Mowgli and Luke are heading off to Antwerp on an earlier train to ensure that if there is any special bit for Ten Club ticket holders that we are getting in the front tonight. This means that I'm getting the two hour train to Antwerp on my own. I roll up in a ball on the seat and try to get some shut eye before I arrive in Antwerp... I wake up with half an hour to spare, and start the ritual of necking cans of red bull and liquid meals and getting togged up... I get a few looks as the rough looking guy sleeping in the fetal position, turns into tartan clad, wide awake Pearl jam man.
By the time I get to Antwerpen Berchem, I'm so excited that I just have to get a taxi to the Sportpaleis. The taxi driver says "Pearl jam" when I get in, I don;t even have to mention the Sportpaleis. Either Antwerp is dead mid-week, or this event is going to kick off.
I meet Luke at the door, and he hands me my ticket... Now I'm ready to rock.... I'm really excited tonight.... I think yesterday, I was tired and had too much admin surrounding the gig. The 2 hour sleep on the train has done me good.
We walk in to the arena, and it’s a much nicer sight than the previous evening. Although it's large, and will hold a lot of singing lungs, it's intimate, we can be right down the front quite easily. Mowgli is already kicking of the audience and has found some Australians to chew the fat with. Mowgli and I leave Luke with them, as we head off to get in the beers.
After asking for about 397 different belgian beers of the bar, we settle for the Bastard Love Child of Tennents and La Chouffe:
We spend a while wandering around and getting acquainted with the venue and our fellow concert goers for the night. We come across some scousers. We start talking to them, cos the guy has got the coolest suit jacket I have ever seen. His Girlfriend made it:
I told her she should start selling them on ebay, so if you see them there, then it was my idea.
We generally wander around until wolfmother take to the stage. Last night I didn't say much about wolfmother. Truth is I've had the album for about 6 months, an they really really Rawk! Anyone who's a fan of meat and 2 veg rock could do worse than go out and buy this album:
Having seen them the previous evening, it's good to be up close and to get a good look at what they do. What they do is provide a great live act over some rocking tunes. They have a really fat sound for a three piece, with Chris Ross moving between bass and organ duties. He actually plays organ in a way that would merit the invention of "air organ"... never residing to be upstaged by the not so inanimate object that he's playing:
In fact the two legs of the organ are rarely on the ground at the same time.
What's wonderful is that the pearl jam fans seem to have taken the band to their hearts and rock out to the whole set, with most fans knowing a fair percentage of the words. We're lucky to be standing with some Australians, so since wolfmother are australian, we suggest getting a sing song going that will make them feel at home. The ozzies respond with a tuneless chant, of "c'mon lads, show's yer tits. Get yer titz out son... c'mon", hilarious....
Once Wolfmother have left the stage, it's a case of waiting and keeping the energy and excitement up before the boys take to the stage. We wave the Saltire, and Mowgli starts a chant of "There's only one flag in Belgium":
It's soon joined by some guys at the front flying an Irish tri-Colour, so we sing "there's only 2 flags in Belgium"....
Pearl jam wander out on the stage to rapturous applause, as always there's little said by eddie or anyone else, they just start a bit of Pink Floyd- Interstellar Overdrive... a little more raucous than the subdued start of last night...It's the same start as Reading... and it fades away into Corduroy.... The clapping starts to the riff and and then the real gig starts as soon as Matt hits that first note, and the band join in.... and then it just kicks off "The waiting drove me mad".... maybe a dry joke relating to Pearl jam's never having played in Belgium.
It's much better being at the front, and its actually not crushed at all, just comfortable and 1 metre away from your idols.
Ed alters the lyrics and says "Can't buy what I want because it's peace... can't be what I want because I'm peaceful"
Once the song breaks down, we get our first mike wails of the night, I love the Vitalogy period wails, they are so bluesy that you can almost smell the dust. He really lets rip.... and we all know he's just warming up.
There's no stop and they are straight into Animal from VS. If Ten is the holy grail, and Vitalogy is the album that opened them up to experimentation, then VS gets lost in-between as an album full of amazing songs. It does in my mind anyway. Daughter and Rearviewmirror are obviously constantly on set lists, but animal's one I often forget about.... and how can you, it has some of the fastest Mike lines in their canon...
