A start time of 7:30 p.m. was printed on tickets for Pearl Jam [ tickets ]'s Friday night (7/11) show at Mansfield's Tweeter Center--the last of the group's three July concerts at the venue--but fans who arrived early got quite a treat.

"In order to accomplish their goal of performing their entire current repertoire over the course of the three Boston shows while not repeating a single song," read a message posted at the group's website prior to the show, "Pearl Jam will play an extra one hour set at 6:30 p.m. before [opening act] Sleater-Kinney [ tickets ] takes the stage."

And so it was that singer Eddie Vedder, bassist Jeff Ament, guitarists Stone Gossard and Mike McCready, drummer Matt Cameron and touring keyboardist Kenneth "Boom" Gaspar (a friend of Vedder's from Hawaii) took to the stage long before sundown to play a dozen semi-acoustic tunes.

"The advice we'll give to you," said Vedder at the beginning of the set, "is the advice we give to ourselves: Let's pace ourselves; it's gonna be a long one."

Two songs into the performance, Vedder--who, along with his bandmates, remained seated throughout the first set--invited the standing crowd to take a seat, promising to save the more-rocking songs for later in the night.

"There's not gonna be an acoustic version of 'Blood' or anything like that, so feel free to sit down," he said.

Highlights from the 50-minute performance included crowd favorites "Footsteps"--a B-side dating back to 1992--and set-closer "Indifference"; the audience's raucous reaction to the latter song prompted Vedder to lift his sit-down edict, saying, "Aw, get up!" The delighted audience cheered louder and immediately took to its collective feet.

Following an hour-long set from Sleater-Kinney [ tickets ], an upright and plugged-in Pearl Jam [ tickets ] returned to play more than 30 cuts from throughout its 12-year career.

"We've got some songs to get through here tonight and, as you do in life, you always save the best for last," Vedder told the crowd.

The subsequent barrage of songs were a sharp contrast to the acoustic set, particularly up-tempo numbers such as "Breakerfall," "Brain of J," "Spin the Black Circle" and "Why Go Home."

Throughout it all, the group's two most-defining sounds--Vedder's rich, velvet-meets-gravel vocals and McCready's ethereal licks--were present in abundance and near album quality.

The main set ended with a mind-blowing version of 1993's "Blood," a song that requires Vedder to scream through the lyrics with the kind of force that would cause the average vocal cords to shred in a matter of seconds. He nailed it.

After a short break, the group returned to the stage for the first of three encores.

"There's still quite a few songs on the list here, so take a deep ... ," Vedder trailed off, letting the band finish the sentence by breaking into "Breath," a cut from the 1992 "Singles" soundtrack. The seven-song encore ended with two of the group's biggest hits: "Black" and "Jeremy," both from 1991's "Ten."

A second, less exciting encore featured a number of covers, including the Ramones' "I Believe in Miracles," Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son"--during which show-openers Sleater-Kinney joined the group--and Neil Young's "Rocking in the Free World."

After meandering through the covers, the group got back on track by ending the three-and-a-half hour performance with the popular B-side "Yellow Ledbetter"--the 44th song that the band played that night--which whipped the crowd into one last frenzy.

First set
The Long Road
Of the Girl
Sometimes
Off He Goes
All Those Yesterdays
Drifting
Thin Air
Sleight of Hand
Footsteps
All Or None
Parting Ways
Indifference

Second set
Can't Keep
Breakerfall
Brain of J
Spin the Black Circle
Ghost
Green Disease
Tremor Christ
Given To Fly
Nothing Is as It Seems
Cropduster
Faithful
Why Go Home
Wishlist
Leatherman
Nothingman
Betterman
Half Full
Untitled / MFC
Blood

Encore 1
Breath
Habit
Down
Mankind
U
Black
Jeremy

Encore 2
I Believe in Miracles
Know Your Rights
Fortunate Son
Rocking in the Free World
One Note

Encore 3
Yellow Ledbetter