pearl jam live @ mt smart stadium, auckland
The waiting drove me mad...
It was a long time coming alright. 11 and a half years between visits. 2 tours in Australia since 1998. But all was (almost) forgiven last August when Pearl Jam FINALLY announced 2 shows in New Zealand on their one-show-per-city tour of Aus/NZ supporting Backspacer.
From the giddy morning securing tickets to the giddy week (month...s) leading up to the concert, it really was a giddifying experience.
For those of you who missed the giddy-induced insanity
Mr Snuggleton outside the Superloos in Taupo
After a long (but fun) 9 hour drive with my friend Fran and Mr Snuggleton, I arrived in Auckland only to sit in shitty Auckland traffic for a further 2 hours before I managed to get to my hotel. Awesome start, but it was ok. I guess. My hotel was nice. I watched Coronation Street before meeting up with some fellow fans to wander the streets of Auckland in the bitterly cold wind trying to find something, anything, open to buy food. Auckland sucks.
There. I said it.
There was talk of being up at Mt Smart at 8am. Do people really do that?? Apparently the answer is yes. People really do that. In the Aussie tour just finished people slept at the venue to be first in line. My new friend Susan had been at the Sydney venue at 8am. Not the case in Auckland... because really, you'd get stabbed in Penrose wouldn't you? Or it's just in the middle of bum fucking nowhere so you'd starve to death? I dunno, but thankfully no one lined up overnight, giving the lazier amongst us a fighting chance for a front row spot. I put forward the argument that NZers are inherently lazy people who rock on up to venues right as the lights start to go down so there probably wouldn't be fierce competition. This appeased somewhat. Didn't realise at the time though that the only competition would be in the form of travelling Australians! And fierce competition it was. Oh well. We agreed to get going at 9.30 or so. And off we went to bed and such.
The next morning we eventually met up and got some breakfast at some cafe somewhere. Yeah. Sus was getting text message updates from the venue on numbers. The first 50 fanclub members to line up were put on a list and got to enter in that order. At about 10.30-11.00am they were only up to 25 or so. This was quite the opposite in Australia so this made us feel slightly better - until we got lost trying to find the motorway. We did have a map, but eh. I recall ending up in Grey Lynn trying to get to the North Shore once so I knew not to put myself in charge of navigation. Eventually though we got to the carpark (cousin-in-laws who work near the stadium ROCK) and trudged up to the venue. Number 33 at your service.
The atmosphere at this point in time was just awesome. Most other shows featured several hours sitting on concrete in a line in the sun getting tired and burnt. Here the 10 Club line was under some trees next to the entrance to the Supertop. And there was no line to speak of, just bodies lying in the sun/shade, littered casually on the grass. I tied my "Please play Black" banner up on the fence and people started coming over to look at it and the cartoon book and have their photos taken with it. Kinda awesome really.
Time ticked by at a reasonable pace. First we got our tickets and wristbands, then bought some merchandise and dropped it and a whole buttload of other peoples' stuff in my car. When we got back the crowd was asked to line up in order of arrival and we were taken into a "holding area". Not sure WHY exactly because this moved us from the lovely grassy knoll to the concrete in the sun next to the Supertop. The Supertop is an eyesore. Apparently it caught on fire a couple of months earlier. Glad it wasn't the venue this time...
Right on time, 4.15pm, we got let in. We were under strict instructions not to run - any runners would be kicked out. At this point I knew Shirley was at the venue but hadn't spotted her. My ticket wouldn't scan... fuck... by the time it did I was a good few metres behind my spot in the line. We power walked from the back of Mt Smart up to the stage -- where lo and behold the lovely Shirley was holding a spot in front of Mike McCready on the railing! She arrived maybe, 15 minutes earlier? Awesome work tricking venue staff into thinking she was band staff. Ha. She didn't even HAVE to lie, she just looks like band staff I guess.
Time flew by - which I really didn't think it would. And I didn't need to pee at all once in there - which I really thought I would. Even tried training for it at work. Emails exchanged "I lasted 5 hours... I caved at 2pm and peed". Everything was coming up Milhouse! Before too long, as the crowd continued to stream in and the 10 Club members around us leafed through the cartoon book and paid their respects to Mr Snuggleton, we got to our feet and watched the magnificent Liam Finn and EJ Barnes warm up the already overheating crowd. I lie, it was kinda cold... but... ya know. Overheating in their brains apparently.
