October 24, 1996, Millstreet Arena, Cork, Ireland
Setlist: Sometimes, Last Exit, Spin the Black Circle, Hail, Hail, Tremor Christ, In My Tree,
Corduroy, Better Man, Not For You, Animal, Dissident, Daughter/Bull In The Heather (Sonic Youth)/WMA, Habit, Rearviewmirror, Jeremy, Alive, Porch;
Encore: I Got Id, Lukin, Even Flow, Present Tense, Yellow Ledbetter
Poster credit: Dan Grenough U.S.A
Ticket credit: Andrew McDougall, Australia
A Spooky Pearl Jam in Cork!
by: ghansard (ghansard@indigo.ie)
This is easily the spookiest concert experience ever. Pearl Jam? Starting
off a major European tour in a street? (not a town, a STREET!) In the
middle of nowhere! It even has a mountain with two
peaks! Anyway, Greenglens arena is a large barn, but as a venue, it's really
small, which everyone was thrilled about.
About 8:30 the lights go down,
just as an announcement for some girl to go to the front gate comes
over the p.a. and simultaneously, the Fastbacks walk on stage. The guy at
the mic stand in the big floppy, rimmed hat waits for the message to
end, and then, in a very bad Cork accent, asks his mother to come to the
front of the stage, cos he'd like a word. He takes off his hat and lo &
behold, it's Eddie. Naturally enough the place goes totally
ballistic. "We've come a very, very long way to have a really, really good
time and we brought our friends, the Fastbacks, so enjoy 'em and I'll talk
to you later." The Fastbacks run through a very good set, made better by Eddie
in plain view, sitting side stage grinning at everyone. After 45 minutes,
Pearl Jam come on. They were right on top of us! This place is the
nearest thing to a club gig on this tour.
A spooky "Sometimes" starts off
a storm of a show, one of the best bits being Eddie relating the story
of how the band got into this little metal tube and got locked in "for
like, twelve hours, like being in prison, and we get out, and find that
were still at home!...it's wet and raining...and green...and they
have good beer ...and really nice people too." Everyone I talked to said
they thought it was amazing and I agree. It was my first time to see
Pearl Jam proper, but the whole experience was so spooky, there's my
favourite band 5 feet away! But I'll always remember it as my first, even
though the show in Dublin two days later was one of those Classic Pearl
Jam shows, it still was amazing.
My friend & I got to meet Mike and Eddie
in Dublin the next day. I gave Eddie a jacket that I always wanted him
to have and he said he'd like to give me something in return, so he
asked if I'd like a request for the show the next night. I couldn't think
of anything at all! What song do you pick from all those songs? He
suggested Sonic Reducer but State of Love and Trust was my first
favourite P.J. song so I asked for it and he said he'd do it. When the
roadie guy intervened and said they had to go, Eddie said, "I just wanna
get this shot with them." I hadn't wanted to ask for a photo but if it's
cool with the man, it's cool with me. Easily the best weekend of my
life.
