Le forum francophone des fans de Pearl Jam

TFT Notes: After "Walking the Cow", Ed indicates the he was going to choose between the next two songs but that he'll "just play them both", playing Cat Stevens' "Trouble" and "Don't Be Shy". There are tolerable shouts from the crowd, to which Ed says maybe later they'll have "a little question and answer". Someone asks "What are you drinking?" and he tells a story about drinking a lot the night before and coming up with a new song at 5AM that day. He uses a few analogies - "fruit that's not yet ripe and "pants that need to be hemmed" - and plays a new song (three verses, three choruses) with one chorus repeating "Nothing left..." After "No Ceiling", he puts a guy in the front row on the spot and asks him if he has a question and the guy asks "Can I request a song?". Ed jokingly responds that he intended to give him an answer to a question, not give him a song. He makes a song request but Ed continues with "Guaranteed" (the fan actually requested "Man of the Hour" which ... had already been played). After "Rise" Ed grabs a guitar, strums a few (familiar) chords, and shakes his head realizing "I think I just played 'Turning Japanese' (The Vapors)". He comments that of all the songs that could have channeled through him, he's going to figure out why it was that song. Prior to "Elderly Woman...", Ed says it's "not requested but by request" and says that it's the middle of the show and encourages the crowd to stand up for a "seventh inning stretch", leading to a rousing version with Ed letting the crowd sing most of the lyrics. Following "You're True", Ed says after soundcheck he was walking around the venue and walked all the way up to the 4th tier (the venue has orchesta seating, then four vertically-tiered balconies) and recalled how he saw his first concert at the very last row in the top balcony (Springsteen at the Auditorium in Chicago). He mentions that because of the steep balconies he wasn't going to play as many sad songs "to prevent jumpers". He continues by mentioning he woke up and read his "first bad review" in the New York Times (of the August 5 show) that called him "brooding" and "righteous" and - after stating how Exxon/Mobile had $11 billion in profits while people couldn't afford gas - that he's "right" not "righteous". "Forever Young" is dedicated to everyone whose birthday is today. Coming back from the first encore, Ed praises the venue saying that he gets asked a lot of questions at various events like barbecues and is always asked "where is the best place to play?" and for now on he's going to say "Newark". Getting back to the Q&A, Ed asks for another question and one fan's asks "What are the lyrics to 'Yellow Ledbetter'?". The crowd roars in approval and Ed says "Wait ... you mean there's lyrics?" He then proceeds to tell the story surrounding the lyrics, saying it was written around the time of the Gulf War when "Papa Bush" was President. He knew an "alternative-looking" friend from Seattle who received a "yellow letter" when his brother died in the war. Ed was walking with this friend and there was a flag hanging from a porch on a house along the road. When the friend acknowledged the flag patriotically, the people seemed to not reciprocate his homage ("but they don't wave") because of his appearance. Bordering on tears, Ed wraps up the story and plays "Growin' Up" because of the Bruce Springsteen / New Jersey connection. "Hard Sun" closes the show as the theater's centerpiece - a large, spherical, gold/silver, illuminated chandelier - is lowered slowly over the crowd.