U2start.com | Pearl Jam

Mr_Trek

13 years

Only after one and a half or two

RUMMY

13 years

After three bottles he probably wouldn't be able to make such a witty joke.

Mr_Trek

13 years

Jealous?

He was just worshipping us a bit.

Mr_Trek

13 years

Some raving reviews in the papers today, I've seen 4/5 from someone who didn't even like PJ that much (he's called them the most boring band on the planet) and 5/5 from another paper. I'll see if I can find more later on.

RUMMY

13 years

Originally posted by Mr_Trek:Some raving reviews in the papers today, I've seen 4/5 from someone who didn't even like PJ that much (he's called them the most boring band on the planet) and 5/5 from another paper. I'll see if I can find more later on.

Any links?

RUMMY

13 years

Oops...

Better fill this in with something....

Oslo opener: Release
Copenhagen opener: If not Love Boat Captain, Go.

RUMMY

13 years

Originally posted by Mr_Trek: Jealous? He was just worshipping us a bit.

But was it good enough for PJ to make it available as a free download?

Mr_Trek

13 years

Originally posted by RUMMY:[..]

Any links?

http://www.expressen.se/noje/recensioner/musik/pearl-jam-ar-tillbaka-och-det-med-besked/ "vengeance is a very incorrect translation if you use Google... I just tried.

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/musik/rockbjornen/article15089685.ab (this was the 4/5 review, it has been edited to 5/5, someone stated on a forum that it was weird that it was 4/5 online because it was 5/5 in print, guess it was an error)

http://www.svd.se/kultur/konsert-pearl-jam_7331121.svd (Another non-graded review)

You may want to use something like Google Translate :P

RUMMY

13 years

Oh yeah. I forgot about the language barrier.

Mr_Trek

13 years

So... Maybe it's time for a review?

Me and my cousin arrived at about six when the gates were supposed to open. We found a pretty big queue that we took a spot in. The gates then opened at about 18:15. We got inside the "inner circle" and decided to not push it to get as close as possible but still get pretty close. I stood about 10-15 away from the stage.

X came on after a while. They were fine, but I put earplugs in to save my ears for later. My cousin really liked X. He told me after the concert that he'd listened to them quite many years ago (he's 20 years older than me) and that he'd thought he'd never get to see them live. So he was very happy with them. Mike also joined them for a song, which was well received. The response to X wasn't that good though, barely any jumping, people were there for another band.

Then came the waiting again. One of the bad things about that inner circle was that you had to go out of it to get to a toilet or a place where you could buy water. And there was no guarantee you'd get in since there was a queue. My cousin got me some water early though and got in again. I had that until PJ started when I just put it down (I was amazed to, I think, see it still standing in the encore, it got kicked down in the encore when I moved around a bit though, so it didn't have the protection of a tall guy you that you can't be behind if you feel like seeing. It's pretty nice to have that little space behind you).

PJ opened with Elderly Woman. I was disappointed with this for a few seconds as it’s not exactly the most rocking song of all time, but then I realized how well it fit the occasion. The song has a theme of return and Pearl Jam were returning to Sweden after a twelve year hiatus. Everyone knew the song really well and sang along. Great moment.

Then came Corduroy. Wow. What a song. Everyone started jumping like mad in the intro and everything was just awesome.

Then came your favorite song, Got Some. Since I haven’t listened to Backspacer that much, I din’t realize which song it was at first. I thought it was really good. Great singing by the crowd.

Why Go. The Globe explodes. Everyone loves it and is shouting out the lyrics. Someone on some forum said it was MSG quality singing in The Globe on Saturday. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s true. The crowd was fantastic the whole night.

Time for Eddie to speak Swedish. This is what he said:

“Good evening!
I cannot understand that it’s been twelve years since we last saw each other.
Why have you not called?
We are so happy that you are here.
(And this is true)
You are better looking than ever.

He got quite a response:

Then came Amongst The Waves. It was really good. Again great singing in the chorus.

Wishlist starting was slightly surreal. I didn’t think I’d get it, so I was very happy that I did. Some great light effects made it a pretty magical moment.

When I heard Given To Fly start I was even happier. When chilling out in my cousins apartment listening to some music before the concert I played Given and said something like “it’s absolutely fine if they play this one” and my cousin agreed. That made getting it even greater. I think it was a very nice performance. The crowd of course went crazy (as we did to pretty much everything).

Then came Comatose, a song I don’t know well at all. I didn’t even know what it was until afterwards but it was another great performance with the crowd receiving it very well.

Even Flow was a bit disappointing for me. Probably a little overplayed for me, but everyone else went nuts. And it of course had a really long solo.

World Wide Suicide was fantastic. Great energetic performance, great crowd participation.

Then Eddie talked a bit about playing the Koolkat club twenty years ago and finished by saying “I think we played this there”. Garden started. I absolutely loved it along with everyone else where I was standing. What a great chorus it is to sing along to. Eddie had some really good vocal moments with some rough screaming with the low end from the old days.

Then Eddie said “we’ve only played this once before… blablabla hope…”. Better Things. Some hardcore fans really liked it, but it fell a little flat since the crowd didn’t know it that well.

Unthought Known is a really cool song. Didn’t really take off though, but it was very good.

Then Eddie said they had a request up front and they started the first performance of All Those Yesterdays in Europe since ever. At the end everybody was waving their arms. Eddie looked a bit taken by the response and thanked us for making the song really beautiful at the end.

