Set List: Oceans, Last Exit, Hail Hail, Spin The Black Circle, Animal, Tremor Christ, In My Tree, Corduroy, Lukin, Better Man, Not For You, State of Love and Trust, Rats, Jeremy, Off He Goes, Footsteps, Whipping, Immortality, Alive, Porch; Encore: Even Flow, Daughter, Blood/Fame, Present Tense, Yellow Ledbetter

Review of Buffalo
by: mdziama@monroe.lib.mi.us

The Concert:
People started getting anxious around 8:30 when there were still thousands of people outside trying to get into a show that started at 8:00. Thank GOD for opening bands- there IS a reason they have them! The ticket takers were having problems with the scanning of tickets - I guess it must have been quite time consuming. I was starting to get really pissed off when FINALLY, they decided to HELL with scanning and they started to just let people flood in without scanning. Thankfully, we were in our seats by around 9:00. We missed the Fastbacks but no biggie. This was only the second event ever at the Marine Midland Arena (the Goo Goo Dolls played it in Sept.), the new home of the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League. I was about 35 yards from the stage in the lower section to the left of the stage (Sec. 106). I snuck in a camera with an 80mm lens and got some really good pictures. Danielle snuck in the recorder: a SONY WM-GX302 analog stereo audio recorder. The recording came out great.

This show was by far the best of the three I saw on this tour. They opened up with a solid version of Oceans. I love it when they open with this song.

After Oceans, they came back with Last Exit, which to me was a slight surprise because at the Toronto and Toledo concerts they played Hail, Hail as the second song. Instead, they came back with Hail, Hail as the third song in Buffalo. BTW, it seemed as if the crowd was more in tune with the concert here in Buffalo, much louder than either Toledo or Toronto was. Of course, with attendance being around 20,000, there were more people here than at Maple Leaf Gardens (15,000) or Savage Hall (10,000).

After Hail, Hail, song #4 was Spin the Black Circle. Not a major surprise. Animal and Tremor Christ followed, also consistent with previous concerts where they played them early on. By now my head was throbbing with joy - not a headache - just a sober sort of ecstacy. In My Tree was a great change of pace: after five consecutive in your face songs, this was a nice transition. During the song Eddie inserts the line "Come up here, I'll take your shirt" after "All their eyes trained on the street, oh yea." I didn't quite understand that line until later on in the concert. Corduroy (my fav from Vitalogy) was next. During this song, Eddie addresses the crowd for the first time by saying, "You guys getting along out there?...alright." Song #9 Lukin' followed, after which Eddie says, "Alright...I started with tea, I started with a nice cup of hot tea to get warmed up you know. But right now I'm movin' on to some wine...because I have a feeling that a few of us have, a got a head start. We don't travel, we've, ah, haven't been touring as much 'cause you know, laundry got piled up, and you know the weeds in the yard are... stayed home for a while... but now I've been going from city to city and I can't quite remember... is this, are we in Ithaca tonight? Is that where we're at? Oh, I'm sorry, I got mixed up, it's Utica right? Is that where we're at? Poughkeepsie? This is for you, Buffalo!" A great version of Better Man followed.

During Better Man, Eddie added some weird additional lyrics to the end of it. Something like, "She's my lady, she's my lady, she's my lady, ?, don't walk away, don't walk away now, she's my lady, ?, lay down don't run away, run away now, lay down, don't run away run away now, lay down, don't run away, run away now, lay down, don't run away run away now, lay down...ohhhhhhh, ohhhhhh, ohhhhh." There were a few lines I couldn't decipher. This was no doubt the best live version of Better Man I've ever heard. Not For You (song #11) came next. After Not For You, Eddie says, "This is one we didn't play for a long time and we started playing it the other night, it's called State of Love and Trust." Rats followed SOLAT. Eddie stopped the song right near the beginning and said, "We haven't done this one for a while, if we do do it, I wanna do it right, let's try it again....oh they don't eat, don't sleep..." Jeremy (song #14) followed, after which Eddie says, "This guy's in the front row here, holding up his license to prove his name is Jeremy. And I can only imagine with the number of times that song was played that we owe this gentleman an apology." [Eddie laughs] "Did people give you shit? Let me sing it with you, he says. I'm sorry, auditions were at two, you missed it. I'm glad you're here. Ok, settle down so you can listen to this one..." [first chords of Off He Goes are played] During the opening lines to this song, Eddie misses a line..."Know a man, his face seems cold and tense, like he's riding on a motorbike in the strongest winds, so I approach with tact...[misses line and inserts] suggest that I should relax."

