Set List to be confirmed: Release, Brain of J., Animal, Faithfull, In My Tree, I Got Shit, Corduroy, Wishlist, Even Flow, Spin The Black Circle, Daughter/Pebbles (Shudder To Think), Given To Fly, Hail Hail, MFC, Crazy Mary (part), Small Town, Off He Goes, State of Love and Trust, Do The Evolution, Alive; 1st Encore: Go, Black, Rearviewmirror, Immortality; 2nd Encore: Indifference, Porch

Leigh (lamina@iaccess. com. au):
I had a terrible start to tonight's show. I went to the airport to meet a friend and left thinking I had plenty of time to make it to the venue. Unfortunately there is a festival in Melbourne called Moomba that started today right near the venue PJ are playing and I could not get a car park anywhere. I had to go right back into the city and park there and catch a cab to the venue. Release was playing on the radio while I was still in my car...

In the cab I think the poor driver wondered what struck him... I had to comandeer his radio and put JJJ on...up real loud ! :-) ...only turning it down a few times to urge him to go faster!

I made it to the gig for the start of Faithfull...close to my new favorite song. Missed out on Release, Brain of J and Animal. I can't begin to say how disappointed I was to miss those.

I was extremely happy though to hear I Got Id. I'll never forget the very first time I heard that song during the '95 tour when it was still called I Got Shit and the lyrics were a bit different. Corduroy once again was great. One of those songs that will always be a crowd pleaser. Wishlist was pretty special tonight too. Ed changed the "Camaro's hood" line to "bulldozer's hood" and as he has done the previous 2 nights, changed the "I wish I was an alien" to "I wish I was a human being." He also sang "I wish I was the evidence, I wish I was the sound, of 50 million hands upraised for Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn." At the end Ed says "I wish I was a lucky man, well I guess that I am. I wish that I could share with my friends, oh many friends I have" and waves his hands to the crowd as if to say we are the friends he is talking about.

Then he starts joking a bit with some Aussie lingo :-). ...by saying "Onya" short for "Good on you." ...then mentions it's been "Yonks" since he's been here. He mentions being on the radio and says, "So if there is anyone you want to say hi to..."

The crowd cheers and Ed smiling tries to get the crowd to cheer louder by undoing his pants! I fully thought he was going to drop them by the smirk on his face. I'm sure he was just teasing the girls. :-)

Even Flow was next with Ed throwing his "rattle" into the mosh pit for some lucky person. The band then play Spin The Black Circle. Ed says that that song was dedicated to "all those that work at JJJ" and also the the guys that work at 3PBS too... "a fine bunch of wankers" (3PBS is a local Melbourne radio station.)

Daughter is good with the tag, "Poor little girl screaming traffic in her hair." This is repeated a few times as is, "Where'd mom go?"

During Given To Fly, a guy is pulled from the mosh pit and before he is taken away by security manages to throw his t-shirt on stage. Ed catches it and puts it on his shoulder. Then a minute or so later wraps it around his head like a bandana, but flicks it off before the song is over.

After the song Ed says, "Speaking of Given To Fly, I don't know if you can see it but, I know you fuckers on the radio can't see it...fuck you. But the people in the building. ...these are... I'm wearing the official shoes of Luc Longley (Aussie Chicago Bulls player) you see (he has on Red/Black Nikes...same as previous night). You know who he is?...These shoes are Luc Longley models that apparently Michael Jordan made famous. And anyways, we are going to change the lyric tonight to Hail Hail...all Hail the lucky ones the ones who are tall...this one's for Luc Longley. The lyric changes are "Hail Hail the lucky ones...I refer to those who are TALL" and "are we going to the same place?...even though I'm SMALL" and "I want to be your one...enough you're TALL, enough you won." Ed bangs on his chest singing the end of the song making his voice go funny...but it sounds great. :-)

MFC next is once again brilliant. I love this song. Pity it's so short. The next bit was pretty exciting too...I had noticed on the set list that it had written "Elderly Woman (C.M)". ...as soon as I saw the C.M. I just knew it was going to be Crazy Mary!...And sure enough leading into Elderly Woman, Ed played a little bit of it. That's a pretty special song to me so it was great to hear it even though it was only a few short verses. Elderly Woman is another good live song.

Off He Goes was great with Mike playing some awesome guitar again. I just cannot believe how different Mike is. His playing is awesome...he is totally into his music and he gets the crowd involved a bit too ...smiling a lot and the occasional wink to some of the girls in the crowd!! Looks up at the audience quite a lot. He is just great beyond words. To think a week ago he was maybe my least fav member after seeing him in '95...he kinda just stood there and played then...this time he is the opposite!! (if I had to choose that is) and it makes for a much better experience seeing the WHOLE band smiling and laughing with each other... Enjoying what they are doing!

