Pearl Jam and Wolfmother - Barcelona

I'm much more refreshed by the time I am boarding a plane to Barcelona with Mowgli, the only problem is that when I finally got that elusive full nights sleep I've been chasing for 7 weeks, I woke up to find that my body had totally failed on me. My nose is running off my face, and the gunge in my throat is making me wonder whether I'll be able to sing along to the last three hours of this week's 9 hour Pearl jam sing-along fest.

We are leaving Luke at home to discover Amsterdam, although I think he's more likely to catch up on some sleep.

Because we've slept, we are already high as kites when we board the plane The journey can't pass quick enough, and our itchy feet are further frustrated when we touch down and realise it's about a 45 minute train ride into the centre(Or it seems that long.)

About an hour later, we arrive at the venue. It's in Badalona on the outskirts of Barcelona.

When we get there, there are lots of Catalans sitting around outside the venue. We are far too early. There's a group of Pearl jam fans who are going round the whole tour in a bus, and we seek them out with a few text messages and phone calls.

We head to a pharmacy to try and find a cough bottle for me. The pharmacist speaks no english at all so lets me go through the back to the store room and look for something suitable. I pick up something that looks like a cough bottle("Por el chesty cough") and pay for it. I could have had anything in the store room....

We get no response from our phone calls and sms's, so we decide to head for the pub instead. Low and behold, all the guys we were phoning and texting are in there already. We catch up on how the tour has been and what everyone has ben up to since the Astoria gig or wherever we last saw them.

A couple of beers in we're joined by The Diamond geezer... he is the real deal Cockney Lad and we know him from the Astoria. He has been looking for the crazy sweaty socks since sometime yesterday. We were the only people at the Astoria that drank in the same style as him. He seems to be continuing the trend, as he has what can only be described as a bucket of Sangria.

We catch up on what he's been up to, get a few more drinks in and then head out to get our tickets.

The place is starting to get busy now, and we pose for a few photos in our kilts.

It's now just a waiting game till we get into the show...... We buy some posters and put them in our ruck sacks, since we have no where to stay as of yet, I donlt fancy the poster's chance of getting home in one piece.

..... we finally get into the venue. We have ten club ticket which gets us in 15 minutes early, so the place is empty when we arrive.

First port of call is the cloakroom to put our bags in. We wander around the circular corridor that surrounds the main arena. Everyone we ask, either doesn't speak english or doesn't know where there's a cloakroom. At one point we get a mouthful of Spanish from security. I say "No hablo espanol", so they just ignore us.

Before long, we're behind the stage. Not back stage as far as we know, just literally behind the stage. There's four guys playing table tennis. We know who two of them are; Mike McCready and Jeff Ament, the lead guitarist and bass player of Pearl jam. Initially I tell Mowgli that we should leave them to it, but he convinces me that I'm unlikely to ever meet members of Pearl jam again.

We walk up to them. What do you say when faced with your all time heros, the people who have written so much of the music that is and was the soundtrack to your life... I decide that we have to treat them like normal guys. I'm determined, I'm not going to approach them with every cliche they've heard before. I think I may take normal a little overboard:

"Guys. The security is a pretty lax in here, you any idea where the cloakroom is, we need somewhere to put our bags."

They are a little flabbergasted. It's either the fact that we were able to walk straight back stage, or the fact that we are in kilts with saltires round our necks...

Mike points at my hat that he recognises from the night before, and says "The hat". Mowlgi is busy accosting Jeff and telling him that he would bet him at Table tennis any day, and trying to show him his 1992 season seattle sonics basketball shirt, that he bought on ebay cos he saw jeff wearing one in an early Pearl jam photo....

The guys are pretty sweet if a little shocked. I'm determined all the way through to give them their space, so I tell Mowgli that we should head off... but only after one very quick thank you...

"Thanks for the music guys. Have fun tonight"



Now considering my whole existence wanted to dive at their feet and shout "we're not worthy!!!!!" I think I did okay. We get back into the main arena, and we sit down. I'm shaking.... Hee Hee... we just met Mike and Jeff!!!!!

We still haven't found a place to put our bags, so we juggle things about a bit, putting the most valuable things in our Sporrans. We speak to some of the security and pay them a couple of beers each to stick our bags in at the sound desk that they're looking after. Cerveza goes a long way.

