Back to the previous night, of the glorious Prague show
After the Pearl Jam show in Prague, we'd been left one day of pub crawling with my sister, who has shown us her favourite spots to have good Czech beer and spend her studies. One was a spot, where the football fans hang out (thankfully, no rowdies or hooligans), and one, where Slovaks supposedly hang out in Prague, Cross (we've seen no Slovaks there either, but you can't check everyone for nationality, can you? ;)
Anyway, shortly after she bid us farewell at the local tube/tram/train station. Here we were crowded not by Pearl Jam fans, like the night before, but TJ Sokol (an old Czech gymnastics movement) members of all ages and corners of Czech Republic. A certainly interesting sight, being cornered by an enthusiastic crowd like that.
But back to Pearl Jam..
4th July
~12 AM: Thanks to our friends from Orava, we were safely and quickly escorted to the new Berlin O2 World arena, where we found fan club friends already lining up, camping near the site, using flags as sunshades. It wasn't that easy to join them though, because due to a failed pre-sale, we were left without fan club tickets and early entry wristbands. Thankfully, there were fan clubbers buying only one ticket and generous enough to help us out with the spare wristbands they received. It was bit nervewracking and not the first thing that day to make us worry.
~4 PM: Here's another thing. We've just entered the fan line for the time being, when we're mugged by these "friendly" o2 world security people, that in 30°C heat it's unreasonable to keep a water bag! Yes, you heard me. A water bag, one of those bicycle bag ones. As a "hard rock fan" and therefore, criminal, I was asked the spill (!) the remaining water on the ground below the nearest recycling bin. What a waste! (and what thirst later on) None of the common sense arguments working, of course, this being Germany.
~5.45 PM: By this time, thanks to a rigorous lady in the line, we'd been all lined according to our handwritten, blackpoint-penned numbers, starting from those camping near the site the previous night and roughly finishing with us as being somewhere under 200. What an effort! Excerpt from two German old ladies and some anarchists, these numbers were folllowed to the letter, once we were oficially let in the front rows of the arena (without our water bag or camera, but with an escorting corridor of security people..)
~7.15 PM: In the front we meet fellow friends again, cheering for the X at their rehearsal, and when they play, I remember the story I heard from one of the Polish guys in fron of the arena. They were driving to the show as we did, but they were lucky enough to meet X at a gas station, asking them to play
~9 PM: Long Road is the song, with which Pearl Jam opens a long, but also a bit wilder show than the one in Prague: Why Go/Given to Fly/Fixer is intertwined with an unbelievable Faithful and Small Town and fast again into Got Some/Corduroy/In My Tree/Even Flow. The It's Okay tag in the song Daughter is a first hint to The Ramones, and their Berlin museum, visited by Ed and the band the night before. Another one, the cover of I Believe in Miracles follows a lively edition of State of Love and Trust/Immortality/Lukin and Unthought Known. Following the Ramones cover, the atmosphere is really getting very intensive and during the last song of the set, Rearviewmirror, Ed tries to protect the people pushed in front of him.
When he comes back on stage, Eddie relaxes the atmosphere with The End/Just Breathe and something really Hard To Imagine. After this gem, the crowd, the band, Mike McCready, us together, it all comes into one big whirl during Once/Evolution,and even during old, wild, but also introspective numbers like Jeremy or Leash. There is an outburst of energy in the air for Black/Alive, and when they end, to our big surprise, the guitarist in front of us is younger, more confident.. and NOT Michael McCready.
A young boy is pushed forward and handed the guitar by Mr. McCready himself. He doesn't waver at all - we can see he has already spent many days on stage and rehearsing with the band, which he is now a very poignant member of. So who is he to make Stone and Jeff weave their solos around him?
It is Ray Cameron, son of Matt Cameron, who proudly supports his son for a once-in-a-lifetime edition of Neil Young's Rocking in the Free World. Everyone is happy and exhausted at this moment, but the night's only over after were treated with Indifference and the band saving their best for last. Or wait, they're also here tommorow? Who're they're going to bring with? What will they play to complement this magival evening?
To be continued...
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