i was working the afternoon shift this week, so i had to take a couple of days off to be able to go to stockholm to see pearl jam (it was worth it!). we (kalle - the driver, who likes 80s synthpop & me) started our little rock n' roll trip at about 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning. neither of us had been to the maritime museum in stockholm before, so we brought along some maps that i'd found on the net. about halfway to stockholm we stopped at a place called nalle's (cool name...). we were going to get something to eat there, but decided to find another place. at about 2pm we were in stockholm. we found the museum and parked the car. time to go and get the tickets. the ten club (pj's fan club) ticket window wasn't open, so we decided to go and get something to eat. we walked around for a while without finding any fast food places (we were in östermalm, home of the "beautiful people"). wrong part of town for fast food places, but they had lots of art galleries....? anyway, finally we found a mcdonald's a little bit further away from the concert site. we ate our hamburgers and returned to the museum. now they'd opened the ticket window and merchandise booths. i got our tickets and we went to buy t-shirts. when we were done with the "shopping" we took the stuff back to the car and returned to the concert site. we sat down and waited for the gates to open (like many other fans). when the gates finally opened we picked a spot and sat down. waited.... then a guy comes on stage. he says that he's going to play a song for us. it turns out to be last kiss. it was quite obvious that the guy wasn't the one singing or playing the song. when he "finished" the song, eddie came out from the side of the stage. he had been standing there performing the song.... :-) he continued his solo set with trouble (a cat stevens song), deadman, parting ways (first time it was performed) and the set ended with throw your arms around me (another cover). great start! after eddie's set, dismemberment plan played their set. the dismemberment plan ended their set and we waited. then pj entered the stage, the first song was corduroy! it was followed by grievance, god's dice and animal (three fast songs). pj slowed things down (a little) with given to fly. rival and small town followed. even flow (with iron maiden riffs inserted into the solo) was next and the crowd went crazy. in not for you eddie fucked up some of the lyrics. these things happen.... another slower song, thin air, was next. it sounded great. rocking versions of mfc and habit were followed by one of my favorite tracks from "no code", present tense. it was started by just ed and mike. at the end the whole band joined in. were cool to hear this song on a beautiful summer day when the sun is setting. ed even mentioned it in the song when he sang the line "have you the belief that the road ahead ascends off into sun light? i think this is it!" daughter with a bit of r.e.m's the wrong child followed present tense. during jeremy parachutists pass by the venue. they're doing arial tricks, the crowd and the band watches them. during the song, ed wished the parachutists happy landings! once and go ended the main set. go featured more iron maiden riffs by mike. when the band returned for the encores ed mentioned that iron maiden was leaving the venue. he told the crowd to shout "goodbye maiden!". he also says that "there's two eddies in town this week!". eddie is the name of iron maiden's mascot..... :-) it's evolution baby! do the evolution is the first song of the encores. the second one is a track from the binaural album called insignificance. pj played an amazing version of rearviewmirror next! during the song a nokia air balloon passed the venue. ed changed the lyrics to "i seem to look away, when advertisements are flown my way." during the solo he held his guitar like a machine gun and aimed at the air balloon while matt played some rapid drumrolls on his snare drum (that sounded like a machine gun...). before wishlist, ed asked if the crowd wanted to hear more. he also commented on the air balloons. "is that your parents checking on you? they're fine. go to hell... or go to heaven, just leave us alone." better man with save it for later at the end followed. garden was dedicated to the space were they were playing. eddie talks about the earlier shows they've played in stockholm. garden was a nice surprise since they hadn't performed it a lot on this tour. state of love and trust followed. great version of this song! after the song, ed thanks the crowd,"it's been a great night playing for you". he introduced the band. he tells a story about when they played there the last time (with neil young), the speakers caught fire when they played rockin' in the free world. a great song to end a great show! the show ended at about ten and we started our drive back home. we stopped in eskilstuna to eat.... --- later in 2000 pearl jam released all of the european shows on cd. i bought this one (plus some others). a cool souvenir from a cool show. :-)