Set List: Better Man, Don't Go, Save You, Tremor Christ, Given To Fly, Corduroy, Get Right, Even Flow, I Am Mine, Love Boat Captain, Wishlist, Jeremy, You Are, Whipping, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror;
1st encore: Off He Goes, Small Town, Last Kiss, Black, Leatherman, Do The Evolution;
2nd encore: Baba O'Riley

What more can I say about tonight but totally Surprising!!! It was an unbelievable show, with a set list way outta left field. Armed with my newly purchased Riot Act tour T-Shirt, we made our way to the seats I obtained through 11 hours of queueing last November... Upper level, row JJ at Rod Laver. Sure, near the back, but in this place you still get a damned fine view of everything. I'm on the floor for Melb #2, so I thought, this'll give me a nice indication of what to expect... But no one expected Better Man as an opener. I was playing it safe and betting either Of the Girl or Can't Keep, whilst Adam (my mate) was betting maybe a Long Road or Release. I almost didn't recognize the first chords to Better Man as they swept through the stadium. The crowd went nuts! Eddie didn't even have to sing the first verse, the crowd did it all for him... He joined in at "She lies and says..." During Better Man I noticed Mike and Jeff especially moving around anxiously, almost jogging on the spot. I thought then that they were going to rip a few numbers straight after this. Sure enough, came Go and Save You. Tremor Christ was another complete surprise, came across really grungey which rocked.

Back into some crowd faves with Given To Fly and Corduroy, and then Get Right, which I think could become a concert staple. Mike and Jeff were ripping them out here, especially Mike, who I think had a solo in just about every song to date! Jeff was probably more animated than usual, whilst Stone was doin his thing, Boom was rockin out the boards and Matt was loving his first trip to Melbourne as the PJ Drummer - Ed introduced him as "Someone who had been to Melbourne, but not with us." Even Flow was a highlight, again with a McCready solo. Then they slowed it right back with I Am Mine, a really haunting and beautiful rendition, one of my personal faves for the night. Boom was awesome here. Followed that up with Love Boat Captain, another great rocker, getting some crowd involvement which was good to see considering its a newer song. The disco ball came out during Wishlist, I was hoping for a "I wish I was the President..." line, I think there was one in there but didn't quite catch it. Earlier on, Ed had told us he really respected Melbourne, as we were the first Aus city to march against war. The crowd responded in kind. Another surprise - Jeremy! Then You Are, which probably wont become a regular live performance, but still a great track. The lighting here was unreal, the stage either frenetically lit up in random manner, or in complete darkness, with Stone, Jeff and Mike lit up in order... Looked awesome! Whipping and Insignificance were next, great to see a couple of 'fan' tunes... Looking around me, there weren't many who knew the words to these two, shame on you Melbourne! Just kidding. They then pulled Rearviewmirror out to close the first set, absolutely killed it.

The encore opened with Off He Goes and then Elderly Woman, to bring us all back a couple of notches. Ed fucked up the lyrics to Elderly, and let us know too ... 'FUCK'! Then came one of the funniest moments of the night, he pointed out some people at the back who had a sign that said 'Drop the Leash' Ed responded by saying "It's good to know there are still dreamers in the year 2003'..." He went on with something like "Can't remember the words, can't remember the music... I can remember the start... Remember the feeling!" Then he said "We can remember this song, cos it only has four chords" and they played Last Kiss, which the crowd loved... Personally not a fave of mine, but its a PJ gig, you take what you get!!! Black followed, a very laid back, cruisy, quiet Black. Awesome. However, I felt here that the encore needed something to end on, four quieter tunes so far... what would we get? Another surprise for so late was Leatherman, which I love. And then, without a doubt, the highlight of the night.... EVOLUTION!!! So the guys are rocking through it, it's going off like nothing else has this evening, and suddenly a guy jumps up on stage out of nowhere! Security goes to grab him, and Ed pushes him away. What followed was five minutes of the best stuff I have seen in a long time... Firstly, Ed starts dancing with the guy, they are doing all funny shit, jumping around, classical dancing - sorta how Ed dances with the girl in TB2K during Given To Fly... Then the guy howls out a few notes with Ed. Ed tells the guy to kneel down, I think he was sorta mocking him a bit - This is Evolution! Suddenly, Ed sits on this guys shoulders, grabs the mike, the guy stands up, and they're walking round the stage like that! Fucken unreal! The crowd was going absolutely bananas! They fell over after a couple of minutes, Ed made him kneel again, and then the song was over. The guy left the stage, and Ed called out "Hope they feed you in jail!" Totally amazing performance.

Keely got the call, the house lights went up, and the boys closed with Baba O'Riley, great closer, but probably a little lost on the Aus audience. At one stage Ed threw to the crowd, but they didn't know a lot of it, so Ed took back control. With the lights on, it was unreal, the whole place was going nuts. And after 2 hours, the boys left, it was done. Amazing performance, even without songs such as Daughter, Hail Hail, Can't Keep and Bushleaguer, four which I had been hanging for. Now I've got tonights show to look forward to from the floor... I'll let you all know how that goes too!!!

Cheers
Mark