Between the water-logged gig in the Arena, Mowgli's swimming, Kilts that have seen a 4 Pearl jam concerts so far this year, and the sweat of several thousand Pearl jam fans, we smell of a mixture of wet face cloths and male changing rooms.
The train to Milan takes just over 2 hours. We make the 12:48 with minutes to spare... which means we still haven't eaten today.
We explore the train for a Buffet carriage - no luck... we begin to crave, water, espresso and pasta... the combination that has set us up for so many previous adventures.
When we arrive at Milan main station, we are both famished and astounded by the grandiose architecturse of the station:
We make the stupid decision of heading quickly to the Bostonians Hotel and then getting something more substantial than what's offered at the station.
This puts us outside the hotel, thats in the middle of nowhere for about 4pm.... we assume we can get a quick bite to eat somewhere around the hotel... but we couldn't be more wrong. After an hour of walking around the streets of Milan in the baking heat looking at closed restaurants, we find ourselves tired and grumpy back at the Station, grabbing anything edible in the supermarket within the station.
By now, we are running out of time, so we get a taxi straight to the venue. It's the Fila Forum:
A pretty nice venue.... until we get inside and realise that there is no cloakroom yet again.... what is it about these venues... do they think people arrive from outside in the same attire as they stand in a moshpit in.... We wnder aroudn frustrated for a while before a wodneruflly nice friend who isn;t going deep into the crowd offers to take the bags.... yet again.. we have avoided protecting abag full of stuff in a mosh pit.
The security in Italy are quite strange. They insist that we stay seated on the ground before the bands come on and police this fact like bulldogs... It's maybe just to keep them busy till the show starts, cos it seems to serve no purpose other than to make our legs stiff from knelling down or crossing them.
It's something I've never done at a concert before. When we are finally told to step forward, there is a massive crush as people run over people that are sat down to make for the barrier.
My morning Jacket come on. I get a much better chance to see them tonight.
They are a really interesting band... at times they rock like no other with this huge wall of sound. At other times they are experimental and delicate:
One'things sure they are not consistant. The audience are getting restless, as wonderful as they are. Wolfmother was a much better warm up act.
Once again, we are waiting.... watching the clock.....
Once we hear Master/Slave(The opening instrumental from the first album), we know by now that Pearl jam are going to take to the stage.
What a way to start a gig... last night was the subdued release.. Tonight is the exact opposite..,. Possibly the most in your face riff Pearl jam have... Pearl Jam are here to take the roof off the place, and it's clear from the first note. I'd love to knopw if they warm up before the show... cos this is hards.... and they get it not perefect from the the first note.... Mike From here, there isn't a pause before they rock into Last exit... From the opener of Album 2 to the opener of Album 3....
Instead of going to Sometimes(Opener from Album 4), which would have been the natural progression, they keep the energy up and give us Save you, then World wide sucide. I seem to hear new lyrics in this song every time I listen to it. I've never been much of one to listen to lyrics. I tend to pick them up when I'm listening and then forget them once the song is over allowing me to rediscover them next time I listen. Sometimes I even have to listen to myself singing along to work out what the words are. This time the lyric is:
"That the president took for granted, Writing checques the whole world pays.:
Corduroy - and the audience start clapping to the riff as soon as it starts. This has been a rocking start to the concert.... and the crowd are alive as a result.
I don't have many photos, cos the crowd is pretty rough:
The band go into Severed Hand, the drums play such a role in this song, they are almost like tuned percussion playing along with the riff, antil that electric theme starts... and the bass follows every note... jamming along. The crowd know every word and every note...
Ed says good evening in Italian for the first time of the night, and then launches into a full translated speech.
Unemployable is next. A track from the new album. It was the B-Side to the first single. So it was one of the first track's made available. It's not been played that much this tour, in fact I don't think I've heard it since the Astoria.
Evenflow. It doesn;t get boring to listen to but its hard to put into words againa nd again... even though it's so different every night. For tonight, I have Mike right in front of me again. He's already nodded a few hellos to me which make my night.
I'm sure the band get faster at the solo to see if Mike can handle it....
Matt's on fire too rattling all over the kit and reminding us of his SOundgarden days...
They still don't play Moby Dick :-(
The world is dangerous, but it's safe in here tonight....
It can only mean, I am Mine... The first slow number and the second time I've heard this song. The first being at the Astoria. It's a good rousing song... a waltz... so the crowd don't know how to dance to it. That coupled with the slower nature of the song, means I get a breather from being squashed.
They stay with the slow mood, and give us the wonderful, beautiful, emotional Man of the hour.
