Pearl Jam Spain Concert History

List of Pearl Jam Concerts in Spain

Expand Show Notes Collapse Show Notes

July 12, 2018 – Mad Cool Festival, Valdebebas – IFEMA, Madrid, ESP

Main Set: Release, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Given To Fly, Lukin, Corduroy, Why Go, Animal, Even Flow, Mind Your Manners, Lightning Bolt, Eruption, Jeremy, Can’t Deny Me, Do The Evolution, Wasted Reprise, Better Man, Porch

encore 1: Just Breathe, Sirens, Black/(We Belong Together), State Of Love And Trust, Rearviewmirror, Alive, Rockin’ in the Free World

Show Notes:

Release builds up very nicely to open. Ed starts a brief callback with the seeming intention of throwing the crowd off guard before rushing into Lukin. Corduroy includes the extra solo from Mike during the new breakdown section. After Why…

Show Notes: 

Release builds up very nicely to open. Ed starts a brief callback with the seeming intention of throwing the crowd off guard before rushing into Lukin. Corduroy includes the extra solo from Mike during the new breakdown section. After Why Go, and perhaps referencing the organizational chaos marking the festival’s first day, Ed’s greeting to the crowd in Spanish relates a conversation about the amount of people in attendance: “A friend told me… ‘No, you don’t understand, the people in Madrid are insane’ and I adore insanity, so here’s a big hug to all my crazy friends.” Ed speaks in Spanish again before Even Flow, recalling how Mike first played the song in Madrid 26 years earlier to a few hundred people: “He played amazing that night, but wait ‘til you see him play now.” Can’t Deny Me is introduced with a dedication to “all the strong women in the audience who will change the world” and a PSA video featuring actors Luis Tosar and Javier Bardem reminding the men in the audience that “no means no,” eliciting rousing applause: feminism and violence against women are especially prominent issues in Spain at the moment. Ed wraps up Wasted Reprise by adding “Enjoy your last breaths, old men, of racism and sexism, you fuckers are going to die and it’ll die with you.” Better Man gets the slightly extended version of the Save it for Later tag. Mike, Stone, and Jeff spend the breakdown of Porch in a three-person guitar circle while Ed steps down to the ground and walks down a corridor stretching into the VIP area closest to the stage to mingle with the crowd (hugs and even a kiss included). Just Breathe intro is interrupted by someone from the crowd’s expression of affection, and Ed responds “You’re very nice… I love you, too” before going on to describe the song as about “the big love…as big as the oceans…as big as the Spanish summer sky, as big as the crowd at the Mad Cool Festival” and invites the crowd to illustrate how big they are by lifting the lights of their phones to be projected on the stage screens, and finally dedicates the song to Bardem and Penélope Cruz. Ed precedes the “We Belong Together” tag on Black with “Lo siento” (I’m sorry), and heads back to the crowd during “State of Love and Trust” for help singing. Possibly pressed for time (a few more bands are still scheduled), and after one more hug for Ed with the crowd, Matt signals a somewhat abrupt end to Alive, and the band immediately transitions into Rockin’ in the Free World to end the set, skipping the second verse, but not without a timely lyrical adaptation (“there’s a million points of light for the immigrant man, open our hearts while we can”) to bring the night to an end.

Written by: Eric Stevenson Gonzalez

July 10, 2018 – Palau St. Jordi, Barcelona, ESP

Main Set: Long Road, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Corduroy, Hail, Hail, Mind Your Manners, Do The Evolution, Ghost, Nothing As It Seems, Setting Forth, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Oceans, Light Years, Daughter/(It’s O.K.), Jeremy, Go, State Of Love And Trust, Porch

encore 1: Sleeping By Myself, Come Back, Lightning Bolt, Black, Once, Rearviewmirror

encore 2: Smile, Wasted Reprise, Better Man, Alive, Baba O’Riley, Yellow Ledbetter

Show Notes:

