Set List: Of The Girl, Do The Evolution, Animal, Red Mosquito, Corduroy, Grievance, Light Years, Nothing As It Seems, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Faithfull, Untitled (from Live On Two Legs), Last Kiss (Ed solo for part while drumhead is fixed), MFC, Breakerfall, Wishlist, Thin Air, Daughter, Evacuation, Immortality, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Black, Go;
1st encore: Last Exit, Jeremy, Small Town, Alive;
2nd encore: Yellow Ledbetter

Ticket credit: Pedro Telles
(ptelles@unreal.pt)

Luís V. (lvil@esoterica.pt):
The Binaural Tour's just started! I was among the lucky ones to see them kick-off the Tour and they couldn't have started better. In Portuguese soil (kind of a second home) they really rocked.

The day started early and even with the organization sucking bigtime, I managed to grab a nice little (really little) spot in the first row. The first round of applause was to Mike who was contrasting his white hair with a skin that seemed to have gotten too much Portuguese sun. He was spotted checking the guitars on the side of the stage. Then The Vandals jumped into the stage (and yeah, they jumped a lot), played some songs with the vocalist getting completely bare-naked at the end of the set. It was okay, but the crowd seemed to be more interested in Eddie and the boys.

The show starts off with Of the Girl, and the packed crowd cooled down a bit from the effusive applause and excitement with what the band was received. But all that energy was soon to be released, when Do The Evolution and Animal were played. By now Eddie had already spoken about the Portuguese hospitality referring to some experiences they had in priors days like being in a beach and a guy taking off a swimming coat and giving it to Eddie who surfed with some locals. Eddie made excuses for speaking in English by saying, "My Portuguese is shit." Eddie seemed really happy to play this first show and spoke a lot. :) The crowed responded really well and the interaction was really good.

Corduroy was truly an amazing version, and after that they played a set of some Binaural songs. Man! These songs are amazing live!! Grievance really rocked and the beautiful lyrics of Light Years moved the crowed that knew the lyrics of this one fairly well. (oh, there was a banner saying "Your light made us stars" I hope Ed saw it). Well, I don't know if he saw this one, but he surely saw one that was thrown from the audience to the stage asking for Pearl Jam to come back. Eddie proudly showed it to the rest of the band and said something like: "Please come back? We're not even gone yet."

At some point, Ed tries to speak some words in Portuguese but I really only understood one (Eddie, you gotta take some classes man!) that was "saudade" a Portuguese word for something like lacking or missing somebody. Eddie seemed really moved by the crowd from the beginning, surely because of the memories they bear from the Cascais shows four years ago.

It seemed to be little room for so many people and many flew to the security space between the stage and the grades. Between some songs the attendance begged for "Água, água [Water, water]" and Eddie asked if we're asking for beer. However as soon as the first riffs of the next song were heard one could only focus on the music and no one was thirsty. Then they played two singles (Nothing As It Seems and Given To Fly) and the crowd sang all along the way with Eddie. Fortunately the crowd knew also the lyrics of Immortality when we had to help Eddie with the words since he seemed to have forgot it! He replied thanks in the midst of some laughs. :) We also had to help the band with Last Kiss since Matt broke something in the drums and it was Eddie and us doing part of the music while the staff repaired the damage.

The crowd got even more intense by this point of the concert and every ending of a song or space between two was used to improve something like "Portugal, Portugal" or some soccer chants. By the end of Daughter, which didn't have a recognizable tag, it seemed like the public didn't want to finish and continued singing even after Eddie stopped. Black was also spectacular and once again everyone seemed really moved by the lyrics and I bet most knew the lyrics by heart (truly nice moment). The set would end with Go, but obviously we wanted much more. Everybody was singing "Eddie, Eddie, Eddie" and he replies "SUCKS." A couple of laughs. ;) At some point now everybody started singing Alive and Eddie agrees that "That's a nice song" and that now they wouldn't have to play it since we already have sung it (They would eventually end the first encore with it).The entry for the second encore was truly great with Eddie being carried in arms by ".. Dennis, the Menace ;)" They finished with a usual, Yellow Ledbetter with Eddie asking Keith to turn the lights on between the first verses of the song.

Eddie thanks us repeatedly, patting his hand into his heart. He also took a couple of Polaroid pictures of the crowd like a souvenir of the show. Great intensity, really moving. But eventually all things end and I the show ended about two and a half hours after it started. Really great show, don't get envious, just get a ticket for the Tour. Forget about the circus, Pearl Jam is the *greatest* show on Earth. ;)

A show nobody will Soon Forget...