Set List: Of The Girl, Breakerfall, Grievance, Gods' Dice, Light Years, Corduroy, Animal, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Nothing As It Seems, Daughter/(The Wrong Child by R.E.M.),(Androgynous Mind by Sonic Youth), Faithfull, MFC, Wishlist, Do The Evolution, Black, Alive;
1st encore: Timeless Melody by the La's, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror, Better Man, I Got Shit, Go;
2nd encore: Soon Forget, Soldier of Love, Yellow Ledbetter

peterliew (peterliew@tinyworld.co.uk):
Last night's performance has got to be ranked as one of the best I have ever had the pleasure to see. I had been looking forward to see Pearl Jam for ages as I have not seen them play live since October 1996 at the same venue. This was the third time I have seen them, the other was in 1993 at Brixton Academy.

Coming down at about 4pm, there were already 100s of Pearl Jam fans queuing up to see them, which showed how much we were looking to see them. As these gigs were sold out the same day they came on sale, I actually received the worse seats, which were situated in the corner, but thanks to the Ten Club, they managed to reserve 2 standing tickets, which I am extremely grateful for.

The support band were TheMonkeywrench, who warmed us up nicely for the main course. Unfortunately I did not know much about them before, but their set was lively and warmly received. The highlight was when he did the flips at the end of the set.

After waiting for half an hour, which seemed like an eternity, at around 8:35pm, suddenly the lights went down and we all knew they were coming on stage. There was a deafening noise from the crowd as they came on. They started their set with the beautiful 'Of The Girl', which sounded even better than on the record, which was sung beautifully by Eddie. 3 rockers, 'Breakerfall', 'Grievance', and 'God's Dice', which got everyone from the floor jumping, then followed this wonderfully quiet track. This was absolutely brilliant, even though Eddie admitted that his voice had cracked up during Gods' Dice when he said "This is a new song, and I fucked up" apologetically, even though no one around me seem to notice he did. This was followed by my favourite song on the album, "Light Years" which was one of many highlights, and sounded so beautiful, and is definitely the most commercial song on Binaural. This was followed by "Corduroy", "Animal", and "Given To Fly" which got everyone moshing down front.

"Given To Fly" was so cool live, when it starts to build up and then it hits that high. That was out of its world. Before "Even Flow" Eddie called this song "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Your Grievance". Then the brilliant "Nothing As It Seems" was played and this was awesome, with Eddie's fantastic voice sounding so good, and was played so well by the band. "Daughter" was also another which got everyone singing along to. Four more songs followed from Yield, "Faithfull" really rocked and the middle part, which is my favourite, sounded great. During "MFC" Mike with his bleach blond hair was going mental, running around the stage like a maniac, "Wishlist" was next and sounded gorgeous, while "Do The Evolution" got everyone going nuts. Then came two of the crowd favourites, "Black" which I was so glad they played and really allowed Ed to give a brilliant vocal performance, and then "Alive" which was surely the greatest highlight, with the whole crowd singing along. Near the end, Eddie jumped off stage and went to the crowd where he was held up, I think from a security guard, and was shaking hands with everyone. That was that, and they went off stage with Eddie waving to the crowd.

With the crowd, screaming for them to come back, they eventually came back on stage. Before the encore Eddie spent five minutes explaining to the crowd on how much he loves playing London, and remembers the first time he played in London, at the Borderline. He described how, when he was younger he thought of London as a different planet and paid tribute to the gods such as Pete Townsend. He then explained how much the band are a fan of the La's, and then played one of their songs, which I am not too sure what it is called, but it sounded great.

"Insignificance" followed which was great. When the guitar riff comes in, the sheer power of that song blew me away. "Rear View Mirror" too was incredible, this has always been my favourite, and the intensity of it simply got my adrenaline running. After that Eddie said that Mike never behaves like this, where throughout RVM, he continued to run around the stage and also went to the side of the edge of the stage to play to the seated crowd. Then a surprise, they played "I Got ID", or "I Got Shit", so Eddie mentioned, I've always loved that song, and it did not disappoint. "Better Man" followed which got everyone singing along to it, with Eddie's stunning voice making another great highlight. The first encore was finished with "Go" which was played in its usual fast pace. Then they went off stage with Eddie balancing his bottle of wine on top of his end.

They suddenly returned for the second encore with Eddie coming on solo to play "Soon Forget" with his Ukulele (where he said that Matt called this instrument a Grunglelele), which I found hilarious. Everyone was clapping along, with Eddie clearly enjoying himself laughing continuously during the song. After playing "Soldier Of Love", they played "Yellow Ledbetter" with Mike's brilliant solo, with the light focused on him, where at the end of the song where Mikes solo closes the song, everyone from the band just stood there and watched him in admiration.

That was that, the guys waved goodbye and bid their farewells.

This was an absolutely stunning performance tonight, where even my friend who was only introduced to Pearl Jam only a month ago thought it was brilliant. She is now addicted to them. We only hope they will come back sooner, than last time, because they only come to these shores every three to four years. Anyone who is considering going to see them, is don't think, just go, you will not be disappointed.

The message, which I'm sure everyone agrees, is please come back soon!!!!!!!