When they supported The Stones and U2
Fender_Man
Posts: 408
How did the boys go down with the headlining bands crowd? I've heard a few boots, but it's hard to gauge from them. There was obviously a lot of PJ fans at the shows, just curious to know how they fared with the non PJ audience?
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Sydney 14/02/2003
Sydney 07/11/2006
Sydney 18/11/2006
Sydney 22/11/2009
EV Sydney 18/03/2011
EV Sydney 19/03/2011
EV Sydney 20/03/2011
Melbourne 24/01/2014
Sydney 26/01/2014
EV Sydney 13/02/2014
It was cool to see Ed and Mick sing Wild Horses together.
"Fuck you," yells a chorus of fans near the front. There is little poetry in the Italian crowd. Forty thousand fill this Roman soccer stadium today, but there isn't much they're interested in seeing outside of the group on the ticket -- U2.
"Fuck me?" repeats Vedder, out on the lip of the stage. "Tell you what -- you fuck me, and Bono will fuck you!"
The band launches into "Even Flow" and attempts to build a consensus, good or bad, anything. The struggle for acceptance ends in a draw. This is one of the few countries in the world not to have fallen under the Pearl Jam spell and the band feels the chill in its first of two shows opening for U2's Zooropa '93 road extravaganza. It would be easy to write this audience off as lackadaisical, but within seconds of leaving the stage, the Zooropa DJ spins Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust," and the entire stadium thunders along in beat, instantly.
Back in the dressing room, the band mills about, somberly picking at food. Abbruzzese already has a game plan for tomorrow: "I'm gonna lower the drum riser so I can see the audience. I'm gonna connect with those people."
Within a few minutes, Vedder emerges upbeat and finds some American fans. "I wish we'd played a club here," he tells them, signing some shirts. He and Beth Liebling head out to the mixing platform to watch U2 with the rest of the band. Before long, a cluster of super- and semi-supermodels position themselves just behind him, clucking and whooping, taking pictures, trying to get his attention. Vedder remains fixed on the spectacle ahead. Finally one of the models manages an introduction to him. She speaks earnestly to him, shaking his hand. Vedder nods politely, turning back to the show. Total time investment -- three seconds.
Back in Rome, on the second day, Pearl Jam offer a combative performance. "I'll meet you back here at a club next time," Vedder says, to sprinkled applause. Later, he begins to goad them, telling them their stadium was built for soccer, not music. And below a neon Zoo TV sign, he playfully taunts further, "Are we animals?" Let it never be said that Vedder doesn't enjoy the fine taste of the hand feeding him. His green T-shirt contains today's gaffer-taped message: PAUL IS DEAD. (Look up Bono's real name.) The set closes with Vedder donning a huge fly mask, dancing as if caught in a web. It is Pearl Jam's own lo-fi answer to Zoo TV. Not many fans here get it, but one who does is Bono, who watches curiously from the pit.
http://www.fivehorizons.com/archive/art ... 2893.shtml
very interesting.......
The best expression of Love is Time.
The best time to Love is Now.
I'm never as good as when you're there.........
"Today In Dublin, the day before Pearl Jam play before an estimated 50,000 at nearby Slane Castle, Abbruzzese stands and watches as thirty or so young Dubliners sing resolutely to street-busking versions of "Black" and "State of Love and Trust." Abbruzzese is grinning, handing out flowers on Grafton Street, playing with street kids. "Gone is the bleachy sunshine of Italy. In its place is rain... pale faces... romantic beery arguments in the street... it feels like home.
Elsewhere, there are rumors that McCready has fallen off the wagon, running naked through the streets of Dublin late the night before. McCready, shopping for bootleg tapes today, does not confirm or deny this behind his reflector shades. "I love this place," he says.
....................
The Dublin audience is fiercely awake, fueled by anger and ale. Van Morrison performs to the hometown crowd, and he is greeted like a beloved uncle. He is offstage only a few minutes before the audience, in anticipation of Pearl Jam, surges to the front. "I love some kind of pressure in the air," says McCready, peering out at the boiling mass of Irish fans. "Some kind of weirdness in the crowd, good or bad. That's what we thrive on."
Pearl Jam take the stage, and the crowd packs closer, straining the barriers. It's brutal down in front, and security is already pulling the semiconscious out one by one, before a note is even played. Vedder walks on in a gorilla mask, pulls it off and hurls himself into "Why Go."
It is a crowd happily perched on the edge of danger and today they get the best out of Pearl Jam. Onstage, the band is narrowly missing each other as they all, in different ways, leap for joy, pogoing and twirling, just missing each other's skulls with the instruments. The volatile crowd does not scare Vedder; he's seriously singing to those serious faces listening to him the way he listened to The Who -- with their whole lives attached. He stands on the edge of the stage, just watching them, and turns to share it with Liebling, who catches it all on Super 8.
It's the show they've been waiting for, a glimpse of the future. "If it all ends tomorrow," Abbruzzese says, "I will be the happiest fucking gas-station attendant you ever saw."
Best of all, Pearl Jam are no longer a band with only one very, very big album to their credit. "There's no school to go to for some of the weird shit that happens," says Vedder. "The fucking weirdness of it all. But some of these guys, they can help out a bit. Bob Dylan's advice was 'Go to Dublin.' I wrote him a postcard today."
"It said, 'Made it.'"
The Point - Oct 26, 1996
The Point - Jun 01, 2000
The Point - Aug 23, 2006
M.E.N. Arena - Aug 17, 2009
The 02 - Jun 22, 2010
Odyssey Arena - Jun 23, 2010
Ha Ha , nice one
Thanks for the articles, I'd forgotten all about supporting U2 in '93, sounds like it was a tough gig. My original post was relating more to the '06 gigs. What I want to know is more about the reaction of the U2 and Stones fans that were witnessing PJ for the first time. Was it a polite, respectful response, rapturous, or was it complete indifference? Do you think they made many new fans from those gigs? Just curious.
PJ was announced as the opener for the Stones' Pittsburgh show in 2005 before tickets went on sale. I think the same is true for when they opened for U2 in Hawaii and when they opened for The Who.
U2 tickets went on sale Jan 14, '06 for their show in April. When the date (their tour-ending show) was postponed to Dec 9, '06 it coincided with the end of Pearl Jam's tour (for the self-titled album.) I guess since they had played together in Australia right before that, U2 added PJ as their opening act for the Dec 9 show at the Aloha Stadium. When PJ was confirmed, they added their own show at the Blaisdell on Dec 2. They also played a secret show at Waimea Bay for the Eddie Aikau Invitational about a week before that.
So most of the Aloha Stadium U2 tickets were sold in Jan, the show was postponed, and THEN PJ was added. They opened up more seats after that, though.
My experience was that I waited on the wet sidewalk all night for tickets in Jan and guess what, Ticketmaster FUCKED EVERYONE as usual. I ended up getting the right tickets eventually and got PJ tickets for their show when it was announced. Waited all night and day in line to get into the actual Aloha Stadium show, too, and the Italians were a little disagreeable there as well. Just some guys who complained (loudly) that they weren't going to get into the elipse because they were in Section 2, when really EVERYONE who was there all night was getting in.
Greatest week of my life, but there's a much longer funnier story that goes along with that.