As everyone across the globe knows, Pearl Jam has had its share of turmoil the past few years.

With “Yield,” a sense of peace has appeared to come over the band. Still, to keep things interesting, drummer Jack Irons dropped off of this tour due to health reasons.

He was replaced by former Soundgarden drummer, Matt Cameron.

Cameron served as a great replacement for Jack Irons at all the shows, and it is very impressive that he was able to learn nearly the entire Pearl Jam songbook in such a short amount of time, even adding his own hard edged touch to certain songs.

June 26, 1998, Alpine Valley Music Theater, East Troy, Wis.

Alpine Valley Music Theater was absolutely perfect for an outdoor concert, despite the traffic jam that encompassed more than a thousand cars on the way there.

The venue had ample seating (for those who had actual seat tickets) and lots of lawn space (for those who didn’t have actual seats). There were also two large screens on each side of the stage, for those who had lawn tickets.

Frank Black, formerly of the Pixies, was the opening act. He was unexciting to say the least. After the opening act, the crew frantically set up the stage as the crowd buzzed (some more literally than others).

Then “The Color Red” started playing and the group came out and ripped right into “Evolution.” It set the tone for the rest of the show perfectly. Next, the group tore into “Animal.”

The next song was “Last Exit,” which was awesome until Vedder’s mic started to cut out. The crew gave him another mic, but that one cut out too. Since Vedder was singing into two malfunctioning mics, and the song just kind of fell apart.

The band looked at each other, shrugged, laughed and that was it. “Fuck this song, let’s get to the next one,” Vedder yelled as the crowd laughed along with the band.

“Brain of J” and “Given To Fly” soon followed. There is so much texture to the latter song that it comes across really well live. Vedder was motioning his hands and arms along with the lyrics, to re-iterate them. Then the band flowed into “In Hiding.”

“Corduroy” was amazingly tight, and the band even added an extremely tight one-second break right before the last verse, which made the song ten times better than before.

Then the lights went down on Alpine Valley and there was a simple spotlight on Vedder, who started one of Pearl Jam’s newer singles, “Wishlist.”

A disco ball dropped down at the start of the second verse and cast beautiful sparkling lights everywhere. As Vedder sang the lyrics, 200,000 hands were raised toward the sky.

After the brief slow-down, the group kicked into action with “Lukin.” Then came “Evenflow,” during which McCready had his head back nearly the entire song, playing everything straight from his heart.

The beautiful song “Daughter” was next, as Jeff Ament pulled out his upright bass for the first time that evening. As usual, Vedder improvised some lyrics at the end of the song.

“Dissident” was the next song, followed by “MFC,” which was surprisingly solid. “Betterman” followed, with the crowd nearly drowning out Vedder’s vocals. It was obvious that he thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

“Red Mosquito” was next with the dueling guitars which were great. Then the group wrapped up its set with “Black.”

After five minutes of begging for more, the crowd was treated to an encore. “Hail, Hail” was first, and it was followed by “Mankind.” While Stone Gossard belted out lyrics, Vedder played tambourine and accidentally broke it. He threw the broken pieces into the crowd.

It was time for Vedder to talk to the crowd again, and he discussed the recording session behind the group’s collaborations with Neil Young.

He remarked that in the short time that they worked together, Young cranked out a 12-song album while his group was only able to do a two-song single. One of those songs, “I Got Id,” came next, which was very good.

“Rearviewmirror” followed and featured an amazing McCready improvisation during the bridge.

Gossard then came to front stage and showed off the riffs to the song that started it all, “Alive.” At one point during the song, Vedder ran around stage left and shut off one of the large screens.

The band then left the stage again. The crowd again begged for more.

Pearl Jam eventually came back out and Vedder waited for the crowd to quiet down before speaking.

He somberly stated that this next song was dedicated to Stevie Ray Vaughn, who had died leaving Alpine Valley several years ago. Vaughn was McCready’s major influence, so he was given the spotlight at the end of the last song, “Yellow Ledbetter.”

The rest of the band put down their respective instruments and watched in awe and with respect as McCready made the most beautiful music. It was a moment to remember.

June 27, 1998, Alpine Valley Music Theater, East Troy, Wis.

This show started with “The Color Red” again and then the group segued into a cover version of Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive,” which ended up being a terrific opener for “Corduroy,” which again had the tight little break in the song.

Then Pearl Jam kept the energy going with “Hail, Hail,” and “Brain of J.” McCready became so engulfed by the music that he smashed his guitar at the end of the song.

A flawless “Last Exit” was the next song, followed by “Tremor Christ” and “Given to Fly.”

A crowd favorite came up next, as Ament struck the familiar opening chords to “Jeremy.” The group played the song with textbook flair, and the crowd loved it.

