Reviewed by Mark Cerasi

The lights dimmed and the crowd screamed as thousands pushed my, soon to be sore, body harder against the barrier. Mike walked out first with a confident smile and a wave. Matt slipped around the back of the amps and kept his head down as he looked over his kit. Stone was full of smiles and quickly slipped on his Les Paul as Eddie and Jeff got into position. Here we go, what thousands of Irish fans have been waiting for as the guys finished up there last gig back in '96.

We all knew that they wouldn't start with a fast number, in fact, 'Sometimes' was the choice to wet our starving appetites. Purple light covered the stage as the sold out venue screamed the words to the No Code opener. Slowly fading it was time for the first fast number. Eddie still hadn't made eye contact with the crowd as the place erupted into a magnificent version of 'Breakerfall'. In total, the band only played 4 songs from the new album but they sounded great. Extremely well played for an album just released.

'Grievance', 'Corduroy', 'Given To Fly' and 'Animal' all flew past, The Point's mosh pit now becoming a wet, sweaty environment for the hardcore fans. Things slowed down for the very impressive 'Nothing As It Seems'. The fans weren't too sure of all the lyrics but we still gave it our best.

Just as we thought we could catch the eye of the security guards and plead for some water, the band crashed into 'Faithfull' and then Eddie threw down his guitar and we were treated to a great version of 'Even Flow'. Mike not only got great respect from the crowd but also from his fellow musicians.

Again the band slowed the pace with 'Off He Goes' and 'Elderly Woman...'. One of my favorite tracks from the new album followed with the crowd shouting the lyrics "Bombs, dropping down, overhead, underground...". It was of course 'Insignificance'. A traditional 'Daughter (WMA)' and 'Rearviewmirror' game the fans some older material to sing with a slightly different version of 'Alive' followed. Stone Gossard even apologized to the crowd after what fans later described as a "fucked up version of Alive". It didn't matter though because they soon broke into 'Go' and set things straight again.

Shouts for 'Do The Evolution' were kindly answered as the crowd welcomed back the boys for their encore which included 'Lukin', 'Wishlist' and a super version of 'Better Man/(Save It For Later)'. Eddie stood back from the mic as we all sang the start of the Vitalogy classic. We even sang the bits where it was just guitar - we didn't care. The last two songs are probably the most memorable of the night - a rare live version of 'Garden' brought the house down while 'Black' (although not brilliant as it usually is) caught EVERYONE'S attention as Eddie climbed an 8ft stack and jumped probably 10ft into the crowd. Thousands pushed through trying to get to him. I wasn't going to bother, the security guards mobbed the area in seconds. Instead I looked at Mike, Jeff, Matt and Stone as they tried to keep the song together, not expecting such a move from Eddie. It was brilliant, they laughed as the bouncers threw Eddie back up onto the stage.