Pearl Jam

Never had a gig been so anticipated since Pearl Jam returned to UK shores for the Astoria show of 2006. Tonight, 2000 lucky, lucky people are to witness Pearl Jam play tracks from their new album 'Backspacer', before hitting the huge arenas next week and playing in front of ten times the amount of people.

There is no support band tonight, so the doors opening at 6.45pm (for fan club members, 7 pm for everyone else) was a little early, seeing as the band did not come on until 8.40pm. Up until then it was a bit quiet inside the venue, then as soon as 'Sometimes' broke through the speakers the place was uncontrollable. The tiny pit was a swirl of people from start to finish, all basking in what close proximity they were to their idols.

Now I am not that tall, average you may say, so I struggled to get a good view of the stage, well in fact to get any view of the stage, throughout the gig. I am now starting to be jealous of those with seating tickets! Wandering around the venue I did not catch must sight of the Seattle legends, but they sure sounded great, getting better towards the back. That is when you could hear them, over the constant singing of the crowd (Vedder is impressed, he states "I'm becoming an admirer of your singing, you sound good") after a pitch perfect Why Go'.

New track 'The Fixer' slots into the set like all the oldies, as readily accepted as the last self titled album was. Keeping the new tracks to a minimum, some may say that this set lacks rarities, but does that matter? Each Pearl Jam show is unique; no set list is the same, so the actual set is rare...

There is a surprise when Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones joins the band on stage to play Jimi Hendrix's 'All Along The Watchtower', and he does not seem that drunk as his playing is spot on! 'Low Light' is a beautiful breather during a rampant set, and a slowed down 'Evenflow' follows (that is no less energetic for the crowd). Vedder sounds tired, saying that he is going to bed late suffering with jet lag, and asks what the deal is with the program on TV showing people sleeping! He adds that it's better than Gold! What is the point indeed...

Stone Gossard, stood facing the crowd for once (!) performs a blinding show, and Mike McCready and the never aging Jeff Ament really jam out to the end of 'Present Tense'. The energy transfers so well to the crowd, I'm surprised the small dainty walls of the Empire are not crumbling with the rock power! Vedder pays compliment to long running drummer Matt Cameron, saying after his thrashing of 'Evenflow' "If I could play drums like that I'd have the right to be the biggest asshole ... but Matt Cameron can play drums like that and he is also one of the best people on the planet." This and the chilled out comments on stage show how tight a unit this is after all these years. And they have Boom Gaspar back on keyboards!

'Elderly Woman Behind A Counter In A Small Town' always makes me cry, and tonight is no exception. 'Do The Evolution' with its raging sound really rallies the crowd, who disappointingly though react quietly to 'Brother'. One new track, 'Get Some', leads into another, 'The End', played on a single acoustic guitar by Vedder, shows his solo talents are going from strength to strength since 'Into The Wild'. Such a hauntingly beautiful song.

Of course, 'Alive' is a huge sing a long, but many people here are fans and the hits are not their favourite tracks. They seem more to enjoy 'Soldier Of Love', and I personally love the inclusion of 'State Of Love And Trust'. Time during the 2hour 20 minute set for another guest appearance, this time by the elder Townsend Simon, to lend an axe hand to The Who's 'The Real Me'. Only the arrival of Pete would have made this any better.

The show finishes with live favourite 'Yellow Ledbetter', with Vedder passing his obligatory red wine to a crowd member and shaking a few hands. This, it was never doubted, would be a memorable show for all the right reasons, and has just made the crowd more eager for next week's two huge shows, though I would trade two of those for this one show any day.

Sometimes
Interstellar
Corduroy
The Fixer
All Along The Watchtower
Why Go
Dissident
Severed Hand
Given To Fly
Low Light
Even Flow
Present Tense
Save You
Down
Elderly Woman
Brother
Do The Evolution
Got Some

The End
Inside Job
Save It For Later / Better Man
Alive

Soldier Of Love
State Of Love And Trust
The Real Me
Yellow Ledbetter

FUTURE GIGS

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