The Italian Job day 4 - Recovering in Milan

Your Ad Here

The next day, we wake up... the tiredness has turned into aching bones... almost every muscle that supports a limb is sore and painful.

A couple of quick showers freshen us up enough to get us checked out of the hotel.

The idea of airing the clothes to freshen them hasn't worked... with each step a puff of wiffy BO oozes out of the bags.

Although we've been in Milan for almost 24 hours, we still have no idea what the city looks like, what the tourist attractions are, or where they are. We head to the underground, as we seem to be in the middle of nowhere.

After an espresso and a panini, we decide that metro station Duomo sounds most like a historical centre......

....turns out we're not wrong. We get out of the underground and seem to have hit tourist pay dirt:



It's a really bustling historic tourist centre. With a very busy square:





We have a wander around a little bit - go to the toilet in MacDonalds etc... and then take to the cathedral. Normally at this point, I would stick on Nine Inch Nails for a bit of atmosphere, but since Mowgli's here we just do a traditional church visit:






It's pretty massive. It seats 40,000 worshippers... which technically means that Pearl Jam could have played here.... but they would probably have to scratch Do the Evolution from the setlist.

We head outside and wander around the outside of the cathedral. Apparently you can get up to the roof for a view over Milan...



While I'm trying to work out where the lift is... I hear Mowgli say "You have got to be shitting me!!!" He's found someone he knows. I look over and see two women and a guy... the women look uncomfortable as if Mowgli is intruding... I realise Mowgli has found Stone Gossard, rhythm guitarist for Pearl Jam, Mother Love Bone, Temple of the Dog, Green River and Brad:











One of the backbones of the Seatle Music scene...he who composed Alive, Evenflow, Black , Cadillac and countless others.

I go for the whole non-chalant -appreciative of the music thing. He is so subdued it's unbelievable... he says very little. He seems to recognise us as the guys in the kilts, and comments on how much fun the previous evening was. I feel pretty uncomfortable, as if we're intruding, so I'm glad to end the experience. I'm glad I can say I met him, but compared to our experience in Barcelona, it's far less fun.

Instead it's better to walk on with Mowgli through this wonderfully picturesque historical centre rattling off the achievements of the great man who's hand we have just shook. It's pretty strange. Initially, you think. "wow... Stone Gossard. The man who's been in posters on my wall since I was about 12."... then slowly it sinks in what he's done... what he's brought your life, all those personal moments you have with his music, visions of MTV Unplugged, DVD's... posters... photos...guitar licks.... wow!!!

3 down..... 2 to go..... although... If I wanted to get away from Stone as soon as I met him... I can't imagine what I would do if faced with Ed.

Stone is different from Mike and Jeff. With Mike and Jeff, their stage personas have convinced you(Probably wrongly) that you know a little bit of their personality. Stone however, does so little on stage, that you have nothing to go on. It is either a wonderful achievement in keeping his private life private, or he has no personality.

Our euphoria... finds us drifting into a shopping precinct. We meet a Pearl jam friend from the concerts. She is super excited. She's just met Jeff. We're jumping up and down telling her we've met Stone. This is getting so sad....



The band seem to be spending the day wandering around Milan. They clearly don;t have that much of a problem with being recognised, accosted and photographed, although I'm proud to say I still haven't taken the cringe-worthy "Me and Mike" photo, but it's been sorely tempting.

We wander down Via Torino... there is an exhibition of arial photos of Italy, which are pretty spectacular. We're now just aimlessly wandering. Our plane is quite late, and we're wired with adrenalin, euphoria and espresso, with no real party to take it out on. Milan still seems to be closed, so we can't even wander round the expensive shops.

We head back to Duomo square. I'm keen to get up to the roof of the Duomo. Mowgli is less keen("I'm not paying money to stand on a roof. There's nothing up there."). I manage to convince him that while we are too poor to pay the 6 euros to go up in the lift. We can afford the 4 euros to climb the 165 stairs. As we're going through the turnstyle, someone recognises us and talks about our kilts. He tells us that Mike is at the top of the roof, and if we hurry, we might meet him.

We've already met Mike. I don't like to intrude on them. There's 165 steps.....



30 seconds later, we are on the roof, close to vomiting. we rush up to the next level, and then wander onto Mike's part of the roof, relaxed and Non-Chalant. we get a "Hi guys.." There's a group of Norwegians talking to him. So I take the time to get some photos from the roof:







We then it for about 15 minutes talking to Mike. It's good that we've met him before. We're getting to the stage where we feel a little more relaxed about talking to him. It's not like an out of body experience any more. The good thing is that we just talk crap... asking a few things about the show the previous night...asking about his Scottish heritage(He knows nothing).

The previous evening Matt gave a girl in the audience an autographed cymbal. we aked about this. Apparently she held up a sign saying "Matt. Can I have a cymbal". "you never know it's worth a try says Mike"... We inquire if "Mike can I get your 1959 Fender Stratocaster" would get any response... we're told we might get a string:



I could sit up here all day talking crap with Mike. eventually, he tells s its his wife's birthday, he has to buy her a present and he's shit at buying presents. He's human!!!!!

We spend another 20 minutes talking about great Pearl Jam memories with the Norwegians while we wander round the rest of the roof. If you read this guys.... get in touch...





Once back down on the ground.. we meet some more Pearl Jam fans... including the girl from before. She's met Stone and Boom now... I would like to have met Boom.... I imagine he's extremely chilled and lovable... still a good relaxed conversation with Mike in a beautiful setting is hard to beat.

The Duomo square is going crazy for another reason. Another band is in town: My Chemical Romance. I don't know much about them, but they seem to produce music for baby goths, as there are lots of 12 year olds sitting around with eyeliner... died black hair and black clothes, holding posters which profess their ability to carry on thanks to the music with interesting use of English grammar. They're all holding up signs to the camera's coming out of their hotel room. The band are making a DVD apparently.

I'm interested in how this was organised. Did the band actually post on their website. "We will be at X hotel filming a DVD on X date... please turn up with messages for us...." Hmmmmm. Spontaneous. If you ever see the DVD, you'll notice a taller person in the crowd of people holding up messages, whose message appears to be a Pearl Jam live in Italy limited edition poster. The goth kiddies just thought my message was really subtle......

After some lunch, it's finally time to head to the airport. We can stop hanging around Milan waiting for something as interesting as a Pearl Jam concert to happen.

I've been to Orio al Seria airport in Bergamo before... It's tiny. It gets even smaller when our plane is delayed by 2 hours. There is nothing in the airport. The Italian's don;t tend to use their airports to seel things to their captive audience, so you just have to sit around entertaining ourselves... and trying to get a payphone to work to find out how bad Paprika's laryngitis is.

Two very tired Pearl jam fans stagger into the flat in the early hours of Tuesday to get some sleep before another week of work without a relaxing weekend.....

The Italian Job - Day 3 - Pearl jam - Fila Forum, Milan - 17.09.06

After a pretty good night's sleep which is surprising given that it was on a floor, we wake up late and get our stuff together before heading for the train station.

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.