About 10 minutes after 9 the house lights went down. The place was going crazy. People were screaming for a couple minutes before PJ came out. The started off with Sometimes. They were really playing well. No problems with gear like people had been talking about before. The immediately ripped right into Last Exit.
I must admit that I was disappointed that they played no b-sides. The only non-album song they played was Leavin' Here from the Home Alive albums. The mood for this show was much different than past shows seemed to be. The band was in a good mood. Eddie especially. He was really energetic. Usually when he is mad he changes the lyrics in songs to lyrics with profanity. He didn't do this. He seemed to smile and joke quite often.
He assumed the fetal position while singing Blood. During Alive I thought he was going to stage dive. He came up to the right edge of the stage and looked out over the crowd. He moved back around the gear to the left side and started staring at a metal ladder that was used for lighting gear. He decided not to play with the ladder and stared out over the pit again. This time he backed up and started to run toward the pit and then stopped, walked away and jammed to himself.
Eddie even said how he was in a great mood and felt great. He had a Ramones t-shirt on. He mention that someone special was in town and said his name was Mike. At the end of Not For You he told the audience that this song is really...(pause)...not for you. He didn't get into songs like Why Go and Leash. He stuck to hard rocking songs that would keep him up beat.
Stone did a great job singing Mankind. I don't think that the crowd gave him enough credit for it. He hasn't sang it that many times live. There were a couple of things that really suprised me though. I always thought that Mike did all of the soloing. Well, he doesn't. Stone did just as much as Mike did. I also didn't know that Eddie played guitar that much, or that well.
I gained some respect for Jack at this show. I loved Dave A's drumming style and the way he added little thing to mix it up. In previous shows, Jack drumming wasn't that good but at Toledo it was really solid. The drum set was mic'ed really well. Part way though the show I think his snare went out. He tried to just do rim shots, but it didn't work. You still couldn't hear it very well. He ended up going to a tom as the snare. They tried to fix it twice when they left the stage before they finally got it back.
Pearl Jam only played for about 1 hour and 55 minutes. That's about the same for the Toronto show. During the last song, Indifference, they left all of the lights on. I really think that they should have shut down the house lights.
Over all this show was very powerful. Everyone was jumping around on stage and in the crowd. I only caught two mosh pits, but there was a huge amount of crowd surfing. I do want to say thanks to Jason Beatty for giving me the ticket and to the Ten/VHC for giving us GREAT seats.
Here is the set list:
Questions or comments? Mail Me