Set List: Nothing As It Seems, Breakerfall, Gods' Dice, Animal, Red Mosquito, Insignificance, Corduroy, I Got Shit, Alive, Given To Fly, Better Man, Leatherman, Light Years, Pilate, Daughter/(WMA), Do The Evolution, Once;
1st encore: Go, MFC, Small Town, Black, Immortality, Spin The Black Circle
2nd encore: Even Flow, Smile, Yellow Ledbetter

Jeremy Dummer (PUSHME@pullme.freeserve.co.uk):
Cardiff International Arena. June 6th 2000.

Being a Welshman, and having to travel to London for previous Pearl Jam shows, It was so pleasing to see a show in our Town....In our Country. It was for this reason I was sure tonight was going to be special......I was right. What I, and 5,000 other people witnessed was Pearl Jam at their best. And this was with only a small selection of songs from the new album (5 if my memory serves correctly).

'Nothing as it Seems' kicked off, and from that moment, the crowd were eating from Eddie's hand. 'Breakerfall' and 'Gods' Dice' followed as everybody frantically tried to keep their footing in the pit, which was difficult to say the least as bodies were already flying overhead and landing right on top of ours!.....My turn would come. 'Animal' was next and then 'Red Mosquito'. It was electric at the front (second row!...that's close enough!) so many bodies.....so little room......Amazing. Then came 'Insignificance', 'Corduroy', 'I Got Shit', 'Alive', 'Given To Fly', 'Better Man', and 'Leatherman', which was good to hear live.

Ed told a story about how they had been in Cardiff for a couple of days and that they had seen many of our sights, and taken an open top bus tour. He went on to say that the tour guide they had was a guy called 'Jerry', and that he had teeth the same colour as Ed's guitar...A kind of Ivory colour! This lead everybody to believe that 'Jeremy' would be played at last, but to our disappointment, it didn't happen.

Pilate was introduced as 'A song which was written since last time we were here', and Daughter had the well known and very well appreciated WMA tag. Do The Evolution and Once ended the set with everybody just rocking. By now so many people had been carried away overhead, it felt as if we would be the only people left standing. But nobody totally gave up.

Go and MFC opened the first encore, and by now I started to feel delirious, and felt that i was going to faint.....(too many beers beforehand were finally catching up on me!) Time for drastic action!... Up I went into a sea of raised arms, and over to the security who showed me to the side of the stage. 'I know I AM ashamed'. After a minute or two collecting my thoughts, having a cup of water and taking some pictures from the side of the stage, I decided to make my way back to the front. This was not easy, but somehow, after missing Black, Immortality and Spin The Black Circle, I found myself in a similar position for the second encore.

Even Flow was just outstanding and Eddie then explained that Stone and Jeff would be swapping positions for the next song....I just knew what was coming when Stone lifted the bass! Smile was another surprise, and finally Yellow Ledbetter with the obligatory sexy solo from Mike to finish a truly amazing night. Nobody went away without a Smile on their face!

I just hope and pray that we get a chance to see such an outstanding performance from the world's greatest band on these shores again. "Come back soon......And Thanks!"

I was amazed that I managed to catch one of Mike's Plect's, but I was mostly pleased that I managed to throw my Welsh flag on stage, which landed near Mike's feet....Please take it home Mike!!!!

Jeremy Dummer.....A proud Welshman.

Gav Wood (gavwood@hotmail.com):
I don't want to waste space telling you what you can already read in someone else's words, but I just wanted to add a couple of things about the gig. After I'd bought my ticket I found out that my last 2 exams ever before leaving uni and going out into the real world were on the 2 days after the gig, but I was sure that a Pearl Jam show was worth risking a couple of exams for, and I was so right.

Firstly, the atmosphere: it was amazing. I spent most of the set about 5 people from the barrier with a huge grin on my face, singing my heart out, and I didn't see any of the trouble I've witnessed in the mosh watching some of our homegrown bands. I had to take a bit of a break for water, as I felt like I was going to pass out, but I managed to make my way back to the front for the encores. Secondly, after talking about Jerry the Cardiff tour guide, Eddie told us how nice people had been to them when they'd been out and about, but that a friend of his realised later that one of these 'nice' people had stolen his wallet, and that's why he doesn't trust anyone. As for the show, the band were all really into it, as were the crowd, and they seemed impressed by the reaction they got and didn't want to stop playing. Eddie's last words as the band finally left the stage summed up how 6 thousand people had got closer after over 2 hours of amazing music: "We should all go take showers ..... together."

Suffice it to say that a cracking time was had by all.