Set List to be confirmed: Release, Hail Hail, Animal, Do The Evolution, Faithfull, Corduroy, Wishlist, In My Tree, Alive, Nothingman, Brain of J., Given To Fly, Daughter, MFC, I Got Shit, Immortality, Black, Even Flow, Porch; 1st Encore: Footsteps, Leaving Here, Better Man/Save It For Later, Spin The Black Circle, Rocking In The Free World

Kerryn (angel1@powerup.com.au):
Leigh (lamina@iaccess.com.au):
Sonia (palonka@rocketmail.com):
We all met for the first time today and it was PJ that brought us together - which we think is pretty special. We got to the Entertainment Centre at about 3:30 pm to scope things out. We went out the back and met Pete (again for Sonia), Ed's bodyguard.

4:30 pm Shudder To Think arrived at the venue. At 5:30 we met fellow fanatic Jo, who told us it was her birthday tomorrow. Happy Birthday Jo! The Gates opened at 5:30, Leigh decided to wait, but Sonia and I had mosh tickets and didn't want to be left at the back, so we lined up at about 6:30. *Leigh met Ed at 7:30* =)

Doors opened at 7:30. Shudder came out at 8 and played 40-45 minutes to an unresponsive crowd. At the end, Craig said "thank you for not moshing" which was pretty funny =)

PJ came on at 9. Jack's tape played for a few minutes beforehand. They started with Release which was very quiet sound-wise and we thought the PA might've stuffed up somewhere there. During Hail Hail the mosh pit got VERY intense, and Sonia and I were outta there. There's something about hearing your neck crack and not being able to breathe that makes you think about things differently. But we had a pretty good view for the rest of the show anyway. Animal next and Ed was very receptive to people behind the stage, counting out 5 against 1 on both hand, arms raised up. Unlike other shows, they released the seats to the back of the stage, so the entire Entertainment Centre was full. The pit went wild for this one. In Do The Evolution Jeff did the choir bit and it was another rocking version. But I hoped they'd do more Yield stuff.

Faithfull - Hello! =) Ed said "This is for my brother, Chris." Sonia and I were surprised they put this one in, and extremely happy. Next up Corduroy and then Wishlist. A few lyric changes in this - Ed did the "I wish I was a different being" again, but also changed the end to "I wish I was a radio song, the one that you turned up / I wish I wish I wish I wish I guess it never stops."

It was great to hear In My Tree next!!

Then Ed leads into a bit of a speech. "Hello Brisbanians." And something like "I wasn't in a tree, but I was under one, checking out the moon on my own." He then said something about the native animals, the bats, in the botanical gardens. He said he'd been practicing this (an impression) all day and he hoped he got it right. "This is an impression of one of your native animals. Try and guess what it is." Then he took a sip from his cup, took a deep breath back and started to make a strange noise for about 30 secs and then started coughing, spluttering and laughing. This was Ed's impression of someone pulling a bong in the gardens, and the crowd absolutely loved it.

At the start of Alive, Ed said "I've been doing some surfing while I'm here. This one's not a surfing song, but I wrote it when I was in the surf." He added "it's alright" to the end of "sorry you didn't see him". He was looking around at the crowd a lot during this and it received a great response.

Nothingman was next and Ed said something about being happy to be here "as opposed to the guy in this next one...poor fucker." This sounded really great. Then Brain of J rocked. Plain and simple.

The spotlight on Mike for his intro to Given To Fly, another crowd pleaser. Daughter up next and the tag at the end went for about 3 - 4 minutes. Ed would yell something (hey / ahh / etc.) and he would motion for the crowd to yell back - which we did with gusto. The highlight of the tag was when Ed started off quiet, raising his voice to a scream, arms outstretched encouraging the crowd to go with him. The whole centre screamed at the top of their lungs in unison. Magical!

MFC up next, then I Got Shit - Ed played a few chords before the start of the song, and we all picked that it was going to be this one. Beautiful stuff.

Then Immortality. Mike played an excellent solo in this and the spotlights were on Jack for his solo as well. The whole band crowded around him and it was great to watch.

A really nice version of Black followed with Ed inserting the "we belong together" bit at the end. That line *makes* this song so much more powerful. In Even Flow, Ed made butterfly motions with his hands (hands together, thumbs interlocked) and the crowd did too. At the end of one line he added "smells like a joint." Mike's solo was again excellent. During the solo, Ed went around the back of the stage, and we've been told he breakdanced (?!) for the people back there. They went sick! I think Ed loved the fact that the crowd was all around him as he made a lot of motions to the people sitting in that section.

They closed with Porch and "you guys have been excellent. We're gonna leave you with something to think about." This was the original version and it absolutely ROCKED. The guitar in the middle was fairly lengthy, and at the end, Ed swung his mic around, and Mike pretended to smash his guitar. =)

For the encore Ed was the last back on stage. Before they played anything, Ed said "we're gonna fulfill a request." He then mentions something like "Rob and Kelly if you wanna make your way to the stage and play guitar on the Neil Young song." Sonia had spotted Kelly Slater standing side stage in the middle of the show. Rob Machado was there with him as well as they were both in town for a surfing comp at Burleigh Heads. Then Ed continued, "we haven't played this one a lot. This is a request." The first chords of Footsteps are played and I am so ecstatic to hear this. It was an absolutely mind-blowing version.

At the end of this, Mike walks over to Ed (we think he was requesting Leaving Here). Ed okays this with the rest of the band and says "this is a song about boys and girls." I think both Sonia and I knew it was going to be this song and a band conference ensues. Ed starts by pointing at Mike, then himself, then Stone. They were having a great time working out who was playing those solos. After a while, they all got into it and just started pointing at themselves and saying "then you, then me, then you, then you." This goes on for about a minute, then Ed steps up to the mic and says "yeah, boys and girls." Ed starts to play, but something wasn't working, techie fixed it, and "okay, a song about boys and girls." This was my highlight of the night - it was just pure Pearl Jam. Even people that didn't know it, got into it singing the "ohh yeah" bit. Mike did the first 2 solos, then Ed, then Stone in the end. Could they possibly top this? Crowd favourite Better Man was next. The tag at the end was "Save it for later." Ed turned to all of the crowd during this one.

STBC up next. Ed balanced his mic upside down, spinning around so that the mic pointed to everyone. Then he did some trickery, balancing the mic stand on his hand. At the end of this, Jeff thought it was over and started to make his way backstage. Jack got up and was also about to leave before Ed decided not to have a second encore and just run with this one. Thus the concert ends with RITFW. The band's enthusiasm really showed during this. Jeff was singing over at Stone's mic and both of them were smiling a lot. In the middle, Ed says "house lights, Keith" and the center lit up. Ed had a VB (beer), drank some of it and threw the rest on the crowd. Then closed the concert by jumping off the speaker stack. I was emotionally drained, but extremely happy as was Sonia who managed to get Stone's pick he threw out at the end. And Leigh, well Leigh had met Ed, we couldn't wipe the smile from his face. =)

It was a 2 hour show. Nothing short of brilliance.