Welcome to In The Present Tense!------------------------------Celebrating 20 Years of Pearl Jam

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

And that's it for Europe 2000

The last few shows for Pearl Jam's 2000 European tour have been added to the 2000 download page. As many of you know, Oslo, Norway, wasn't supposed to be the final stop on the Euro tour that year. In fact, Pearl Jam played on June 30th at the Roskilde festival in Copenhagen but the show was cut short due to a tragic accident which took the lives of 9 fans. The European tour ended on that note and the bands future was in question for some time after that.

The band would continue on, as you know, with a full blown US tour but there is know question that the band was forever changed form that incident. The entire tone of the tour was a bit down from that point on. It's hard to describe but you get a sense of "heaviness" when you listen to some of the shows.

The next album release after all this would be Riot Act which by the name alone you get the sense it would be a touch aggressive. Fueled I'm sure by may things but mostly the political scene of the time. Wars, George W. Bush, etc... There was room for some love though in the tune "Love Boat Captain" which aside from it's horrible name, is a very good song. Included is the line... "lost 9 friends we'll never know, two years ago today" paying tribute to the fallen fans at Roskilde two years prior.

It's something the band has never forgotten and neither have the fans in this wonderful community. Last year in Berlin, Germany the band played on the 10th anniversary of the tragedy and again made mention of the friends they lost that day.


May they rest in peace and hear the music of this great band in heaven.

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