I guess you've got to live in the Northwest to really appreciate The Gorge.

Located in Eastern Washington's farming and wine country — high above beautiful rolling hills overlooking the natural beauty of Washington State's Columbia River — The Gorge Ampitheatre is one of the best places to see an outdoor concert in the United States.

Touring musicians have of course known this for years now. Notoriously concert-shy perfectionists Steely Dan made a live album there. Sting has been known to sing its praises to his peers in the record business. The Dave Matthews Band has an annual ritual of doing a three night stand there over Labor Day Weekend. They even made a live album and DVD out of one of those weekends.

I've seen a number of memorable shows there myself over the years — from Radiohead to Neil Young to Santana to Coldplay — whose Chris Martin seemed particularly stunned by the Gorge's natural beauty when I saw them there a few years back.

The past few years however have seen some rough times for the venerable Gorge. The drive is some three hours over the mountains from Seattle. The concessions and bathroom facilities there are also in dire need of a facelift. And when the Muckleshoot Indian tribe opened their own White River Ampitheatre a mere forty minutes from Seattle a few years back, a lot of the Gorge's summer concert business went with it.

White River's "convenience" notwithstanding, it still takes a lot more time to get in and out of there — driving in standstill traffic along a two lane highway — then it does to drive across the state to get to the Gorge. Besides, for my money the pristine setting of the Gorge remains unmatched. There is nothing quite like taking in some great music under the night sky overlooking the mountains and the river there.

Living in the Northwest themselves, Pearl Jam knows this.

While bands like Radiohead and Coldplay may have taken their last tours to White River for their Northwest stops, Pearl Jam is a band that plays the Gorge in the summer months every chance it can.

Pearl Jam is also a band that has increasingly developed a reputation as a must-see live band. Whether playing before a stadium of fans, or in an intimate setting like the set they played at Easy Street — a record store located just a few blocks from where I live in West Seattle — Pearl Jam is a band you know you can count on to deliver the goods in a live setting. In that respect, they are like clockwork.

As a result they have made scores of live albums out of sheer necessity. Unlike many bands who have reached the same level of success, Pearl Jam does not rely on playing the same setlist night after night — but rather will change things up at the drop of the proverbial hat. There is even an entire record label sanctioned official "bootleg series" of live shows they did from a tour several years back.

Like Bruce Springsteen and the Grateful Dead, this is a band whose fans trade taped shows amongst each other with a ferocity only the truly obsessed could understand. What those same fans also know, is that when Pearl Jam plays a hometown gig at the Gorge, the chances are better than good you'll be getting something special.