They played for about 30 minutes and managed to squeeze in 2 special guests - Conan Holsford and Elroy Finn. Nicely played. At one stage one of the drum mics kept falling over - rescued by a brave and handsome roadie... wait a minute! It was Eddie Vedder! Marvellous! The crowd screamed in surprised delight once the penny dropped - and then laughed as the mic fell again the second he ran off the stage. So he came back! And the crowd started chanting "Ed-Die! Ed-Die!" which is much nicer than it looks written... Since this was Liam's time we tried to counter this with a "Lee-YUM! Lee-YUM!" chant. Which fizzled out.
Liam wound up his set with the always fantastic Lead Balloon and waved goodbye.
We talked to the security guards around us - I tried to convince one of them to agree to help us get Mr Snuggleton and the book onto the stage. No dice grandma. He did smile though... at least. I told him at some point someone in the band would WANT his help getting something onto the stage and he just smiled at me like I was crazy. Imagine!
Ben Harper and Relentless 7! I've never been a big Ben Harper fan... not until I heard White Lies for Dark Times. That album kicks arse. Boots Like These makes me wiggle like Wigglepuppy at a wiggle-a-thon. His set was kinda up and down for me. He's amazing. He's beautiful. But some of his songs were boring. Eh, still enjoyable. And what's this? Why, that's Mr Eddie Vedder! On stage for his regular spot to perform Under Pressure. Just. Unbelievable. Even knowing full well that it was coming. Still couldn't believe my eyes. They certainly looked to be enjoying themselves every bit as much as the crowd.
Ed left the stage and the crowd didn't calm down. Even though we were standing cool as cucumbers up against the railing (complete with small child who had snuck forward and was graciously allowed to go in the front row to appease security - just for the duration of Ben...) there were streams of people being pulled out of the crowd. One girl was pulled out and promptly fainted. One guy was covered in blood. Maybe there were at a different concert and got lost? I dunno, but if they couldn't handle Ben Harper there wasn't much chance of them handling the carnage to follow.
At this point I had reached excitement levels of dangerous proportions. I was just out of my head, with Sus attached to my arm as I muttered "FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK"... "OMG OMG OMG OMG". It had been a long time. A long time. We discussed what the opener would be. I chose Long Road because it's the song they played first in Wellington and they hadn't opened with it in Australia.
Piano music. The crowd screamed. And out came Pearl Jam.
"Looks like we made it!" Ed yelled.
Every time I hear this on the bootleg I think of Shania Twain. Goddamnit.
Ed promised to play at least until dark. Not sure if this was a joke or not, but I wonder if he realised it would get dark in about 30 minutes?
They launched into... Daughter! No one would have guessed that. That is not one of their regular openers. It caught us off guard, but we soon settled into bouncing and singing and generally soaking up the awesomeness of it all. I was excited about what the tag would be! Well, there was no tag, but they soon made up for that by playing Severed Hand. This made me very happy. I screamed along. I also screamed into security guard bosom as the flailing fans were pulled out. God bless those men. Nuzzle.
Mike McCready noticed us with the banner, so we raised it up and shook it at him. He smiled down and pointed to his setlist and mouthed "It's on here" to which I responded by grinning like an idiot and shrieking in delight.
Mike asked for the banner, a couple of times actually. At one point I tried to get Mr Snuggleton to him, but my throw was awful. He just went straight up and came straight down. Security picked him up and put him on a table out of reach. I looked up at Mike (who laughed) and tried to mentally communicate to him that it wasn't JUST a teddy bear - that there was meaning behind it that he might enjoy - but all I managed to communicate was my bottom lip sticking out. One security guy told me he'd try when his boss wasn't looking.
Ed spoke to us for the first time - to tell the crowd to move back 3 steps. Nice one Auckland! Turns out the venue staff were letting more than just people with Fixer Field tickets into the Fixer Field. No wonder there was a crush. Idiots.
Then Corduroy! The waiting hadn't driven Mike's side mad - but it did make us very appreciative of being treated to a classic. The waiting apparently did drive Stone's side mad and the push and crush continued.
