Pearl Jam Barcelona Concert History

Oceans opens night two in Barcelona, a touching nod to the 2018 show, where it was dedicated to a fan named Israel who had passed away. Off He Goes is upbeat and jangly, the crowd clapping along. The Daughter tag is a Public Image Ltd. song called “Rise” (“May the road rise with you/anger is an energy”). 1/2 Full has a unique visual, as the artist Rob Sheridan explained on Instagram (@rob_sheridan):

“I brought a photo to life that [Jeff} had taken at Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia the day before, giving it surreal movement that gradually melts into abstract forms inspired by Gaudi and Dali…as my video dissolved into a haze towards the end of the song [Eddie] took over on some visuals of his own, using his guitar to reflect a beam of light out onto the crowd. It was only noon yesterday when Jeff threw out the idea of using his photo to bring some of the city’s own inspiring texture into the show, and by that evening we had created all this from it.”

Ed sees a fan in the audience who has a sign asking to come on stage and play guitar, and tells a story about a dream he had where he was surfing and the fan and his sign appeared in the dream, exclaiming “I dreamed about you!” He continues, teasing that the fan has to play hard to get now. Mike starts the Even Flow solo with his teeth and then goes down front, letting the front row help out. As the solo finishes, the crowd starts a “whoa, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh” chant and Ed picks up on it, interjecting “…you’re in the band, man!” The crowd continues the chant after the song and Ed joins in with a short improv. Immortality is stellar as always. Who Ever Said returns for the first time this year, a rare Gigaton appearance. Ed does a new intro to Corduroy, strummed with lots of harmonics. Waiting For Stevie returns as well for the first time in Europe. During Something Special, there’s what looks like a serious medical issue in the audience, and the song is stopped for a few minutes while the person is attended to At one point Ed asks if everything is okay and the crowd response is a resounding “no.” It was very hot in the venue as well, perhaps a contributing factor. During a fantastic RVM, everyone drops out and it’s just the crowd propelling the song with their clapping until Jeff comes back in for the finish. After the break, the entire band comes back out for Smile, with dedications shown on the screen in Ed’s calligraphy. After the dedications conclude, the last slide reads:

Dear

Barcelona,

WE

FUCKING

LOVE YOU!

Ed adds “…ain’t that the truth!” at the end for good measure. Before Black, Ed says “…every face that we can see here, it’s just like an incredible face with an incredible emotion…what have we done in our lives to deserve this, I don’t know…real fucking people, man, real emotion, real faces…you know, I meet people in the street, but they’re not as cool as you, just saying…” Black is once again an outpouring of emotion and intensity, Mike jabbing the headstock of his guitar against his amp and falling to his knees. Openers The Murder Capital join on stage for Rockin’ in the Free World, and the fan from earlier is brought up for Ledbetter, he and Mike work it out and then he plays guitar during the song! Ed thanks the crowd for “this beautiful energy….thank you for directing it our way.”

After having to cancel the last 3 shows (night 2 in Manchester and both Berlin shows), PJ returns to the stage in Barcelona. Footsteps opens in the dark, only Jeff is seated, Ed showing none of the ill effects that forced the cancellations. The crowd is loud and helps out on Nothingman. Mike is stalking the stage during the build in Present Tense and Ed goes down on the front riser and plays to the rail. Ed speaks in Spanish, reading from a paper. Given to Fly sees the lyric change “…made it to Barcelona…” Ed steps away from the mic at the end of Small Town, letting the crowd take the vocal, then adding “one more, show us what you got!” Mike shreds on Scared of Fear, again thrashing around at the end. Ed introduces React, Respond in Spanish. Prior to Wreckage, he speaks in Spanish again, talking about how the songs on Ten only had one word, and this one on the new record does too. After Even Flow, Ed leads a chant, shouting out Mike, and then talks about how Jeff and Stone have been brothers for 40 years. He praises the crowd, calling them the most energetic they’ve had on the tour so far. In My Tree is dedicated to a woman named Celia, “it’s her favorite.” Mike goes down front for the Dark Matter solo. Ed conducts the crowd during Jeremy, pogoing and building them up for a deafening singalong at the end. He’s holding a guitar and says “not sure if you’ll know this one…” and plays Name that Tune, hitting the first note, asking “any idea? This is about having something that you wanted for a while, and then once you had it, you couldn’t get rid of it, and if you don’t get rid of it, you’ll fuckin’ die,” leading into a downtuned Habit. Ed once again is speaking Spanish before Upper Hand, reading from his paper. He asks “…am I saying that right?” and then speaks English, joking that after 4 years, once they move here in December, he’ll be more fluent. He does a short Spanish guitar “Romanza” intro to Better Man on the electric guitar, the first time it’s been played since 2005! After the break, Ed comes out solo and gets the various parts of the crowd to make noise, competing with each other. He says “…we had days off we didn’t want to have off, to come out of it and land in this kind of ocean with great people and a great wave, thank you.” The band returns for Wasted Reprise, Boom starts the chords and Ed speaks, taking a moment to collect his thoughts:

“Last week, it almost felt like a near-death experience, it was very uncomfortable and it got frightening, it was a chest, front cavity…it felt like maybe you couldn’t breathe and you might not make it through the night, like you might have to go to the hospital…you just realized how precious this life is, how lucky we are to have been living on a planet where we can go around and play to incredible people like the people in this room here tonight, so it was a poignant experience, I won’t be forgetting it anytime soon, and we won’t be forgetting tonight anytime soon…”

It’s the first Wasted Reprise since 2021, and followed by the first Life Wasted since 2022. Ed’s running around and being interactive with the crowd during Alive, Jeff goes over to Stone’s side and plays for a while before he and Stone gather around Matt for the end. Mike immediately kicks into Baba O’Riley and the celebration is on. Ed leaves with “…there’s no words to say thanks as much as we feel, but I’ll try…I’ll just bow to you, thank you…” and leads the crowd in an “olé” chant before exiting.