Set List: Small Town, Interstellar Overdrive/Corduroy, Save You, Given To Fly, Cropduster, Nothing As It Seems, Even Flow, I Am Mine, Love Boat Captain, Lukin, Not For You, Light Years, You Are, Daughter/(Another Brick in The Wall), I Got Shit, 1/2 Full, Once, Blood;
1st encore: Bushleaguer, Sleight of Hand, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Do The Evolution, Spin The Black Circle;
2nd encore: Throw Your Arms Around Me, Alive, Fuckin' Up

Dear Jammers,

I have been saying that each show I attend from Adelaide to Melbourne have been awesome/fantastic the best one so far. One simple fucken reason. Pearl Jam are getting better and better :) Melbourne night 2 February the 19th of the year 2003 was just that much incredible!

Before the show I met up with another fellow jammer (Tim, g'day!) had traveled from New Zealand (originally from the States) and gave him a ticket he had bought from my friend in Perth. We had a chat and drank some beer in that little beer garden that Heineken had set up. Twas a good chat and we talked about the shows etc etc... another addition to the memory bank of a wonderful week. Bought merchandise, the dog tags are pretty cool, will put it around my neck very soon :P... the doors opened at 8pm and I went in and watched Johnny Marr and The Healers play another great set... my seats were up in the lower level (make sense? :s) closest to Mike's side... twas a long day at work but I was pumped for my third PJ show in Oz.

My friend and his bro arrived then followed by the old jammin' buddy of mine, moemoe. I swear moe and myself were fucken acting like lil teenage girls asking "what the hell can they play tonight to top the previous shows?!" (can u imagine a 22-yr old guy with stubble acting like a teenage girl). The lights went down.

Out came Pearl Jam to a roar! *ROAR!*

Elderly Woman started off the set with a bang, it seems they're not dipping into the regular openers bag this week, they are mixing it up baby... We waved hello to Ed and the boys then I was psyched to hear the chords to Interstellar Overdrive being played... this was goin' nutty already! Corduroy once again pleased us all including my first-three-PJ-album friend... Save You came up next, this one is just a ballbreaker from the new album I can't get sick of it.. the chorus is just one big "fuck you," gets you jumping! Given To Fly was up next and I'm just loving this song every night, it's my favourite off Yield and Mike and the band are very tight throughout it... Matt's drumming is definitely a highlight even though I used to think he couldn't do Jack justice. Onya Matt! Next was my favourite off Riot Act, two fucken favourites in a row! Cropduster. This is awesome live despite there being people in the record listening to it for the first time, oh well I had a ball and am really glad they played it... there was a feeling about tonight, like they were going to play some tunes that they hadn't played in a while and.....

into a blistering version of Nothing As It Seems... listening to this song live is better than any other format... Mike shines and Stones steady slow groove along with Ed's vocals take it into this haunting state where you just stand there swaying gently... amazing. Next up we had Even Flow, another crowd-pleaser...then I Am Mine was very tight and beautiful... Love Boat Captain was special once again with Ed changing the lyrics to the "lost nine friends we'll never know" part again, touching... wish I could remember what was said. OH wait, I can download it ... will update you later if it's downloaded in time :) UPDATE: "Even nine friends we're gettin to know, even here today" (or something like that... maybe cos the family was there?) Ed introduced Lukin as a song about a guy from Seattle... this caned my booty up real good! I'm sure it knocked a lot of us out... then Matt kept the beat going straight into Not For You.

What we had next was just great... Ed said they don't play this one often and it's off Binaural etc etc.. Light Years. Beautiful to hear this live... it's a sad one for me, so I sat down and just soaked it all in. Thanks for playing it guys. My mood was picked up by the funkydancinggroovingassmover called You Are. This is Pearl Jam's nightclub hit lol. Imagine that! "Love is a toweeeerrrr!!!".. Ed points out he's the shoreline and we're the sea :) Yes we are! Stoney poney started Daughter and I tell you what... this has got to be on the next live DVD...(there were cameras there, I assume it's for the band). They jammed for a while on this then Ed broke out with his call and answer session which got everyone going... "hey hoooo... HEY HOO!"... he ended up screaming his lungs out and moemoe was just beaming smiles for the whole bloody thing (she has a thing for the Milan 2000 show where there was a similar thing)... this was just awesome, and we thought that was it but then.... Another Brick In The Wall Pt.2 !!!! Guys, you have to get this bootleg.. it's a must have for all fans!

