Review #3: London Calling

Firstly, I now have the singular honour of having a world-renowned lingerie designer leave comments on a concert review. Secondly, after the Kitchener concert Dan and I drove back to Toronto; I didn't get to sleep until after 5am, woke up two hours later, attended four hours of class, came home, threw some things in a bag, picked up my BHBHGGFBJ and headed to London...honestly, the rock n' roll lifestyle is hugely overrated. Whereas the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium resembles a community centre, the John Labatt Centre in London looks like a turn-of-the-century office building; seriously, if you didn't see the back side of the building you'd have had no idea there was a hockey rink inside of it. The London show sold out in ninety seconds; that, plus a huge TenClub contingent, made for some tantalizing possibilities.

Tonight, my Pearl Jam virgin was Bri (who I'd mistakenly thought had seen them on their 1998 tour). Once again, the Ten Club delivered a pair of killer seats: twenty rows away from the stage, Mike's side, directly behind a woman who spent the entire show in the throes of hissy fitdom because she couldn't see properly (more on her in a second). At 7:30 Ed came on, announced the first song was a request...and proceeded to blindside us with a cover of "Growin' Up" by Bruce Springsteen! Sleater-Kinney then blew through another fantastic set, replete with "Step Aside" and "Sympathy". If these weren't harbingers of great things to come, then what could be?

Still, nothing could have prepared us for what happened next: Pearl Jam walked on stage and opened with fucking "Oceans", a song neither me nor Eric had ever heard live. "Oceans"! Just like that, the bar was infinitely raised. This was followed by an emphatic salvo of hard rockin' tunes, capped off with a surprising run-through of "Glorified G". We were barely done catching our breath when Ed mumbled something into the mic and...no way, you're kidding me?!! "Black Red Yellow"?!!! Honestly, you would have surprised me less if you'd told me I'd be seeing Eddie Vedder and Bono sing "Ol' Man River" together later that same week. "Black Red Yellow"! From that point forward, all bets were off. "In My Tree" got a surprise second run-out in the 519 (much to Bri's delight), "You Are" reaffirmed its status as the best song off of Riot Act, "Not For You" featured about eight flying splits from Mr. McCreedy...and then the most intense versions of "Bleed for Me" and "Rearviewmirror" I'd ever heard brought the set to a close. Just an incredible opening hour from Pearl Jam; the vibe was similar to the previous night's, and once again I was praying for the band to eschew the acoustic guitars and keep on rocking.

Alas, out came the stools. But when Pearl Jam came back, they shocked us with a searing take on "Nothing As It Seems" (which I, for one, hadn't heard since the Binaural tour), then with a lilting version of "Off He Goes". See, this is how the acoustic set has to work: it has to sustain the energy from the main set, not drag it down. I'm convinced it's possible; the London show affirmed my belief. In fact, as long as "Small Town" isn't included, I'm thoroughly convinced it can be a high point of the entire performance.

After "Off He Goes", Ed announced that the next song was saved for special occasions. Not really thinking I'd hear "Hard to Imagine", I nonetheless yelled out, "C'mon Ed, do it for me!" The band was milling about on stage...and then Stone played Those Notes. Instantly my blood froze; I remember sort of falling to my knees and raising my arms, then finding Sherkin in the row behind us and screaming "Yeeeaaaaah!!!", but to be honest the next four minutes remain a blur. "Hard to Imagine". I was hearing it! I was actually hearing it! It was also during "Hard to Imagine" that hissy fit lady in front of us got up, grabbed her husband by the arm and stormed out of the venue...but it didn't matter: the song was building to its climax, Mike was chiming in with a gorgeous guitar solo, my entire being was spinning - this was to all intents and purposes the culmination of my life as a Pearl Jam fan. In one fell swoop, the London show shot up the list of my all-time favourite concerts. "Hard to Imagine". Wow.

From there, nothing else mattered - even though the band followed it up with "Alive", just the absolutely perfect 1-2 combination to end the first encore. The second encore, meanwhile, featured Stone Gossard's already-legendary "what I really wanna do is dance!" routine, which I won't recount here for fear of trivializing it; honestly, you had to be there (not even the bootleg can possibly do it justice). We were in totally uncharted territory here - at this point, anytime seemed possible. "Rockin' in the Free World" brought the show to its delirious climax, the audience erupted, the band waved goodbye and they were off. It was around this point that the blood started flowing again.

Outside the venue, there was the same sort of triumphant, post-show feeling as there was in Buffalo in 2003. Plans to meet up with my cousins fell through, and Bri, Sherkin and I drove back to Toronto in a kind of daze. We'd just witnessed an historical Pearl Jam performance. We knew it - and what's more, we think the band knew it, too. The London gig had the same sort of free-spirited vibe as the State College show did, and while it wasn't dragged out to three-and-a-half hours in length it was nonetheless a showcase for what this band, on its best nights, is capable of producing. And we still had one more night to go before we - and they - got to rest.