Hail Hail followed after which Ed acknowledged the long wait.
"This one is for you, the faithful..."
I know I could say this about a lot of Pearl Jam songs - but Faithfull really truly is one of my most favourite songs of all time and I'm so glad they played it. I saw it in Wellington, I've now seen it in Auckland. I could see it every show and be happy. I could see another show and be happier...
The Backspacer songs began with a bang and Got Some. I growled in Susan's ear. I hope she liked it. Short, sharp and awesome. We sang the fairly complicated lyrics back breathlessly, bounce bounce bounce.
Hold On. Never would have guessed that one. I believe the 3rd time they've played it? Ed once again took the opportunity to ask the crowd to step back 3 paces. He pointed out a group of guys and told them security was watching and would pull them out.
"The key word here... It's ah, one word, two syllables... maintain brudda.. maintain."
Mr Mike McCready and the increasingly awesome Even Flow. His solo of course was amazing and led nicely into a song about another guitar player, Johnny Guitar Watson.
Elderly Woman was dedicated to anyone from Te Awamutu or any place smaller. The crowd, having spied Neil Finn and his family sitting side stage shrieked in delight.
"I just want to scream hello! My God it's been eleven years! Never dreamed you'd return!"
Our thoughts exactly. But now here they are. And there we weeeeeeeeee-eeeeere! Hearts and thoughts they faaaaaaaaade... awaaaaaaaaaay... Sigh...
Unemployable was dedicated to anyone affected by American economy and then the amaaaazing Unthought Known... with Gems and Rhinestones indeed!
I was glad Mike had told me Black was on the list so I didn't have to worry each time a new song started, but it didn't prepare me one bit.
Ed was waffling on about the Southern Lights (uh, ok) and then said "You know this one" and after 2 strums I SCREAMED. I screamed so loud I think I deafened Shirley a little bit and can be heard clear as day in the bootleg. Hehe. I enjoy playing this for people. And I'm glad I've seen the song on YouTube and heard it in the bootleg because all I can remember is crying and thinking "Oh my God, I'm listening to Black.. live... in front of my eyes... Oh man, are these tears? I wonder if they notice the crier. Ooh no, I can't see through the tears...". But that's ok, because that was my experience. My experience was emotion overload. And seeing the faces of the people around me as they whooped and smiled over at me. I tried to sing along but I was all shaky.
As we doo doo doo doo doo doo dooed and Mike made his guitar gasp the song's final moments, Ed stalked the stage. We angled the banner out so he could see and he laughed, then came over to us. We tried to throw the banner to him and as he waited with his arm out, security tried to grab it to put it out of reach. Ed stayed put and the crowd pointed up to him and eventually security twigged and threw the banner up to him. He got a better look, threw his head back laughing and held it up for the crowd to see. I'll never forget the look on his face. I don't have to try hard to remember since the moment is captured on video...
The cheer that erupts on the bootleg makes my skin tingle. He draped it over his foldback monitor, and grabbed a silver fern flag from the other side, briefly wrapping it around his shoulders before dropping it on the floor as Given to Fly began.
"He made it to New Zealand, had a joint in a tree"
Mike came over to our posse and smiled down at me - I took the opportunity to shout out "THANK YOU!" and blew him a kiss. Not often you get to actually say thank you to your heroes while they're looking right at your face, so I thank Mike for acknowledging that it was obvious the song meant a lot to me.
Grievance! Pretty much this entire song had security clambering overtop of us to save people drowning in the pit. Rough song. I sang into their chests.
Amongst the Waves - their version of surf music. Ed introduced someone who'd been with the band for 10 years but had never been to NZ with them. I expressed Matt Cameron related excitement, but the introduction was meant for Boom Gaspar who started playing the hymn-like Wasted Reprise - a short, but beautifully timed gentle howl. The spotlight fixed on Ed, and Better Man's familiar intro raised an enormous roar.
"Your turn..."
No matter how often he must hear this, he always looks so touched by it. A blissed out smile on his face as he watches 32,000 people sing every word.
"It sounds like a blessing"
We held his notes and the band rattled into life behind him.
