The crowd is in a rotten mood from having to stand outside so long and they take it out on Pearl Jam, who play a roaring set (they thanked

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Larry excessively for their sound check) that is greeted with a bevy of plastic bottles and "Fuck you"s.

"Fuck me?" Eddie Vedder says. "Okay, you fuck me and then Bono will come out and fuck you." That gets some more boos. The funny thing is, Pearl Jam sounds great. I don't doubt that in five years the same people who are heckling them today will be bragging that they saw them way back when.

Backstage I run into Cameron Crowe, a legend among rock critics. Cameron was writing for Rolling Stone at fifteen, was made a contributing editor for his eighteenth birthday, quit to pose as a high school student for a year so he could write the book Fast Times at Ridgemont High, parlayed that into a job writing the script for the successful film of his book, which he in turn used as a launch pad for writing and directing his own movies. His films include the critically lauded Say Anything and the new Singles, a movie set in Seattle that features members of Pearl Jam in supporting roles and on the soundtrack. Aside from being distinguished from most of his rock critic peers by his ability to become a successful artist in his own right, Crowe is also freakish among the fraternity because (I) in a field full of sniping egomaniacs he is always gracious and generous and (2) because he married musician and video heartthrob Nancy Wilson of Heart. I don't know of any music critic who has inspired as much petty jealousy as Cameron, or in whom such pettiness is so absent.

Rolling Stone has hornswoggled Crowe into returning to his teenage vocation to write a cover story about Pearl Jam. He introduces me to Eddie Vedder and we fall into a conversation about songwriting. Eddie, who has a reputation for being touchy and reclusive, is warm and friendly as all get-out. Cameron is warm and friendly as all get-out. I can fake being warm and friendly with the best of them. We all stand around being convivial until Eddie suggests we go out to the sound­board and watch U2. When we get there Naomi and Christy are in their spots, as are Freston and Pollack. Edge's family have folding chairs set up and whenever the Zoo TV walls cut to a shot of Daddy his little girls wave at the screens. Perhaps because his kids are in the house, Edge does a rare solo song, an acoustic guitar version of "Van Diemen's Land" from Rattle ana Hum. (Because "Numb" is now all over MTV a lot of people think it's Edge's first lead vocal on a U2 song. It's not, nor was "Van Diemen's Land." Edge sang "Seconds" on War, which always

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Sent a shock through the house when U2 did it live. People assumed from the record that it was Bono.) On the side of the stage, Adam is watching Edge and Bono is trying to give Adam a hot foot.

There is a cool breeze and a magnificent moon. U2 are playing great. During an uproarious "New Year's Day" Bono, walking toward the B stage through a field of outstretched arms, turns and shouts, "I love you, Adam Clayton!"

Tom Freston says, "This is the best show I've ever seen; it should never end." He asks Christy and Naomi if they don't agree that this is the best concert they've ever seen. Yep, it is. Jeff Pollack says it might be the best concert he's ever seen too. Tom asks Eddie Vedder, who is unreconciled to all the technology and stage gimmicks, if it's the best concert he's ever seen. Eddie says he'd prefer Henry Rollins in a small club.

Some of the guards are chasing a blond woman through the crowd, trying to confiscate a video camera. She's pretty quick. She's giving them a good run for their money. Uh-oh, she is also Cameron Crowe's wife. I go tell the bouncers that the woman they just chased and shook down is Nancy Wilson of Heart, a real rock star in her own right and a legitimate laminated all-access part of the Pearl Jam's entourage.

"I guess we should give back her camera then," says one of the bouncers.

"Can we keep her film?" says another.

Onstage Bono is raging about Bosnia. "For the first time in about twenty-five years America gets it right, wants to help out the people over there across the water in Bosnia-Herzegovina. So what happens? The EEC gets together and fucks it up!"

Driving back to the hotel, Regine shows me a fax that has arrived for Bono from Bill Carter in Sarajevo. It is three single-spaced pages with­drawing the invitation for U2 to come to Bosnia, and what they might do instead:

Yesterday hundreds of shells hit Sarajevo, which I can assure you is enough to either lose your life or worse, lose your mind. Bearing this kind of warfare in mind I think coming to Sarajevo as a group would he very dangerous. Believe me there would he nothing I would want more than to have that happen, hut there are serious problems with the concept. . . .

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Sarajevo is very likely the most dangerous city in modern history. The attacks are random and on the town, not exclusively on the soldiers. Thus moving around is difficult. As individuals I would say yes, let's make it happen, but as U2 the danger would be very high for the people of Sarajevo. They are beyond caring about snipers and shells, and they would gather to feel the power of U2 and there's a real possibility that people would be killed. Example: four weeks ago there was a big football match in a village in Sarajevo, and the Serbs shelled it and killed 30 people and injured 125. Third, if you made it into Sarajevo the airport could be shelled, as it is quite often, and then the airport shuts down and you would be stuck in here anywhere from 3 to 7 or 8 days. Personally I think U2 could be more powerful making aware the situation with the audience it speaks to every night.

Carter goes on to suggest that U2 allow a satellite linkup between the Zoo TV concerts and Sarajevo:

The idea is to show the insanity, the surrealness, the survival. The audience if anything would realize, Jesus, lucky I'm here enjoying this concert and not in Sarajevo. Maybe they will think about not letting it happen in their country, their city, their house. . . .

He explains that the notion of Bosnia is of a united nation of Serbs, Croats, and Muslims:

Sarajevo, the only place where your name won't get you killed, raped or put in jail. It is a war of last names, . . . Why is Sarajevo under siege? Sarajevo represents the soul of Bosnia. If the Serbs can destroy the spirit and nerves of Sarajevo they can easily start to carve up what remains of Bosnia (not much: 70% is occupied).

I finish reading the letter:

(Let me know if the idea with the satellite link is in the right direction.)

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