Then came The Fixer. Again like the previous Backspacer songs it was very good, but didn’t take of like a song from Ten does (boy do those take off with the crowd?).

½ Full had an amazing moment when Eddie picked up a guitar to use as a mirror reflecting his spotlight on the audience in the stands. They went nuts and Eddie did it back and forth for quite a while. At the end he was kinda moving the reflection to Mike’s solo. Eddie looked so happy.

When Jeremy started, you guessed it, the crowd knew the song. Great end to the main set.

Then they came back and Eddie dedicates Off He Goes to Johan from Finland and all the other travelers. Beautiful song.

Then Eddie dedicated Just Breathe to Birgitta and Ebbe, their Swedish friends who are really special to them, but they don’t get to see them that often. They were the parents of one of those who died at Roskilde. Loads of emotion during Just Breathe, Eddie forgot some lyrics though, but what a beautiful song it is. Great moment.

Then the band looked at each other with “what are we gonna play?”-looks. Some people behind my shouted State Of Love And Trust like mad (wonder if they were the same who did on the Stockholm 2000 boot?) and the band ripped into an awesome version. The crowd was euphoric where I was standing. Another great moment.

Then came one of my favorite songs, Do The Evolution. Soo energetic. I read a review that said they thought the Globe was gonna break loose and start rolling, lol. I absolutely loved it. What a great song.

Eddie asks Boom if he’s ever played here, then says “This is Boom, he’s been with us for ten years which means he’s never played Stockholm”. The crowd “Booooooooooooooooom”-s him a lot. He then starts the intro to Love Reign O’er Me and takes me into disbelief. I actually got Love Reign O’er Me!!!! What a magical cover it is. The crowd was mostly standing still, looking 110% amazed. I think Eddie managed to nail those screams too. One of my two biggest personal highlights, it felt a bit surreal.

Then Porch. One giant Party. Everyone really knows the lyrics and sings along. During all the soloing someone throws a basketball to Eddie. He starts running around on stage bouncing the ball having great fun. At one point Stone is hit by the ball when someone in the crew throws it back to Eddie. Eddie gets a bit of a short “oh, shit” look but Stone looks like he barely notices it. He’s too busy having a great time with his friends Jeff and Mike. Great closer of a great first encore.

They come back on stage and Eddie thanks X for being with them. Then says that “if you’re listening to the bootleg, you should see what I am seeing” quote. I can tell you one thing, Eddie looked so happy during the concert and expressed his love for everyone in the crowd a lot. It was really great. I think it led him to drink and smoke a lot during the encore, just because he was happy. Anyway, it’s great when the performers at a concert looks incredibly happy, it makes the crowd even happier and it just goes back to the performers, then back again. Taking things higher and higher.

ONCE! I went nuts and jumped during the entire song. The guy in front of me also went nuts, he was in some kinds of zone dancing around and headbanging, it almost got a bit dangerous, lol. I loved it, my second personal highlight.

Better Man. Everyone in the crowd of course loves it and kind of knows the lyrics too. Great energy.

Crazy Mary. Not a song I know that well, but it sure was beautiful. Making some hardcore fans quite happy too.

Black starts. Another one of those songs that everyone loves. One of the best songs of all time. Great crowd participation. I thought of one of my friends… it’s one of her absolute favorite songs too. She would’ve loved to have been there. Mike of course loves to solo on this one… and the crowd sang the “dududududududu”-part while he did. Another great moment. After this I couldn’t come up with any more songs that I wanted.

Alive. What an encore this is. So much energy. Everyone of course loved Alive and there was loads of singing from everyone. I am running out of superlatives.

Now I thought that Alive might be the closer since I knew they’d played five songs in the second encore already, and that’s the usual number. But no. Rockin’ In The Free world turns everything into a gigantic house party with the lights one. Everyone looks euphoric. I wore the same shirt as I did on one of the performances of the song that I participated in on my class’ cabaret. Kind of a funny connection. I am gonna love that grey Beatles shirt for a long time. There was a big tambourine hand out of about five tambourines. Mike picked up a camera filming the crowd while Stone got to do a second solo (Mike did one too ahead of the last chorus).

Rockin’ was for sure gonna be the closer I thought. No again. Yellow Ledbetter. Great closer. Matt, Stone and Jeff got an Italian flag which they went backstage with. They first talked for a while looking extremely happy, then signed the flag, got Ed and Mike to sign it too and gave it to the fans. Then a fan got to come up on stage for the thank you. She was kinda pretty I though. She looked very happy when the band received her well. I think it might’ve been Stone who arranged for her to come up. She looked a bit out of place at first though. But then got to stand in the middle of the band when they all raised their hands and everything.

The word for the concert was energy. The crowd was great I thought. I heard some people towards the end just sounding euphoric saying things along the lines of “this is just so fucking great”. Eddie kneeled in front of the crowd at one point, and thanked the crowd so much during the concert. He also repeatedly stated that it won’t be another twelve years. At one point he said next time it’ll be an all Sweden tour of Stockholm and… well, he couldn’t come up with any other city

He also told us to call again at the end, so I guess I’ll have to call and tell him they can come to Gothenburg and give him the names of some more cities xD

Sorry if the review got a bit messy

You know how memories of concerts are