Flour Power

Last night I had the pleasure to be one of the lucky few in The O2, Dublin, watching an amazing concert by Pearl Jam, starting off their 2010 Europe Tour.

If I had to describe the concert in one word, I would choose energetic. A lot of the loudest and quickest Pearl Jam songs were part of the setlist, and once or twice I wished for a quieter song to be able to get a little rest from being in the edge of the moshpit. But the band was just full of energy, and barring songs like Nothingman, Just Breathe and Elderly Woman Behing the Counter in a Small Town, it was almost constant jumping through the whole thing.

It’s hard to choose a favorite, but I’ll go for Better Man, for the awesome atmosphere caused by more than 10.000 people singing it in unison. I can’t help but feel a bit disappointed that none of Black, Jeremy, Last Kiss, Red Mosquito or Wishlist didn’t make it to the set, but on the other hand they played a completely new song. A song “so new, it might not even be a song yet” – Of The Earth.

In summary, two and a half hours of pure energy. Here’s the complete setlist of 26 songs:

Long Road
Once
The Fixer
Why Go
Corduroy
Severed Hand
Amongst The Waves
Even Flow
Unthought Known
Nothingman
Lukin
Not For You
Down
Got Some
Comatose
Arms Aloft (Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros cover)
Do The Evolution

Encore 1
Just Breathe
Given To Fly
Of The Earth
Porch

Encore 2
Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
Better Man
Kick Out The Jams (MC5 cover)
Alive
Yellow Ledbetter

The most read Spanish sports newspaper – MARCA – has made available in their website a very impressive calendar for the World Cup 2010.

It’s interactive, made in Flash, and allows for a quick view of all the games across 4 dimensions: teams, days, stadiums and groups.

The middle section displays the games, depending on which section the mouse is hovering on. For example, hovering over Portugal (left section, “National Teams”) displays the list of games where Portugal is playing (see screenshot above). This will also highlight items in the other sections – the group Portugal is in (bottom section “Groups and Stages”), the stadiums where the team will be playing (right section “Stadiums and Cities”) and on which days are the games (top section, “World Cup 2010 Schedule”).

It’s the best calendar for the World Cup I’ve seen so far.

(World Cup 2010 interactive calendar)