It's a pretty in your face beginning, and they don't let off. It's straight into Hail hail from No Code. Probably my favourite album if I have to decide. The band are on fire. Matt's ride cymbal kicks in at the chorus, and you know that they're upping the ante an playing a little faster than they should be. It's pumping along with the adrenalin flowing through our hearts...
They're just not going to let up tonight.... Ed with an Ebow in his hand, means that it's World Wide Suicide next, a classic, and it's only been out 6 months:
The band seem to clearly enjoy the new stuff. Mike dances and shakes a groove all the way through... he seems to have specific actions for all the different parts of the song... and side by side with World Wide Suicide comes Severed hand. It sounds like a foot to the floor simple rocker, which it is, but there is a ,lot of complexity in what they do. The trick is to make it sound simple. I suppose thats why the band has been around for so long. Their new stuff drips with both simplicity and professionalism. Mike still gets a chance to twiddle his way out of the song, which the rest of the band are a rock solid back bone providing the groove.
Back to vitalogy, and we get the moody Not For You.... I love the grimace sing that Ed does on this song. He's got an issue with a few people and he isn't afraid to put it in a song. You would not want to make an enemy of this man. Although Not For you isn't fast, it's loud and churning with attitude, and balls. Thats 6 loud rockers that get the heart pumping, with no pause... no hello, no nothing... just rock, this case Bluesy rock of the Vitalogy nature same as corduroy. When it ends... Ed starts a little arpeggio and lands on a tag of Modern Girl by Sleater Kinney:
It's beautiful. Maybe Ed knows that if you hit hard with 6 rockers, and then go delicate, that it makes the light and dark so wonderful. I don;t have time to ponder. They continue the delicacy with In hiding, my favourite track from Yield.
I love this track. Loads of fans go on about Yield as being Pearl jam's best post Ten album. While I like all the songs, in places it's a little light. This song was the one for me on that album, the note Ed hits in the chorus, can't be done without feeling the music, and the meandering soloing of Mike just carries so much Pearl jam history in it. I can't put into words, but this song was raw Pearl jam DNA oozing out of it. The really old school stuff. Only Pearl Jam could have written this song in my mind for some reason, and now almost 10 years later, I'm standing watching it ive for my first time with Matt classing up the place and driving the whole thing along... The whole thing meanders off and then there's no pause for the "eddie eddie" chants before we hit full pelt again. This time it's back to the new album... unemployable.
The band are the tightest they've ever been on this new stuff, it all seems to gel so well. Every component of the band has their own parts intertwined in the music. Whn it finishes, the band are back to "eddie eddie" ....
Ed responds with a "Goede Abend"...Ever the poet – Eddie says “finally we're here.. we finally landed and thank you for being here to catch us”
Ed says that he's completely fluent in Dutch and French, but that since Belgium can't decide what language to speak, he'll just use english...
Now we ebb and flow into Given to fly... for some reason the song always makes me feel at home with the boys, most of the songs are a secret among those in the know anyway... but this song feels like it's just the fans and the band against the rest of the world. I love the way it closes, it always brings a tear to my eye, there's memories locked in the outro... I don't know what they are, but like smell they can zone you straight in on an emotion.
hee hee....a wicked laugh from everyone present and we kick into evenflow... we're off!!!!!
It's all just foreplay before mike....
Then bendy bendy bend... and matt definately kicks faster as the solo starts... long solo notes getting slightly higher and more furious... like the whoel things going to explode, then tremolo picking and down a wail of notes... then stone stops the riff and mike just lets rip, i can never tell if he's twiddling or bending, but neither can he.... the band explode and groove around mike, who's off in a world of his own.
Always one to mix it up, we get the behind the head soloing here instead of during alive:
we return to an augmented groove on the riff, and mike sounds like he's killing the guitar... we noise solo for a while and then wiggle down the way with a little bit of whammy bar into some furious tremolo picking that rises and heads for a climax, of twiddles and something resembling the riff, then he really goes for it, and the whole thing breaks down... then stops in a watery noise.....
