Set List to be confirmed: Sometimes, Last Exit, Brain Of J., Faithfull, Animal, Red Mosquito, Corduroy, Wishlist, Once, Jeremy, Given To Fly, Daughter/Another Brick In The Wall, Trouble (Cat Stevens), Better Man, MFC, Intro into Habit, Even Flow, Do The Evolution; Encore: Hail Hail, State of Love and Trust, Black, Alive

Leigh (lamina@iaccess. com. au):
WoW ... Now this was what you expect a Pearl Jam Show to be! Tonight's show was truly amazing. Everything was better than last night, the crowd, the band the atmosphere etc... 2 new songs were played tonight. One of them was a beautiful song which Eddie sang alone on stage with just him, his guitar and the spotlight. This song was an elaboration of the Daughter tag from the previous night, more on that in a minute. The second new song seems to be still in the works and only a bit was played ... but it also was so good!. God I hope someone recorded tonight's show! Anyway the night started off with Sometimes. A good version but not the best song to open with in my opinion. But straight into Last Exit after that set the scene for a great night.

Brain of J was next and got the crowd fired up ... before leading into Faithfull Ed says to the crowd, "Relax, we're gonna be here for a while". Faithfull once again tonight was amazing. That song was made to be played live. Definitely a highlight of the night even though it was played quite early in the set. Animal, Red Mosquito and Corduroy were next ... all proving favorites with the crowd. Wishlist was next and once again it was great too. Before playing Wishlist Ed says, "Last night was really nice. We enjoyed ourselves." ...and you could tell he genuinly meant it. During Wishlist Eddie changed the "fortunate" line to "I wish I was as fortunate, as fortunate as YOU" emphasising the You.

Once and Jeremy were next followed by a little bit of confusion!. I think Ed decided he wanted to play Daughter next and went and told the rest of the band but forgot that Jeff had to change his BASS for that song or something. They started Daughter but after maybe 30 seconds of it they stopped when they realised Jeff had the wrong bass for it... poor Jeff didn't know what was going on when the band started it. It was quite amusing! ( hey the band are human after all! ;-). Ed still in the great mood he was the night before joked, "Maybe we should do paper, scissors, rocks to see who gets to play their song." Then after a short discussion Ed says, "Mike's gonna play his song first." then Given To Fly is played.

After this Jeff does swap his bass and Daughter is played with the Pink Floyd 'another brick in the wall tag' ... all Ed sings is "we don't need no education" ... then steps back from the mic as he lets the crowd finish the rest of the song...clapping to the crowd at the end. The next bit was truly AMAZING ... probably the highlight of any PJ show I have seen (5 so far soon to be 9).

Ed comes out on stage with his guitar. Smitty brings out a chair for him and Ed sits down then says something to the effect of, "Since we are playing here for a few nights, we are going to do some different things, since we don't get down here too often" (not the exact quote but as close as I can recall. Ed then says "I was walking around and this song came into my head." Someone from the crowd yells out something and Ed replies "Whatever you are saying it just sounds like 'fuck you Eddie' so just be quiet and listen."

Ed then sings Trouble. A cover of a Cat Stevens (thanx Kat :-) song which I didnt recognise. I, along with most of the crowd, thought it was a new song. Either way it was a magic moment. Part of the words are what he sang in Daughter last night. It was a wonderful slow song.

After a few lines the crowd is slowly clapping along with it and Ed says "shhh" before continuing. This seems like the first time he has played it and just wants the crowd to listen. He has his lyric sheet (I think) in front of him on a stool.

This definitely was a special moment though. I had chills down my spine. How often do we get to see just Ed sitting down on stage with the spotlight on him and his guitar playing a song we havent heard before?... Amazing stuff! Looking at my notes here I have scribbled "WoW WoW WoW" after it ... so you know how excited I was at the time! :-)

Next up was Better Man... a great song but for me nothing would top what we just witnessed.

MFC was next ... another new live fav of mine! and almost my fave Yield track too.