An encore break. A delighted giggle at the banner still adorning the foldback monitor and the band came back on stage - this time seated. I took their cue to film what I knew would be one of two Backspacer songs that wouldn't cause much rioting in the crowd and was rewarded with this beautiful version of Just Breathe.
Ben Harper and his friend Mr. Satan (a guitar I assume) came out and they ripped into Red Mosquito. Awesome. On so many levels. How many amazing guitarists can you fit on one stage without them trying to upstage/outplay one another? They all fed off each other and the riffs and the energy and it was amazing.
The others took the opportunity to congregate on Mike's side of the stage - our first real glimpse of Stone Gossard and his sassy long hair...
Tinkle, tinkle, doom doom....
Shirley couldn't understand why I was hyperventilating and shrieking like a girl. "What is it? Huh?"
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE REIIIIIIIGN O'ER MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!
You'd never have known Ed was sick only days earlier in Sydney. So sick he threw up on the side of the stage. He absolutely nailed it and his howls sounded as powerful as any Roger Daltrey could have summoned.
"From the sea we came, it's evolution baby!"
The first time I saw this song live (ok, the only other time...) it was about... song 3 and I was NEAR the front of the Queens Wharf Events Centre, but not AT the front and as such I was in about the worst possible place a 17 year old girl could be. My memory of this song, having just survived the madness of Brain of J (sadly missing from the Auckland setlist) was "Oh fuck no!" because I knew it would only make the already rather violent young men at the front even worse. I was right and this was the song I bailed during. Not this time however. This time I got to breathe fresh front of the crowd air and raise my spirit fingers into the sky to sing HALLELUJAH! Fucking awesome is what that was.
"There's no reason to leave..."
Why Go! Often cited by myself as the song containing my favourite guitar solo. Aww yeah, he didn't let me down either.
A funky drum beat and semi-familiar strumming. The crowd at large didn't pick up on what this was. We did. We jumped. Awesome. Porch. The intro making the song even more breathless and exciting. Thinking this would be our chance to hand Snuggleton to Ed (assuming he was going to do some crowd interaction at some point) I begged and pleaded and the nice security guy looked around for his boss' disapproving glare and handed the bear back to me. Mike noticed and pointed out "Hey you got it back!" so I attempted another throw, not letting go this time... curses! Mike shrugged. Well sir... FYI, Ed didn't do his crowd barrier run during Porch. Oh well.
Another encore break - this time returning with a toast to our support and a story to tell. He told us about the time he wrote to one of his favourite songwriters but never sent the letter but how it didn't matter because they still managed to become friends. Neil and Liam Finn joined them on stage and sang the classic Chris Knox love song, Not Given Lightly - dedicated to the recently stroke-suffering Mr Knox. It was another tear jerker and the crowd sang along with all they had.
Despite a shaky start, Ed did the song proud with the final verse, holding one rogue note to cheers of approval for his embellishment.
"The FINNS!" Ed cried, with the biggest, dopiest grin on his face. He thanked Chris for a beautiful song and the Finns left the stage to the applause of the crowd and the band.
The Fixer got the crowd rarked up again - and the house lights went on. Rockin' in the Free World. Ed took this opportunity to do his crowd run, but unfortunately didn't come down our end, nor did we get any tambourines chucked our way. It's ok. Mr Snuggleton jumped into a NZPost bag when we got home and made his way over to McCready care of the 10 Club. I hope.
Mike's white-hot solo melted our faces (yes that's right, he melted our faces...) and he tossed his guitar into the waiting roadie's arms. The band were thanked one by one and Stone whipped his guitar lead like a 13 year old gymnast with ribbons. This amused Eddie enough that he called him a badass motherfucker. Ed claimed that if we saw him the street we could call him Eddie and ask him for a drink cuz he'd buy us one. He then muttered "You'll never see me in the street" but frankly, if I do see him and he denies me, I'll whip out my iPod and say something about verbal contracts and 31,999 witnesses. Ed called out to Mike for one more and with that we were treated to the never boring, never unwelcome Yellow Ledbetter.
And just like that it was over. 28 songs, almost a full day, 3 amazing bands, 32,000 fans and 11.5 years wait and a tired happy stadium filed out and into the streets to make their way home.
Hopefully it won't be another 11.5 years (because dude, I'll be 40 and they'll be playing with zimmer frames...).
photos of the gig