Pearl Jam [ tickets ] will probably never again be the biggest band in the world, a title it held for some years during the '90s. It takes two things to achieve that ranking: huge album sales and a monster live show. Eddie Vedder and crew don't have the former. But they certainly have the latter.

Fifteen years after the release of "Ten," a record that still ranks as one of the most successful debuts in rock history, Pearl Jam has struggled to find listeners for its new eponymous release. "Pearl Jam" has hardly marked the band's return to commercial glory. It failed to top the charts when it was released in May, coming in a distant second to Tool's "10,000 Days" (which roughly doubled the first-week sales of "Pearl Jam"), and made a surprisingly quick exit from the upper echelon of the Billboard Top 200.

Although no longer a real force in retail, Pearl Jam remains a powerhouse in the live arena. The band's current tour is one the summer's hot sellers, and you can usually count on the group to show fans a really good time.

Most recently, Pearl Jam sold out three nights at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. This run, which included dates on Saturday and Sunday (7/15-16) and ends Tuesday (7/18), marked the first time that the group had played within the San Francisco city limits in 11 years. The last time was the near-riot in Golden Gate Park in 1995, back when Pearl Jam was indeed the biggest band in the world, when local legend Neil Young took over for an ailing Vedder after only a few songs. Since that occasion, the band has been performing nearly all its Northern California dates at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in nearby Mountain View.

If local fans had any sore feelings regarding the band's lengthy absence, Pearl Jam definitely made it up to them with a blistering set of old and new tunes.

Following an opening set by legendary alt-rockers Sonic Youth, Pearl Jam took the stage and immediately began to rip through breakneck versions of such tunes as "Of the Girl" (from 2000's "Binaural"), "Go" (from 1993's "Vs.") and the new album's first single, "World Wide Suicide." Vedder, who seemed deliriously happy to be back performing in San Francisco, delivered his strongest Bay Area performance in years as he pushed his buds through the anthem-like "Given to Fly" (from 1998's "Yield").

Guitarist Mike McCready, as usual, was right there by Vedder's side and delivering the kind of high-flying leads that other alt-rockers can only dream about. (Vedder recalled his mid-'90s prime with this show. McCready, in contrast, reminded folks that he keeps getting better with each passing year.)

The band performed 17 numbers during the first set--which, on paper, looks to be enough to make for an entire evening of song. The catch is that Pearl Jam was moving at such a rapid pace that it finished its main set in just over an hour.

Thankfully, the group returned to play two lengthy encores that combined to last even longer than the first set. The first encore had old-school PJ freaks going nuts, as the band returned to its debut to play both "Even Flow" and "Alive."

The next encore proved to be even better as the group embraced the second half of its name--"Jam"--and really tore into versions of Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" and the concert-staple "Yellow Ledbetter."

Setlist:
"Of the Girl"
"Go"
"World Wide Suicide"
"Save You"
"Severed Hand"
"Corduroy"
"Given to Fly"
"Unemployable"
"Sad"
"Gone"
"Not for You/(Modern Girl)"
"State of Love and Trust"
"Gods' Dice"
"Present Tense"
"Comatose"
"Why Go"
"Do The Evolution"

Encore 1
"Even Flow"
"Parachutes"
"Footsteps"
"Once"
"Alive"

Encore 2
"Wasted Reprise"
"Life Wasted"
"Spin the Black Circle"
"Bu$hleaguer"
"Indifference"
"Rockin' in the Free World"
"Yellow Ledbetter"

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