By now Wolfmother are ready to go on. It's been strange seeing a band three times in one week who are new to you. They've really grown on us, and I know that whatever happens in the future, I'll definitely follow their career. It's their last night on the tour, so they thank Pearl jam and the fans as they play.






I notice Mike is at the left of stage watching them, so I assume that when the singer introduces a special guest, it's going to mike. It turns out to be eddie. He does a phenomenal version of Mind's Eye. This is possibly in return for the Hungerstrike duets that have been going on. The crowd go wild.... It's a wonderful song, and ed adds a couple of extra notches to how good it is. As good as Wolfmother are, Ed out classes them by so much and raises, a pretty good band with a pretty good song, to an experience you'll tell your grandchildren about. Ed even gets some tambourine action going a la Baba O'Reilly

It's over as soon as it started, and we rock along to Wolfmother once again, until halfway through Joker & The Thief, Mike joins the band on stage to wail and twiddle along with andy to the solo... It's some of the best leads I've seen live from mike, mainly cos they are so off the cuff. He's really enjoying himself as well....





Just 45 minutes before, I was talking to him while he played ping pong :-)

Wolfmother head off stage. It may be just me, but I feel they've grown more used to the audience, they seem to be playing less songs, but making them a little longer amore experimental.

Soon, we're at that apprehensive stage again, where we are waiting for Pearl jam to take to the stage. We chat to those around us, and buzz on the excitement of those around us. There's a 15 year old girl, who's at her first concert. It' strange to think she was born the year the first album came out. It makes me feel old, but also brings home just how long this music has been an integral part of my daily life.

The band come on stage and Mike's guitar tech hands him a twin necked guitar. This could mean one of two things, Either they are going to open with Inside Job, the last track on their new album, or they have decided to start covering stairway to heaven. It ends up being the former.



Inside Job is a bit of a strange song for Pearl Jam. It's very "written", and you can kind of feel that... at first, I didn't really like it(I never like new Pearl jam on first listen), but then the chorus kicks in and you get that Pearl jam DNA in the sound that I mentioned I feel in "In Hiding". There's two tracks like that on the new album, Gone and Inside Job.... The rest of them just burn away slowly until you see them live one day and realise they sit fine with all the classics.

Inside job builds with so much energy, that the beautiful instrumental introduction gives way the a thumping power... the perfect opener...

The band kick straight into Corduroy. The audience use the energy well, they are chanting "yeah, yeah, yeah" furiously from the Riff onwards... It rocks as always... and sits nicely beside inside job.

One things clear, it's going to be a hot night. 2 songs ina nd the whole band is dripping with sweat. The audience are the same....

From the new to the old back to the new..... World Wide Sucide is just kicking it every single night. I can play the main chords on the guitar, and its one of those songs thats just great fun to play to. It's strange to think that it was completely new to us only six month before. Mike rips with such ease, and the band hold together like no other.

When Animal starts, it;s such a classic in your head that you have to readjust during the riff to work out which foot to the floor rocker it is. You forget how amazing the stuff from that period was. The lead son this song are amazing, yet he plays them with such ease. Maybe World Wide Suicide isn't that new.

From there, the speed and energy stays up and we stick with Verses, kicking into dissident. What a riff... what a song.... to think i thought it was weak compared to ten when it first came out. I suppose it's proved itself and stood the test of time.

Then the rolling ball of energy crashes onto the shore in a wave that is called Given To Fly. As good as the studio version is... the energy of a crowd feeling the music coupled with the music could be used as an alternative power source.

I don't know who's writing these sets, but the way the play with the crowd is amazing. Maybe it would just be the same if the songs came on at random, maybe its just Pearl jam.. They kick into Breakerfall which uses a (ahem) hommage to "i can see for miles" by the who.... It's such an amazing riff that when the song kicks in it's a great album starter and seems to fit perfectly with the energy we're experiencing at the moment.

Mike spots my hat and give me a smile. The obviously thought we were reasonably bizarre when we walked up to them tartan clad and inquired about cloakrooms.

There's a delicate apprehensive start.... some chords we recognise... and we realise it's an adapted version of In my tree from No Code. I say it so often, but the songs on this album are filled with so much that they can be adapted, and mean so much. I don;t often listen to lyrics, but I've caught these and I think they are amazing.... climbing the tree of knowledge in search of something that turns out to be your innocence. Some acoustic power chords and the song builds on the groove and rips with energy. As it builds to a climax, it gets louder and slower.... and the power and energy builds... I'm very glad to witness it live.

