Click Click: Pearl Jam & Ted Leo @ Verizon Center

The best part of the show for me, however, was the crowd. Perhaps Pearl Jam's biggest success has been cultivating their core audience, and last night's crowd was the loudest, most enthusiastic group of fans I've been around in a long time. They set the tone from the get-go, giving every ounce of the band's energy back to them during raucous versions of "Severed Hand" and "Hail, Hail". During "Do The Evolution", the lights came up during the "Hallelujah" refrain and everyone had their hands in the air like they were at a Joel Osteen event. Later, as "Daughter" wound down, the crowd was visibly excited for the upcoming "Hey Hey Hey" call and response section with Vedder, who responded in kind by leading the sing-along. I didn't see anyone in the lower bowl take a seat until well after the one-hour mark. The set wasn't without its mis-steps, though. They had to abandon their attempt at "Evacuation" after some sort of technical problem with Stone Gossard's guitar.

Of course, this wouldn't be a Pearl Jam show in D.C. without a few political comments from Mr. Vedder, who looks more like Desmond from Lost every day. After educating the crowd about U.S. policy for oil drilling within its own territories, he exhorted the crowd that instead of a country run by politicians, we were instead at the mercy of business men. "We are the shareholders," he reminded everyone. He went on to say that he couldn't wait for the upcoming election because it would be "great to have a little color in the White House," a comment that drew a loud chorus of cheers from the mostly young crowd, a stark contradiction to the R.E.M. crowd's reaction to similar comments from Michael Stipe last week.

Political posturing aside, last night's show delivered on every level. Pearl Jam might not be the coolest name to drop in indie-rock circles, but after seeing Radiohead, R.E.M., The Cure and My Morning Jacket each play similarly sized shows this summer, I would have to put this show at the top of the list.

Seeing local boy done good Theodore Francis Leo open the show was a real treat. He got the night off to a great start with "Me and Mia", "Sons of Cain" and a few others before plowing through at least five new songs in a row, all of which sounded great. The last one, a Clash-style rave-up with a chorus of "Give me a ride" bodes very well for Leo's next album. Why all the new stuff? Ted told the crowd that since it was a hometown gig of sorts, he figured everyone in their seats for his set has either been to a million of his shows or was completely new to his work, so the timing was right. Although it was weird seeing him in such a big venue, the big setting didn't faze him in the least. He was his normal affable self, even setting up his own gear before his set like he does on his own tours.

Pearl Jam setlist: Hard To Imagine, Severed Hand, Hail Hail, Do The Evolution, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Evacuation, Corduroy, I'm Open, I Am Mine, I Got Id, Daughter, Light Years, Even Flow, Green Disease, You Are, U, Who You Are, Why Go

Encore 1: Comatose, Sad, Given To Fly, Come Back, Grievance, Black, Rearviewmirror

Encore 2: No More, Last Kiss, Crazy Mary, Alive, All Along The Watchtower, Yellow Ledbetter