When Pearl Jam announced that they would try to put on a tour without using Ticketmaster, they had a lottery for tickets, and, thanks to my sister, I found myself with 2 tickets to the show.  With my friend Joe along for the ride, we headed out towards Soldier Field, taking the Orange Line from Midway to avoid the traffic.

If my memory holds, the opening acts for the show were The Frogs and Bad Religion.  I don’t really remember anything about The Frogs other than Jim DeRogatis tearing them apart on an episode of Sound Opinions.  Bad Religion put on a full-on set, performing 17 songs, 2 of which I’ve even heard of.  I’m not sure if I did at the time, though.

Pearl Jam came out and performed an astounding 29 song set, including 2 encores.  My favorite memory of the night was during the performance of Better Man, when my friend Joe, not understanding the meaning of the song, said that all of the girls sang it about him, that they couldn’t find a better man.

After the show, we had missed the last Orange Line train back to Midway, so we had to take the Archer bus down to Cicero and then walk back to the parking lot by the train station.

The local alternative radio station, Q101, recorded the show and put it out on CD as a station giveaway, which put the concert out in the world to live forever.  I had a copy on cassette back when that was a thing and now have an MP3 version of the show.  Ironically, this was my last visit to old Soldier Field, which would be “renovated” in 2001 and 2002.