Early appearances of Elderly Woman and Corduroy get the crowd going early, huge singalongs. Mike takes two long and melodic solos during Corduroy. Ed greets the audience with a “Salud salud” and “Hola Barcelona,” trying hard to incorporate a Barcelona…

Show Notes: 

Early appearances of Elderly Woman and Corduroy get the crowd going early, huge singalongs. Mike takes two long and melodic solos during Corduroy. Ed greets the audience with a “Salud salud” and “Hola Barcelona,” trying hard to incorporate a Barcelona accent, and draws some wild applause when he references the ongoing World Cup. Ghost makes its only appearance of 2018, and the band sounds incredibly tight on it. A member of the crowd yells out “You’re killing it Mike” before Nothing as it Seems. After Setting Forth, Matt starts the beat of Not For You, and Jeff begins jamming a little bit, as if he is about to join in, but with a quick turnaround, the band goes straight into Given to Fly. Even Flow is introduced as “Tiny penis orange man.” Leading up to the show, there was a concerted fan-led effort to get the band to acknowledge a fan, Israel, who had recently passed. Ed comments after Even Flow:

“You know, someone who couldn’t be here this week to see these shows. You know sometimes you lose…there’s a bit of a family, you know there’s lots of people who have listened to us long enough to where they’ve met at shows and then gotten married and had kids and brought kids to shows and there’s a bit of a community and so when you get news that you lost one of your, the folks in your community, it’s nice to see everyone come together and support each other and the loved ones of that person and as a band we’d like to participate in supporting that person and that family and their memory and so we’d like to…it’s very powerful, it’s probably one of the most important byproducts of being in a group that we had no idea would ever happen, we’re just happy to be here together but we’re here together. And so this one, I thought it would be nice if we just take this room and light it up for a young man named Israel who should have been here tonight. He went into some surgery that he should have come out of, and there were some complications, and, um, the news was sad so what we’d really like to do is come together for him tonight. This is for brother Izz and his friends and his family.”

This leads into Israel’s favorite song, Oceans, and they keep the  tribute going by following it up with Light Years..

The “It’s Ok” tag in Daughter is replaced with “Esta Bien,” and the Spanish crowd gladly obliges. An audience member has a Gord Downie shirt that Ed mentions on mic and asks the cameras to show it. He says that he lost a friend recently, and that this next one is for his friend Ken. The band launches into Come Back, an incredible version with a lot of space, great vocals and some very emotional guitar work. Wasted Reprise goes straight into Better Man, with Ed adding some extra lyrics to Save it for Later. Mike starts Yellow Ledbetter, but Ed abruptly stops him to say:

“Whoa whoa whoa, I’m sorry…I had to tell you, I’m looking for a young boy named Miguel because I want to give him his first glass of wine. I got this letter, it says Dear Eddie, oh and it had a great drawing on it too, I think they might show it ‘there’ [points to video screen], its a great drawing of us playing live…there’s Matt and Jeff and Stone and Mike and me and he’s right in the front so he should be…that’s not Miguel is it…that’s right in the spot, you’re right in the spot. You make sure this gets to him, yeah? So it says ‘Dear Ed, my name is Miguel. I’m 9 yrs old, I’m a big fan of yours. I’d like to meet you tomorrow. Tomorrow is a great day for me because I’ll see you live. I’ve waited a long time for this moment.’ [laughs] Well I’ll tell you what Miguel, after tonight, it won’t be another 12 years before we’re back in Barcelona. We’re very…and lastly he says…’I would be very grateful, if you play tomorrow at the concert, Yellow Ledbetter.’ So it’s our pleasure Miguel, this is for you my friend.”

Yellow Ledbetter ends the night, the crowd bids farewell to the band with a soccer cheer, and Ed steps back up to the mic and says “We truly truly love this city, and as people here tonight we thank you so much, we really can’t wait to come back….I will keep it with me I promise.”

Written by: Sheehan Perera