First off, this concert according to Eddie almost didn't happen. When I first arrived at the Sport Halle the electric sign said the concert was to start at 20:00. But, over the next hour, the start time changed to 21:00 and then 22:00. To add to this, it was starting to rain. After several hours of waiting at the gate, the crowd grew restless, and several people climbed over the fence. Finally at a little after 20:00 they opened the gate, but they only opened one of them. There was a mad rush. It was a rather interesting experience, the crowd was so tight that my feet were off the ground and I was carried through the gate. As soon as people were through the gate, they ran for the doors to the hall. But the doors were closed and the police started to make a wall blocking the crowd.
There was a lot of shoving between the police and the crowd. Eventually they crowd broke through, or was let through, to go over to another entrance which had metal gates around it. Once again, when the doors were opened, there was a mad rush. The man at the door I went through tried to hold the crowd back, but was just pushed out of the way. No one even checked my ticket (In broken german I talked to 3 girls from Prague and none of them even had tickets, but had managed to get in). Once inside I sat on railing that separated the floor from the stands, which placed me in good view of the stage because I was above all of the heads (the view was even better when I stood on it). It turned out to be a great place to take pictures from.
The concert finally started at a little after 22:00. Eddie came out and announced that the concert almost didn't happen because the trucks had apparently been stuck in snow and traffic. He thanked the truck drivers and then the crew (they set everything up in an hour). Unfortunately, the Fastbacks didn't play, but Pearl Jam more than made up for this loss. Here is the setlist:
Encore:
The performance was great. Eddie really wasn't talking much, but seemed to be in a good mood. Stone and Jeff were hopping around all night, and Mike's solos were incredible (as always). The crowd, although they really didn't seem to know many of the songs besides those on Ten, was really good. They were very lively and into the performance, but they weren't out of control or belligerent. A few highlights: During Hail, Hail, the crowd started cheering at the first pause and Eddie replaced the normal line with "Speaking to someone who's never heard this song before".
Hearing Stone sing Mankind was awesome. Hearing Hunger Strike was definitely a highlight, even though it was very sloppy. Jeff and Stone switched instruments for Smile and it sounded really good. Perhaps the best part of the concert, though, was during Porch when Eddie climbed the stage lights in the middle of the song and sang the rest from on top of the stage lighting. In short, great concert and great crowd. I was left with nothing but good memories of Prague...
Jeff