I get lucky and get to see Pearl Jam for the 2nd time in under a year...
Due to getting to the venue a bit late, our dodgy ticket dude who was supposed to be getting us standing tickets gave us VIP seating tickets instead. The seats turned out to be really good in the end so the initial disappointment was soon squashed (at least for me anyway!). We got to our seats moments before Pearl Jam came on so we'd definitely missed Idlewild which was a bit of a shame.
The band strolled on and went straight into 'Long road' which is a b-side from the Merkin ball E.P. they did with Neil Young. I hadn't heard it in years and it was a good sedate start before the set continued with a bang with a few rocking tracks. The typical hits laden set had evidently been thrown out and replaced with some fan favourites and a few obscurities, with the majority of songs being taken from Yield and their latest one. Marker in the Sand followed by Immortality was amazing. The band seemed to be well in to what they were doing with Jeff Ament leaping around and Mike McReady striking some truly rock poses. Eddie seemed very happy and relaxed throughout and actually fell over a couple of times, I'm not sure if this was through sheer exuberance or cos he'd drunk a bit too much wine! It was quite funny to see him flout the arena's no smoking policy at the side too. The sound wasn't too bad where we were but Arena's are never very good if you want to hear the words!
They came back on with 'Inside Job' which is one of my fave's from the new album, and after a tranquil Parachutes they went into 'Crazy Mary' just after introducing 'Boom' their keyboard player, the live favourite went down really well. They ended the first encore with 'Do the Evolution' and the song you can never tire of: 'Alive'.
Eddie stumbled back on alone with just an acoustic guitar and promptly hit his head on the mic! He introduced the next song by telling a story about a guy who'd been seriously injured during the present troubles in the middle east and how he admired his will to carry on. He also had a dig at the current Prime Minister by saying that he thought Tony Blair looked like a guy who's only way home after a heavy night drinking was being driven by someone who was also drunk, and that pisshead being George Bush. 'No more' was a new song and seemed far too catchy to be about war and even though he was by himself he still had everyone's attention. They ended with 'Rockin' In The Free World' and then the gorgeous 'Indifference', the lights remained on for both of these revealing a whole arena full of dancing and grinning Pearl Jam fans. It was one of those nights where you wish could hit rewind and witness it all again.
Set list: Long Road, Severed Hand, Grievance, Comatose, Given To Fly, Low Light, I Got Id, Faithful, Green Disease, Marker In The Sand, Immortality, Down, Present Tense, State Of Love And Trust, Why Go, Save You, Porch
Encore 1 Inside Job, Parachutes, Crazy Mary, Do The Evolution, Alive
Encore 2 No More, Bu$hleaguer, World Wide Suicide, Rockin' In The Free World, Indifference
billyK
8/10
Mon, January 05, 2009