing, and as a young Mom who traveled three hours to spend the first evening away from her two-year-old, I remember feeling terribly let down.
It’s been years now, though, and I’ve forgiven Pearl Jam completely. They’re still one of my favorite bands, and I get it now more than I did back then. Performing live is grueling. Sprinkle your already hot, muggy night with stinging insects and who wouldn’t want to exit stage left as soon as possible?
Definitely a story to tell, even if it’s not the best for the bucket list. Still, they did rate, and we did see them, so it’s all good now.