A special treat...... and from it into what has become a required expectation. I think it would be really interesting to see what happened if they didn't play evenflow. Would people(like Mike) ask for their money back. As usual, mike's going for full audience participation during the verses and choruses, he spots me again, and I mime ping pong with him, getting a belly laugh......

....Senor Mike McCready

Bendy bendy... into the one note.. getting more furious and feedbacky... then speed ... bluesy furious speed.... must be the heat. The guitar just wails in his hands... the hands I watched play ping pong not that long ago... the hands that I tried not to stare at...

He builds to join Jeff and Stone on augmenting the riff, before collapsing into noise. and a random little solo of triad chords... Matt is getting more furious as Mike builds to some wailing one note bends... before twiddling his way back down and then getting murky, as Stone starts some sort of arpeggio form.... For a second it becomes a battle... then they are gone and Matt takes over....

Arnhem was really robust and clear, but we're now getting something a little more adventurous... with matt flip flopping all over the toms, with less of a backbone beat to it. It thuds away..... if graphology is the study of personality from hand writing, then there has to be an equivalent to work out people's moods from what they are playing....

The band kick back in and join the audience's energy. The audience yeah and scream along.... before erupting along to Mike's outro riff.

I'm very proud of what happens next. At each concert Mowgli and I have tried to recreate the Argentina bootleg when the whole stadium chant "Ole Ole Ol Purrell Jam Purrel Jam" throughout the whole concert. It's never caught on at any of the concerts, but after Evenflow, the spaniards join in.... if only for a little while.

Eddie thanks Mike and Matt, the evenflow double act and kicks into You Are. A really inaccessible song from Riot Act. Really dark, but a really gem. It's been written by Matt, and you can't always tell what is drums and what is guitar, as the guitar plays througha noise gate and intermingles with the drum beat. It's pretty experimental and also pretty 80's. I really like it and I love how brave Pearl jam can be with their music.

They don't always have to be experimental though, and they prove it by kicking into State Of Love And Trust. A song thats dear to me as it was the first song I played live on the guitar in front of an audience. It was an audience of grandmothers, who were there to see a brass band concert. But to us it was wembly.

Pearl Jam play it considerably better than we did. But it's charged with the same energy.... An energy that doesnn;t abate, as the band kick into Whipping. This song just takes off. I'm always impressed that Jeff can remain zen like, he plays really simple robust intelligent bass lines, but is happy to stay in the back ground and doesn't try to complicate matters by showing off. For 15 years!!!! This song shows how amazing he is. The bass is lightening fast. If I was him, I demand they play it more often. It's a joy to hear, and I'm amazed they can still play it with such energy. I keep expecting them to show their age, but they never seem to.




The heat is begining to get unbearable. The bouncers are passing out water, but you have to hold your mouth open and wait for them to give you about a cap full. It;s nowhere near enough to satisfy you, just enough to keep you alive. The air is also very hot, you feel like you;re just breathing vaourised sweat.

After Whipping we get an alternative(read "mistake-ridden") interpretation of the classical piece Romanza which falls away to give us the chord for betterman. With an audience like this, you don't need vocals until at least the second verse. Ed loves it and seems to genuinely appreciatte the love he's getting from this audience. The band kicks in and we rock off.

ed starts a call and answer at the break down. It almost turns into reggae. I bet the 22 year old eddie vedder nver though that in 1988(or whatever) when he wrote that song, that he's be playing it to 10's of 1000's of people as a sing along almost 20 years later. It;s a funny world.

Do The Evolution just makes me danceabout. It;s a good song, but there's little I can say about it. It rocks away and is a good time for me to realise that I am boiling. The sweat is dripping off me. I am unsure if I can stay right at the front until the end. I dream of sinking my face into a cold basin of water in the toilets.

From Do the Evolution, we take to Life watsed like the water we wish we had to drink. I keep on saying it, but it's pretty impressive how easily the new stuff blends with the old. This is Eddie in the zone. He gets to punk out on this shong,. The words always have augmentations and he seems to really enjoy himself.

Life wasted is still working with me. I'm really feeling the heat. I've got to the stage, that I've no energy left. I'm concentrating on standing up instead of listening to the music. But I'll see what happens next.....

