Set List: Love Boat Captain, Corduroy, Save You, Hail Hail, Help Help, Even Flow, I Am Mine,
Better Man/(tag?), You Are, Green Disease, Not For You, Thumbing My Way, Given To Fly, Small Town, Insignificance, Don't Go;
1st encore: Bushleaguer, Do The Evolution, Last Kiss, Black, Crazy Mary, State Of Love And Trust;
2nd encore: Give Peace A Chance sing along, Soon Forget, Yellow Ledbetter, Keep On Rocking In The Free World

Absolutely Amazing - The band which has been a huge part of my life for the last 10 or so years has blown me away yet again. The best live performance I've ever seen ended just 30 minutes ago so I wanted to share my experience with everyone whilst my adrenaline was still pumping.

There was an extremely peaceful feeling in the air tonight created by the march against war through the streets of Adelaide today where 100,000 people (one-tenth of the city's population) marched for peace including the members of pearl jam.

After a short and sweet set by Johnny Marr and the Healers, whom I was most impressed by, the anticipation was over........I was expecting Can't Keep or Long Road as openers but a brilliant version of Love Boat Captain was played, tears filling my eyes at both the wonderful lyrics and the realization that 5 years of waiting for the band to return to Adelaide was over.

Crowd Fave Corduroy was next and the audience went nuts. Mike was extremely energetic all night bouncing around and interacting with the crowd on his side of the stage. Ed was sipping red win throughout the show whilst we were sitting close enough to Stone to view his majestical facial expressions all night.

After Save You which was awesome live, Ed spoke about how the band were in a really happy mood due to the feelings produced by the peace march's both in Adelaide and around the world during the weekend. The band launched into Hail Hail, Ed sang the 2nd verse 1st followed by Help Help, which I'm not sure they've ever played live before. A rocking Even Flow was the only song off Ten in the main set, M.McCready simply cut sick with a breathtaking solo.

The crowd sung along loudly to Better Man and I am Mine, Better Man included an extended jam at the end with a short tag that I didn't immediately recognize. In the middle of the set were Green Disease (at the end of which the band kicked into Not 4 You without a pause for breath) and You Are off Riot Act all sounded fantastic and were flawlessly played. Mixed amongst the new songs was Elderly Woman..... (Ed sung the 2nd verse first again and remarked "I fu*#ed up didn't I") and also Thumbing My Way during which I've never heard a crowd so quiet during a Pearl Jam show, most because they were in awe of Eddie's beautiful voice. Ed introduced Insignificance as a song about a company from Seattle and a killer version of that was followed by Go which whipped the crowd into a frenzy.

For the first encore, the Bush mask made an appearance during Bushleaguer, Ed signing the first verse through the mask before giving the mask a taste of his red wine. In a fantastic gesture, the guys turned to the audience seated behind the stage to play Last Kiss which was another crowd favourite with very loud singing. Black was dedicated to a member of the crowd whom the band had met that day and featured a fabulous jam session at the end, fittingly Crazy Mary followed so Ed could share his wine with the front few rows of the crowd during the "take a bottle drink it down" lines. State of L&T closed the encore and was totally unexpected, the fans reacting accordingly giving a great response, the band fed of this with Mike, Jeff and Ed all bouncing around and delivering scissors kicks.

One of the highlights of the night was Ed leading the crowd in a Singalong of John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance" at the start of the 2nd encore, a very touching moment as you could feel the love in the room at that time. Luke was introduced next (the Ukulele) and Ed nearly nailed Soon Forget, forgetting a few lyrics but did bloody well. The house lights came on and the first few chords of Yellow Ledbetter belted out, what a great conclusion I thought and Mike "Guitar God" McCready was sensational during his solo. Then the icing on the icing on the cake was Rockin in The Free World with the house lights ablaze throughout the song, the whole band were superb, and Matt's drumming was awesome, which I was able to appreciate more under the lights.

Thank you very much Pearl Jam for one of the best nights of my life! I feel very fortunate to be able to see 2 more in Melbourne this week, but I'll never forget today and tonight's show.

Craig