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

Craig Hand (craig@monkeytrouble.co.uk):

We were surprised by the Vandals starting right on 7:30 (we missed most of the set) and then by Pearl Jam starting only an hour later at half 8...they played for 2 hours with 2 encores. There was the expected ecstatic cheers from the thousands in the crowd when the band came on and before they started the set with the contemplative Sometimes and out and out rock 'n' roll of Breakerfall as they did in Dublin, Eddie simply said "we haven't been here for a long, long, long time." Eight years in fact.

Photo credit: Dave Donovan

By the time the first two songs were over it had finally sunk in that I was watching Eddie, Stone, Jeff, Mike and Matt playing about 20 feet in front of me and the next two just happened to be my favourite songs from Vitalogy and No Code...Corduroy and Hail Hail which were both absolute stormers. By this time I had lost my friends and made my way into the pit, which was getting crazier by the minute. If I remember rightly (no doubt someone will post the set list soon), Nothing As it Seems was next which was amazing...Mike's stomach wrenching solo gave a taste of things to come later and Eddie created the same museful atmosphere as the single with his vocals despite the heat and noise of the huge crowd, the front of which was beginning to feel like being in the middle of a stormy ocean.

Next (I think) was Given To Fly, a song that the band and the audience obviously loved. Just as the build up was coming for the first chorus, Eddie gave a grin to the crowd as if to say "ready for it?" just before the power chords of the chorus came crashing down on us like a tidal wave. Going back into the verse again Eddie stopped singing for a few lines and asked the crowd if we were okay as the front of the pit was getting even madder and after a bit went to start again but forgot the first line. A few bars later after some loud cheers he remembered and the song continued.

As for the band, they seemed to enjoy the gig (although Stone sometimes seemed a bit fed up) and were every bit as good as I expected to be and more. Mike came on in a sharp suit jacket which came off after a few songs to necessitate him going nuts around the stage (I thought he was going to jump into the crowd at one point). He seemed to play better and better as the night went on with a blinding finale. Sometimes Jeff was a bit difficult to hear but his playing was brilliant as ever as he grooved away at the back of the stage, sometimes coming forward to do some backing vocals or to jump around a bit.
For whatever reason Stone sometimes didn't look too happy but still came to the front of the stage sometimes and energetically gurned away in concentration, totally immersed in his amazing riffs and solos. Matt Cameron's drumming was incredible (I haven't seen many drummers hit a cymbal so hard). The band didn't play his track from Binaural, Evacuation, but Mike did tease the crowd with a couple of bars of Outshined by Soundgarden. What can I say about Eddie? His singing was amazing, his playing was brilliant and he seemed to really enjoy the gig, giving us a heartfelt intro for Present Tense and some banter during the last encore. Oh yeah, and he fell over during one song.

I can't remember much of the order of the rest of the gig but I'll try and describe some more of the highlights. Animal was fantastic with McCready doing a huge solo, cheekily grinning at the rest of the band while they tried to figure out when he was going to finish. Daughter was brilliant too, Stone was using a Fender Strat, with presumably a piezo pickup somewhere, for the acoustic part, as he did for a few songs. Other songs that stood out (although the whole set was amazing) were Habit which simply fucking rocked with all three guitars crunching away at the power chords and Eddie, Stone and Jeff all singing; Better Man, which followed and was introduced by Eddie as "maybe another addiction song", started by himself singing with his guitar, the rest of the band gradually coming in; during Even Flow there were a few seconds in the chorus when the entire crowd seemed to be jumping in perfect harmony; Rearviewmirror was amazing and also Untitled and MFC were great, the two were played together as they were on one of the Live on Two Legs gigs.

Photo credit: Dave Donovan

Since Pearl Jam didn't tour Europe for the last album, this one is really a Yield/Binaural tour and they played quite a few tracks from both albums. At the start of the first encore the band played two rockin' Stone songs from Yield, Brain of J and Do the Evolution, both of which I sort of missed while I tried to rehydrate myself. After those came Light Years, one of my favourite songs from Binaural, while I tried to make my way back to the front of the crowd. State of Love and Trust was another blinder, which was even better with the atmosphere created by thousands of people singing along at the crescendos of the choruses with Eddie. It was also the only song that I bumped into any of my friends during and they seemed to be loving it every bit as much I as was. The other song they played from back in the Ten days was Once, which of course was also brilliant. Later on he told the audience that he'd like to sing it in the style of Mike Scott (?) and did a short comedy a capella version of the chorus in the style of the guy.

As I said earlier, Present Tense was an amazing experience. Eddie introduced it saying that sometimes there are messages in songs that help you along in life, that help you find the right path and that sometimes he puts messages into his songs for himself, to try and get them to stick in his head. The song started with just Eddie and Mike, the singer's guitar coming in later with loads of distortion and Stone playing the acoustic part and finally, Matt and Jeff coming in at the end.

After the first encore Eddie arrived back on stage by himself with his ukelele and did a bit storytelling before he played Soon Forget which already seems to be a crowd favourite. Pearl Jam have only played Scotland once before back in 1992 and it was in a small club called the Cathouse which only holds a few hundred people. There were a few good natured boos about the band not playing here sooner and Eddie retorted, "Hey fuck you! I had laundry to do!" Eddie told us about him asking the cleaning lady where toilets were when they arrived in Glasgow 8 years ago. He asked the woman what her name was and, not being able to understand her accent, thought it sounded like "Mrs. Mop," who he affectionately dedicated Soon Forget to. His version was a bit ragged but really enjoyable, Eddie seems to love playing it.

After the cheers, Eddie asked the crowd if we wanted to hear one more and after some even louder cheers, the rest of the band appeared to do Yellow Ledbetter. Mike obviously loves playing the song and made the most of it with an enormous solo at the end which turned into a kind of funky Pete Townshend style for a while before finally finishing off with Eddie and Stone sitting at the opposite side of the stage on some amps looking on. Before they left the stage Eddie took some photos of the crowd with his Polaroid (I think I'm in one!) before retuning on his own one last time to thank the audience and say goodbye.

If you were there, or you've been to any Pearl Jam gig, then you'll know how amazing it is to see them, and if you're going to see them then you won't be disappointed. After a gap of 4 years since the last European tour in which time they've recorded two albums, the band are obviously enjoying being out on the road round these parts again and are playing better than ever.

Don't leave it so long next time guys!
"Makes much more sense to live in the present tense"
Cheers, Craig