MFC - Written 8 years ago on a drive from Roma to Portecali... Which is one reaosn to eb happy to be Italian... It's one of my favourite Pearl jam songs, and I;m glad to hear it. It has a rhythm and flow to it like Given to fly and so many others... that arpegiatted wave like motion that Ed is so good at.
Then... the Cello comes back out fo Daughter... after the song, once it breaks down... the audience wait around to see where the experimental tag to the song will go. We start with a Hey Ho Let's go tag like we got in Arnhem... which then turns into Pink Floyd's another brick in the wall...
"President Bush... Leave this world alone"
The crowd have picked up Ed's experimentationa dn are going with it.... I think it's the best version of Daughter I've heard this summer.
After this, it's another live first for me...Faithfull a meandering song with a meandering bass... it's a really great song... so I don;t know why they don;t play it more often... until the outro... I relaise. Mike doesn;t seem to ge able to rememebr the chords.... Jeff has to whisper them in his ear... They are Human!!!!
Ed announces that comatose will be next... He's either getting more confident about his the ability of his voice following comotose, or they are going home early tonight. It appears to be the former, cause State of Love and Trust comes up next,
and it's hardly a walk in the park. My voice is struggling already. I have never had the time, or clean living to recover my voice between concerts, and no matter how much I try to take it easy at each concert, I belt out the tunes and destroy my throat even more. The song just rocks like no other... and so early in the concert. We've had about three slow songs in an hour and a half, and I've been at the front for the whole time. The Italian's are going pretty crazy, so when the band kick into Why Go...I head out for a breather before I get damaged... It turns out the crowd is rougher a few metres from the front, then it is from the frotn, with full on slam dancing, so it;s a bit of a fight, but I eventually resurface near the toilets.. and head in to rehydrate myself....
When I come out, why go is finishing and I'm glad I went for water. I feel much better, and Ed is dedicating a slow tom waits cover to his daughter and girlfriend. It's pretty beautiful and much nicer to listen to it from somewhere with oxygen....
As Ed continues the slow set with Parachutes(Another first), I find some English girls I know from the Astoria and Verona. It gives me someone to head back in with... and we enjoy the rest of the show together. It was a good decision... cos the band start black, and I can sing along and enjoy the crowd's reaction from a comfortable space. I take my T-shirt off, it is absolutely saturdated in sweat. Having been in crowds in London, Arnhem, Antwerp, Barcelona, Verona and Milan so far this
year. I can officially report that the sweat in Milan is the smelliest so far.
The crowd roars out Black... an extra instrument that the song wouldn't be the same without. By the time the song ends... the crowd have taken over... clapping along their own beat and singing the backing vocals.... it's an amazing feeling....
It's such a warm cheer... as everyone's heart smile's to the fact that Crazy Mary is next. The crowd are in singing mode, and they belt out this as well... This song is one of the best. It provides a really emotional
sing-along, and then gives Boom a chance to shine, followed by a call and
answer solo session between Boom and Mike... Jesus these guys are good.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!
A strange selection, this late in the show... Give to fly... which is the screen name of one of the girls I'm with. I boogy away and enjopy my space.. and notice that I reek of mixed concert sweat - eeeurgh.
The energy unfolds into Alive...which signals that the show is almost over... a roar eminates round the venue... as the riff envelops us to cue the sing-song. The crowd almost drowning out the band. The house lights are on and again you feel like you are at one with everyone aroudn you:
Then the solo kicks in and Ed goes crazy.... charging up the audience even more... Mike's on fire... widdling and twiddling upa nd down the frets...
The show's not as over as I thought it was... The band kick into Do the evolution.... maybe cos Stone wanted a solo after Mike's efforts on Alive.
The it's Big wave in case we forgot they have new material....Ed announces that the next song they are going to play is the song that they closed with in their first concert in Milan in 1992. It's leash... the song they never play... the second time I'm getting to hear it...
We rock out... the audience and the band are both on fire... and they keep it going by following leash with Rocking in the Freeworld.
It doesn't seem to last as long as the previous evening, but maybe that was more to do with the atmosphre of the Arena and having Mowgli on my arm.
From there, it can only go one way..... Yellow Ledbetter..... and my smile the width of my face.
We trickle out of the venue.... and try to kick off the party... we make our way ont he Metro system to the area that has been chosen for the after party meet up... we wander around aimlessly for what seems like an hour. By the time we finally get in a taxi and ask forthe bar... it's approaching 2am... and inevitably in this sleepy city that never seems to be open, the bar is shut.
We head back to our companion's hotel to find no room at the inn... luckily we get our heads down by 3am in the little 2 star... our body's aching from two days of euphoric Pearl Jam activity.
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