Toronto 1 Story & Pics

hinsey21

I went to 5 shows on the Canadian Tour. They were all fantastic. My wife is now 3 1/2 months pregnant so these shows hold special meaning to me. But Toronto night 1 will always be a very special night to me as I won the lottery. I am not a lucky person in terms of winning things, so this is not something that even ever crossed my mind I would ever win. When we actually got to our seats that night I almost fell over I was so in shock. The show started and it truly was magic to be up there and I really do hope that every Pearl Jam fan gets to experience it. I really kept thinking It's like there playing for me and no one else was there. I found it to be very surreal and I couldn't hear the crowd at all behind me because the music was so loud. Eddie pointed at my wife and tossed her a pick very early in the show which was so nice. I have no idea how I didn't end up with a pick from Mike. The guy threw out what seemed like hundreds haha. Also, it should be known that I go to a lot of concerts, I have seen it all (Paul McCartney, Rolling Stones, The Who, Neil Young, U2, Springsteen) So it's not like I am new to big arena concerts and I am just gushing haha. If I could have picked 2 things I really wanted to see Pearl Jam live that I had never seen after 15 shows (at this point). It would have been Crown of Thorns and to see Neil Young preform with Pearl Jam. (I am a pretty huge Neil Young fan) When they played started playing the intro the Chloe Dancer, I could not believe what I was hearing. I just kept looking around behind me to see if people were in disbelief as much as I was. When they launched into Rockin after Alive, I was still so in awe of Chloe/Crown, I truly didn't even think about Neil at all. I guess I had just accepted that it wasn't going to happen. So when he crept out from Stones side I screamed more like a girl in amazement then I ever have before. Like a real girl scream, It wasn't very cool of me. So obviously the last 10 minutes of that show I couldn't stop from smiling. Overall It was an experience I will never forget. I was happy to spend it with My wife and our baby inside her. Also, as it turns out, it was very wise to take my wife. My wife and I are both professional photographers so she brought our G11 cannon point and shoot. The head security guard said it was fine to take as many pics as we wanted, as long as there was no video. So my wife had the time of her life taking pictures of the band. Knowing how much Neil Young and Pearl Jam mean to me, she got as much as she could when that all went down. Lucky me. We felt that the pictures turned out so well we thought we would make prints and try to give them to the band as a thank you. We gave some of these prints with a thank you note to one of the security guards near the front of the stage the second night. I hope they were able to get them and enjoy. I don't want anything, but It would be nice to know if they did actually get them.

The following is the link to the pictures. If the link is not suitable, someone feel free to let me know and I will remove it.

http://www.lisamarkphotography.com/blog ... n-toronto/

BLACK35

Awesome pictures & cool story

dimitrispearljam

oh..thanks for that and congrats

mfc2006

awesome pictures!!!!

dimitrispearljam

oh..and was seating in front of me at night 2 till you go down..

Lukin19

Great pics! Bringing back memories of an amazing night.

PJForceofNature

What fantastic pictures! Thanks so much for sharing them with us!

benjs

Unbelievable shots! I was in the 14th row with my G11, what I would've done to have been front row at that show and have the opportunity to try and get even a few shots like that! Any chance you shop at Vistek? That's my dad's place

mcgruff10

awesome pics! i love seeing the crowd behind the stage and i always thought ed's yellow tele was a squire (a la bruce) and not a fender; thanks for clearing that up. my sister is a professional photographer and she was really impressed with your "eye."