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

Paul Munkley (PMunkley@lakewood.co.uk)
Eight years of waiting, over in the blink of an eye! How more than two hours can pass by so quickly, I'll never know.

First thing's first - the anticipation. From the moment the lights went down to the first sight of the band, nobody could stop smiling and craning their necks for a better view. Then to see the guys on stage, Jeff with his upright bass and the opening chords of 'Nothing as it Seems'. After reading a few of the other fanviews, I'd heard the new tunes from Binaural sounded a lot harder edged live than on the album and I'd have to agree, 'Breakerfall' and 'Gods Dice' both coming through with a much heavier sound. I was a bit surprised to only hear 5 or so songs from the new album, but I guess if you're Pearl Jam and you've already written 5 other studio albums, you have the luxury of choice!

Highlights would have to be the surprise of Leatherman and the incredible Better Man that preceded it. As for the band themselves - it's true that Eddie Vedder has one of the greatest voices I've ever heard. Doesn't matter whether he's singing slow tunes or screaming along to Do The Evolution, those lungs are something special! That said, playing along with the incredible talents of Stone, Jeff, Mike and the giant Matt Cameron, he can't really go far wrong.

A great night, with a great band surrounded by great (if slightly exuberant) fans - I'm beginning to see the bruises now!! Anyway, cheers guys. It took you 8 years to get here and I'm not even sure Eddie knew whether they'd visited Wales before, but I just hope they remember us for next time...

Cheers
Paul Munkley

Llew Bebb (llewb@orange.net)
Like many others, I in the past had made the journey to London to see Pearl Jam, and could not take in the fact they were playing our town.

I had seen them before, on the No Code tour, but this was a notch up. The band was looking healthier, and more like the band I had sat and watched in the Alive video years ago.

As before, the set list could not have been crafted better, the introduction of Nothing As It Seems, building to the peak of Animal. A few songs of a more mellow nature let all have a breather, and then wish we too had taken the Cardiff tour bus (only of the main topics afterwards with my mates was, "imagine being on that bus, and them coming on and sitting up there with you!").

Quickly the pace built up again, and Once signaled their departure from the stage. The first encore was the highlight for me, with Eddie starting to lose his voice on Spin the Black Circle. The 2nd encore was also of a high standard, but despite Ledbetter being one of my favourite songs, I was hoping for an alternative ending. Mike made up for it, with a brilliant solo, which I thought he was going to carry on for another 5 minutes.

I just hope they come back again.