After Off He Goes, Eddie says, "Ok, now that we've got you here, we've got a request, we're gonna play it." Footsteps is played. Whipping and Immortality followed Footsteps. During Immortality, Eddie misses another line. Then came a driving performance of Alive. The emotion was so high it was if they were playing it for the first time, not the one thousandth time. Porch (song #20) was up next. I was shocked, surprised, and thrilled all at the same time. This was mostly because they didn't play it at the Toronto or Toledo shows, so I wasn't expecting it here either. Mike (born coincidently, on the same day as I was - 4/5, only seven years earlier in '66) hit every note as sharp as ever during the solo portion of this song that seemed to last forever. This is when a fan was allowed on stage (Jeremy?), and Eddie exchanged shirts with him. They exchanged words briefly and the fan then stage dived back into the crowd and promptly got his shirt (Eddie's shirt) torn off of him. After that (but still during Porch) Eddie said, "Well, I think you guys are breaking this building in pretty good. Sometimes it takes a while, in fact....yea. Thanks for being on our side, we appreciate it. You might of heard tonight, I messed up on a couple of lines, you know I got a lot on my mind these days, just like you. Alot on my mind. You know it's an election year, It's an election month practically. And then watching these guys in from, they're all fu##ing crazy, every one of these guys. I just thank them for hanging in there. Gosh, we don't have much time to talk, I should just give you my phone number...ah it's 206... [stops himself].......1,2,3,4....heyyy, yahhhh, yahhh...hear my name, take a good look...." I think at this point I'm not sure how I was able to stay standing, let alone the people in the pit.

Encore:
Eddie says, "You guys are colder than me. There's a sign that says Don't Delay, Just Play. [the next fanview is by the holder of the sign. - Synergy] This song is called Even Flow." Daughter (my fav from Vs.) was up next, followed by Blood. Before Song #24 Eddie says, "If I can get you to listen to the next, the words of this next song, I could sleep really good tonight. It's probably one of my favorite songs off the new record, and it's Mike playing it here, it's called Present Tense." After this song, Eddie said, "Thanks a lot, we enjoyed it, I enjoyed the whole evening. Keith, could you just turn the whole fu##ing shabang on so we can see everybody. Goodbye, thanks again very much, I know some of you didn't like them, they're called the Fastbacks from Seattle, they're our friends. Give it up for them big, will ya [applause from crowd]. Ok, we'll miss ya till next time." Yellow Ledbetter ended the show. It was past 11:00 in conclusion of a 2 hour plus show. Of the five shows I've ever seen Pearl Jam play, this was hands down the best by far.

Pearl Jam - Buffalo NY
by: Dave Hogan (jiff@buffnet.net)

For while over four years I awaited seeing Pearl Jam play live, and I missed out on seeing both the infamous 4.3.94 Atlanta show, and the Rochester, NY show from the same tour. When I heard that Pearl Jam was playing the then brand new Marine Midland Arena, I immediatly was glad that I had rejoined the Ten Club.

A few weeks later I received a flyer from them, and sure enough I was able to get tickets, which arrived mid-September. Sec 106, Row 5, seats 13 and 14. I called up Mike (a friend that had been planning on going to the show with me) and told him, so he came over, and we listened to Pearl Jam and made a shrine for the tickets. (One almost caught on fire, which was the only bad moment that day.)

Then on September 30, I was getting really excited, and realized I still did not have my NW sign that people were supposed to find me with. I then saw signs from when my parents, who are Buffalo teachers, almost struck a few years back. I grabbed the first one I could find, and it said, "DON'T DELAY: IT'S TIME TO PAY" which had no big signifigance to me at the moment, so I simply wrote NW on it.

Before the show I was using the sign to find people, and some of my friends were telling me it would be funny to hold up the sign (which only had "DON'T DELAY:" left on it) during the intermission, if there were one. I thought it was a funny idea, but I didn't plan on doing anything with it. I just folded it up when I was in line waiting to get in, and put it in my backpack not thinking anything of it being in there.