.....we get what is now becoming standard, a drum solo from Matt:
I don't know what it is, but listening back to the bootlegs of these concerts, Matt's drumming sounds so fresh... some of the songs are just a few clicks faster, and he feels like he's doing the impossible, putting even more into it.
He's on fire!!!! He rattle around the whole kit constantly getting this really sold juicy noise out of his toms... I can't help feeling that this is the closest I'll get to making up for not being born before Bonzo died....
The band kick in and you smile and laugh again.... It's just a simple sing song to end the song now.... our last little flair of mike comes at the outro....
Ed dryly introduces us to Matt Cameron after evenflow, and then introduces us to Mike who is going to start the next song...
It's Present Tense. I get a look from Mowgli. He knows it's one of my favourites. There's a delicacy and innocence to both the lyrics and the guitar. The guitar is beyond heavy, but it sits alone and you almost feel sory for it. I love how the guitar is set with the tones low and you can feel the body of the guitar and everything that contributes to this human sound. Eddie's existential lyrics pick up and Matt and then Stone join in to the groove, before it settles on a really slow heavy dirge which seems to ask such primordial questions, that I worry when listening to it that we might not want to hear the answer. The song then suddenly changes.... into a arpeggiatted theme(that is always riddled with mistakes), before the band kicks together by jeff and seems to culminate for the guts of these existential questions. I always feel confused after it. Did we just hear some answers? We get another elongated outro, where there's some wonderful guitar moments from Mike, Stone and Ed. And thats why No code is my favourite pearl jam album...
Unrelenting... Ed kicks off the whimsical by evolving into Do the evolution. It's a foot to the floor number. It seems so long since we've heard one, but Evenflow and Present Tense will mess with a man's head. Ed says we'll continue with the evolution as he kicks into another new cut; Big wave.
It doesn't sound new, cos it just kicks off and locks into place. This new stuff was just made to be appreciated live. They sound like they've been playing them for years.
If there was any suggestion(there wasn't) we were getting bored with rocking, Ed solves it by kicking into the one song that I can play in any weather on the guitar. Elderly Woman behind the counter in a small town. Mowlgi and I have our moment by shouting "I just wanna scream Ahoj!!!"
From here, we continue with the sing songs and head into Jeremy.... It's great singing along to a song you;ve sang along to for 15 years with another 15,000 people.....
They're playing so much from ten these days... Why Go? is no longer a tour rarity. I've seen it live 3 times now.
It's amazing to watch mike wail away on the solo!
After Why Go? Someone throws a T-shirt on stage for ed. It says. "we played Belgium for 4 hours".. he suggests that they owe them 6, an that you can't have 6 hours without a ukelele song. As always, Ed gets the words and the music wrong a few times..... But it's still wonderful.
From here, it's a straight kick into black. It starts... and I realise it's the first time I've heard it live. It sounds almost unreal like it's not happening..... It's an emotional rollercoaster of a song. It's the most real song on Ten. Fine, alive and evenflow and all the rest, rock, but black is so heartfelt. I am singing along with every word, and it's like an out of body experience. By the time Ed is singing " I hope some day you'll have a beautiful life...." I'm no longer there, I've drifted to a higher plain. I don't remember it. I was so lost in the music that all memory had just turned off. I was just zombied standing with my eyes shut letting the music envelop me..... doo doo dee doo dee do dee do
doo doo dee doo dee do dee do
doo doo dee doo dee do dee do
doo doo dee doo dee do dee do
doo doo dee doo dee do dee do
I open my eyes.... I'm not the only one.... 15,000 people are singing along...... but the audience just won't stop singing. The band jam over the 15,000 strong chorus... "we belong..... together"
The band stops..... but the audience have no intention of stopping. Ed eventually has to join in with them.... He's astounded.... They only stop when he starts playing Betterman... playing.... not singing... the crowd do that for him.... Two of the great emtional sing songs back to back!!! Only when the band kick in do we drop back down to reality for a second.
