*** Ed solo Philly 1 Fanviews Here 6/11/09 ***

greggv19

Row DD Right Center from 10c which in reality was row 9. Show was a little aggressive compared to the NJPAC show I went to last year. Overall I thought Ed was in good spirits. I think he just had to be a little shorter on stories and in between songs to keep the crowd from getting loud and what not. Brain Damage & Sometimes were solid as were Lukin and Kids are Alright. Great show that did not dissapoint. Wish I was able to go tonite. Hoping for the Spectrum!

Kanye East

Great show last night!! Loge section, row BB. Great seats!!

Ed's voice was fucking incredible. Not sure what everyone is talking about with the sound being off, I thought it sounded great.

Highlights for me were Brain Damage, Atlantic City, The Kids are Alright, Driftin, Hide Your Love Away, and Throw Your Arms Around Me. Was pumped when he mentioned the Spectrum too....cant wait for October!!

Lowlights for me were the annoying women in front of me, who kept looking at their fucking crackberry all night long. Seriously people, is it really necessary to check your fucking phone every 5 minutes???? I wanted to spit in their fucking faces. To block out the light from the one lady's phone, I help my playbill over her shoulder and made a few subtle comments. I know they heard me bitching. Assholes!!!

I also dont understand why people need to scream out during ARC. That was very annoying too.

Overall, it was an incredible night though!! I dont mean to sound like a whiner.

FW46778

i honestly think that people complain about people at shows must have ADD. You are at a show, are you really distracted that much by a cell phone. FOCUS.

Save You

i think Ed rolled through the set quickly because the size of the tower and the philly crowd was going to cause alot of yelling out shit. i dont understand the deal with everybody and their cell phones, just leave your cell phone in the car and relax !

primitiveshirts.com

anybody hear the rumors that kid rock was there last night, a few people told me that security guards were telling them kid rock was there and soundchecked with ed. kinda glad that rumor was false.

it was cool to see and talk to Pierre Robert afterwards, i see him at almost every philly concert.

psubsb12

Yea...the security guard who scanned my ticket told me that Kid Rock was there as well. I could barely understand what he said, but this was definitely it if I'm not the only one who heard it. Frankly, I didn't really care too much haha.

Sharon_Hearts_PJ

bradhos wrote:

anybody hear the rumors that kid rock was there last night, a few people told me that security guards were telling them kid rock was there and soundchecked with ed. kinda glad that rumor was false.

There is no doubt in my mind that you are referring to the guy who sat in front of us (at least for the first half of the show, before we moved). He had shoulder-length blond scraggly hair, and wore that stupid hat. He did take it off for the show, which was respectful enough. But it wasn't Kid Rock. I did joke to my husband that he looked like him, however.

Sharon_Hearts_PJ

OK, so now that I've rested and can more fully compose my thoughts, here is my official "Fanview" of last night:

Last night was quite an experience, to say the least. My husband and I debated each other for a while when we first heard Ed would be playing two nights at the Tower. It's an undeniably amazing little venue, 3,500 seating capacity, and we've seen a few shows there together. He was fine with just going to one of the two scheduled shows, but I could not imagine not going to both. We compromised. (That is to say, I won.)

We spent money we didn't really have at the time, as I had just been re-hired following a 6 month layoff period, when the tickets went on sale through the fan club. My request was accepted for night two, and his was rejected for night one. He thought we should leave it at that, but of course I couldn't! So the public sale opened up back in April, and because we had a friend who was out of town and couldn't be near a computer, we attempted to pick up two sets through LiveNation. We were able to defy odds and succeeded with two purchases, one in the Balcony, and one in the back of Orchestra. Truly, every seat in the house is pretty great, but obviously the closer the better. As it turned out, the friend didn't need a pair, so we sold the ones in the Balcony.

Fast forward to last weekend, as I'm sitting at work on a Saturday. I get a call from Solat13 letting us know LiveNation had just dropped some pairs of seats in pretty decent spots. I pull a pair that upgraded us by 21 rows down in the Orchestral! I could NOT ignore the opportunity, and decided to grab them (much to husband's chagrin). I figured we'd have no problem unloading the Balcony pair. And we didn't. Another friend of a(n AMAZING) friend needed a pair for himself and his wife, so we set up to meet near the venue just before showtime, and made the exchange of tickets for cash (which was mostly spent on merchandise and alcohol throughout the evening).

We get inside the venue, are chatting with some other PJ friends of ours, and eventually take our seats to check out Liam. Just before he takes the stage, Matt, the guy we sold the pair to, calls my cell to find me in the theater. He comes over to us after a few waves and "look to your right"s, and informs us that a fan club employee found him and his wife (he'd already met the guy once before at a show in Chicago, I believe) hanging out up in the balcony, and upgraded their seats to front row center!!!! He offers to swap seats with us for the second set, but warns us how weird it will be sitting under Ed's nose. Who would turn down this opportunity?! Not me!!