Outside of the show I met lots of nice people, sold some tapes I had, and was supposed to trade with someone that did not show up, below my cost. (I was in a good mood, and was thinking, "Hey, Karma will play its part for me") I also signed a notebook that was coloured purple, writing a list of words that would be humourous/interesting to have the band say at some point in the tour.

At about 7:10 the doors opened, and I was eighth in line. I had my backpack with me, and after he sorted through chips, tapes, my sign, and other various crap in there, I went in. I then proceeded towards the merchandise booth in the mail foyer, and got the customized Buffalo t-shirt, as well as a sticker.

The Fastbacks started at 8:07, and amazed me. I have liked them for a while, but they were so wonderful I just could not believe it. After about 40 minutes, they left. It was time for Pearl Jam.

First I saw Stone walking around, then Jeff, then Ed. Then the stage was emptied of band members while the crew lit the candles and set up the equipment. The set was great, they started with Oceans, which was the only time I can remember in the past few tours. They then moved on to "Last Exit," which was driven, followed by "Hail, Hail," and then quickly into "Spin The Black Circle." "Animal" followed, with "Tremor Christ" kicking in after. This flew by so fast I hardly remember it having been played.

"In My Tree" had an amazing, but slower, drumbeat that started it, with the four guitars almost making me scream (louder than I had been.) "Corduroy" was a great thing to hear, followed by a 45 second rendition of "Lukin." "Better Man" had a long ending, and was intro'd by Eddie getting confused about where he was. "Not For You" followed quickly, with the crowd chanting along the loudest of any crowd I'd heard, until later in the show.

"State of Love & Trust" was next, with an intro that they just had started to play it again. "Rats" followed, with them screwing up 10 seconds in. Ed said that since they rarely played it, they would start over so it'd be a good version.

"Jeremy" had Ed talking yet again afterwards. A person in the front row held up his driver's license, with the name Jeremy on it. Ed apologized to him, followed by 'Jeremy' asking if he could sing the song on it. The response of "Sorry, auditions were at two. You missed out." was the best from the whole tour, or maybe ever.

"Off He Goes" had the line "...suggest that I should relax..." with him requesting the crowd relax beforehand. "Footsteps" followed, upon request Eddie said. "The Whipping" had the backing vocals up loud, giving it a different sound. "Immortality" had a nice jam on it, rushing into Stone's "Alive" intro, which had the place go nuts. (I am surprised the 3rd-event-ever arena survived the night.) This was the biggest sing-along I have ever heard in my life, with everyone going crazy. "Porch" was the opening set closer, and it was wonderful. Ed teased us with his area code, claiming it was his whole phone number, and talked about how he'd made some mistakes, but overall it was a good show.

Then, when Pearl Jam left the stage after Porch, my friend Mike said, "Take out the sign, it'll be funny!" Being a good friend, I listened, and held it up. Eddie then walked out, looked at me, and started to stare. I was shocked he was looking it, so I nervously waved. When he waved back and laughed I think I screamed. (That or I just simply soiled my pants.) =)

Eddie then walked up to the microphone and said, "There's a sign in the crowd that says 'DON'T DELAY.' Don't delay, just play." Then he mumbled (by many people's interpretations), "This one's for you," while pointing at me, followed by, "This song's called Even Flow." I must say, not only was Even Flow amazing, but the whole thing involving that sign was amazing. And now, back to the music...

"Daughter" was next, and I hardly remember it. All that I am sure of is that their was no ending to the song. "Blood" followed, with a fantastic light show tied to the bass drum, Eddie screaming, and "Fame" tied into the middle. (Along with "Bow wow wow, yippie yo, yippie yea, bow wow, yippie yo yippie yea.) This was the best song I have ever seen in my life.

"Present Tense" had Ed introing it that if we would listen to the words he'd be able to sleep that night. Then he said, "This one's by Planet," (referring to Mike) before they kicked in to it. "Yellow Ledbetter" had the house lights up, everyone swaying, mumbling along, and loving the contact highs we all had by then. After the show I remembered wishing it would never end, and now that I have written this I want one more minute of it, one second of it even, back again. That was the best day of my life, without my parents yelling about anything, letting all the shit of life roll away, because there is the Pearl Jam.

(Author's note: There is a photo of me with the sign at: http://www.buffnet.net/~jiff/images/no-delay.gif )