Fanview of the Vancouver Warm-up Show
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May 11, 2000; Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC
Paul Boparai (choppinbroccoli@zeroworks.org): "We're slowly passing backwards in time" It's hard to imagine that Pearl Jam have been together for over a decade now. You just wouldn't think that from the show they performed at the Commodore Ballroom in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The energy was like that of a fresh new band, but yet the cohesiveness of a solid, together, veteran unit was there. The band opened with Long Road. Boy did it sound good. That song was a little on the slow side, but the one-two punch to follow sure took me off my feet. Literally. When the band went into "Last Exit," I had a really hard time holding my bearings, since the Commodore's dance floor gets a lot of bouncy action happening in it from time to time. And then followed "Hail, Hail," and I'm telling you, I was about to blow chunks because of the jostling of bodies and what-not, and of course the bouncy dance floor wasn't helping. But I remained cool, and didn't honk all over the place. Then they went into a slower song, another one off Binarual called Breakerfall. That sort of was the flow the whole night. Two fast songs, followed by a couple of songs to cool everyone down. The band then rolled on through other Binaural songs: "Grievance", and "Nothing As It Seems." Then came the cool-down process with "Light Years." Moving along, the band shook the house up again, this time with the musical stylings of "Corduroy." And if that wasn't enough juice to fill everyone up with, "Even Flow" (the only Ten song of the night) had everyone singing along with Eddie. Going into the second verse, Eddie messed up on the lyrics, but remember everyone, today we all passed backwards in time. So it's like an old song becoming new again, even to Eddie. Everyone at the Commodore understood this, and laughed off the mistake with Eddie. The rest of the concert was a bit of a blur. I'm sure I heard "Off He Goes," "Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In a Small Town," "Wishlist," "Not For You," among other songs. And by this time, the crowd died down just a little. Only a little. They still had that youthful energy of children though. Then came the first encore. Oh my God, was that some encore. Ok, so they start out with "Animal." How could that song not pump you up? Then they thrashed through "Do The Evolution." Man, oh man. Was that some song. That was probably the first time when Jeff and Stone made their presence felt when they sang the "halleluyah" interlude, and boy it was worth the wait. So, they played "Animal," and they played "Do The Evolution," what else would the audience like? That's when they went into "Daughter." It was simply beautiful, as it always is. What was the tag at the end you PJ enthusiasts ask? Well, I'll tell ya. I don't know. I couldn't tell you the name. Sorry guys. And finally, the band closed the 4-song encore #1 with "Last Kiss." Their only cover of the night. Although Eddie did sing off a few lyrics from "Crazy Mary" while handing out some bottled water to the audience members in the front area. So then you might have thought that was it. Start early with "Last Exit," finish late with "Last Kiss," then everyone goes home into their beds (that's where I want to be now). But no, no, no. Eddie comes out for a final goodbye. No band, just Eddie and his instrument. His ukelele that is. So he played "Soon Forget," but I'll tell you that I'll never forget this concert soon. No sir-ee Bob. So that was the concert in a nutshell. Good time had by all, no trouble at the place (except a sly bootlegger trying to videotape the concert, but was caught early during C-Average, the opening band). Just good times had among all the lucky radio concert winners, including myself. Tonight has a nice, kind, youthful, old, uniqueness. Dim a red-yellow light. That's what I'm going to do now. Dim that light and go to sleep, not worrying about forgetting anything because I can always pass backwards in time and think of all the great memories. Marni and Dan: The place was jumping when the band went on at about 10:45. Mosh pit open. They started with “Long Road” and then took off into “Last Exit” and “Hail, Hail”. Ed commenting,”Our first time playing the Commodore, let's get the dance floor springing." The set list moved from new to old, next was “Breakerfall" and “Grievance," “Corduroy” and then a blast from the past. An amazing performance of “Even Flow”. 1000 people singing, Mike flying around, it's nice that his pants didn't split! Audience participation continuing into “Elderly Woman”. Next up, “Thin Air”, “Of the Girl” and “Insignificance (our new favorite). The crowd roaring with approval, even though these songs, many of them have probably never heard. “Not for You” brings mention of an embarrassing woman atop someone else's shoulders lifting up her shirt. Not sure why this happens. What does she think will happen? “Hey guys did you see that?” and jump off the stage? “Off he Goes”, precedes “Wish List”. Always different at the end, Ed just saying, “I wish, I wish…” repeating. Onto “Evacuation”, Ed saying Matt wrote the music and he wrote the lyrics. Gives him a raw throat, announcing in Bellingham that ”It's a bitch to sing”. End of Set. 1st encore starts with animal and DTE. Yup the dance floor is springing and Ed's getting his shimmy down! There are many more raw throats after that. Daughter was next with the “Wrong Child” tag. Very nice. Last Kiss ended the set. It was nice to see them do it live. Our friend with the ukulele made the finale at 12:30. “It's pronounced ooo kulele, not U kulele” he says and finished with “Soon Forget”. Ed's voice just gets better and better. At 12:45 the lights come on but no one is quick to leave. PJ at the Commodore and my heart and thoughts won't fade. Perhaps it was the relaxed atmosphere of Vancouver, having friends in the audience, playing in a nightclub, but the band seemed to be really having a good time, maybe less nervous than Bellingham. And to the good people who helped us, a big kiss for you. “It was a very Seattle like day here today. Some thoughts on Vancouver, your pot laws are great but your gun laws are even better.” E.V. |
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