pearl jam in katowice

wow.. what an awesome night last night. to set the scene, we had a day of thunderstorms with lightning flashing across the south of poland and the deep rumble of thunder crossing the land. it was grey and wet and oppressive and not at all promising of a good night in an outdoor stadium watching pearl jam. to make matters worse, i hopped on the train from work to katowice only to realise one stop down the line that i'd left my ticket in my desk drawer in the office. so, off i had to get and back to the business park to get the ticket and wait for the next train... in an hour. the journey pt 2 wasn't any more promising as it was raining most of the way.. then..

arriving in katowice the rain had finally stopped and the air was still warm. i had no idea where i was going so followed some people who looked like they could be going to a rock concert. sure enough, my pied pipers led me to the stadium in the park in chorzów (i think it's a part of katowice but i'm not really sure) where the sounds of linkin park were already filling the air.

to cut a long story short, i made my way into the stadium and met up with zbyszek and aga from the office and settled into waiting for the band to appear. the sky was pretty clear and the air still and warm.. in short, perfect conditions for an outdoor show. it didn't take too long before the sun had gone down and the boys arrived on stage to launch into 'rearviewmirror'. they played a great set and eddie was in fine form as he interacted with the crowd. someone had written down a spiel for him to say in polish which was quite humourous but, as i don't speak the language myself, i had no idea what he was saying. the set was full of songs that are very well known (set list below) and the crowd responded accordingly. when 'daughter' morphed into a short cover of 'another brick in the wall pt 2' the singing from the audience almost overpowered eddie's singing. it was the first time i've seen pearl jam and can now see why their live show gets such great reviews.

the show finished just after 11pm and zbyszek and aga were kind enough to give me a ride back to kraków so i managed to fall into bed at 1.45am. today i'm tired, but very pleased i went.


main set:
rearviewmirror, animal, hail hail, corduroy, given to fly, worldwide suicide, elderly woman behind the counter in a small town, i am mine, lukin, even flow, comatose, nothingman, state of love and trust, spin the black circle, severed hand
encore:
leatherman, improv/daughter/another brick in the wall pt2, whipping, black/we belong together, jeremy, indifference