So, as he promised, Matt and his wife show up at the end of the first set, and we quickly swap seats. I am shaking at this point. We had sat close to the stage once before, in Kissimmee (2004), and at the House of Blues Orlando show (2003) I ended up pretty close as well. But that one was general admission, and I am short, so it wasn't quite the same. This was seated, with decent space between the first row and the stage so Ed could see each one of our smiling faces! And I KNOW he saw my Cheshire grin! He actually definitely noticed during the first song that there were two new faces in front of him, and I'm pretty sure he put it together that people must have been kind enough to swap with us. The man is smart, and knows his fan base.

The second song of that set, Forever Young, was beautifully dedicated to Olivia. He was noticeably sad that he couldn't be with her on her 5th birthday. After the song was finished, he motioned for me to come up to get his guitar pick. I hopped up so fast, and cupped my hands so that I wouldn't drop the pick! My husband joked that it was like I was receiving Holy Communion, but I'm a Jew so how would I know this?! It was such an incredible moment, and all I could muster to him was "You are fantastic!" (LAME!)

The rest of the second set was pretty much a blur of happiness and beautiful music. Before the encore, he came up to the front of the stage to shake the hand of anyone who could reach him, so I got to touch him once again. I was a puddle of goo by then. So blissed out on the events of the evening! The finale of Hard Sun, which is such a gorgeous song, was perfection capped off by perfection!

I am not sure tonight can top last night, unless we're fortunate enough to be upgraded ourselves, but it doesn't even matter. Dreaming of seeing Eddie solo since 1994 or so has culminated in that one perfect moment of connecting with the man who has meant so much to me through adolescence, and well into adulthood. Hell, the formation of Pearl Jam led to me finding the love of my life on this very message board!

Oh, and can I mention that we got a ticket in Philly on the way back to I-95 for running a red light? Yup. $119. Small Karmic price to pay for the prior events of the evening!

thebetterman

I had two people right behind me that kept on talking the whole show. And I can tune them out pretty well, but the shows are more low key and quieter so two people talking pretty loudly behind you is very annoying.

No one cares about your blue shoelaces lady who sat in Orch Left Row N.

The show seemed real short, but it was still awesome of course. Unfortunately I missed Liam this time, I was looking forward to seeing him again.

jimed14

pearljgirl2010 wrote:

flyinwhole313 wrote:

Hey, Assuming that is a pic of you, I saw you and was gonna say yo, but I didnt......anyway, I had this dick yelling Betterman next to me...I am sure you heard him.....wanted to punch him...

someone asked what Ed said before No Ceiling--he said it was someone he knows favorite song...he referred to that on the West Coast, saying Olivia loved it or something...

He had a story about it in Berkeley ... someone had the full story in one of the threads ... maybe in here?

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=17745&start=0&hilit=berkeley

sirlou22

Ryan_WFC wrote:

I thought it was great, better than DC1 and NYC1 last tour. I think he was totally fucking with us about the Spectrum...

Also a surprisingly tame/cool crowd!

I agree. Absolutely incredible show!!!!!!! I thought the crowd was too tame though, especially my section. I hope tonight is more wild.

State of Mind

someone asked what Ed said before No Ceiling--he said it was someone he knows favorite song...he referred to that on the West Coast, saying Olivia loved it or something...

[/quote]

He had a story about it in Berkeley ... someone had the full story in one of the threads ... maybe in here?

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=17745&start=0&hilit=berkeley[/quote]

Thanks for posting this! It was my first time seeing Ed solo and wasn't aware that he had mentioned that before. I misunderstood and thought he said it was his favorite song, and I was excited because it's my favorite off that album. Can definitely understand that he would be thinking about her and his family last night on her birthday, that had to be tough to be away from them.

Kanye East

FW46778 wrote:

i honestly think that people complain about people at shows must have ADD. You are at a show, are you really distracted that much by a cell phone. FOCUS.

You cant be serious. How would you like if I shined a flashlight in your face the whole show? Thats basically what this lady's crackberry was like.

Calum

I dont believe it.. last kiss my fav song ever.. not played either night in albany lol & then next date he plays it! hope everyone had alot of fun!

Reddev10

Sharon_Hearts_PJ wrote:

An amazing night for my husband and myself. Long story short, friend of a friend bought our extra tickets, ended up getting upgraded to front row center by a 10C worker, and swapped seats with us for the second set. Ed handed me his pick after Forever Young (beautiful and touching dedication to Olivia on her birthday, by the way), and I can now die a happy woman!
Tomorrow can't possibly top tonight with my own personal experience, but I'm still looking forward to it!!!

Congratulations! I was sitting right behind you in the 2nd row. I was wondering why the other couple left and then new people showed up and sat in their seats. Awesome show. Thanks ten club for the great seats.

Sharon_Hearts_PJ

Reddev10 wrote:

Sharon_Hearts_PJ wrote:

An amazing night for my husband and myself. Long story short, friend of a friend bought our extra tickets, ended up getting upgraded to front row center by a 10C worker, and swapped seats with us for the second set. Ed handed me his pick after Forever Young (beautiful and touching dedication to Olivia on her birthday, by the way), and I can now die a happy woman!
Tomorrow can't possibly top tonight with my own personal experience, but I'm still looking forward to it!!!

