ben harper + pearl jam

now that my ears have stopped ringing since last weekend, i can now post about pearl jam. Top 5 show, for sure. We got to southern cross station and then walked across the bridge to ETIHAD stadium around 5 pm. we had GA seats, and made it down to the floor asap. We were in the front 1/3 of the masses, maybe 100 feet from the stage.

first up was Ian Flynn, some Aussie opening act. he wasn't too shabby. he came out later to sing "throw your arms around me" with eddie as a duet.

next up, ben harper. I was a little disappointed because he mostly played stuff from his new album, which i wasn't all that impressed with. the highlight of his show was bringing eddie vedder onstage to play "Under Pressure"

finally, around 8:30, pearl jam took the stage. They started with "elderly woman behind the counter..." and it was rolling from there. They played all of their entire first album except Once, Release and Deep. That's 7 songs from Ten!

they played two encores, and i was hoping to hear "who you are", but no such luck. They just kept playing, and playing, and playing. During the encores, they would play a song, and i'd think "they can't rock more than that. That must be the last song"

they closed the second encore with Baba O-Reilly and then Yellow Ledbetter.