Set List: Sometimes, Breakerfall, Corduroy, Hail Hail, Animal, Dissident, Grievance, Nothing As It Seems, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Daughter, Untitled, MFC, Habit, Better Man, Present Tense,
State of Love and Trust, Rearviewmirror;
1st encore: Brain of J, Do The Evolution, Light Years, Small Town, Last Kiss, Once;
2nd encore: Soon Forget, Yellow Ledbetter

Jamie Marsden (jamiemarsden@ntlworld.com):
I've been a Pearl Jam fan since about '94 so I've been dying to see them live for about seven years so my expectations for this show were quite high, to say the least. I'm therefore glad to be able to say that the band's performance last night here in Glasgow was more magnificent than I dared to hope it could ever be!

I didn't see much of the Vandals (except all of their guitarist!) so I can't really comment on them, but the crowd seemed to like them and they created a cool atmosphere in the venue. I spent the time between the bands desperately trying to find some other people that we knew were there (including my brother who said he woke up at 6am because he was so excited about seeing pearl jam!). We finally met them about a minute before the lights went down and I got the feeling at that point that the night was destined to go very well.

The band started with sometimes which was crystal clear and I'm sure most of the crowd spent the whole song thinking "Oh my God, this is pearl jam"! This feeling was blown away in the nicest possible way by the start of Breakerfall which was completely awesome. As was Corduroy – the band just sounded so tight and powerful and Eddie's voice is out of this world. To be honest I could go through every song that they played and tell you how much I was blown away by each one but instead I'll just try to pick out some of my favourite moments from the concert.

Photo credit: Dave Donovan

One of my favourite bits on Binaural is on Breakerfall when Eddie sings the title and goes high and holds the note while Mike goes into the solo. When they played the song live Eddie absolutely nailed it and that's when I realized how good his voice is. The way that the band exploded into Animal was another highlight and Dissident followed to provide a cool wee Vs. section of the concert. One of the many strong points within the set was the sequence of Given To Fly, Even Flow then Daughter. All three were absolutely brilliant – I loved the bit in GTF at the start of the second verse when Eddie was checking that everyone in the crowd was on their feet and no one was "down below." He then paused while the band played on before coolly admitting that he "forgot the words" which got a good laugh from the audience! Even flow simply grooved! and Daughter was beautiful. I think it was at the end of this song that Eddie did this weird thing with his hands where he looked at one while the other was shaking and when he looked at the other one his ‘first' hand started shaking. Anyone else notice this?

I couldn't believe that Stone played all the acoustic parts using an acoustic emulator – they sounded fantastic! I thought Better Man was possibly the best song they played. The memory of Eddie introducing it as a song that "could be about addiction as well" and then playing the intro while bathed in beautiful purple light will stay with me for a long time. Present Tense was a nice surprise and the impact of State of Love and Trust was only slightly decreased by Stone's guitar cutting out during the first verse. He seemed to take forever to plug his cable into the new guitar! Rearviewmirror was astonishing with Ed singing some slightly different melodies that brought back the same feelings of excitement that I felt when I heard this song for the first time so many years ago. Mike was amazing during this song – running round the stage then climbing up onto a speaker and interacting with the crowd brilliantly.

The encore started in a very heavy fashion with Brain of J and DTE really rocking the exhibition centre. At this point I remember thinking that even though it had been an amazing show so far, the band hadn't really connected with the audience in the way that I had hoped they would and in a way that few bands can do. I think that a band really needs to do this to make a good concert a great one and I was sure that pearl jam would do this for me. It started happening at this point. Eddie showed his passion and understanding for his fans when he said something along the lines of "I know we're playing Glasgow but I'm sure you all come from smaller towns with names that I couldn't even pronounce but please take this song for whatever it means to you." I loved him for that and they proceeded to play a stunning version of Elderly Woman.. with the crowd returning a deafening HELLO!, much to Eddie's obvious enjoyment! I thought Last Kiss was brilliant as well and Eddie seemed to really enjoy playing it – getting the crowd to help him sing the vocal melodies at the end. Once was another nice surprise although the guitars seemed a bit quiet. Eddie's stunning voice saw it through though. I noticed that when the band left the stage, Eddie picked up what looked like a big notepad – is that anything to do with when he got one of his notebooks stolen backstage?

Eddie came back on for the second encore on his own hiding his ukelele then telling us to be quiet because it's "not very loud"! He then talked about Mike Scott influencing the band when they were writing Ten and he said that they wanted Once to sound like him. He then proceeded to sing a sort of ‘country' version of the chorus which was hilarious! Eddie is the man! After Soon Forget the band joined him and they finished with Yellow Ledbetter which had some outstanding guitar playing by Mike. Eddie then took loads of pictures of the crowd before putting his hand on his heart and telling us all to take care, sounding like he actually meant it.

It was a truly awesome show – I knew that Pearl Jam wouldn't disappoint me! Afterwards we went to a club in Glasgow (the Garage if anyone's interested!) and when I was in the toilet I met a guy who had been at the show and he had also been at one of the Wembley shows. I asked him how the two compared but he just said that the only difference was the set lists – and that they were both just as amazing! He also said that he was going to see them again this week. I don't think I've ever been so jealous of anyone in my life!