Two nights ago, I heard Black live for the first time in my life. Nothing can compare to that experience. This time I actually get to have an "In body" experience and enjoy it. The Audience are on fire, as they have been all night. At one point it breaks down into nothing except ed and some clapping and it's just an amazing moment. Eddie breaks down to the "we belong together" extra lyrics from MTV unplugged... The music is drifting along on the audiences memories. It's moved beyond guitars and drums... and just rests in the combined feeling of the audience. It's beautiful.

From here, I'm very proud of what happens. We've been singing "ole ole ole since the astoria, with out "Purrel Jam Purrel jam" bad Argentinean/Scottish accents/ Now you can hear them on the boot, and whats more, it develops into a whol audience thing, and then the band join in. I love, when ed tells the rest of the band that the second chords a minor. I would never have though Ed was the most musically gifted of the band. Maybe he just got lucky.

For some reason the last time I heard us influence the band in a bootleg(Astoria Kilt Incident), they started elderly woman behind the counter in a small town. Tonight is no different. I finally wimp out and head for some water. I know its just going to be a sing song. A great sing song, but I need water.

I head out and realsie what the problem is. teh seated audience seem to be able to walk into the main standing area, so there's no one in seationg, ans it;s as busy as the mish pit right to the back wall. The crowds actually pile back into the corridor for about 10 metres with no eyeline to the band.

I get to the toilets, take off my sub pop t-shirt and soak my head in water. It revives me. I can physically feel myself waking which is worrying. I drink about ten pints of water, then fill every bottle I can find and head for a seat.

It's really interesting to take the time to listen without worrying for your safety in a crowd. The band have broken into Crazy Mary while I refreshed myself, and I chill for a little while I drink a few more pints of water while contemplating what to do next. The crowd is thick for about 40 metres. Shoulder to shoulder. I hope I should be able to get "Mowgli-Deep" for the encores. Most important is to take as much water back into the crowd as possiblem as it;s a commodity in there.

As I head back to the toilet, the security looking after our bags comes and speaks to me in drunken unintelligable spanish. I collar a mexican we were talking to in the ten club queue and ask him to translate. It translated roughly to:

" She you... your like pure brilliant.... you gave me beer and I'm looking after your bag, and your bag is soooooooo shafe.... soooooo shafe.... it's like a shafe happy bag , all safe and bag like..."

I think he may have taken a few other bags for cerveza deals.

I go and collect 8 bottles of water and stick them in my waistband... then put 4 pints of water i each hand. I head through the crowd, as boom and Mike are doing some major soloing. Listening back the solom exchange is amazing, there's even a wee nod to the alive solo, but I'm too busy accidentally dropping water on people. They are very appreciattive and even more surprised when I hand out water. My theory is that if they have water, then i won't be breathing air that is so purely sweat, they might excrete some water too. By the time I get into view of Mowgli's trilby. I have one pint of water and one bottle. I give Mowlgi the bottle - he needed it. He;s looking rough, but a quick splash of water and Pearl jam encore will pick up most men.

The band kick into Comotose, and as I say, it;s the home straight from here, which is a shame, but it also means that we could get some really cool stuff from now on. Mike tears apart the lead incomotose as always... leaving as little for later as eddie does with his voice.

From here, the band go into alive. I've come to see it as a reasonably interesting song that makes a good singsong and solo and is a little cliched. How wrong could I be. This version is blistering the solo seems to build in energy throughout and just get more amazing with every note. The song just becoems a mind blowing ball of energy. The chant of "Hey" along to the beat of the solo charges the whole experience with so much, and the band are definately thriving on it... everyone is feeling the groove and driving the groove forward - jesus I'm a hippy.

I'm now settled back down the front of the audience, and I'm soooooooo glad I went to get refreshed. I am now rocking away with all these dead bodies around me.

The second encore starts with Why Go? Now becoming an expected standard.... but owww what a standard.... with its old school Ten-esque sound and it's lightening solo it's just so..... so ...... alive..... as is Pearl jam. 2 hours in and no abating.

From here, ed name checks some more idols and gives us some ramones, but we don't mind. I believe in miracles has become a standard in the pearl jam set. It kicks off and really gets us going. This late in the set, so we can't hope for many more songs, but we're ready for another 20 songs at least during this song.

