Launching the show with Betterman was incredible. Only done a couple other times previously. The crowd drowned out the band a number of times. The band just kept pumping, right into Hail, Hail and Corduroy. By the time they played Wishlish, poor Eddie had f*cked up the lyrics to several songs. He made a funny improv about wishing he wouldn't f*ck them up again during the ABITW tag for Daughter (prior to Wishlist). He seemed to give up a bit, simply allowing the crowd to sing many parts of the remaining songs in the main set (not that we complained!) Untitled was played very, very differently than it was on LOTL, again a few mis-cues. I was pumped that they added Lukin to the set! It sounded kick-ass live. At some point (forgetting now) Eddie got a cellphone from someone on the floor, and did some improv singing and talking, and got the crowd involved. I hope someone has a voice message from Eddie Vedder waiting for them to find!
First encore opening with In Hiding, then In My Tree was unbelievable! Two songs I'd been hoping they'd include tonight. I think the crowd was at it's absolute loudest tonight during Alive, though. EVERYONE was singing along. It had the band looking around in awe. It even managed to make Blood look pale in comparison.
Second encore: Indifference! Eddie's vocals were amazing. I thought all night his voice stood up well. I did notice him sneak to the back of the stage to smoke a few times though! Bad boy, I thought he quit. It didn't seem to hurt his sound though. Then, Eddie talked about a girl who'd been to every Canadian show so far, wearing the same shirt asking them to play a song. He explained they weren't sure they knew it well enough to play, but because they feared for the comfort of those sitting around the girl, they'd just bring her up to help them play it so she wouldn't have to wear the shirt again. The song: SMILE! Up comes Kim, who gets to sit onstage, help Eddie sing the chorus, shares some wine with him, and gets whisked around the stage in an impromptu waltz with him. I hope your friends got pics! Amazing. Eddie went into a heartfelt speech about Neil Young (Uncle Neil, as he lets them call him), and of course made us all think he was there. Well, unfortunately he wasn't. It didn't stop Ed & Co. from smoking through F*ckin' Up and RITFW. The house lights were on the last 2 songs, and Eddie went on to genuinely compliment and thank the Winnipeg crowd for being "f*cking amazing". Well, Eddie, so were you.
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I've said it before, and I'll say it again. A Pearl Jam show is better than sex.It's just as emotionally and physically exhausting, but it lasts for three hours and climaxes many times. And this particular Pearl Jam show was so good it was surreal.
Playing to an epic crowd of 16,000 (the largest for the MTS Centre), the grunge veterans finally brought their groundbreaking music to Winnipeg. And break ground, they did.
Paired with a minimal stage and bare bones lighting, the focus was entirely on Pearl Jam and their huge sound. Going through a generous two and a half hour set, Eddie and the boys covered a little of everything, making for an in depth, eclectic performance. With particular attention to the album No Code, we were given the grown up Pearl Jam tunes paired with the angst and energy they had in 1991.
In fact, the set list was perfect. With enough obscure tunes like Sad and Lukin to keep the die hards happy and enough of Ten to keep everyone happy, Pearl Jam knew what their audience wanted.
From pretty slow songs like the heartbreaking Indifference to the devastatingly beautiful Immortality, to dramatic, soul bearing rockers like Blood and Do The Evolution, Vedder's voice took on it's own role as an instrument. Swigging from his usual jug of wine, and dressed simply in a t-shirt and cords, Vedder relished sharing his music, and a bit of himself with the crowd. Switching from his trademark baritone to soaring, beautiful falsettos to throat searing screams, Vedder's voice carried all the angst, heartache, joy, confusion and love of his lyrics. The sheer energy being but into his voice made it almost an ethereal, surreal experience. The result was a truly moving, sincere performance. It's music that is made to be live.
But it was Vedder's signature Waaaaaaaaaaah! that got the crowd going during Even Flow. Hits such as Jeremy and Alive were revamped with 8 minute solos and lyric changes. Daughter went into a nice tag of Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall. They put the jam in Pearl Jam, making good songs even better.
The crowd was just as amazing as the show, amazing enough for Vedder to comment. "Winnipeg, you're f*cking amazing, and I mean that" an awestruck Vedder said to the crowd. Everyone was on their feet, everyone was singing and everyone was there for them.
During the last encore, a privileged fan got to join Vedder for the tune Smile she apparently had be requesting (via t-shirt) for quite some time. Vedder treated her to an awkward, exaggerated slow dance.
And just when you think it can't possibly get better than Alive and the night's surprise, Jeremy, Pearl Jam rounds out the night with two Neil Young covers, the last of which being Rockin' in the Free World, played under the house lights.
I have seen Pearl Jam before and they were nowhere near as good as they were at this show. It was truly the concert of a lifetime, and I dare say, the show of the tour. Pearl Jam did something that many bands can't. They played a perfect show.