We're well into the gig and the energy is immense, the crowd are just on fire.... I never expected this from Belgians!!!! I don;t really know what I did expect, but they are putting their all into it. The boys meet them at every step of the way.... Black into Betterman into Crazy Mary!!!! Another never-heard-live-before favourite of mine.... Now that they have Boom, this Victoria williams cover gets played a lot more often. It's a good sing along and another camp fire song of mine, but no one knows it outside of the Pearl jam fan base, so it never goes down as well as I feel it should.
Come the solo, boom goes for it.... only to be joined by Mike, then they trade off licks for about 10 minutes. It's such a great moment. A simple little song by a sweet little lady, has been made into one of the most amazing rock trade offs I've heard, while Stone Pummels three chords on an acoustic for 10 minutes.
Mowgli gets up on Luke and my shoulders and does his flash. He has one of my socks on his cock, and he takes it off and throws it at Ed. we get no reaction... maybe its getting a little old.
From here... I could just go home now.... but Comatose keeps us up and announces that we're approaching the end of the show.... They rip through it like it's a reset button, clearing us for the encore which is bound to be truly great....
They kick into Alive.... Always a pleasure, never a chore... a sing along with a mike solo..... as would be expected the belgians are in fine voice when it gets to chanting along to the solo. Mike gets up on a speaker cabinet, and Luke manages to catch one of his plectrums, which is better than Mowgli who only managed to recieve a jeff plectrum on the chin.
The solo last for what seems like ages. When it finishes, mike is still twiddling away, like the duracell bunny he is!!!
Eddie gives a heartfelt thanks for the support that the audience has shown to a bunch of scrappy americans.
I get yet another new experience tonight, Indifference. The bass starts it off and I get chills, then mike just plays this reverby night time guitar. It's timeless. And I get to float on the moment some more. I don't think much can top this... Normally after alive, it should be yellow ledbetter or rocking in the freeworld and then home....
It just gets better and better... Eddie announces he's doing a a duet with the singer from wolfmother. CAN IT BE???
IT IS!!!!!
Hungerstrike by temple of the dog. It should be Chris Cornell. The song's only been performed live about 5 times or something, so you'll understand that the tears are running down my face as the opening lines are being sung.... It doesn't get any better......
BABA O'REILLY
I couldn't have dreamed for a better setlist. Two tambourines fly in from right of stage and Ed kicks off the Who rocker by banging two tambourines together like they;re plates at a greek wedding!!!! Now I'm crying and jumping.... and singing....
It's at this point that I agree with Mowgli that my hat shoul go on stage. Mike Picks it up and sits it on his amp..... My hat is famous!!!!!
Andy from wolfmother and Ed are going for it... both of them trying to brust tambourines over their head.. and both failing... It feels like such a feel good freee for all... The band are having fun and so are we... There have been a few treats tonight... And it can only go one more place....
we're all doing funny dancing to the outro of mike soloing and our wristbanded hands are held aloft:
"We don't say goodbye in the US, we just come toa country and occupy it"
"we'll see you next year"
We close the night to Yellow Ledbetter as always.
For some reason you never tire of listening to mike wail... and wail he does... he plays a little run that I don;t recognise in the middle of the solo. He had been practicing it at the end of alive.... who knows.... we close with mike being beautiful and a crowd clapping in unison.
When they go off. Mike doesn't take my hat, so I tell one of the roadies that someone stole it off me and threw it on stage and that I need it back. I think about telling the same story about my sock, but I think it's a litle less believable.
What a night!!!!!
They played for close to 3 hours. We missed the last train to AMsterdam by about 2 hours.... the next train to Amsterdam is about 6.30..... the three of us hang in Antwerp and slowly make it to the station. We are high on happiness.... we talk czech to a polish dog, get a bottle of red wine, ad walk along the longest underpass in the world:
We stagger into Amsterdam at about 10am...... having had a few hours sleep on the train...
Next gig..... Barcelona...
3 comments:
Takes me back to the gig! Thanks - Rita
You're about the only person that ever posts me comments. I really appreciatte it!!!
ohh, I've got the Antwerp boot. telling by it and this blog, that was one hell of a show!
lol. your comments on Indifference made me think about Indifference in Dublin, a magical moment when it starts, isn't it?
cool blog, I should remember to read your stuff more often.
- Emmi (ehh, eMMI :D)
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