After this, Ed introduces Andew Stockdale, and they do Hungerstrike. It doesn;t hit me with the immense delight and supise that it did the previous evening, but I still it's an amazing song and I sing away like I don;t need a throat for the rest of my life. And from hungerstrike, we hit Baba O'reilly, which means on of two things. I'm gonna tock out, cos it;s one of my favouritesm but also that we get to watch some intricate tambourine juggling from our vocal team of Ed and Andrew Stockdale....

After such happiness and euphoria....and such an amaxing audience, it can only end.



Yellow Ledbetter spells the the end of the show once again, and what a show. I've never been in such a thick crowd. The heat was immense, unbearable at times, but the feeling of the crowd as one big beast oozing to Pearl jam was phenomenal.

Once the gig is finished, we head back to the mixing desk to pick up our bags. The sozzled security have done their job well and our bags(Including poster) are intact.

We head outside, bare chested with kilts dripping with sweat all along the bottom. It really feels like we are coming out of battle, and we are certainly victorious!! The concert goers all explode onto the street... filled with euphoria, and with ringing ears.. so many smiles and memories...

From here, we meet the diamond geezer and a few others and head along the street a little to the Metro station. By the time e finally get on the metro, it's wall to wall Pearl jam fans... so we start a sing song of the "ole ole" chant. It ges down well and the whole carriage is going for it.

I could travel all night in the tram and just sing all the Pearl jam songs, but we arrive at our stop. We've befriended a couple of locals who are going to take us to a few bars. when we finally get to the bars, it's grungey and dingey, which is god, but it seems to resemble a youth club, so it's not quite our bag... We have a couple of bottles of beer and head on...

We head to the La Ramblas via metro and bus... the only problem is that it's now about 3am... The adrenalin has left us with absolutely no concept of time.

After a MacDonalds, to keep us going(It's the only thing open) we seek out an all night party. We've heard Barcelona doesn't stop, so we're ready for anything. Everywhere seems to be closed,. there's a few clubs open, but the music emanating from them sounds very un-pearl jam, so we decide against the €15 entrance fee.

We spend the rest of the evening wandering La Ramblas and talking to Pearl jam fans who recognise us, our wristbands or our T-Shirts.

The Diamond Geezer has a double room booked in a hotel somewhere on the outskirts and has assured us that it will be like Travellodges in the UK and we'll be able to sleep there. It's now about 5am, so it's going to be a pretty short sleep.

We head out in a taxi. We arrive at the hotel and head to the lift. The receptionist objects. We try to protest, and he says that he's calling the police. I ask him if he has other rooms. His english is not so good, and he just freaks out. He refuses to have a conversation. It may be the kilts, it may be the cockney accent, or he may just be suspicious of people who are awake at 5.30 am and have only had 2 bottles of beer.

The Diamond Geezer heads for his stuff, and then we sit outside and wait for the police to arrive. It takes a little while, but I know that if we walk away we are instantly in trouble. So we sit on a park bench and hope to hell that they speak English. Two police cars turn up. Luckily it's just local police and not Garda Civil. There's about 8 of them. The boss speaks good english and soon realises that it's complete over kill. He checks our passport and then asks us if we want to go back to Barcelona. "that would be wonderful" I say, assuming he's going to be giving us a lift. "Bus number 5 leaves from around the corner!!"

By 6am, we're back on La Ramblas, I'm not relishing the thought of sleeping on a park bench anywhere in Barcelona, about two blocks in we find a hostel. It turns out that it's really nice, and only 20 euros a night.... we settle down for a some well deserved kip, poster intact....

We booked flights to come back late Saturday night in the hope that we could see a little bit of Barcelona on the Saturday. With only about 5 hours sleep, the plane time, has become a nuisance, and we find ourselves wandering round the centre of Barcelona in a daze, discussing memories of the previous evening, other concerts, and music in general. It's a wasted day, but looking back it reminded me of days I used to spend when I was 17... you'd go out on the saturday and then spend the sunday discussing music and concerts and the night before and life...

Thats what this day was like. The only difference, is the bizarreness, that we can take a one day trip to Barcelona, meet Pearl Jam, nearly get arrested, and then hang around the centre, of Barcelona as if it was our back garden.....

....Back to Amsterdam for two week's rest before the next Pearl jam weekend.