Once again tonight they played State of Love and Trust. The crowd go crazy when this is played...added line, "free of suggestion" repeated a few times towards the end. Surprisingly, they had stuck to the set list up to this point (before State)...the last few nights the set list has basically been disregarded by the first few songs... Ed just deciding as he goes what to play.

Evolution is excellent. Gotta love some of Ed's dance moves! :-)...Once again the singer from Shudder to Think sings the "high" part of the "Choir" line.

Alive as always is powerful with the "While your real daddy was dying" line changed to "While your real father was dying."

Stone and Jeff are standing close to each other smiling and having a bit of a laugh about something while playing. Ed comes over and stands right next to Mike while he plays the solo. The band leaves the stage after this ready to come back for the first encore...

When Ed does walk out he is carrying his "book" which he keeps with him on the stage all the time on the ground in front of him...it's actually a grey notebook with a YIELD sticker on it :-)... A pen is in about the middle of the book. I don't know exactly why he has it with him all the time...he never seems to open it... maybe after Roskilde he doesn't trust anyone. Actually he did open it (not the same one no doubt) in Melbourne in '95 when he made the famous "NW" speech. He read that speech from his notebook.

When the band comes back on stage Ed says to the cheering crowd, "We've fucking been in Melbourne 5 days and we can't leave yet? Oh, who wants to...don't go on me..."

The band started with Go and another good version of Black. Not as good as the previous gig but still good. Rearviewmirror was awesome. Ed starting it off slow and building up speed in the intro. Immortality next is really powerful. The guitar sound on this is really something. I watched Jack a lot on this track too and he was putting a lot into it (I tend to forget about Jack). Ed, Jeff and Mike all stand right up near the drumkit at one point just watching him play.

The band leaves the stage after this ready for encore number 2. Before doing so Ed pretends he is going to throw his guitar into the crowd. A few people got pretty excited at the front!

When they come back for the second encore it is quite funny. Ed gets an Aussie flag that has been on stage and puts it on his back like a cape. He then sets up Jeff's little stool he uses and gets a run up and jumps on it stomach first and scoots across the stage with his arms streched out like a super hero. He does this a few times then says to the crowd, "that's how you make us feel" with a huge smile on his face. Ed then says, "OK, I guess all the words (are) in the song...so there's not much more to say but since it's the last day in Melbourne, I'll just say thanx for the last few days... having only been here once before and having known nothing about Australia before and getting to see things and learn things. Being here last time, we really looked forward to coming back...and so far it's just been great...and it's probably just going to get better but this has been really good so till next time."

Indifference is played next. I'm really glad I got to hear this. I didn't think they would play it with all the new stuff but I'm happy they did. I think it was meant to be the last song but Ed starts spinning his hand to the band though I think indicating to wind it up so he can do another song. The song ends prematurely and the band start an AMAZING version of a song I definitely didn't expect to hear but was on top of my wish list! PORCH!! What a sensational version. The start was so good. The alternate version that I think was played at one of the Bridge School Shows...but led into a great version of the original...with one last excellent Mike solo for the night. Eddie asks "Keith" for the house lights to be turned on and the venue was lit up exposing the very excited and very satisfied crowd singing along. A great sight with all the lights on!

Perfect song to end the show!! Then with the words "I'm gonna go get hammered, good night." ...it was all over for another night.

Tonight's show was brilliant. For me, maybe not as good as the night before probably just because of my disappointment in missing the start but still totally amazing!...

Ed was meant to do a DJ stint at the end of this but didn't end up doing it. I just can't put into words just how happy and energetic the band is at the moment. It's so good to see. Everyone is smiling 90% of the time ...Stone and Jeff often laugh with each other when Stone pulls some of his trademark faces.

I used to think that Ed's kinda deep emotional, not-so-happy persona was what made a lot of the songs as powerful as they were and as emotional on stage. But the last 3 gigs has proven that Ed can be what seems extremely happy and having a great time thoroughly enjoying himself yet still deliver all the emotion that make most of the songs what they are. Just seeing how happy he is on stage and especially how much he is smiling when he walks off stage is something that maybe a year ago I never thought we would see.

He is really active on stage too...doing all sorts of jumps and some of his really great dance moves"... Gotta love his silver nail polish too!!

Jeff is the usual Jeff... jumping around having fun...he hasn't been wearing his hat lately either.

Stone has been great too with him and Jeff interacting a lot.

All up these Melbourne shows have just been incredible. I think they will be hard to top.

My 3 "local" shows are over now. Next I travel to Adelaide on Saturday (9 hours on a bus trip with 50 other PJ Fans!...going to be great) for an outdoor show. I'm really looking forward to this one. It will be good to experience the different atmosphere of an open air show. Can't wait!!!