July 17, 2022 – Lollapalooza, Longchamp Racecourse, Paris, FRA

Show Notes:

Why Go kicks off a blistering start, a tag-less Daughter indicating that they’re going to try and keep things tight. Lots of little changes tonight, Ed adds the “…absolutely everything’s changed” line in Corduroy, and changes the line to “…can’t…

Show Notes: 

Why Go kicks off a blistering start, a tag-less Daughter indicating that they’re going to try and keep things tight. Lots of little changes tonight, Ed adds the “…absolutely everything’s changed” line in Corduroy, and changes the line to “…can’t buy what I want because it’s clean air, man…” Lots of call and response during the bridge, with mixed participation from the crowd. Continuing the let’s-play-a-super-rare-one streak, Satan’s Bed appears for only the 39th time in 28 years! Ed is being very emotive, it sounds great and well-rehearsed. As Mike starts the Even Flow solo, Ed exhorts “Red rover, Mister McCready take over!” After the line “…every tomorrow is the same as before…” in Dance of the Clairvoyants, he yells “…fuck you COVID!” Wishlist line is changed to the geographically dubious “…wish I lived in a country as fortunate as…Paris” (pronounced Par-EE). Not For You is a standout performance, Stone has an outstanding night at this show, stabbing the air with his guitar during Jeremy and dancing and strutting around the stage during Evolution. Go finally returns to the set for the first time since 2018. Long main set means a short encore, only 2 songs. Mike’s Alive solo is loose and relaxed, Jeff and Stone have a moment jamming together and then Jeff goes to the side of the stage with Ed and plays for the crowd there. The crowd is projected on the screen behind the band live during Baba, people with flags from Mexico, Chile, and Portugal are seen.


June 30, 2012 – Main Square Festival, La Citadelle, Arras, FRA

Show Notes:

After playing this festival two years earlier, PJ returns to headline the weekend. Ed’s voice, despite having played in Belgium the night before, sounds great on Release to open. The pacing of these first few songs is perfect and almost…

Show Notes: 

After playing this festival two years earlier, PJ returns to headline the weekend. Ed’s voice, despite having played in Belgium the night before, sounds great on Release to open. The pacing of these first few songs is perfect and almost slowed down from the frenetic pace that can sometimes be expected. It seems counterintuitive to call Go ‘slower’, but it is not at the breakneck pace that the song usually reaches, taking nothing away from the intensity. Ed thanks Florence and the Machine for:

“bringing the sunshine…literally and figuratively. And she also spoke incredibly great French, of which I will not even attempt to do.  We’re just going to keep playing…”

Ed tees up Low Light with “…this is just for this time of the evening. It’s just the perfect light for this song,” As Mike begins his Even Flow solo, Ed directs the crowd to “check this shit out right here…” Tonight’s Lukin joke is Ed imploring the crowd, “everyone sing!” They tear right into Corduroy without missing a beat, and the ending jam is one of the absolute highlights of the show.  Ed addresses the crowd after to give a bit of a break from the pace.

“…there’s a lot of flags from all kinds of different places here. It’s exciting to see. It’s nice to see a global community getting along. I wish the bankers and politicians could see how it all could work. We were going to play a quiet song, but I don’t know, the band in the house next to us, they might be louder than us. Maybe we should come back to the quiet one…we’ll try it. We’ll need your voices singing along to drown them out…” 

The close proximity of the festival, perhaps, leaves bands within earshot, however, the crowd obliges with their voices.  He talks about Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros before Arms Aloft and how it’s been 10 years since Joe passed. Unthought Known is “especially good under an open sky…” After Given to Fly, Ed gives a bit of a history lesson:

Mr. Mike McCready, he wrote that part. All those years ago…we’ve been playing a long time, but before we even started, when I was still living in a gutter, writing songs in my bedroom, these two, Mr. Jeff Ament and Mr. Stone Gossard, were in a band. They’ve been in a band for almost 30 years. And if you’ve ever been in a band, any kind of relationship, for 30 years, that’s really incredible. Something to look up to as a monument. The new guy in the group, he’s been with us for 10 years, Mr. Boom Gaspar on the B3. Where are you Boom? Smoking pot on the job? And then years ago, before we were a group, or after Jeff and Stone’s second group, they got together and were putting together some songs, some of them ended up on a record called Temple of the Dog, some of them ended up on our first record, called…I can’t remember. But the first song that Jeff and Stone and this here drummer here played was this next one. This was the first song that Matt Cameron ever played with our guys here. Mr. Matt Cameron, who’s not only touring the world with our band but also another incredible band called Soundgarden. He’s officially the hardest working man in show business. Although that’s not what we call this. This is a song called Breath…”

After Breath, Ed segues “from Breath to Just Breathe…” Ed checks on the crowd’s ability to hear, as the other stage is likely coming through, and decides that if the crowd forgot the band’s first record as well, they’ll reintroduce them, beginning with an epic Black, capped off with We Belong Together. He encourages everyone to sing on Jeremy, which is highlighted not only by the crowd joining in, but Jeff’s amazing bass playing. “Can I just say this is the most memorable bottle of bordeaux I’ve had in my entire life,” offers Ed before Alive, and “…this is how we say au revoir” introduces Mike on Yellow Ledbetter. Ed adds a quick “I wanna stay all night” right after the first “I don’t want to stay” line. A huge ovation and Ed closes out the night:

“…merci beaucoup.  We’ll see you again I hope. Have a great weekend. Have a great life. Have a great rest of the night. Let’s make it so the world don’t come to an end. We’ll see you again I hope. Thank you. And we want to thank the other band, I don’t know who they are, but I just want to thank them for being part of the show. You guys go all night, have a great time, thanks for having us be part of it, cheers, good night, we love you. Au Revoir!