image: B (amateur)
son: A+ (son du boot officiel)
05/26/00 - Anoeta Velodrome: San Sebastian, Spain
attendance: 13,000
support act: The Vandals
set: Release, Given To Fly, Do The Evolution, Corduroy, Insignificance,
Of The Girl, Jeremy, Light Years, Nothing As It Seems, Even Flow, Faithfull,
Daughter/(Hold On)/(Love Me Two Times), Breakerfall, Rearviewmirror, Better Man,
Go
enc 1: Last Exit, Hail Hail, Immortality, State of Love and Trust, Alive
enc 2: Whipping, Last Kiss, Improv, Smile, Yellow Ledbetter
notes: Another fantastic crowd helps the band deliver another fantastic
performance. 'Jeremy' surprises everyone with its intensity, Mike hopping up and
down, exhorting the crowd to jump, Ed with vintage 1992 headshakes and gestures,
Stone also jumping up and down to match Ed's intensity. Ed breaks a string
during 'Light Years'; Mike's 'NAIS' solo is intense, polished. 'Even Flow'
features more classic hand gestures on the "butterflies" lines. Stone
fucks up the beginning to 'Daughter' - of all things - TWICE - prompting Ed to
introduce him formally: "Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Stone Gossard!" The
band returns for the first encore: "What a day, what a place. I have to
admit, we went surfing earlier... as soon as we got in the water, this tornado
came...from Seattle, it was lookin' for us." Ed thanks the crowd for
singing, and then introduces the band (of all things), specifically Stone:
"This is Stone Gossard, his guitar fucked up earlier, *not* him; he's a
professional, he came to San Sebastian to rock you in a very professional way..."
and then the professional rips into a scorching version of "Last
Exit". "Hail Hail' has a lyric change: "Hail hail the lucky ones,
I hope you are in love." Ed forgets the words to the beginning of 'Immortality'
again and looks to the crowd for cues. The crowd starts singing 'State' before
the band kicks in; 'Alive' features yet another band fuckup, prompting Ed to say:
"So much for being a professional band..." They return for the second
encore with the crowd chanting, and Ed singing along with Matt providing an
accompaniment. Ed then says, well, since we fucked up so badly tonight, we'll
just keep playing to make up for it, but you have to promise not to tell anyone,
okay? and then asks the crowd to vote: 'Last Kiss' or 'Whipping'. 'Whipping'
wins hands down, but we get 'Last Kiss' anyway. After Stone and Jeff switch
instruments for what's obviously going to be 'Smile', Stone has bass problems,
prompting Eddie to comment sarcastically, "Maybe it is Stone's fault..."
and they go into another short bluesy jam like they did in Bellingham.