Pearl Jam Berlin, DEU Concert History

The streak of different openers extends to 15 with Why Go. Deep is an early surprise, and a long version of Untitled prefaces MFC. Ed’s pump organ is on stage, but goes unused. Low Light appears again, on this, the summer solstice. Retrograde has a stellar ending. Mike finishes the Even Flow solo down in the front row of the crowd. Amongst the Waves is played by request for a couple who’s been together for 25 years, they met when they were 12, and Ed points out that Jeff and Stone have been playing music together for 39 years, Stone was 12 and Jeff was 15 when they met, that’s why Jeff plays bass because he had the balls, joking that he’s never seen Jeff’s balls but Stone probably has. Corduroy has the new intro again, and transitions seamlessly into Not For You. There’s a crowd surfer as Nothingman starts, and Ed admonishes him, saying “it’s not the right song” and imploring everyone to be safe and to jump up and down instead, “or at least go that way,” pointing to the back of the crowd. Prior to Porch, a fan named Roland is brought on stage with his wife and daughter, he had contracted ALS since he got tickets for the show back in 2020 and there was a fan campaign to get him connected with the band. Street Fighting Man returns for an encore performance, and there’s some confusion during Ledbetter, Ed tells Mike to cut it short and after only a minute and a half, instead of going into the chorus of Ledbetter, Mike starts the Alive riff.

Ed extends the  “dear god” lyric in Sometimes. Longer than usual Corduroy breakdown before call and response section, and Ed addresses the crowd in German before the end solo section. Cameron destroys the ending. Active moshing and on-point clapping from the pit during Save You. Given to Fly lyric is changed to “made it out to Berlin..” Ed mentions that Mike, Jeff, and Stone had played this venue before with Neil Young (on the 1995 Mirrorball tour), then introduces special guest Danny Clinch on harmonica for the next song called “Blue-eyed frog” (Red Mosquito). “Fuck Trump” is added to the first verse of In My Tree. Ed mentions he is looking for J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr. in the crowd, and dedicates Even Flow to him. One of the wishes in Wishlist is to be “as fortunate as Mike McCready.” Habit is introduced as “Tiny Orange Penis Man,” the spoken line is “speaking as a man who despises racism in ANY form.” “Angie” is on the setlist but only teased. Ed asks for the girls/women to help on an extended ‘It’s Ok’ tag, then shouts out the Ramones museum before Lukin (prompting a “hey ho let’s go” chant). During Porch, the crowd begins tossing cardboard beer caddies into the air and onstage, Jeff grabs one and plays bass with it. After the break, Ed says they’d play until dark, but the band didn’t realize how much the crowd had been drinking, then reads a note from a Prague man who found his wife through a show, dedicating Thin Air to him, but Stone hilariously can’t remember how the song goes. Ed plays electric guitar on Thumbing My Way and dedicates Breath to ‘Singles’ character Cliff Poncier, “who is here tonight.” He quickly mentions that the band’s families are in town and are having a great educational experience before the second encore begins, including his daughters’ trip to the Berlin Wall, dedicating Comfortably Numb as a thank you to Roger Waters. J Mascis is found and brought onstage for the Rockin’ In The Free World finale.

Written by: Joey Goodsir

The opening sequence is gorgeous, the crowd seems to energize the show right from the beginning, and Ed sounds outstanding. In My Tree soars just like it did in 1996, everyone locked in during the ending jam. Go flows seamlessly into a ripping Why Go, not the first time on the night that two similarly-named songs would be paired together. Ed gives the Evolution break to the crowd and they run with it, even continuing to sing it after the song is over. He addresses the crowd, saying:

“I think this is the 27th time we’ve played in Germany, and maybe number 6 here…but I don’t think we’ve ever had a night as nice as this.”

