Craziest Thing You've Done To Go To A PJ Show

Bird889

I'm a tax Partner in a large CPA firm in Virginia. The band was in Raleigh on April 15 in 2003 and I did not want to miss out. I worked my butt off for weeks to put myself in position to leave early. I got out of the office by 11am and drove the 5 hours to the show.

Just so we wouldn't PO my fellow partners I left my compuer and lights on in my office to make it look like I was still in the building working somewhere. hehehe

pjruss

Long post, I know, but it's a good story:
I decided to go to Chicago 2 alone a couple weeks before the show last year. Had no 10c tix, no hotel booked, no transportation rented, but I bought a plane ticket, and figured I could figure out the rest at some point. First concern was a ticket to the show. Figured I would go to the arena, and find a fellow 10 clubber that had an extra, and that would be that. The night of the first Chicago show, however, I was on here reading about the "poor" 10c seats, and decided to check tm. A single lower here and there, but nothing great, so I didn't buy. Went to bed, got up at 4:30 to get ready to make my 2 hour drive to the airport in Tampa, but decided to check tm once more before I left. Found some seats that had just been released I guess, right next to the stage, Stone's side. Bought my ticket, and headed to the airport.
Flew to CHI, took the "L" to downtown, and proceeded to walk all over and see a bunch of awesome sights (since I didn't have to go with my original plan of hanging at arena box office....sounds kinda creepy now). Took a bus to the United Center, picked up my ticket, then headed to the pre-party with some other 10 clubbers I had just met. Had a blast, met a bunch of awesome people , but best of all (sadly), finally got to put down my bookbag, which was my "luggage". Walked back to the arena, got my bag searched (and got a real weird look from security guard when he saw toothbrush, deodorant, clothes, etc...). He made me check it in at guest services (woohoo). Got my poster, and proceeded to see an awesome, awesome show with some pretty awesome seats.
OK, here's the "crazy" part. I picked up my "luggage", and took the "L" back to the airport, where I SLEPT ON A PUBLIC BENCH with my poster and bag tied around me so no one could get it without waking me up. Got a little sleep, ate breakfast, then flew back to Tampa. I then drove two hours back home thinking to myself that I had just had one of the best days of my life. Something I never would've done (going to a strange city, walking all around it alone, then sleeping on a bench), if not for a PJ concert. I must say, I can't wait to do it again!!!

starmap3333

quit my job, maxed out a credit card, shot myself and lived.
is that crazy?

Spot In The Sky

Learned to drive stick shift so that I could fly to europe and drive around italy for the 2006 shows.

eeriepadave

Only crazy thing i did was for the Halloween show in philly got dressed up like a girl.

TravisTheSky

BrianM wrote:

October 2nd, 1996
Dodge Music Center
Hartford, Connecticut
Got into a car accident on the way down there,. Raining pretty hard. Borrowed my Dad's car for the show.
The right side side of the car was pretty banged up with my bumper hanging for dear life. Me and 3 of my friends were pretty bummed out until we got the idea to take the laces from the sneakers I had in the trunk and tie up the front bumper so it would drag on the ground. I couldn't really take any right turns the rest of the way cause the bumper was hitting my tire., but managed to take lefts the entire way and got to the concert right on time.
Thank you to the other dudes after the show who helped me just rip the bumper entirely off with some tools.

:arrow: Ooh, I was there. (And I've only been to 6 PJ shows in all my life.) That was my first Pearl Jam concert! I write of this often, but they played on my 23rd birthday!

I definitely remember that rain: Especially driving back to central R.I. in the rain, in the dark, through the woods...

Horos

First time I saw them they were opening for Neil Young in '93. Heard from a relative that they would be on the bill. Had no money at the time so I returned a new pair of shoes I had just recently bought and hitchhiked 10 miles to get to the ticket outlet. Bought 2 tickets and traded the other for a ride to the show.

High Fidelity 2000

imalive wrote:

release23420 wrote:

senior yr of high school missed the like first weak due to 2000 tour

Looks like you might have skipped more than one "weak."

Classic! I think that must be a result from when he/she skipped 6 months of elementary school for the '93 tour.

Mine isn't that crazy, but I had tickets to 3 shows, 3 nights in a row, in 3 states on Riot Act. San Diego, then to Vegas (not bad), then to Phoenix. Well in Vegas, ended up staying up almost all night hanging out after the show in the casino. Played blackjack next to Vedder, met Mike and Boom, and saw Stone but didn't disrupt his game. I don't remember the exact sleeping/waking times, but got about 3 hours sleep, then had to drive to Phoenix to get in line to get tix and go to the show that night. Not too bad of a drive, but probably not the best planning. Of course, Ed's voice was weak in Phoenix cause he... stayed up all night partying in Vegas the night before!

I notice the band doesn't really do 3 nights in a row anymore...

BigGameCaptain

My wife and I teach school in Hawaii. We can take up to 5 days of sick leave without having a doctors note to return.

We Flew to Seattle 1 and 2 and did Portland in a week to start the West Coast tour. I told people I threw out my Backspacer and needed help!!!

So we are ready to board the flight back to Hawaii early in the morning after the Portland show and who walks up... but the wife's school principal. He was playing hookie too!

We are now flying direct on a red eye to Newark for MSG 1and 2. I'm taking 3 more sick days to have my Backspacer looked at again by a New York doctor........ then dead head back to the Islands because school ends for the Summer on Wednesday the 26th!

ceska

Flew from NY to LA day of the Who tribute.. Woulda went earlier but I went to see Los Lobos in CT (free show too) the night before... Nervously sat through a 2-3 hour delay on the runway, then luckily snagged a quick connector in chicago 'cause I only had carry-on (I always have delays when traveling through chicago... ) Didn't miss the show, but never again will I fly the day of an event.

noahm

My craziest Pearl Jam experience was getting to my first show in 1996.

