2012-07-02 Pearl Jam Prague #2

Here I am, again The same place, different venue (this also applies to Berlin). Prague. The last time I went here, it's my first show. Now, with 10 other show under my belt, it feels a lot different. Much more at ease. And I am happy to agree with Jessica Letkemann (in her Prague review for TwoFeetThick.com`; she's also a Spin, Billboard.com editor),that "time seems to stop and all the best ingredients are fully present"

6 AM:Not all is the same. Even though I have traveled here again with a Student Agency bus (a very early, yet comfy 4hr ride from Bratislava) with my cousin, a PJ first-timer as I was back then. We are now a traveling group of friends, I am arriving at the city which is both a base for my sister and her namesake Kristina, our mutual friend from my first stay in London.

Once we arrive at the venue with my sister and the gang, I can see that it looks a bit different, more o2-ish than the one which 6 years ago sported a bronze memorial inside that read "built in spite many and against many...developed by Czech minds and built by Czech, Slovak and Ukrainian hands" and some very interesting insights by the venue's creator, such as "every iniative and success in Czech Republic will be rightfully punished." Very PJish, I thought then.

Aside from all those new O2 logos, right off we see a small "10C entrance sign", a HUGE and a smaller Polish flag (smaller on the picture below). Right next to it are Justyna, Magda, Filip, Maciek, Adam and scores of other Polish fans which I know so well by now from all the tours before (the ones with whom we famously chanted "you-forgot-Poland" to PJ 6 years ago)

From 2012-07-02 Pearl Jam Praha

12 AM The "Touring Poles" had been camping here from early morning and started of waiting line list, where we sign our names in lucky slots 67-68-69 and in turn they sign our Slovak flag (an idea which I longed to realized since I first saw that sea of Polish flags back then).

3.30 PM:In the 10c ticket line we meet Jessica from New York, the editor; Sandra from London and other fans from all over the world (spanning from Brasil to Greece, maybe beyond). They all came or flew in to have tremedous fun and are hanging around the site tossing frisbees, chatting, crowding the nearby mall.

From 2012-07-02 Pearl Jam Praha

6 PM: It's 15 minutes to the early entry and we're frantically trying to find someone responsible for a luggage area, which according to tens of bemused O2 workers "usually opens after six". I leave Nadja and Danka in their spots in 10c entrance line, while I am waiting for someone to show up and relieve me of three rucksacks. At the line, they start letting people in. After 10 minutes or so, two youngsters appear casually at the luggage "caravan" and I run off to the entry number four, where I can hear the security signalling "public gates clear to open!" I realise that I am probably among the very last lucky early entry ten clubbers to enter the arena.

Here I find Nadja and Danka at Mike's (the guitarist) side. I join them in the second row and before the show a small Slovak circle gathers around us: my cousin with his friend, our friends from Orava; Kristina with her mom and boyfriend, whom I meet for the first time here in a PJ crowd.

7.30 PM: I thoroughly enjoy the opening set from the band "X", while we marvel at the guitarist Billy Zoom's style, which Nadja describes as "I'm sexy and I know it.." Eddie joins the lead singer Exene Cervenka and bassist/singer John Doe for the last song of their 45 min set, Devil Doll.

From 2012-07-02 Pearl Jam Praha

9 PM: Pearl Jam opens their set with Sometimes, one of my favourite No Code numbers and then drives into an energetic 19-song set, dashing out the likes of God's Dice (with Eddie dedicating the song to the "God's eye " of the O2 Arena and wrongly citing "Oliver" Wilde), Setting Forth (only played twice in Europe), Push Me, Pull me (with its very odd rhytm only played the 10th time ever), a beautiful rendition of Garden (my first time for this one) 1/2 Full (which replaced Down from the original setlist and featured Ed beaming off light of his guitar over the audience and our Slovak flag of course), ending with a meddle of Wasted Reprise/Life Wasted/Why Go



~10.40 PM: It's nearly eleven, we're all sweaty and out of breath, but the show is nowhere near being over. For their second set, Pearl Jam mellow down for a country number Of the Girl (played here for the first time in Europe since Prague 2000), romantic Just Breathe and Victoria Williams' Crazy Mary for which Eddie comes in front of us and Mike, and fills our cup with Spanish wine ("take a bottle, drink it down, pass it around...") The band teases us with Rolling Stones' Angie, ending in embarassment with Eddie and the first of completely forgetting the lyrics. Refueled we enjoy two thumping numbers Once and Evolution

From 2012-07-02 Pearl Jam Praha

~11.15 PM: The band on stage for the 3rd time this evening, we share a big smile with my cousin, who thought he could catch the midnight train back to Bratislava and work in the morning ("you ain't goin' nowhere, man!"). A 6-song closing set comprising of WWS, Better Man, Black, Alive, The Who's Baba O'Riley and of course, Mike wailing his guitar on Yellow Ledbetter.

12 PM: Everyone is hesitant to leave after what many rightfully call "the best show in a long, long time.." and people hang out in the lobby and before the arena. Kristina manages to persuade the techs to give her the night's setlist, which after several attempts to catch the night tram to her boyfriend's appartment ends up on the door of his loo. Once in the apartment, our conversation and joy slowly dozes over and we nap on the floor.

From 2012-07-02 Pearl Jam Praha

But this is just beginning. In front of us is a day of pub crawling with my sister in the city where she studies, a fast ride to Berlin with friends from Orava, two wild PJ shows there and a day of exploring with our host Alex. But more of that, hopefully, later.