Congratulations! I was sitting right behind you in the 2nd row. I was wondering why the other couple left and then new people showed up and sat in their seats. Awesome show. Thanks ten club for the great seats.

Glad I could clear it up for you lol
Yeah, it was an unreal experience. I have a fuller fanview elsewhere in this thread.
I hope I didn't bop too much and bug you! I couldn't contain myself!

LBCeddie

I must say it was a damn good show, Porch, A.C, Lukin. I sat really close last year in Newark and was worried about not being able to hear or see etc but all worries were out the door as soon he started Braindamage. The Tower is a good venue. I also loved walkin back to my car in the pourin rain singin Wash the whole way "Upper Darby's so filthy like my mind in ways"

mrs.smiley

Sharon_Hearts_PJ wrote:

Reddev10 wrote:

Sharon_Hearts_PJ wrote:

An amazing night for my husband and myself. Long story short, friend of a friend bought our extra tickets, ended up getting upgraded to front row center by a 10C worker, and swapped seats with us for the second set. Ed handed me his pick after Forever Young (beautiful and touching dedication to Olivia on her birthday, by the way), and I can now die a happy woman!
Tomorrow can't possibly top tonight with my own personal experience, but I'm still looking forward to it!!!

Congratulations! I was sitting right behind you in the 2nd row. I was wondering why the other couple left and then new people showed up and sat in their seats. Awesome show. Thanks ten club for the great seats.

Glad I could clear it up for you lol
Yeah, it was an unreal experience. I have a fuller fanview elsewhere in this thread.
I hope I didn't bop too much and bug you! I couldn't contain myself!

So happy for you-if I have 1/2 as good a time tonite I'll be happy B up in balcony tonite-only tix I could get @ time! Still just happy to be seeing Ed in such a small venue! Enjoy tonite!

TooMuchBlood

Kanye East wrote:

FW46778 wrote:

i honestly think that people complain about people at shows must have ADD. You are at a show, are you really distracted that much by a cell phone. FOCUS.

You cant be serious. How would you like if I shined a flashlight in your face the whole show? Thats basically what this lady's crackberry was like.

I agree with Kanye. I can't stand people's reliance on phones. I personally and purposefully have gone back to the cave in that respect. I bought a MagicJack, which costs $20 a year for North America phone calls. I bought a rinky-dinky T-Mobile cell phone -- for emergencies and fleeting conveniences only (and never carry the phone unless I know I will have to use it) -- for $40 and 1,000 minutes for $100. The minutes, they say, last a year, but there's a way around that. I've used only 230 minutes since about Thanksgiving, and 30 or so of those minutes were when I was so weak from a wicked stomach flu over a few days in March that I couldn't get to my MagicJack, connected to my computer.

Cut off the umbilical cord that is the cell phone, quit walking into people in slo-mo while you text, text, text obsessively, pocket your music player and pull out the earbuds and look at live human beings and listen to the birds.

blacknapkins

Not a fanview, but the newspaper review published in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Vedder regales in song, on sports

By Jonathan Valania

For The Inquirer
Eddie Vedder is a golden god to that sector of the rock-audience demographic that loves sports as much as it loves music.

On Thursday night, the first of a two-night sold-out solo stand at the Tower Theater, Vedder regaled the crowd with tales of soul-brother handshakes with Dr. J and bar-hopping during the NBA Finals with Sean Penn and Jack Nicholson (wherein a beautiful woman walks up to Jack and asks if he wants to dance, and Jack responds that she's chosen the wrong verb to describe what he wants to do with her), and made up a song on the spot that urged the Phillies to "do it again."

The crowd seemed just as thrilled with these moments of sports solidarity as they did with the songs he played. And he played plenty, drawing largely on his soundtrack work and well-chosen covers, along with a few Pearl Jam nuggets, in the course of a powerful two-hour set.

He performed seated before a series of changing theatrical backdrops - a tenement-lined street, a movie-studio backlot, a circus big top - amid a tableau of guitars and artsy bric-a-brac, all of which created the impression we were hanging out in Vedder's attic, drinking beers while the dude wailed.

He strummed the guitar - electric and acoustic, and switched to mandolin for "Rise" (from the Into the Wild soundtrack, and dedicated to Dr. J) - as fiercely as he sang, and that smoky, clenched-jaw baritone remains a potent instrument.

He leavened his own material (a rip-snorting "Lukin," a drifty "Guaranteed," and a showstopping "Last Kiss," which, though it was written by Wayne Cochran back in 1962, is kind of owned by Pearl Jam) with stirring reinterpretations of other people's songs. He killed on "Atlantic City" and "The Kids Are Alright," dedicated "Forever Young" to his daughter who turned 5 the day of the show, and turned "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" into a soccer chant.

Perhaps the most compelling, though, was the song he made up on the spot late in the first encore by looping his own voice, layering reverb-drenched wails and swooning bleats with a gorgeous, hummed melody that wouldn't sound out of place on a Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan album. Vedder closed with an exultant reading of Indio's "Hard Sun," while a hard rain fell outside.

Jonathan Valania is editor-in-chief of phawker.com.




Find this article at:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine ... ports.html