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

Bradley Keith Treloar (bktreloa@deakin.edu.au):
Finally I got my chance to experience the greatest band on the planet live, and let me say I was not disappointed.....

My mate and I drove 1.5 hours to his girlfriend's house...Yield then Ten roaring all the way...jumped on a tram to Flinders Street...got some macca's then another Tram to the Tennis Centre...I could feel the sweat dribbles going down my underarms all the way their because I was so PUMPED!!!

Once inside I was a little pissed off about the seats...but I guess when the concert sells out in 30 muinutes you take what you can get...relaxed throughout the support having never heard there stuff before...all the time trying to work out what the opener would be knowing Low Light was the night before!

When the lights finally went out (how did that guy get the job lighting the candles...did he do a special course???) and Jack's little tune came over the speakers...my heart started racing...finally I would see Eddie and the boys in the flesh...All the bootlegs in the world couldn't prepare me for what I was about to witness..

"OK you noisy bastards"...were the first words I heard from the great man's voice then the band got stauck into "Sometimes"...a smooth opening that lead into the wild Last Exit and Brain of J...the group I was with were up on our seats jumping and screaming...yet all around us were freaks sitting in their chairs nodding their heads up and down... At the end of Brain we started yelling at everyone to stand up..they were at a Pearl Jam concert not Mariah Carey!!!

But then Eddie shut us up by telling everyone to "relax" because "we'll be here for a while!"...but we stood.. "Faithfull"..came on and Eddie was really preaching it to everyone with a passion...then the crowd went sick... "Animal" really got everyone up and moshing...I really think a lot of people in the stands didn't have the new album yet because throughout they were rocking to the old stuff and sitting down for the new except "Given to Fly."

Red Mosquito is a personal favourite and I just loved the rendition but the "Corduroy" came on and every one was jumping again... The band went off...and for the end of the song Eddie just lay on the floor strumming his guitar. After it he got up and told everyone how good it sounded down there laying in front of his amps! Then the mood sombered and Wishlist was played. Eddie wished he was as fortunate as us and that he "was a human being at home behind the sun." Then bang! Once started with a roar from the crowd that was then beaten by the intro to Jeremy which was deafening.

Then Stone started playing Daughter, the crowd screamed their tits off...but he stopped! We all stood wondering what was going on...then Eddie suggested that Mike and Stone play Rock, Scissors, Paper to see who gets to play their song. Mike won and on came "Given To Fly", the only song off Yield the crowd in the stands went off too!!!! Stone then got to play Daughter. At the end, Eddie let us sing Another Brick in the Wall. When the song was over the rest of the band left the stage. Eddie sat in a chair with the spotlight on him and said.. "As Darth Vader would say..."Impressive!"

Then a truly special moment... he told us that since the band didn't get to see us "every day, every week, every month, fuck every year", they were going to do things a bit different each night! Then he told us how this song was in his head all day and he wanted to play it for us but we all had to be quiet so it would come to us as it would come to him. There were people screaming out "I love you Eddie.." but he stopped mid sentence and said "If you're trying to say something meaningful, don't bother because all it sounds like up here is I want to Fuck you Eddie!" Everyone cracked up until Eddie told us all to be quiet and he sang the Cat Stevens tune "Trouble".

A big disappointment came during "MFC", one of my fav's off Yield, it followed "Better Man" and all these people headed out of the stadium. I got really pissed because they obviously didn't want to appreciate a truly great PJ song. I hope the boys didn't see it because it would have pissed them off too!

They finished the main set off with "Evolution", and Stone was doing a dance with his guitar that cracked me up...that song really goes off live!!!

The encore was awesome, 4 classic's. "Hail Hail", my Fav off No Code, "State of Love and Trust", which the crowd went sick for...a beautiful rendition of "Black"...but then a thought crossed my mind "am I going to not see Alive??????" But then it started and I just rocked back on my heels and screamed...the ultimate ending...Eddie walked out onto the speakers to the sides to say goodbye to us in the stands, and then the lights came on and it was all over!!!

The rest of the night was spent playing PJ CD's at my friend's house keeping the neighbours up and getting blind, a truly memorable evening, and an experience I will never forget!!!

Thanks Guys!!

Steven Frost (russell@sub.net.au):
I'm so glad you have the song list for Pearl Jam's 2nd Melbourne concert on March 3rd '98 because I went to school the next day trying to remember them all but I couldn't remember which song Eddie added "another brick in the wall" onto, but now I realize it was at the end of Daughter. It was wicked. I was in the mosh pit up at the front (lucky I got there early because I later found out that only the first 1,000 go up in the front). I basically crowd surfed to all the sick heavy songs. (I hurt my back once at a concert when I was dropped.) These security guys were wicked because they never dropped me when I went over the edge. I taped Triple J on Thursday which simulcasted Pearl Jam's 3rd concert and it's awesome as well. I only wish I could have gone to all 3 concerts.