Setlist: Long Road, Hail,Hail, Once, Animal, Last Exit, Dissident, In My Tree, Corduroy, Better Man, Habit, Mankind, Even Flow, Black, Jeremy, Sometimes, Rearviewmirror, Immortality, Alive, Porch, Who You Are, Lukin, State of Love and Trust, Present Tense, Blood, Rockin' in the Free World

Sound credit: Brent deMoville (bdemovil@webstar.net)

After seeing PearlJam in London two days in a row, my need for their live music was not quenched, so a school friend of mine and I set off on a 9 hour bus ride from London to Amsterdam without tickets in the hopes that we would be able to see them.

Upon reaching Amsterdam, we realized that our trip may have been a mistake. We were in a foreign country without a place to stay and we didn't speak the language. Luckily, we stuck out like sore thumbs and many people approached us who spoke English and directed us to places to stay and how to possibly get tickets for the show that night.

After finding a cheap hotel, we set off to see Amsterdam for the day; a city rich in culture and many fine herbal products. We visited the Van Gogh museum and wandered the town taking in the sites...but as the time drew closer to the show we felt an urgent need to make our way to Parkhal, the venue for that night's show.

After getting off of the underground, we had no idea which way to head, so we followed the throngs of fans (we thought they were fans) towards a complex of rather large buildings. By this time we still didn't have tickets, so we were hoping to find someone with the jammy spirit and extras who might part with two for a fair price. Unfortunately, there were many more people looking for tickets than selling, and the going rate for tickets was 200 guilders (about 65 pounds or $115). Needless to say, we were a little scared we wouldn't get in. We went to the cashpoint to get more money in case we had to pay these incredibly high prices and ran into a girl I met at one of the London shows who was following them on the whole European tour. She said she had an extra pair of tickets for the next day's show in Paris, and we arranged for her to leave them for us at the ticket window the next day! Well, we were happy to hear we'd see them the next day, but were still worried about that night.

After walking up and down between the buildings at the bottom of the hill and the gates to get into the venue in search of cheaper tickets, we decided we were going to be forced to pay the touts what they wanted. After trying to bargain with one tout, a nice guy overheard us and sold us a pair of tickets for 150 guilders. We saved money, but we still paid five times what they originally sold for. I wasn't expecting anything like this to happen because they were plenty of tickets being sold in front of the two Wembley shows in London, but oh well...

After getting inside we made our way as close to the sound board as possible so I could set up my recorder. The venue was about the size of a large aircraft hanger with a few rows of stands in the back. Of course almost everyone (18,000 people) was crammed into the front of the venue, so breathing space was limited.

The fastbacks put on an energetic set as usual, but you could tell that the audience was there just to see Pearl Jam. The crowd was very tense compared to the fans in London who spread out and listened without really moshing. I hadn't seen a crowd this packed and energetic since I saw P.J. in San Diego the year before.

When the lights finally came down the crowd went nuts! My friend and I got banged around quite a bit, and I knew that my recording of the show was not going to come out unless I moved back to where the microphone wasn't getting bashed into. After the first two songs, we moved back to where the crowd wasn't moshing and set the recorder up again. Unfortunately, something went wrong and the batteries had almost nearly died by then, so we turned it off and just listened to the show.

I definitely enjoyed the show much more after I stopped recording cause I didn't have to worry about it any more. We just spent the rest of the show jumping and singing and really getting into the music.

I think Pearl Jam like Amsterdam a lot because they put a lot more energy into the show than they have in a long time. Stone played a great version of "Mankind" and Mike really let loose on all of his solos. I'm going to have to find someone with a copy of this show cause it's something i'm going to remember for a long time.

Eddie to crowd - 148K [wav]

Eddie was in a really good mood the whole time. he joked with a girl in the front because she had misspelled his name. He also joked when he told everyone they were invited back to his hotel for a party afterwards and the address was "1-2-3-4" and then started "Porch". Towards the end of the show he apologized for the size of the venue and promised to come back next time and play 3 or 4 shows in one much smaller.

All in all it was a great time. I'm sorry i had to pay so much for the tickets, but in the end I think i would have paid anything to see Pearl Jam that night. I know I definitely got my money's worth.