Set List: Sometimes, Hail Hail, Brain of J., Faithfull, Animal, Even Flow, I Got Shit, Wishlist, Corduroy, Given To Fly, Jeremy, Daughter/I Hope I Never, MFC, Improv in to Habit, State of Love and Trust, Off He Goes, Black, Alive; Encore: Do The Evolution, Better Man, Yellow Ledbetter

Sublime (xtr17071301@xtra.co.nz):
Saturday night... after some car drama (arrgh) and a stuttery drive across Auckland, we get to the stadium at about the same time as we did in Wellington - that is, a few songs into STT's set. this time they are getting fully berated by the crowd. It kind of sucks, but as I said before, they needn't take it personally. Found Fi straight away - Choice. The Stoney-visions come into play once again as the stadium lights came up between bands... which is also when we realised what was missing in Wellington - the lighting. Well, I had noticed it in Wellington - especially after Radiohead and their Cathedral of Lights, Pearl Jam was totally lo-fi. It was like there was no lighting at all. In Auckland I realised what had happened - the lighting drop was stuck halfway in Wellington so the lights had almost no effect - but it just didn't matter! it was very garage-y! If you have a look at Smitty's stage shot from Wellington, you can see where it's stuck, even. But they'd sussed it for Auckland and the lighting was sublime, lots of intense, melty blues and purples. Oh, and props? A chicken and a set of angel's wings.

I guess I was a long way back, but not nearly as far away from the stage as I had been when I saw them play the Supertop in 1995 - at that gig I couldn't even tell Jeff from Mike I was so far away! But my view on Saturday night was pretty much brilliant! They started with Sometimes and Hail Hail - yay! Bonus. The third song was Brain of J...and Ed stopped it halfway thru for a wee mosh-pit speech. They played a lot of old songs on Saturday - well, it felt like it - and there was a fair amount of off-key-yelling-along happening around me at times, which sucked, although after a while people would get the idea that no-one wanted to hear THEM sing and shut up.

The sound was as clear as a (cow)bell but not very loud at all. Hardly earsplitting like Thursday. Ed said, “You must have good Karma to be born in New Zealand”. Ah but he's a wise one that boy. Given To Fly was transcendent, Ed flinging his arms out - “Fly!” . Off He Goes was lovely. Wishlist didn't have the extra verse, they just...faded it out... which was impressive in itself. They played MFC both nights but No Way on neither. Daughter was a big sing-along-fest, with some Split Enz (I Hope I Never) sung beautifully at the end. Habit started slowly, something about staying up all night and smoking cigarettes, and the “speaking as”, was, if I heard right, (at least he waited til everyone had stopped cheering before he said it) “speaking as someone who has been to both the north and south islands”... Gee Ed, when did you do that? I decided halfway thru that maybe Ed just fucks up & fucks with his lyrics to discourage people from trying to sing along with him... whatever, it sort of worked!

Even Flow... Even Flow was funny... I don't know what crowds do overseas but down here we love to jump lots. Ed (I guess) noticed this and yelled “Let's pogo” He, himself, pogoed thru the entire extended break in Even Flow, with Mike, Stone and Jeff joining in at points, and of course the whole stadium was jumpin' - it was fucking cool. I perhaps could have done without Jeremy, but for the arms-raised-in-a-v action. (which I didn't do, but it was good to see...fifty million hands upraised, etc). I couldn't understand the dude next to me who jumped and yelled thru I Got Shit, That sucked actually. Black was beautiful, not too much singing along. I think this was because everyone wanted to HEAR. I myself had my eyes closed... then I thought , Jesus, Juliet, this is Black, why aren't you watching?? So I watched Stone, and he had left the planet, surely. He was in a whole other place. Good on them for playing outdoors, you could watch the stars as their gorgeous songs floated up... and up... The old songs sounded new and sparkly. The new songs sounded like they'd been playing them forever and had polished them to a hard shine... it was something else. Indeed. Oh, so the last song of the main set was Alive... I remember saying, “Go Stone...” just quietly, coz he was rockin'. They all were, really rockin. Mike had a big grin on, pogo-ing all over... and Ed was having such a good time he went for a climb! Yes he really did. While Stone and Mike and Jeff and Jack rocked on...he hung off the rigging and gave us all a wave. Very, very cool.

The encores, which i'm a little blank on right now for some reason, included an Eddie speech about the near-drowning incident from last time, as Stone handed him a yellow-life jacket. It was a funny speech. He kept breaking into some sort of accent, I guess he was trying for Noo Zild but it sounded more like Sarf Lundin. Oh, yes I remember now... Better Man. Ed completely fucked up the first few notes of Better Man, almost seemed to play it backwards, then made a big show of wiping down his guitar and his hands - while Jeff stood behind him laughing hugely. It was great when he got it right tho, and earned the hugest cheer of the night.

Oh, and was State in the encore as well? No, earlier... whatever, it was just wonderful. Two lines beamed out at me that I had heard a thousand times before but heard them really for the first time that night... “promises are whispered in the age of darkness, want to be enlightened like I want to be told the end...” 2012, Eddie. 2012. They ended again with YL, which was even more stunning than in Wellington, I think it was just the open air, or something... I couldn't see Mike because EVERYONE was watching him, so I watched Ed and Stone and Jack watching Mike, which was... really special. They weren't moving a muscle, just standing there, smiling...slightly... maybe a bit awed. I would've been, standing on stage with that. I was awed. I heard after that Jeff was looking out at the crowd and smiling, watching us watching Mike...

Back on with the Stoneyvisions. Find Fi and Alan C. and then run away from them because I don't want to say goodbye. : {

I know the sets haven't been as long as sets they've played in the past but I don't think we should be complaining - I didn't feel shortchanged myself, not at all, on either night. Five songs less than usual adds up to one less shows worth over five shows, which has got to be good for saving Ed's voice, don't you think? So don't moan if they don't play for three hours any more... just one song from Pearl Jam is worth a whole show from anyone else.