Maybe that's why NO CODE's songs shared the spotlight with the hits from albums TEN, VS., and VITALOGY in a 23-song set that was able to satisfy Pearl Jam's avid followers and new adorers together.

The band's first show in Ohio since March of 1994 opened with the maiden two tracts from NO CODE: Eddie Vedder strummed head-down amidst a yellow glow on "Sometimes" and raised the roof on "Hail, Hail." Additions to the early part of the set list like "Spin The Black Circle" and a fine turn on "Better Man" were peppered to the galloping "In My Tree" and swirling "Corduroy" that sent the crowd in to an eruption. A fierce rendition of the appropriate arena-rock anthem "Not For You" and "Even Flow," during which Vedder paused an extra four measures at song's end before uttering his final growl, fit well with the bouncy Stone Gossard-sung "Mankind" and powerful "Habit" in the middle of the set. The batch of songs displayed a Pearl Jam as tight musically as they've been in recent memory.

The band was in good spirits, too, as Vedder made a recurring joke out of the fact that the students at the show would be faced with an early wakeup for Monday classes. "But, I could go all night," he told the audience slowly in a deep baritone. Jokingly explaining himself, he continued, "Look, our record company and band office are not going to accept all the angry letters from your parents, that you wasted all their money and failed in school!" In another compromise, he decided it was "OK ... see me after the show and I'll write you all notes." When the singer later fumbled the lyrics on "I Got Id" one song later, he stopped outright and admitted,
"Someone didn't do their homework."
Perhaps Pearl Jam is correct in playing a lot of it's radio hits. "Alive and "Jeremy" made the band famous, and it's to be expected that these songs are still found in the band's set list, as they were on Sunday. The encore of "Go" a louder "Who You Are," the raw Rearviewmirror" and a shaky "Leaving Here" were enjoyable for their variety, but the real stunner was the choice of "Indifference" as the show's closer. Yet to be performed on the first three dates of the tour, the song was a reminder of the bands versatility, the ability to knock out the listener with one song and bring them back to consciousness with the next.

The perpetually under-appreciated Fastbacks met a mild response from the Toledo audience, although songs from the band's NEW MANSIONS IN SOUND album like "Just Say" and "Fortune's Misery" sounded great. Pearl Jam can afford to be choosy with it's set list. While "Alive" may have made the show for a first-time fan, the band's steady handle on it's more obscure catalog proved how much it really cared about its veteran fans.