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Rating: Necessary premise: I love them! Ever since I heard them for the first time... well, I've grown up with them. They introduced me to the Who, the great Neil Young, Fugazi, Chris Cornell, Andy Wood, Seattle in the '90s.
That said, I had never seen them live. Missed the 2000 tour, I had to wait 6 years and 2 albums! But on Sunday, I was at the Forum. Oh yes yes damn!
Crazy Horse picks me up, we pick up Giordano and Ste on the way. At 7:30 PM, we're at Assago. Good support group, 40 minutes of honest rock.
At 9:10 PM, they come on... The concert starts strong, a series of fast-paced, intense songs ("Go", "Last Exit", "Save You", "World Wide Suicide", "Corduroy", the new and beautiful "Severed Hand"). The Forum is packed, outside the signs said that Pearl Jam asked us not to mosh for safety reasons. But you can't stand still. They play ferociously, they jump, they dance, Mike does whatever he wants with the guitar; Jeff and Stone look at each other, approach, place themselves right behind Vedder, face to face. And Eddie is incredible: he roars, powerful, very powerful, and when you think it can’t get any better, his voice grows more and more. You see them, they laugh, they play, they have a blast. Eddie has some papers and a bottle of wine, he reads the first and speaks to us in Italian (he’s been in Italy for a few days and speaks better than Schumacher) while drinking the second. A quiet moment ("Unemployable"), but it’s just a moment, and we start jumping again. "Even Flow" is the chance for Matt’s textbook drum solo.
"The world is dangerous.. but we're safe tonight", it’s "I Am Mine", and we all sing, bringing back the calm. Eddie's voice is now warm and gives you chills as he sings "Man of the Hour" (if you've seen Big Fish, it's the delicate pearl over the closing credits). Then it's the most Italian song, "MFC", written by Eddie stuck in Rome's traffic. But here: Jeff puts down the bass and picks up the double bass, "Daughter" arrives, another triumph, he lets us sing part of it, then they extend the ending, Eddie warbles, starts singing over it "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)", duets with us, a line him, a line us. The voice rises, in falsetto for "Faithful", but quickly becomes powerful and angry again for the end of the first part, with 3 super-fast tracks in a row: "Comatose", "State of Love and Trust", and "Why Go".
The first part is over, they leave the stage, and an hour has flown by.
Not even a cigarette, and they come back, actually only Eddie returns, with an acoustic guitar and the first cover, dedicated to his wife, met right here in Milan on the previous tour: "Picture in a Frame" (damn, Eddie singing Tom Waits to me, my latest musical passion!). Now they all come back, they kick off "Parachutes", perhaps the most beautiful ballad from the last album.
Then comes the most intense moment of the entire concert: "Black". The song is a jewel by itself, one of the most beautiful ever, the whole forum sings it, when the second guitar's melody kicks in, we start clapping to the beat and do the chorus, and we keep going as Mike drags the end, and Eddie improvises, and we continue even when the last note fades away, and even more. I am in a raised position, and I see all of us standing, clapping and singing and not stopping, and they on stage leave the instruments and gather and look at us, and then start applauding us and thanking us. How awesome!
And we go on with the second cover, "Crazy Mary" by Victoria Williams, a great piece impressively played. It's the grand finale, Eddie praises us, still in Italian, for the world championship, then "Given to Fly" starts, and we start jumping again. Now Stone kicks in, and at the second note, the Forum comes down, it’s their anthem, "Alive"... at the end of the song, while the others play, Eddie jumps and climbs everywhere, runs like crazy, finally trips over something and crashes to the ground (but really smashes down, a fall fit for a hospital, he ain’t 20 anymore...). Lucky for him, it's time to return backstage. But just for a moment, in no time they're out again; Eddie indeed arrives limping a bit, he leans on the microphone stand, but then as if nothing happened, starts jumping and dancing, while screaming "Do the Evolution", "Big Wave", and "Leash", for an intense ending like the beginning.
The lights turn on, last great cover, "Rockin' in the Free World" by papa Neil Young. And finally, as usual, the splendid "Yellow Ledbetter" (wow, such a piece is a b-side, unbelievable).
Now it's really over, two hours plus of great music, a performance to remember. I liked the choice of a tough, tight, and intense setlist. There are those concerts that get under your skin, so far the Cure (all 3 times I've seen them), Depeche Mode, and my first Battiato, now this one. Don't listen to those who say they're old, that they repeat themselves, that after Vitalogy, there's a void.. Yes okay, they sawed off Riot Act, but one misstep out of 8 albums is acceptable. This is still a great band, fantastic live. Energy to spare, live, vibrant concert, the most engaging I've ever attended. You can feel them putting their soul on stage.
And this Monday at the office feels as light as snow.
...Hey hey my my, rock'n'roll can't never die...
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