Pearl Jam - Manchester Arena, 20th June, 2012

Pearl Jam - Manchester Arena, 20th June, 2012

As an American resident in England for over 40 years, I have both an English and an American voice, and the former will occasionally exercise control over the latter, for example in preventing my ever saying the word awesome to describe a meal I have just eaten, or a view just seen, or a nap just taken - choosing instead words more precise and meaningful - and indeed the title of this blog, for anyone who hasn't noticed, takes pleasure in poking fun at that particular American superlative for anything better than bad, but after seeing Pearl Jam last night in Manchester, there is only one word that will do, though I will prefix it with an adjective I regularly use, accepting its attributing function is now linguistically international as a pre-modifier:

fucking awesome!!!

And in the momentary spirit of my laissez-faire attitude to communication, note the naive over-use of the exclamation mark too. You can see that I just don't care!!!

There's not much more to be said now either, that word for this exceptional moment sufficing to characterise this exceptional live performance. I've seen Pearl Jam only three times across their two decades of existence: at the Wembley Arena in the mid nineties, at Cardiff in 2000, and last night in Manchester. This was, without doubt, the best of the three. Launching their European tour, the band was fresh and exuberant; the sound quality was superb - even for those of us listening with the gods - and Eddie Vedder was in brilliant voice and evident happy spirits.

Before the concert began, my daughter and I were discussing the price of tickets these days - not complaining about last night's in particular because it was Pearl Jam [!], but simply observing how expensive it has become over the years to see the 'big' acts. Soon after this anticipation-filler, the band came on and the lights dimmed to deep blue and the opening song Release filled the stadium with its beauty, Vedder's vocal in awesome control. When finished, my daughter and I turned to one another and said the ticket price was worth that one song alone. And we meant it.

The two and a half hour set was stunning. The performance finished on a second encore of five songs, the final three being Jeremy, Alive, and music-affirming Rockin' In The Free World. For that by now familiar Neil Young closer, the lights came up in the stadium and everyone was on their feet singing and dancing. It was a party atmosphere where crowd and band coalesced in the moment that makes live music so precious, especially on this one night with Pearl Jam.

I mustn't finish without commenting on McCready's brilliant guitar playing throughout the night, and of course the band's entire excellence, but as ever for me and so many it was Eddie Vedder's dominant, and certainly last night, fresh vocal that made this concert the word-I-don't-need-to-use-again experience it was. Exclamation marks.