Pearl Jam stops Sydney concert for heartbreaking tribute to victims of Laos methanol poisoning

Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder stopped his Sydney concert on Thursday night to pay tribute to Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, victims of a suspected mass methanol poisoning incident in Laos. The band was performing the first of their Sydney shows when they stopped to speak to the crowd after it was announced on Thursday afternoon that Bianca had died.

Bianca died in a Thai hospital after spending over a week on life support following the suspected mass poisoning event at a popular tourist bar in Laos, alongside best friend Holly, who is fighting for her life in hospital.

Eddie took a moment to share his heartbreak over the "senseless" tragedy, telling the crowd, "The one young woman Bianca Jones, she’s passed, and her friend Holly Bowles is hanging on, and we wish her the best, and we are thinking about her parents."

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He added that he didn't want his well-wishes to come off empty, adding, "It can’t be empty if there’s 50,000 of us. We are sending you everything we got your way. So sorry."

'Beautiful tribute'

Many Pearl Jam fans have praised Eddie's message, with one Instagram user writing, "Was amazing last night. Eddie is a class act."

"Eddie Vedder has always been one of the good guys. So touching," another said.

"This man is everything society needs to be," a third said. "Forever grateful Eddie and Pearl Jam."

"Was there last night and it was a beautiful tribute," another agreed.

Bianca Jones remembered for her "infectious charm and tenacity"

Bianca is being remembered for her "infectious charm and tenacity", her smile, exuberance and "happy nature [which] made her a delight to be around."

The president of the AFL club both poisoned Australian teenagers played for said Bianca's family is "completely shattered" and shaken by the unimaginable loss, but have taken comfort in the fact they were able to be by her side at a Thai hospital prior to her death.

"It's just taken it to another level of grief and we're all just trying to cope with at the moment," Beaumaris Football Club President Nick Heath told ABC News Breakfast on Friday morning.

"The good thing, if there is such a thing in this situation, all of the family were with her at the time. They embraced her and said goodbye in a way that the family would have liked to."

Heath said the girls formed part of the "Covid generation" and had only just begun to enjoy their adult lives. "[They] missed out on their social lives for a couple of years and they'd finished their schooling and both worked hard in their part-time jobs to get some money to have their dream overseas trip," he said. "And off they went, full of zest for life and quest for adventure.

"I think that's why so many people relate to this because it could happen to anybody. And that really smacks you right between the eyes. These young people deserve some social life and deserved their time in the sun, and now this happens. It's devastating."

Police confirmed Bianca died as a result of methanol consumption, which was detected in high quantities in her body. "The physician who examined her said the cause of death was a methanol poisoning, from fake liquor," Phattanawong Chanphon, a police official in the Thai city of Udon Thani told Reuters.

"The amount of methanol in her body was high, leading to swelling of the brain."

Bianca's death follows two Danish women in their twenties and an American who were drinking in the area at the time.

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