July 10, 2012 – Forum København, Copenhagen, DNK

Pearl Jam Show Notes 7/10/2012:

The final European show of 2012 kicks off with a feel-good version of Small Town, and the crowd’s energy transfers momentum into clapping along to the beat of Last Exit. The building is warm and gets hotter as the show goes on, well above 80°. Do The Evolution has more great participation, as the famed South American-style “whoa-oh-oh-ohs” continue on well past the song’s end. Ed, making an attempt to speak Danish, says they are doing their best to make it a great night after a memorable tour. Love Boat Captain, perhaps the single most important song for Denmark, is uplifting and inspiring with another tremendous call and response section at the end. Present Tense and Push Me, Pull Me are welcome surprises early in the set. Ed takes a minute after Insignificance to say how thankful he is for Denmark being the biggest creator of wind power, and that Seattle has bands, beer, and coffee, and Boeing, a war plane manufacturer.  The last three songs of the main set are played again at a furious pace. Mike adds in a delay effect over his solo on State of Love and Trust that adds a different sound to the song. Perhaps due to the heat, a very quick 67-minute main set. After the break, Ed says he wishes they could turn on the sprinklers. Footsteps opens the encore and brings some balance into the set before building up to the faster songs. Without any Backspacer songs played in the main set, a chunk is played in this section, with Unthought Known providing another great sing-along for this crowd. Jeff’s bass is heavy and vibrant on both Jeremy and Rearviewmirror, both songs putting this set back into the sprint mode that started the night. To open encore 2, Ed tells the story of how Smile was written as a note to him by The Frogs’ Dennis Flemion, who passed away a day before the show, saying the words ‘miss you already’ are exactly what they’re feeling right now, and it’s a messy, haphazard version. A request is made for another No Code song, Habit, the only instance to date where Habit was played in an encore. The crowd continues their strong showing of the night, singing along to Better Man, and we get a rare instance of Ed singing the full Save It For Later lyrics. After a tremendous Mike vs. Boom duel for Crazy Mary, Ed recognizes the faces in the crowd that have been following them around Europe and encourages them to start a band, adding “writing songs is easy, touring is hard…you got the hard part down.” As the band says goodbye to the continent, they go out with thunderous versions of Alive and Baba, and close with a bluesy Yellow Ledbetter with a Mike jam tacked onto the end.