Then Vedder explained that his group didn’t play its next song live very often, and in an amazing surprise, the song “Nothingman” started. It was absolutely awe-inspiring.

“MFC” was next, followed by “Habit,” which featured the changed line “speaking as a child of the nineties” as “speaking as someone who has never worn an orange, styrofoam piece of cheese on his head.” It was hilarious and the crowed roared its approval.

During the encore, he apologized for offending anyone. “It wasn’t an insult,” explained Vedder, “I actually have one at home and I wear it around the house and I find it to be quite comfortable, actually … It makes me look cool, and I get chicks.”

“Off He Goes,” another live rarity, was next, and it led way to “Evenflow,” “Once” and “All Those Yesterdays.”

“Go” was very solid and actually got a mosh pit going. Overall, the crowd in East Troy was very well behaved and respectable as “Immortality” closed out the regular set.

The group came back out (Vedder gripping a champagne bottle) for an encore of “Do the Evolution,” “Leatherman” and “Betterman.”

Then the group played the crowd favorite “Wishlist.” Again, all 40,000 in attendance opened their hands toward the sky.

“Alive” and “Smile” rounded out the evening. “Smile” was requested the night before by a group of people holding up a sign that read “Smile.”

It was thrown on stage and Ament held it up for all to see.

Unfortunately, the group didn’t have time to do it the previous night, so it obliged fans and played it as the last song that night.

June 30, 1998, Target Center, Minneapolis, Minn.

Like the two shows in Wisconsin, Pearl Jam’s concert in Minneapolis began with “The Color Red.”

Vedder and company took the stage, welcomed the crowd and started the pensive song, “Sometimes.”

The second song was “Last Exit,” and Vedder got so into the song that he fell over backwards and laid on his back for a little while.

“Brain of J” was next and was as good as it had been on previous nights.

“Hail, Hail,” “Faithfull,” “Evenflow,” “Corduroy” and “I Got Id” all followed.

Then the group played “Pilate,” which was really good. “Daughter” was the next song, and this time I’d heard the improvisation at the end before. It was from the song “Noise of Carpet.”

“MFC,” “Lukin,” “Wishlist” and “Mankind” all were played next.

Then came “All Those Yesterdays,” and Gossard’s guitar cut out created a five-minute delay. The crowd was making lots of noise at this point, so Vedder started talking about the NBA and how loud the Target Center was.

“Black” and “Alive” finished up the first set. The former was absolutely beautiful.

The group’s encore consisted of several songs that had been played in the previous few nights (“Do the Evolution,” “Given to Fly,” “Leatherman” and “Betterman”).

At the beginning of “Betterman,” Vedder accidentally started on the second verse and quit singing after the first two lines.

But the crowd kept singing and Vedder stood there with a huge grin on his face, (“good singing, wrong verse,” he mocked). Then the group promptly started the song again and nailed it perfectly.

The next song was “Leaving Here,” a rarity from the “Home Alive” compilation CD. Then the group pounced into a medley of The Who’s “My Generation” and “Porch,” which left the audience completely totaled. It was a great ending to a solid show.

July 3, 1998, Sandstone Amphitheater, Kansas City, Mo.

This concert started the same as the rest of the group’s concerts with “The Color Red”. Then the group played “Corduroy,” “Hail, Hail,” “Brain of J,” “Dissident,” “Faithfull,” “Jeremy” and “I Got Id.”

“MFC” and “Wishlist” were next, and the crowd acted like it had never heard either before. Very few people had their hands upraised and open toward the sky. The group looked really disappointed.

“Last Exit,” “Given to Fly,” “Evenflow” and “Daughter” followed and were all solid.

Then Vedder explained that the next song was created before the band was even formed. Then it started playing “Footsteps,” which I consider to be one of the most beautiful songs ever.

The crowd was not respectful at all. Many members of the audience were yelling at Vedder to crank it up. Pearl Jam was not shaken by this in the slightest, and cranked it up with “Alive” and “Go.” Then the group left the stage.

I wouldn’t have blamed Pearl Jam if it hadn’t done an encore. The crowd was so horrible that I was embarrassed to be associated with them.

Thankfully, the group came out anyway and played the ever-beautiful “Nothingman,” a treat that the audience certainly didn’t deserve.

Pearl Jam then went on to play “Betterman,” “Do the Evolution” and “Smile” before ending the show on a high note with a cover version of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ In The Free World.”

All in all, it was an amazing trip, and I’m sorry that it had to end.

I’ve got a feeling that Pearl Jam will head back through the Midwest on its next tour. But the group just may skip Kansas City, and I certainly wouldn’t blame it.

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Eric Neely is a junior in fine arts from Boone, Iowa.