And by the way, the show only got better...

I Got Shit!! (personal note: Elsa, I thought of you when Ed started playing it :))... we felt very lucky at that point, the show was getting better and better and it wasn't even the encore! The band burned this one down, awesomeawesomeawesome... Mr Vedder said something bout the next song but I didn't quite get it... 1/2 Full, another new song we get to here live! woohoooo! this was rawk and roll!.... at this stage my mind was going overtime trying to fathom all this good stuff we were hearing... aaargh.

The intro to Once was !#@$%!@#$%@#$%@$@#... I seriously have used too many words to describe each song. This was fucken great. Blood was next and that was fucken great too :) So glad I got to hear that live too! 18 songs in the main set!!! woohooo! more to come.

As expected Busleaguer was the next one... I think it was before this that Ed said "you don't have a Prime Minister, you have a prostitute" and "we don't have a president" or something. Laughed my panties off, so true. Ed played with the Dubya mask again and headbutted it as well as letting Georgey give him a bit of oral pleasure at the end of the song before slamming him into the stage :) yeeehaaawww! Want more special stuff? The next one they hadn't played in Oz.. so I'm thinking "fuck." Sleight of Hand!! nice nice nice... this is another awesome one from Binaural... what a special night we were having. The shock of this rarity went away as Better Man was next with a great Save It For Later tag... double-woohooo! *RSI is setting in dammit* No time to rest.. DO the Evolution. Intense and rocking with Jeff and Stone and Mike and Matt all ramming it up our noses with beautiful force... oof... no let up ===>>>> ddadada dundundundundun SPIN THE BLACK CIRCLE!!! SPIN SPIN... this went off! Ed used the black base of his mic stand to imitate the spinning of a vinyl record and it just added the whole song.. awesome way to end the first encore... and it DID get better. I'm sorry to tease you like this :D

Ed came out with Boom (who does some great chest-pounding greetings) and introduced his guitar called Rebecca... then was said he was kidding but there's this "Friend" of his who is called Rebecca that he's gonna dedicate the next song to. But on second thought he said "from now on this guitar will be called Rebecca"... Throw Your Arms Around Me :) Great song, one for all the couples out there.

The houselights came on as Stone broke out with ALIVE!! YES YES YES YES YES... I haven't heard a crowd sing that loud in my life! "you're still aliive!" to the side of the stage... everyone standing singing and bopping.. Mike doesn't get this song often to show off his solo but he takes it like a legend burning his guitar, the solo just makes you go "holy shit, wow"... everyone was awesome on this... YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHH!!! Alive, oh man. I thought they'd finish off with that.. then I heard the familiar intro... it's a Neil Young song... it's .. it's FUCKIN' UP!!! Gotta love the guitar on this song... and the "Why do I? *bumbubmbumbummmm*"... so into this, what a way to end a show. The guys didn't seem like they wanted to go home, that's what Moemoe said to me.. and I have to agree. They just played and played and played... PEARL JAM :) You rock, once again.

We sat there for quite a while as everyone was leaving the arena... another unbelievable night... we were on Cloud 9, fucken cloud 199 methinks.... they just seem to get better and more ALIVE each night... it's amazing. What more can I say?

Very memorable (as well as moemoe's car overheating AGAIN! catch the train tonight, M!).

Two more shows for me... tonight and then Sunday night in Perth. I really don't know how they'll top last night's effort... but I wouldn't be surprised if they did somehow. After all it's PJ hehe...

Take care and I will keep yas updated ;) I'm buggered!

Dan.