Set List: Sometimes, Breakerfall, Corduroy, Grievance, Brain of J., Animal, Dissident, Nothing As It Seems, Given To Fly, Insignificance, Daughter/(It's O.K.), Better Man, Mankind, Immortality, Even Flow, Black, Rearviewmirror;
1st encore: Sleight of Hand, Crazy Mary, Once, Do The Evolution, Wishlist, Leatherman, Baba O'Riley;
2nd encore: Indifference

Pearl Jam..The Air Canada Center..October 5, 2000

WHAT A NIGHT TO REMEMBER!!

I never thought, in my wildest dreams, that one band could transform a large group of people into a family. The night began on a somewhat negative note for myself and my friends involved. We traveled for about 45 minutes searching for the ACC. The ironic thing is that we've lived in Toronto our entire lives!!!! We finally arrived at the stadium, and made our way to our seats. They were not the best seats, but they were very good, giving us an awesome view of the stage. Almost instantly we recognized the air of friendliness of fellow Pearl Jam fans as we were greeted by them as we sat down. Supergrass played an impressive set, but of course our attention laid solely on Pearl Jam. Supergrass leaves the stage, a 1/2 hour is given to set up. Suddenly the lights go out, the roar of the crowd grows stronger and all we see are five silhouettes making there way to their instruments. The crowd begins to work into a frenzy. The opening bars of "sometimes" begins to emit melodically from the speakers, and I know I'm in for a night to remember. The show simply jumped to an instant climax the minute Eddie began "corduroy." From that point on, the life of the concert did not die down until the very end.

As Eddie greeted the crowd he began to speak about our building, confusing it with the one in Montreal (Molson Center). It was a funny mistake, but he quickly got back on track when he told us that it was named after an airplane. He made reference to the last time Pearl Jam played in Toronto (1998 in Barrie) and said that, "It was about the same number of people, but they were spread out over the hills." Midway through the set, Eddie spoke of a physics scientist who recently discovered that we have only 1000 years left on this planet, and as Eddie put it, "should we go fuckin' crazy?". That brought the crowd into a huge roar!!

Every single song they played was incredible!! The tag on Daughter I'm unsure of, but it went like this, "hey hey hey hey it ok." It sounded amazing! Some of songs they played amazing were Breakerfall, even flow, Rearviewmirror, Grievance, Animal, Dissident, Insignificance (a song about being small..e.v) and once. The set ended and Pearl Jam came out for an encore....the night would rock for just a little bit longer. Pearl Jam graced us by playing a fantastic version of Crazy Mary. It was completely unexpected and everybody loved it! I was surprised and enlightened when Eddie introduced "Leatherman" and ripped through that song.

The night finally came to a climatic end when Eddie began to speak of "an old band." He explained how this band was thinking of releasing a tribute album. Finally he said, "Anyways, this is called Baba O'Riley." At an instant, the crowd went hysterical, as well as the band. This was the VERY BEST song played on this night and the best song I've seen Pearl Jam play ever!!! Jeff and Eddie were jumping all over the place, while Mike and Stone were running around. The crowd was involved in it 100% as they sang an entire verse and clapped in increasing speed towards the end. It was simply phenomenal. The band then left the stage. At that point I thought that no way where they going to return for a second encore...there was no way that they were going to possibly top what the just played. I had misjudged that band much too early at that point. Within minutes Matt Cameron appears, to be followed by five other musicians to play a final song. It was indifference and it was incredibly emotional. A group of five people in front of us swayed back and for with arms around each other in unison. It was a great way to end a night of passion, fire and music. Indifference came to an end, Eddie said his good-byes to a crowd of tens of thousands, screaming, cheering, and clapping fans, who could do nothing but show their gratification for performing so well. We left together everyone speaking of how remarkable that concert was. At no point, was the crowd not involved w/ the music...either singing, jumping, dancing or cheering. It was the single greatest experience of my life!

Daniel Marinelli aka FollowerOfAmes.