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By far the greatest show i've ever been too. After watching the set lists get shorter and shorter as they headed east i was worried...but they played for almost 3 hours tonight!!!! and the reason was......the crowd!!never have a been to a show where the crowd was this loud. I'm a winnipeger and i have never seen a crowd like this in all the concerts i've gone to....it was deafening in the place....and it didn't go unnoticed by the band. After they tore threw the first five songs (betterman, hail hail, cordouroy, save you....) eddie finally addressed the crowd and said something along the lines of "this is the loudest crowd we've seen so far....this is crazy...even before we came out....during the pre-set (the supersuckers who were great)...we were sitting back stage thinking what the fuck is going on out there...it's crazy.....let's hope you guys have the endurance to go the distance cause we're just getting started"
they then just ripped the next bunch of tunes.....untitled/MFC....sad.....evenflow.....jeremy....lukin....do the evolution...not for you.. and the crowd just go louder and louder.
eddie just kept looking at the crowd and smiling to himself and shaking his head in disbelief. During black, he went and sat down on the side and just shook his head to the music and listened to the crowd do all the "do do do do do do do" parts...after the song he said, "we've played black countless times and i've got to say, i sat down and closed my eyes and i was just blown away...absolutely blown away"
the noise was deafening when they came back for the first encore...ed went to say something and just stopped and started laughing cause the crowd just drowned him out. All the guys were laughing and having a great time...ed pulled a girl named kim onto the stage to sing and dance with him during smile (she had been wearing a shirt with the word smile on it all canadian tour and they were worried she hadn't washed it yet)
during rocking in the free world, with all the house lights up, eddie was again just taken aback by all 16000 people clapping in unison....the whole band just stood there and looked around the whole arena with big smiles on their faces while they played....and ed said..."winnipeg...i've got to tell you....and i mean this from the bottom of my heart.....you guys are fucking amazing.....absolutly fucking amazing" and the crowd just got louder.
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So at about 8:25, 5 minutes before the band is supposed to start, a bunch of people get up and start cheering with pretty much the whole stadium following suit. A few people exchange looks of 'why are we cheering' but continue on while I yell "Yeah GO roadies!" and figure I might as well keep cheering until the band shows. Our roar gets louder and louder for the 5 minutes before the band shows up and apparently was a bit of a shock for them.So expecting maybe Release for the first song, I'm suprised to hear Eddie jump right into the first notes of Betterman and the crowd jumps into the singing along role which we'll continue to do for most of the night.
Pearl Jam continue a non-stop high energy string of tunes for us and the crowd helps keep the momentum by dancing, clapping, singing. Full tilt boogy baby!
We then get a couple notes of Sad before they switch off to Given to fly. I was worried for a minute we were going to miss out on it, luckily this was not the case. I'm glad Sad is showing up in the sets a lot now because man, it sounds awesome live
Some more classics followed that, with Eddie getting the crowd to do a little improv sing along on the tag of daughter before going into another brick in the wall. I mostly noticed the missteps in Wishlist but there was a few other songs I think too, no problem it just made me smile.
As per usual, there's an awesome version of evenflow with crazy madman soloing by McCready. Then a beautiful take of Untitled/MFC which is one of my faves and left me freaking. It was followed by a solid Half Full (More McCreadying Yay!) and yet another amazing personal favorite: Immortality.
This brings us to Lukin which left me wondering what they were going to follow it with since they already did grievence and not for you. They actually didn't go straight into another song but did a full stop with the lights going off and then a spot light coming on for Jeff to start off on Jeremy. To continue the crowd freaking out they went into Black and then a high energy Do the Evolution to finish off the main set.
The crowd cheered nonstop at full volume until the band came back with my bevolved In Hiding. The only thing was everyone jumped the gun on cheering and drowned out Stones little solo riff at the end grrrrrr!
Crazy Mary lived up to its name with a crazy solo by Boom, then one by McCready and then a out of control duet by both of them. Most people were yelling Boom afterwards since it was his big solo, but too bad we couldn't give it up for both of them. I think Eddie may have been announcing Mike McCready while everyone was yelling Boom, lets hope we didn't accidently slight him! Alive took everyone to fever pitch and we had some hardcore rocking out with blood to finish the first encore.
Another nonstop cheer while the band stepped off stage and another great song when they returned: Indifference. Next was the devoted fan inspired Smile, which her onstage adventure she will not soon forget. Afterwards we got the Neil Young talk and a trio of great tunes to correspond with it. I wasn't expecting Neil to show up so it didn't bother me much. I hope there weren't too many dissapointed. I'm sure Neil will come for his own show eventually.
In a word the show was amazing, in two words it was f*cking amazing! Huge thanks once again to Pearl Jam, 10club and all my fellow fans that were mts centre for making it such a memorable night.