*** Katowice Fanviews 13/6/07

LaPaz wrote:

i'm going to start a new campaign: "stop playing gigs on slask, goddamnit!"
chorzow was the first polish pj-gig that i didn't attend and i don't regret it at all
WHY this cheesy, discrediting arena? WHY with linking park? WHY so far away from the civilized centre of the country?
there are so many places where pj could feel much more comfortable to play, and so would the audience

i know that november 1/1996 will never happen again, but... i'm disappointed

faithful anyway/ an old fan

true man, i completely agree with you. altough i dont mind them playing katowice since its pretty close to slovakia. but there are better venues else in poland. lots of them

UKDave wrote:

Lol... I sat next to Rob on the flight back to Stansted... quite a charachter!!

haha indeed.
Chatted to him quite a bit on the 17th and 18th. Saw him chatting to loads of other people and was gonna go over and introduce myself, but I had enough of talking about Pearl Jam after being stuck in that airport for 12 hours. Was funny how the Stansted flights to and from on the 17th and 18th had pretty much the same people.

UKDave wrote:

Think you're suffering from lack of sleep too do you mean 13th & 14th???

We flew out on 12th... didn't want to risk Whizzair screwing up...

Does it show? I've lost all concept of time, yet don't feel remotely tired.

fowls wrote:

Does it show? I've lost all concept of time, yet don't feel remotely tired.

Pretty knackered myself

First, I echo magdyl's comments about the 10c line. The people were great. I was lucky enough to get in line first, and then I met two really nice people from Poland and two couples from Italy and Austria (magdyl, you must have been one of them). The lady from Italy organized a sign-in sheet so the 10c people didn't have to queue all day. It worked well thanks to her efforts. Also, I think the You Forgot Poland group deserves credit for making everyone feel at home in their country and for creating an awesome website with helpful travel info.

Getting into the arena was pretty crazy. After entering the first gate, you had to run down a hill to the tunnel leading to the stadium. Well, the security guys there pointed us to a different spot like 100 meters away. So we ran there. Once we got there, the security there sent us back to where we just left, which meant that the initial people through the gate weren't the first into the arena, since the first security guys figured things out before we had time to run back to them. Anyway, I ended up second row behind Stone, then moved up to the rail after tons of people were pulled or surfed out of the pit.

Coma was the second opening band. They were better than expected. The locals were really into them. That's when the crowd surfing started, and it never stopped.

Linkin Park really wasn't a good fit with Pearl Jam. They did their typical self-promoting stuff, such as asking if people had their new record, reminding everyone it is number one in the world, etc. And I didn't realize how bad their lyrics are until I was forced to hear them up close. But the crowd behind the first few rows of PJ fans liked them. There were at least 50 crowd surfers taken out over my head during their set. I didn't mind that distraction though.

As LP's set was being dismantled and PJ's put up, I noticed that PJ has a big backdrop of a wave and a couple similar drawings on each side of the stage. I believe those are new this tour.

Starting with Rearviewmirror was a big surprise. I'm glad the short version is back.

Ed got really upset during the first few songs with either the sound or his voice. I think it was his mic. He screamed at the pirate-looking tech guy (sorry, I forgot his real name) that was by Matt's kit at the time. I've never seen him so upset before. Later he mentioned his voice was shot, so maybe that played a part. But he didn't seem happy with his sound all night.

Despite a bad voice, Ed belted out Comatose and Spin the Black Circle.

Whipping was a cool, on-the-spot addition as a request from the 100 show guy.

The version of Black was really good. I noticed that Matt seems to be a lot more energetic during the last part of the song, something I don't remember in the past.

The show did end earlier than expected, but other 10c'ers mentioned there were signs posted that said the show had to be over by 11 pm. It seemed like the band wasn't prepared for that and maybe didn't find out about it until after the 1st encore, which ended right at 11 pm.

No slight to the band, but I think this show was a struggle for them. Stone and Mike didn't seem quite as social with the crowd as they normally are. Of course, Stone's cowboy helped to make up for that. The crowd was also an issue, at least where I was standing. I was at the outlet for all the crowd surfers, so I spent most of the time trying not to get kicked. There were also a bunch of drunk Poland fans right around us, and they were jamming us against the rail really hard. Fortunately the security was really helpful with water, and most of the people at the front also were helpful in getting people out of the pit.

In summary, it was great to meet a lot of new people and see so many familiar faces, and the energy in the crowd was really good... even though I have bruises in colors and in places that I never knew existed.

Looking forward to seeing many of the same people in London next week.

The guys were defintely playing at their best, the energy coming out of them was amazing...everything else about the show sucked. I'm echoing everybody else, but I totally agree. I also noticed their the crew didnt setup their equiptment right..at the beginning of one of the songs stone hit his first cord and the guitar was totally off, so ed says "i guess we're not going to play that song" and they scratched it...then his mike screeched several times...I also felt that on several of the songs mike's guitar was was off-key, it didnt blend in like I've heard at my other shows, but maybe it's just me. Did anyone else get that? Linkin Park was painful to get through, i actually put ear plugs in...I suspect that maybe they added Linkin Park to get more people to come. the only good that came out of that is that I got a nice tan. Loud is really the only way to describe that painful noise, luckily i was on the side of the barrier so i didn't have to put up with as much as the other PJ fans, I feel your pain!

what can i say...
im old and gray PJ fan from PL....
waited those 7 years to listen to them live. must confess that i forgot what was the feeling and what it was all about...
came there completely unprepeared emotionaly and musicaly burt after first notes i knew that "absolutely nothing changed"...
ufff...
years ago it was wild fun, nowi saw half of my life in front of my eyes (solat, daughter...c'mon)...then i couldn';t see anything more and lost my voice...
all athem chorus stuff just made me crying like best soap opera...yesssss im very old and sentimental lady:)

thansk for polish speach, ALL those good memories
for unforgettable improvisation and singing for PJ, tututrututu and all those till last breath..
best regards to all those bodies that aved integrity of mine and to all guest.
hope this show was any different and just bit 'polish' for all of You:)

svanzon wrote:

Did anyone see the girl with the shirt saying "You forgot Kazakhstan" with a face of Borat? (imitating the "you forgot Poland" shirts from the last tour)?

I saw the Borat shirt but not the writing

svanzon wrote:

Did anyone see the girl with the shirt saying "You forgot Kazakhstan" with a face of Borat? (imitating the "you forgot Poland" shirts from the last tour)?

I saw a couple of people wearing the shirts in the 10c queue

God, what can I say.

Despite of:
- linkin Park (terrible)
- fans of linkin park (more terrible)
- polish organization (no words)
- polish bands (go to work)
- timing of the show
- absence of beer (and then water) in the stadium


...an unforgettable and intense experience.
11th time I saw them, this is probably the one that will set in my mind forever.

As for the trouble about curfew etc.
The first interruption (after STBC, I guess) was very strange. Ended the song, the guys ran in the backstage and left vedder on stage alone...he was kinda
surprised, looking around like asking himself what's happening. Then he reached the rest of the group in the backstage, and after a few minutes they came back for Severed hand. Vedder told something about a "lights problem" but it was quite clear it was something else...

The people: beautiful, especially the ones knew during the 10c queue .
I would like to say hello to Christow, a polish guy who was really drunk, two guys from scotland with a bag full of cans, two press guys from copenhagen,
some lituanian people, and some italians guys coming with a van from Munich
(ragazzi siete pazzi ma vi invidio di brutto)

Las reminder: those who forget poland will be destined to remember.

see you in wembley