I was studying for the year in Jerusalem, and my roommate was as crazy a fan of the band as I was. We each had our parents send us the No Code CD from North America because we couldn’t wait for the release in Israel. Since we missed the fall tour back home, we decided we were going to the closest show to us. Istanbul.

We even convinced four of our friends (three of whom who were not into the band) to skip a week of uni and come with us. Since we couldn’t afford the flight to Istanbul, we got on a cheap flight to Antalya on the south coast of Turkey; slept at the bus station and then got the 12 hour bus ride to Istanbul. Thankfully the world trade center was not sold out, since we arrived without tickets. The day after the show, the six of us took the 12 hour bus ride back to Antalya and hopped aboard the flight back to Israel.

Effectively, four days worth of travel for one show.
And it was worth it.

(And I'm not even going to go into the details of the semi-emergency medical needs for half of the group)

JonnyPistachio

I'm gonna preceed this with an apology to whoever sat near me in Tampa 2008. in addition, dont be mad at me for what I did, I told my g'f that the two days of PJ a year are the most important days to me... nothing can stop me from seeing a PJ show.

I went with a girl I had been dating for a few months. We had never really argued, but I knew she probably drank/partied too much. However, she was fine the night before the tampa show when we went to the PJ show in West Palm Beach.

The drive to Tampa is three hours from West Palm Beach. So we set out around 10am so we'd have plenty of time to get to the hotel and have some fun and drinks before the show.

Little did it occur to me that her drinking in the car from 10am to 1pm would be bad. In addition, I hit a scrap of a tire in the road on the highway and the bottom of my car got fucked up. We had to stop at a gas station and buy zip-ties to hold the quarter panel and undercarraige together. not to mention, i did a lot of this rigging in a damn lightning storm that Ed later commented on. it was crazy lightning everywhere!

So I got a little upset with her because she was stumbling around near the car by the side of the highway. I was afraid she'd get hit by a truck or lightning, so i told her to get back in the car. She got pissed at me saying i was bossing her around.

Anyways, we got to the hotel and I tried to get her to drink some water to sober her up. That made her more pissed so that on the way to the show she stuck a bunch of beer in her purse. Then she almost got thrown out by security becasue of the beer. They told her to throw them out in the trash, but she FUCKING DOWNED TWO OF THEM!

I knew I was in trouble.

She is a huge Kings of Leon fan, so when the show started, she got up and was dancing like a maniac, but nobody else was even standing. She tried to get other people/girls around her to get up and dance.. god, I’m soo sorry people.. Then she got mad at me again because I told her I was going to go get her a water and she better drink it and settle down or we would leave.

I got back from the concession, and she was gone!

Then I saw waaaay back at the back of the venue, the security people dragging her off! So I followed. I begged and pleaded them to give her another chance, but hey said no.
Then the cops came and said they would arrest me if I didn’t personally escort her back to my hotel. WTF?!

So, as I left the venue, I begged a security girl to let me back in if I could make it. She showed me where to go to find someone to ask for her if I came back. I got in a cab with the now-passed-out-crazy-g/f…I carried her to the room, where she tried to punch me a few times. Then I settled her down and she fell asleep. So I rushed back to get another cab and raced to the venue. I found the security girl who remembered me and I got back in. Just as I was walking into the hallway, I heard “Sometimes”…ahh, the opener!

I could barely believe I made it back in time, and I didn’t really enjoy the show cause I was pissed and worried.

Worst of all, she left the hotel room at some point while I was gone and got arrested and taken to the hospital, where I had to go get her out until like 4am…

She didn’t remember anything from the before the concert up until she got arrested. Needless to say, she is NOT my g/f anymore.

mookiemoochie16

pjruss wrote:

Long post, I know, but it's a good story:
I decided to go to Chicago 2 alone a couple weeks before the show last year. Had no 10c tix, no hotel booked, no transportation rented, but I bought a plane ticket, and figured I could figure out the rest at some point. First concern was a ticket to the show. Figured I would go to the arena, and find a fellow 10 clubber that had an extra, and that would be that. The night of the first Chicago show, however, I was on here reading about the "poor" 10c seats, and decided to check tm. A single lower here and there, but nothing great, so I didn't buy. Went to bed, got up at 4:30 to get ready to make my 2 hour drive to the airport in Tampa, but decided to check tm once more before I left. Found some seats that had just been released I guess, right next to the stage, Stone's side. Bought my ticket, and headed to the airport.
Flew to CHI, took the "L" to downtown, and proceeded to walk all over and see a bunch of awesome sights (since I didn't have to go with my original plan of hanging at arena box office....sounds kinda creepy now). Took a bus to the United Center, picked up my ticket, then headed to the pre-party with some other 10 clubbers I had just met. Had a blast, met a bunch of awesome people , but best of all (sadly), finally got to put down my bookbag, which was my "luggage". Walked back to the arena, got my bag searched (and got a real weird look from security guard when he saw toothbrush, deodorant, clothes, etc...). He made me check it in at guest services (woohoo). Got my poster, and proceeded to see an awesome, awesome show with some pretty awesome seats.
OK, here's the "crazy" part. I picked up my "luggage", and took the "L" back to the airport, where I SLEPT ON A PUBLIC BENCH with my poster and bag tied around me so no one could get it without waking me up. Got a little sleep, ate breakfast, then flew back to Tampa. I then drove two hours back home thinking to myself that I had just had one of the best days of my life. Something I never would've done (going to a strange city, walking all around it alone, then sleeping on a bench), if not for a PJ concert. I must say, I can't wait to do it again!!!

You're my hero.