After this we got another slowish song that I don't think is finished yet. The first part of the lyrics were something like

"People try to settle me down
tries to tell me what to do
I tell them get out of my room"

There were more lyrics but I cant remember them and didn't get to write them down. The song finishes before its proper ending and Ed says "It's actually a song called Habit." Then the band proceed to play Habit. This was followed by Even Flow. During Even Flow Ed got down near the crowd and a guy gave Ed his t-shirt. I think it was a Chicago Bulls 23 top but not sure. Ed takes the shirt and puts it on a speaker or whatever on stage and then has a quick look around before grabbing a tambourine and giving it to the guy who gave him the top! Obviously feeling he had to give something in return :-).

After this Do The Evolution is played. During the "choir" bit the singer from Shudder To Think came from the side of the stage and sang a few seconds with Ed.

The band then walked off before coming back a few minutes later for the encore. Starting with Hail Hail they then moved to State of Love and Trust which went down really well with the crowd.

Black was next and once again was awesome... one of the best versions I've heard... maybe it was just the fact I was there that made it seem special I don't know but it was great! Ed sings "I'll never touch you" towards the end of the song.

The lighting effects used during this song were pretty good ... a lot can be done with simple lighting if done properly.

Ending the night was Alive with Eddie climbing onto the speaker stacks on the left side and then the right side of the stage mainly it seemed to get a little closer to the people on the sides. As Alive is closing Ed picks up the mic stand and balances it upside down in the palm of his hand. This ended what was truly a wonderful show and Ed left the stage with a satisfied smile on his face, as did the crowd.

There actually seemed to be a lot more people in the moshpit tonight which seemed to eliminate the big gaps on the floor from last night which I think took away a little from the atmosphere of the show. So tonight's show in my opinion was an all-round much better show. I hope someone has been taping these! I did notice that a video camera was set up in the sound area filming the gig. But I assume that is probably there for each show for the band's use. I also noticed for about the first 2 songs and I'm not sure about after them, but a girl was right inside the front barrier with the security guards filming as well. I think it was only for a couple of songs though but not sure. She was an "official" person though. Who knows ... maybe some of the Aussie tour will make it on the home video :-).

Smitty was at the side of the stage once again taking photos with the digital camera.

What a hard job he has!! Wonder if he needs a hand!! I'll volunteer! :-)

Actually some of his photos are posted on the Synergy page, but wouldn't it be great to see a "Brad live from the Road" type thing done for this tour. That was such a great Idea for the Brad OZ tour. Seeing things from the band's point of view and some comments was great. I was most disappointed backstage at Brad that I didn't get to tell Smitty or Matt Brown how much I loved the idea.

One more quick little story from the night.
On my way out to the car park a few hundred metres from the venue I noticed a crowd of about 30 people gathered around... so I went over to see what is was. It was a guy selling T-Shirts ... outside the venue. They looked sooo fake and he was abviously a bootlegger and people were handing their money over left right and centre.

I'm usually a pretty shy person but I went straight up to him and asked "Excuse me are these official?" ... and he says "yeah, sure they are." So I said "Well before I buy one can you show me something to tell me that these are official t-shirts?" Then he just snapped at me and says in a real loud voice " look mate have you got a problem?" and I said "no not really it's just that you are going against everything Pearl Jam stands for and ripping off their fans with imitation bootlegged t-shirts!" Then I turned to the group of people and said "You know that Pearl Jam fights against this sort of thing and does their best to keep the prices of their official merchandise at a reasonable price. All you people have just been and seen an amazing Pearl Jam concert. Its up to you if you want to support someone like this guy or support the band by not buying from him. " ... then I walked off... I couldnt believe I had done that! As I said I'm normally pretty shy. As I was walking away I glanced back and saw that every single person had put their money away and moved on! ... and the guy was standing there on his own yelling "T-shirts $7 each or 2 for $10" ... before I walked up it was $15 each or 2 for $20 :-) ... a fitting end to a wonderful evening! 2 down ... 4 to go :-)