June 29, 2014 – Telenor Arena, Oslo, NOR

Pearl Jam Show Notes 6/29/2014:

The fourth show in five days, and the rigor of the tour has taken a toll on Ed’s voice. Pendulum starts things off just fine, to enthusiastic crowd response, and Hard to Imagine is solid, but the vocal fatigue creeps out during the outro. This is where the band begins to step in, with Mike overlapping Ed’s last vocals with a very nice closing solo. No early Black here, but Ed heads into the crowd for a good part of Last Kiss, mingling with the crowd and holding a fan’s hand throughout the last chorus. He quickly asks if things are good before opening up Mind Your Manners. Ed holds his own for the most part, but is short on breath. He starts to crack on Animal, and finally asks the crowd for help. After Last Exit, he greets the crowd with “Hello, Oslo” in Norwegian and briefly mentions the “wear and tear on the voice” before commending the fans who’ve followed them through four cities in five days, and introduces Interstellar Overdrive as “a quick instrumental to give the voice a rest for one second.” After Corduroy, he tries to get a father with a young daughter safer seats, and then better seats. He greets his new friend, Isabel, asks her for a joint, and explains he’s been told everyone would understand English “unless you’re seven or eight, or very drunk.” Mike really starts taking the weight of the show onto his shoulders at this point, and delivers one of his best solos of the night on Lightning Bolt. In Hiding begins with an invitation to help sing, and afterwards Ed quips “…quit drinking after last night, but thought I might have a few more” before asking the crowd to tell Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme “føkk deg” (fuck you) at the Øya festival in August. Boom has an expanded role on My Father’s Son. Sad is teased with a short “Norwegian Wood” a capella. With Ed’s voice now holding on cautiously, aided by strong crowd participation, and Mike leading the band in filling any gaps, this is where this concert lands in its groove for the rest of the night. On the final chord of Light Years, Ed approaches Stone and points towards a fan in the front row. Immediately we hear someone re-tuning as a change is made to the setlist, which Ed announces as “for this person here, who…she’s got a complaint: 22 shows and we haven’t played a certain song.” After a Garden more reminiscent of the album version than recent live renditions (and with the lucky fan starring on the Jumbotron) Ed takes her empty cup, fills it with wine, gives it back, and tells her “Cheers… 22 shows, I think I can at least buy you a drink, you paid for this very nice wine.” Mike outshines himself once again on Even Flow, after which Ed explains that, as punishment for a mistake made the night before, he has to play Eruption on Mike’s guitar while Mike is holding it. He touches it, makes some noise, then tells the crowd, “this can be our special song that we only play when we come to Norway.” In an emotional preface to Love Boat Captain, Ed mentions the anniversary of the Roskilde tragedy and expresses the band’s appreciation of the victims’ families, present at the previous night’s show in Stockholm, for maintaining a relationship with them. An extra long jam-out on Porch nearly brings the song to 10 minutes.

After a long encore break, they’re greeted with applause after coming back on stage, Ed responds “we’ll take that as a sign of encouragement.” Sleeping by Myself gets botched near the end, Ed takes the blame and plays the final chorus to close it out. The first-ever live performance of Strangest Tribe follows, it is slow, steady, and perfectly dreamy, dedicated to the people who’ve been in the front row over four consecutive nights, whom Ed honors by nicknaming them after the song. Lukin is given its quasi-traditional introduction as a “quiet singalong.” The last set begins with thanks to the crowd and a nod to “getting to play all these different songs.” As Alive transitions straight into Rockin’ in the Free World, “Mr. Raymond Caper Cameron” (Ray Cameron, Matt’s son) is introduced as he comes onstage to play on a Les Paul. The original setlist included Setting Forth, Small Town, Black, Got Some, and Better Man, but were replaced with Garden, Strangest Tribe, and Footsteps.