November 5-6, 2000 Key Arena, Seattle, WA

(5th) pre-set: Throw Your Arms Around Me (Ed solo, before Supergrass set)

setlist: Long Road, Breakerfall, Corduroy, Whipping, God’s Dice, Animal, Given To Fly, Nothing As It Seems, Daughter/(Bull In The Heather)/(Beautiful Way), MFC, Lukin, Wishlist, Better Man, Even Flow, Crown of Thorns, Black, Do The Evolution, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror

enc 1: Timeless Melody [with Supergrass], Light Years, Elderly Woman, Last Exit, State of Love and Trust, Spin The Black Circle, Last Kiss, Porch

enc 2: Parting Ways [with April Cameron and Justine Foy], Yellow Ledbetter

notes: The first homecoming show. In ‘Long Road’ Ed sings, “And the skies are always grey…” Ed also mentions that sometimes it’s nice to play a show with your house key in your pocket. He later talks about how the typical Seattle weather seemed to follow them around the tour, mentioning Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Diego. ‘Crown of Thorns’ (once again, to everyone’s surprise) is introduced as “a song that’s older than me.” Ed and Jeff were playing this game all night, they have been doing all these jumps in tandem for the past couple of shows, but tonight they kept trying to psych each other out and pretend one was going to jump, but then they wouldn’t, and start laughing. Someone had brought a huge “VOTE BUSH” banner and hung it from the 200 level; it was removed by two industrious fans before PJ took the stage. Between ‘DTE’ and ‘Insignificance’ Ed acknowledges the previous existence of the banner and said that he couldn’t believe it, and that “Just for tonight, I hope they took them out back and roughed them up a little.” The members of Supergrass were brought out and thanked, and Gary and Ed trade verses on ‘Timeless Melody.’ WARNING – X-rated notes ahead: Afterward, Ed says, “I have a bigger cock than Flea and Patrick Ewing combined, but I don’t want to brag.” Mike illustrates this by holding his hands out to give us a visual. (This was referencing a comment Flea made earlier about how he heard that [new Seattle Sonic] Patrick Ewing had the biggest cock in Seattle, except that now he was in town.) April Cameron and Justine Foy are brought out (with hugs from Ed) to perform the string arrangement for ‘Parting Ways.’ After “Parting Ways,” Jeff grabs Ed’s wine bottle, takes a LONG swig, and then hands it over to Matt, who does likewise. ‘Ledbetter’ is lavishly tagged with ‘Little Wing’ (and there is a Jimi Hendrix photo, torn out of a magazine, taped to Mike’s amp). Really strong, powerfully played show. On the setlist but not played: ‘In Hiding’ and ‘The Kids Are Alright.’

(6th)

setlist : Release, Corduroy, Grievance, Rearviewmirror, Hail Hail, Evacuation, Dissident, Nothing As It Seems, In Hiding, Leatherman, Better Man, Nothingman, Even Flow, Jeremy, Lukin, Not For You, Daughter/(Androgynous Mind)

enc 1: Off He Goes, Light Years, Parting Ways, Go, Once, Crazy Mary, Immortality, ALIVE!!!

enc 2: Soon Forget, The Kids Are Alright, Baba O’Riley

enc 3: Yellow Ledbetter

notes: Ed sings two songs with Wellwater Conspiracy, dressed very dapper in that block stripe suit jacket he’s fond of. “Felicity’s Surprise” is from the forthcoming WWC record, on which Ed tells us he’s singing, before he leaves the stage. Ed then switches to a blue Eisenhower jacket for the main set. The audience is absolutely deafening, the place is packed to the rafters. Mike is doing running leaps onto his monitors during ‘RVM.’ ‘Evacuation’ is perfect, just nails the vocals. After ‘Dissident,’ Ed addresses the crowd: “Hello,” he says, waving. (Huge cheer.) Well, Seattle, this is it. One last show. We’ll never play again,” he says, with a sarcastic smirk. “Well, at least for quite a while … at least you’re better than the crowd last night.” He addresses the huge security presence down front and asks them to lay off, “Stop poking people in the shoulders after every song, they’re all right, just leave them alone.” During Mike’s ‘NAIS’ solo, the wine bottle is uncorked. “It’s been about three months now” sings Ed in ‘In Hiding.’ Tonight’s Section 8 (see: 104 in chicago and U19 in vegas) is 117, and a “Jeff, Jeff” chant arises after ‘Leatherman.’ “What??” says Ed. “I can’t hear you.” Jeff blushes madly and Ed goes over and hugs him. He uses this cue to mention about how Las Vegas was the 10th anniversary “of the first time we played the off ramp … we professed our appreciation publicly for Jeff and Stone’s long term relationship …” He then informs us “the next song was written when I was sitting on my bed when I was this tall,” and goes into ‘Better Man.’ ‘Daughter’ has an long, extended vocalization call-and-response with the crowd (like in Milan ’00). ‘Off He Goes’ is dedicated to Anthony Hurley (one of the Roskilde victims). The strings come out again for ‘Parting Ways.’ The emerald green strat is the latest McCready victim at the end of ‘Go.’ ‘Crazy Mary’ has the solo from Zep’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’ overlaid at the end. ‘Immortality’ has the best Matt Cameron drum solo ever, which leads into ‘Alive;’ it seems to be more emotional for the audience than it does for the band with lots of smiles and they seem okay with it. Ed returns for the second encore alone, picks up the ukulele and says, “We’re gonna play one original and then go into ‘Heavy Metal Hits of the 70s’,” and then proceeds to play Black Sabbath’s ‘Iron Man’ on the ukulele (I know it’s late and we’re way freaked out but I am so not making this up). He then mentions how the song is written about some local folks, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, and goes into a surprisingly short rant on that subject. Following that song, Ed gives a pretty long political speech urging people to vote, but also focusing on local politics, telling the audience that the city of Seattle imposed draconian conditions on the concert being at the Arena, including tripling the band’s security costs. He ties this into the Teen Dance Ordinance and dedicates ‘TKAA’ to the people fighting it. This goes into ‘Baba,’ and then Ed thanks the Chili Peppers, Matt Cameron, the other 3/4 of Soundgarden, Wellwater, and then says: “See you at the voting booth tomorrow … if you don’t vote, let them put that on your fuckin’ gravestone: ‘John Smith, he didn’t vote’.” ‘YL’ is a total band hugfest onstage, and features the ‘Little Wing’ tag again.