Pearl Jam in Concert 29-8-2006

I remember lying on my bed when I was about 13/14 and listening to Ten roughly a year after it had been released (things took a little longer to reach deepest darket Jo'burg in those days) and thinking that Pearl Jam was just the best thing that had ever happend to music... ever!
And yes, I know all the old fogies will mutter and grumble at this and name a few very well known bands in this circle as the influences of Pearl Jam and how they wouldn't have been so good had it not been for bands like The Who and artists like Neil Young... and you're right... but they didn't have Eddie Vedder on vocals! Even when Pearl Jam do covers of Who numbers a few members of my family (who will remain nameless to protect their identity - is that better Koos?) have grudgingly admitted that they do it excellently... and dare I say it.. better?

But thats beside the point.

The point is that that after 14 years, Pearl Jam are still my favourite rock band. Of course, I never dreamed I would ever get to see them live. I moved to the Netherlands shortly after their last concert here and after the tragic events at Roskilde Pearl Jam no longer wished to tour in Europe.
I was resigned to being but a devoted fan who greedily bought live albums and read reports of the small concerts they were giving back in the USA... so imagine my surprise and delight when I happened to be checking out the ticketservice one sunny spring day a few months ago and a small picture on the page brought my attention to the fact that Pearl Jam were returning for a full European tour with one concert in the Netherlands!! Tickets were to go into pre-sale only a couple of days later so after calling Barry and screaming at him about it he finally managed to decipher what my enthusiasm was all about and we agreed to get tickets as soon as they went on sale.
We were lucky, there were only a few left by the time we got to the Post Office and they had no idea where we would be seated but I figured this is Pearl Jam, I dont care where I sit!

This was in May, so once tickets were bought and stored away in a well guarded and highly classified location (the kitchen drawer), the wait began.

Finally August 29th came sauntering along and we were going to see Pearl Jam! I was like a giddy school girl.. and so were Barry and Bas.. which is a whole story in itself.
Luckily Joc and Mr Tomtom managed to keep cool enough heads so we could find our way to Arnhem (a two and a half hour drive) and get to the right entrance on time.

We found our seats up in the Nosebleeds but were right in front of the huge screen they put up for those in the back with live feed of exactly what was happening on stage.

The opening band were not terribly exciting. They seemed to be trying to recapture some long lost spirit of Led Zepplin but it wasn't happening. They left the stage quickly, for which we were grateful.

Then the lights dimmed and the opening strains of Release began and my heart soared!
The band was in great shape and Eddie's voice was bang on from the first note. And best of all they seemed to be just as thrilled to play for us as we were to be there watching them.

For two hours they played a varied set of numbers that included a whole bunch of favourites and a few lesser known tracks. They also played tracks from the new album, Pearl Jam, and a couple of Neil Young covers.

The set list was as follows:


Set 1
Release, Why Go, Save You, Corduroy, Severed Hand, Better Man, World Wide Suicide, Insignificance, Jeremy, Do The Evolution, Given To Fly, Even Flow, I Got Id, Lukin, Spin The Black Circle, Rearviewmirror

Encore 1
Man Of The Hour, Daughter,(Blitzkrieg Bop), State Of Love And Trust, Comatose, Porch

Encore 2
Bu$hleaguer, Leash, Alive, Rockin' In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter

I was in ecstacy for the whole concert. Everyone there was a fan and we all knew all the words to pretty much every song, with the exception of the new stuff, so we sang our little hearts out along with Mr Vedder who every now and again stood back from the mic and let us do the vocals while he stood there with a silly grin on his face. More than once he commented on how glad they were to see so many fans and made a point of asking the crowd to look out for one another (the events at Roskilde still haunt the band, that much is plain)
He was also none too shy about making a couple of political statements as well.
At the beginning of the second encore he came out on stage wearing a silver jacket and a mask of George Bush which he then proceeded to rip from his head and kick it about whilst pouring wine over it. I was in stitches and clapped very loudly at this display as did many others.
His only comment: "If you think that was violent, just think of the thousands of innocent lives that have been lost since he invaded Iraq"

And if that wasn't enough of a display, Mr Vedder then decided to take a walk about through the crowd of fans in the front and had the poor security guy running back and forth trying to keep him safe although there seemed little danger of that as Eddie was graciously allowed to waltz through the public singing his heart out.

Needless to say, when the last notes of Yellow Leadbetter were played and the band were taking their bows, the whole stadium was on its feet. What a show!