Category: Manitoba

The sixth night of the tour found the band in Winnipeg, Manitoba at the MTS Centre, which they had previously played on their 2005 Canadian tour. For the Canadian tour the band brought along Mudhoney, who had also played the PJ20 festival. For only the 30th time in the history of the band to this point, Matt Cameron’s drum beat and Jeff Ament’s bass begin the show with the rousing Why Go. The crowd chants along with the beat immediately and takes over the first chorus. Right out of the last drum beats they head straight into Animal, beginning a run of songs that start with the letter “A”. The crowd takes over the second chorus as Ed requests they give it a try. The ovation is deafening as the band continues with All Night. Matt’s drums are certainly a highlight of this song along with the vocal harmonies beyond just getting a chance to hear this rare treat. Taking a break from the “A” songs, Ed says “live from Winnipeg, it’s Saturday night” to introduce Corduroy, and the crowd is whipped into a frenzy. The ending to the song is a great, frenetic jam. The crowd shows their appreciation as Ed likens them to waves. This mistakenly prompts him to introduce Amongst The Waves, but it was actually Arms Aloft that was next on the setlist. Ed mentions it being a Joe Strummer song and says they wouldn’t be here without him in both the musical and literal sense, because it was through Strummer (Jack Irons was his drummer at the time) that he met the guys in this group. After Arms Aloft, Ed jokes that they’d like to play a little number that really needs no introduction, which of course is the aforementioned Amongst the Waves. Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town is dedicated to friends, Chris and Meera, and has some great singing from the Winnipeg crowd. In the outro of Wishlist, Ed sings these improved lyrics:

“I wish I was Canadian. You got better choices for president. You got open roads, you got plenty of land. Got open roads and plenty of hands. Gorgeous women and gorgeous men. I can drink as much beer, at least I think I can.”

This is followed by Daughter, which Jeff’s stand-up bass is certainly a great highlight on. The tag begins with Ed giving almost a combination of Sonic Youth’s Androgynous Mind and Dead Moon’s It’s OK, and then morphs into the opening lines of W.M.A. before the more familiar chords for It’s OK. The crowd sings loud and passionately on it. Matt Cameron is truly on his game in this show as he’s the driving force of both Green Disease and The Fixer. Whenever the band makes a trip to the great white north, attention must be paid to their Uncle Neil given he is their native son:

“This was written with a Canadian local. I wanted to start like that, he said no you should start like this. No, not like that. How did he say to start it? uh..Stone Gossard ha ha. Yeah, this is one we did with Neil Young. We did a whole record it was called Mirrorball back in the day. I remember coming in the studio, the guys were working hard, they’d only been in a couple days, I said how’s it going? He looked at me and goes, ‘we got nine, and if you write one we got ten.’ So after having not written a song in like two months, I went up and in like a half hour wrote a song just so he could have 10. But it wasn’t until like 2 years ago that I realized that the chorus is exactly like ‘Cinnamon Girl,’ and he never said a damn thing about it.”

Cinnamon Girl is tagged onto the back end of I Got Shit to prove the point he was making. The end of the set is a mixture of b-sides (Down), new songs (Ole and Unthought Known) and one of their oldest songs, Once, which has a great sing along to finish the main set. Inside Job opens the first encore, and is such a treat given the epic nature of the song and Mike’s double-guitar work combined with the beautiful lyrics. After this, Ed addresses the crowd:

“That right there was a Mike McCready composition, words and music. I was going to tell you I met a really good person before the show tonight. I’m excited as it looks like he’s a part of your new hockey team that’s coming to town. If he’s any kind of representative you’ve got a great bunch of guys coming to play in this room.”

This inspires a crowd chant of “Go, Jets Go,” which the band responds and Ed improvs a little ditty “Go, Jets Go,” which the crowd absolutely loves.

“I’ll toast to that. He was telling me a story about him and his girlfriend, his name is Randy Jones, he’s a defenseman. He and his girl were driving in New Brunswick and it was a 36 hour drive and for 35 of those hours he played Pearl Jam radio station, straight. And it’s a testament to their love and appreciation for each other that it wasn’t until hour 35 she asked, ‘just for this last hour can we play something else.’ So, I appreciate that person already, Stephanie. But in a very strategic move I’d like to dedicate this one of love, hope and happiness to both of them in hopes that we are in her good graces forever. But I do think 36 hours is too much. You got to fit a little Sonic Youth or Mudhoney in there somewhere. So this is for Randy and Stephanie.”

The dedication leads into Just Breathe. Present Tense’s beginning with just Mike and Ed is beautiful, but as the song builds and builds, it reaches a fantastic crescendo, before an equally great finish. Comatose gets out to a rough start as it hadn’t been played in over a year, so Mike takes this as an opportunity to tease Van Halen’s Ain’t Talkin Bout Love before they regroup and burn through the song. This is followed by the set closer, Porch, which starts with just Ed and Matt on the first lines before the rest of the band kicks in. Mike’s solo is just flat out ridiculously great and Ed ventures down to the barrier to sing the call and response leading up to the finish of an always great song and a wonderful second set. Out of the break Ed addresses the crowd:

“If you’re still here we’re still here. Can I just raise a toast to these people right here? Wait, what about those people there? Those people. Everybody in the back, how about that? We’ve only been here once before, it was six years ago almost to the day. Don’t think any of this energy is lost on us, we are grateful at all times to be able to come around these parts to play to this amount of excitable people. It’s a bit intimate from my side, I just want to say that last night, I have three brothers they’re all great, the youngest one last night, he and his wife welcomed a new baby boy onto the Earth’s atmosphere. I just know from knowing his brother, he’s going to be the ultimate punk rocker and I was thinking what song could we dedicate to him. But what would really be nice if the next guy we’re going to ask to come up here, if he could dedicate to him, because as much as my brother likes me, his favorite singer is from Mudhoney, his name is Mark Arm. Mark, could you come up to the stage? Also Steve Turner on guitar. This is maybe one of the origins of punk rock, this next song.” (Mark says) “Congratulations to Eddie’s brother, Mike and Sandy, may this be their son’s theme song.”

This introduces Iggy and The Stooges, Search and Destroy, which Mark takes the first verse and they trade thereafter. It’s a blistering assault coming as close to the original as humanly possible. Ed gives one more shoutout:

“Mr. Steve Turner. Monsieur, Mark Arm. They were picking out names. Do you like Decker? Do you like Ian? I like Decker. It’s a surfer. Deck. Or Wayne Gretzky. I have no idea. This is, if it was a daughter, I’d suggest they name her not only Mary, but Crazy Mary”

Boom and Mike’s duel on Crazy Mary comes off more of a collaboration than a battle, but it still sounds great. The Winnipeg crowd are full participants on Alive, which Ed offers at the last chorus “All of you, we’re all still alive.” They also come through on the “heys” during the outro which Mike incorporates into his solo. A cover of Canada’s own, Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World prepares the crowd for the end with great backing vocals and a strong presence from Boom. The song clocks in at over 8 minutes of epic jamming. Ed offers a quick thank you as the first notes of Indifference begin, and the night comes to a close.