CONCERT REVIEW - PEARL JAM, DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE, GOB ROBERTS AT THE DELTA PLEX, GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.

• What Springsteen set out to accomplish with some degree of subtlety, Pearl Jam approached with the intention of knock one out of the park. "Here's to being a swing state! These are the rewards of being undecided," Eddie Vedder toasted the crowd before roaring out of the gate with an all-business 12-song sampling of the band's punkier catalog that endeavored to apply the band's disenfranchised-youth lyrics to disenfranchised voters.
• Pearl Jam's covers-heavy set included Dylan's "Masters of War," James Taylor's "Millworker," the Dead Kennedys' "Bleed for Me," the MC5's "Kick Out the Jams" and X's "The New World," which featured a vocal assist from Tim Robbins. The actor's punk band, Gob Roberts (zing!), opened the show.
• In toasting the other bands on the tour Sunday, Vedder seemed taken aback by scattered booing to his mention of the Dixie Chicks. After a few songs, he shot back, "I was just thinking what kind of a sick f--- you'd have to be to boo the Dixie Chicks," to louder applause.
• Vote for Change T-shirts: $25. Pearl Jam date-specific posters: $20.
• Spotted in Cleveland: One guy wearing a Bush/Cheney '04 T-shirt (local press reported about a dozen protesters congregated outside the arena). Spotted in Grand Rapids: No Republican presence noted.

My friend Jimmy Z. was in attendance at this event and said that the venue was what amounted to a high school gymnasium. In addition to a killer concert not to forget it sounds like Eddie and the boys rallied a few folks into getting out to vote. Here's hoping it worked!