July 5, 2012 – O2 World, Berlin, DEU

Pearl Jam Show Notes 7/5/2012:

A relaxing version of Oceans opens the second night in Berlin. The pace suddenly increases with quickfire renditions of Breakerfall and Animal. The crowd is prominently heard on Animal, leading Ed to take a back seat in order to let them sing the chorus before the solo. The blistering start continues with Save You, the crowd are again heard clapping along throughout the solo. As Stone starts to play In Hiding, Ed interrupts; “No, no, one sec…guten abend. Guten abend. Cheers, I just wanted to make sure everyone is okay up here,” then inquiring “…what’s going on here, what’s going on? One bad person? We’ve got a long, long, explosive, energetic night in front of us.” He then instructs the crowd to take three steps back, “Perfect, danke. I’ll talk to you later,” and In Hiding is restarted. The Berlin crowd once again play a part throughout, with Ed allowing them to sing the “Hiding” during the choruses. After the song, Ed says “the last time we played here, we had such a good time – oh yeah, that was last night!” He then speaks in German, stating he believes it is the band’s 999th show (it isn’t). After Small Town, the band play an improvised jam, during which the guitars seem to briefly duel and Jeff keeps a steady, funk-infused bassline, before transitioning into Corduroy. Ed introduces Mike for the debut of Eruption, and Mike throws in a tease of another Van Halen song, “Runnin’ With The Devil,” at the end. Mike makes a mistake a few bars into the Present Tense intro, prompting cheers and applause from the crowd before he begins again from the start. Ed again addresses the crowd after Evolution, asking them again to take three steps back, saying “this isn’t for comfort, this is for safety. We won’t hit another note until we know everyone is safe.” After making sure there are no issues in the crowd, he explains he is dedicating the next song to the Ramones Museum:

“It’s an incredible little spot here in beautiful Berlin…I went for what I thought would be an hour, but I stayed for seven.” 

He then names and thanks the staff, adding “we have a real-life Ramone working for us, he has for sixteen years…Mr. Ricky Ramone! This next song was written soon after Johnny Ramone had passed, it’s called Come Back…” Returning to stage after the encore break, Ed again checks that everyone is okay before apologizing for “taking a minute,” as they “were trying to figure out what to play.” He goes on to say “I think you’ll like the next song, because we’re very close, right across the street.” It’s “Mother” by Pink Floyd, appropriately, as the song references the nearby Berlin Wall. Following Better Man, Ed says:

“They say this might be our 999th show, feels like maybe longer. Sometimes it’s just hard to believe any of it. To come to Berlin and have this kind of response over two nights in a row and over twenty years…”

Into the second encore break, Ed says “we’ve had two nights to remember here in Berlin…thanks to all the people, all the flags.” He toasts a woman named Mariella, who broke her ankle at one of the shows in Amsterdam, saying “In her honor, we’re going to take another three steps back so nothing like that happens again as it’s getting a little tight.” A celebratory Alive is followed by Baba O’Riley, after which Ed says “danke, thanks for looking after each other” before introducing the band. “This is how we say goodnight, until we meet again” leads into Yellow Ledbetter, during which he observes “…everybody’s smiling!”