Corduroy features a superb McCready solo. Mind Your Manners loses its way a little bit about halfway through, but they pick it back up before the end. Hold On is played, by request, for the first time since Wrigley the previous year. You Are is “a toast to all of you who are lucky enough, and strong enough, to be still in love,” paired up with Who You Are. Following Even Flow, Ed shouts out Stone for writing it, “he writes great songs and makes beautiful kids,”  leading the crowd to start a “Let Stone Sing” chant, with Ed and the band picking up on it and doing a little impromptu jam, with the following lyrics:

Let Stone sing, they say
You don’t understand
The reason being
We don’t insist
It’s nothing, it’s with me
I tried and i tried
Oh, but to no avail
It has to keep his voice clean
He don’t just sing anywhere
Let Stone sing

The crowd keeps the “Let Stone Sing” chant going throughout, and Ed adds “see, he wouldn’t even sing that…played the shit out of it, though…” and that Stone only sings if Jeff says it’s ok. Ed eggs Stone on to sing something, “maybe from the movie Frozen?”, singing a bit of “Let It Go.” Stone thanks the crowd for wanting him to sing, teasing “I’m not doing it, fuck you guys,” and Ed sings “…for the first time in forever…,” also from Frozen. The pretty Immortality intro transitions awkwardly into the song, but it’s a powerful version nonetheless, with an atmospheric crescendo at the end. Ed has to ask the crowd to take 3 steps back again, which he had done twice earlier, due to the surge of people at the front. Driving RVM jam with Ed and Jeff holding down the rhythm before Matt takes over. After the break, Ed points out some request signs in the crowd, and the one for Sleight of Hand is granted. Sleeping By Myself is dedicated to 20 drunk guys in the front, because it’s “what they’ll be doing tonight.” Boom adds the riff from the Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black” to the Crazy Mary solo, which ends up in a duel with Mike. False start to Comatose, but they recover. Afterwards, Ed jokes that the next one is “not dedicated to the tiny little girl in the front row who’s 4, maybe 5,” leading into Blood. Coming out after the second break, Ed asks if they can find out the name of the girl in the front, and after a few moments, gets everyone to say hi to Matilda, and plays Bee Girl for her. Stone takes a long solo in Rockin’ in the Free World. Mike finishes off Yellow Ledbetter with a harmonic, and Ed thanks the crowd with a little Hawaiian, leaving with “super shaka”.

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!”

A rare first song setlist scratch begins the show, with the band opting for Long Road instead of Release. The crowd doesn’t mind, as they execute a perfect call-and-response during the outro. Ray Cameron, becoming a semi-regular guest on this tour leg, joins on percussion for The Fixer. Ed greets the crowd and asks them to take care of each other and to “viel Spaß“ (have a good time). Faithfull makes its tour debut, a particularly rocking version in all of its quiet-loud glory. Ed toasts the crowd’s response to X and mentions having met a young boy named Andrew attending his first show, exclaiming “have a fucking blast, kid!” In My Tree is another highlight with Ed perfectly sitting in Matt’s unrushed groove before the song takes off. Mike’s mom Louise appears onstage and gets treated to ‘Happy Birthday’ by the crowd before Ed introduces Even Flow, joking “this next song is all her fault.” Mike tears the place down, with Ed stating after the solo “look ma, no hands!” Lukin leads into Unthought Known in a unique pairing. Ed says he visited the Ramones Museum for the first time yesterday and lauds the curators, locals Flo and Kathy, stating “It was always very important to [Johnny] that he be remembered” leading to a punchy I Believe in Miracles. Rearviewmirror includes the “I will forgive” lyric in the breakdown, with Ed asking the crowd to back up during the song. He opens the first encore asking the crowd to step back again, joking that “there’s good looking people here…we want to keep them that way.” A delicate The End and a surprise Hard to Imagine, brought back for the first time since 2009, highlight this section. It’s a throwback to the early days in the second encore, and an exuberant Leash is taken out of storage to the crowd’s delight. There’s an enormous banner in the audience calling for Rockin’ in the Free World (on July 4th), and the band obliges, this version bursting at the seams with a call and response section and Ray Cameron returning to help out on guitar. Indifference closes with the lights up, the crowd matching Ed’s volume at points. Lots of tour debuts and an enthusiastic crowd.