This is not really a review I guess. I think I am just too much head over heels in love with this band and I cannot write down anything serious about their concert that I have been waiting for for four years. I went to see them in Prague in 1996 and as the show finished, then me with tears in my eyes, started to look forward to the next time. I already missed them. Well, you lucky ones who see them again and again and again, I do envy you however nasty that kind of feeling is.
Me and a friend who I have given Live on Two Legs for her birthday and who listened to it one day and bought her ticket the other (no surprise is it) started from our home to Plzen, where there was a huge thunder storm and heavy rain. We escaped that to Prague and then we just waited together with quite a few people. I was just planning to get some really nice spot at the venue and so we did. We stood on a bench at the side and could just see everything. The support band was OK, but I was not ready to wait any longer for PJ. If they played in a small club in Plzen, I would love them. Over here I was just looking forward to them finishing. "Sorry guys." I listened and watched Jeff, who stood at the side of the stage listening to them. I must admit that I do "love" Jeff a lot and could say he is my favourite Pearl Jam guy, but then I cannot help loving them all after that amazing show.
I can tell you it was like holiday in paradise for me to be inside that ice hockey hall where there was neither room to move nor air to breathe. (OK there was some of both.) And I did enjoy every second of the show. I did not know whether I should take photos first or just stay there with my eyes closed and listen and dance or watch the guys through our binoculars. I did all that at the end.
I do not remember the names of the songs played in order, but they all sound in my head until now and make me feel them more than anything present. I will not forget seeing Ed and his face while singing his words, his guitar playing the joy of all that -- giving life to every word he sings and sending them all to the space where we all were receiving that life. Those thousands of hands lit by a light and hidden in the shades moving like the sea and so alive and happy. One song after another, pure joy and so much emotions. I must laugh remembering Mike jumping around and laughing and communicating with everybody around -- gesturing, dancing, smoking his cigarette with "that" expression in his face. And Jeff who seemed to be deeply sunk in the music and had the expression of concentration in his face, just sending all the hidden energy out through his bass with such an amazing force. And he at the end sitting there playing smiling and so relaxed. I just love bass. It is like a heartbeat of the "something" around Matt's swirl of hands and the drums pushing everything forward. And Stone, sending the walls of sounds to us gently. Yeah, I admit I did watch the second half of the stage far more than the one with Matt and Stone, but I did receive their music, too.
Well, I do not know if this makes sense ... the words are just eloping. My mother tongue is Czech but if I knew English only to understand Pearl Jam and all you out there, it would be a reason to know it big enough to spend years studying it. Well, I miss Pearl Jam now and listening to them makes me sad as I miss them more but then I cannot help listening to them anyway. I walk around with a permanent smile on my face, hearing all the voices in my head, or rather the one voice.
I love you guys. Thanks a million and please come again. Greetings to all of you fans who will surely understand what I feel. I get little understanding from the people around me as they think I am "mad," but for me it is the best kind of madness.