This was my first outing at the monstrous Co-Op Arena. After I had navigated my way to the car park and then the perimeter of the Manchester City Etihad Stadium, I found myself traversing the outskirts of the Arena and then hitting the mesmerising innards of the new complex, and it was truly magnificent.
The sheer enormity of the Arena is one of wonderment and awe, and by the time I had found my seat, it was show time. Even before we had caught sight of the grunge legends, the volume had been turned up to what seemed like maximum from the gathered assembly and with good cause. Pearl Jam was in town, and they certainly were here to entertain us.
With a set list charting the band’s huge back catalogue, anthem after anthem was delivered with true passion and pride. Disappointingly, it was obvious that Vedder wasn’t firing on all cylinders in the Northwest tonight, but that didn’t stop the huge crowd from adding their huge voice to the preceding. The stripped-back stage, which housed the band and their respective tools, sat beneath a huge video screen that replicated the grunge prodigies’ on-stage efforts.
When a set list is peppered with hymns and mantras such as ‘Daughter’, ‘Even Flow’, and ‘Black,’ it is hard for a set to falter, and tonight certainly showed why the Seattle Rockers are still sitting firmly astride the top of the tree. Even with a thirty-four-year legacy planted firmly behind them, the tracks still sound as fresh and relevant as the very day that they were penned and pressed onto vinyl.
The encore of the anthemic and provocative ‘Alive’ sat beside an emotive and luxurious ‘Black’ within the encore and the set siblings probably generated the biggest sing along of the evening, band and crowd joined in unison to provide a united front and send the grunge anthems high into the arenas cavernous rafters.
Tonight had been a gig of epic and monumental efforts and one which will be branded on the minds of everyone in the arena for years to come. That, ladies and gentlemen, was how you put on a rock show.
