Then came the Q and A to end all Q and As...some guy asked what the lyrics to YL were, and Eddie was like "Wait...after all these years, you're telling me there's actually lyrics to that song?"
Im a few days late with my review, but better late than never!!
The show was GREAT!!!
Thanks to the 10c for such great seats!! 6th Row Center!!!!
The Q&A session was cool, and the explanation of Yellow Ledbetter was incredible. Eddie got choked up when he was telling the story. He was in such a great mood all night long, I felt like it was a buddy of mine at a local bar or somthing!
Got to meet a few message board members too...Firecrotch23 and Tim Something, lol
Just an all around great night...my only complaint was that I didnt get a program/playbill, they were gone by the time i got into the venue. But thats hardly a complaint at all!!
DC-9/24/96
Philly-8/28/98, 8/29/98, 9/1/00, 9/2/00, 4/28/03, 7/5/03, 7/6/03, 10/3/05, 5/27/06, 5/28/06, 6/19/08, 6/20/08, 10/27/09, 10/28/09, 10/30/09, 10/31/09, 10/21/13, 10/22/13, 4/28/16, 4/29/16
Jones Beach-8/25/00
PSU-5/3/03
Irvine-6/2/03
San Diego-6/5/03
Hershey-7/12/03
Reading-10/1/04
The Gorge-9/1/05
Vancouver-9/2/05
AC-9/30/05
E. Rutherford, NJ-6/1/06,6/3/06
Bonnaroo-6/14/08
VA Beach-6/17/08
MSG-5/20/10,5/21/10
Baltimore 10/27/13
It was a brilliant, magical evening with Ed, and I've just now been able to put down in writing what it was like, for me anyway…
Liam Finn opened … he's a bit of a goofy looking guy, quite young, like he is just figuring this rock and roll thing out, and I’m sure he’s watched way too many White Stripes videos, but something about him I still liked, maybe it was just knowing that he had those incredible Finn genes … those boys are pretty damn talented…
Ed has such command of a room, although it is the first time I’ve seen him solo, but when he walked on to the stage he got the most heartfelt several minute long standing ovation, just a blast of pure unadulterated love from the audience to him, and he knew it, and even though he was a bit taken aback by it, he stopped to revel in it for a few moments before settling in…
He played acoustic and electric guitar, then pulled out the mandolin for a beautiful version of Rise, and he brought out the uke for Soon Forget … here he told a hilarious story about how he had just gotten his first bad review (the NYTimes panned the NYC shows a few days before), and he joked about how they called him “…righteously brooding…” He said something funny about there being a difference between being right and being righteous, and that he had been right, no doubt referring to some anti war rant the reviewer was talking about…he completely ridiculed the review, saying that he has been much more righteous and brooding at times, and how he really didn’t believe he had earned such a review, and that he was feeling like a bad assed motherfucker tonight as he sat here holding his ukulele, which he then strummed furiously a few times to prove it!! It was really funny!
Just Ed and the electric guitar sounded so great, haunting at times, and his guitar playing has improved so much over the 15 years I’ve been seeing him, I was amazed at how good he played tonight … there were some very funny comments from Ed about how he loved the room so much, that from now on when people asked where his favorite place to play is he’s gonna say New Jersey!!
It was so cool to see Ed acting this comfortable and at ease with us, getting real chatty with the audience, and fortunately there were only a few assholes who shouted out their usually absurd requests, but at one point Ed did say, “OK, are there any questions?” One guy in the front row asked for a song request, and later in the show Ed said “OK, here’s a song for the guy in the first row, but it isn’t the song he asked for…” Then when Ed called on another guy way up in the balcony, the guy asked if Ed would tell us the lyrics to Yellow Ledbetter, and Ed said, “What, you’re tellin’ me there’s words to that song?” Then he said, “Where’s Mike McCready when you need him?” But then he got serious, and you could have heard a pin drop for about five minutes as Ed explained the lyrics to a song that nobody has ever been able to totally figure out, a song with some of the most inscrutable and indecipherable lyrics ever … and it was a great story too, about a fellow Seattle freak, who looked like a freak but was one of the smart and good ones (“we weren’t all drug addicts” Ed said!), but he died in the first Gulf War, and one day his brother is walking down a residential street, trying to deal with the loss, when he passes a home with American flags flying everywhere and people on the front porch, so he waves to them but they just look at him and see that he is a freak and they don’t wave back, they just look at him like he’s scum…that is the essences of the song, Ed explained, then he chokes up when he says, “and it’s happening again now, and some people are just too stupid to realize it…”
His delivery on Masters of War was brilliant and chilling … and then he just killed on Let My Love Open the Door, as he also did on Porch and Lukin. At the start of the show Ed asked us all to sit down and enjoy the beautiful seats in the theatre, but later he asked us all to stand and sing for Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town, and we did! The Cat Stevens song Trouble was stunningly beautiful, and so was another Dylan classic, Forever Young … at the end of the show Ed slipped on his white lab coat and created the most magical version of Arc, that just gave me goose bumps. Then he brought out Liam for a beautiful version of Society, with Ed just blowing a lot of us away with his great lead guitar work, and then the finale of Hard Sun, a totally rocking song that brought dozens of fans up front for a mini stage rush, and at the end of the song Ed actually crowd surfed! He came up to the lip of the stage and turned his back on the crowd while jamming on his guitar, and fell backwards into the arms of the crowd for several seconds before they pushed him back on stage.
All in all it was a perfect evening, with incredible fan club seats in the 2nd row, just a little off center. Ed is the real deal, and seeing him perform in such an intimate setting just proved it to everyone lucky enough to witness it.
Thank you Ed, Pearl Jam, and of course Ten Club for the great seats once again!!
I was alone and far away when I heard the band start playing!
...I was always a DeadHead, but when I first heard Winston Rodney, aka the Burning Spear, sing, I became a SpearHead too!
A disclaimer, I am a friend of Karen's. we attended the Mansfiend PJ shows together. During Ed's solo shows, I went to the Boston Shows and she went to the New York and NJ shows. We shared a traveling companion along the way.
here is a link to her reviews of the three shows she attended. I thought I'd pass it along.
A disclaimer, I am a friend of Karen's. we attended the Mansfiend PJ shows together. During Ed's solo shows, I went to the Boston Shows and she went to the New York and NJ shows. We shared a traveling companion along the way.
here is a link to her reviews of the three shows she attended. I thought I'd pass it along.
That was an awesome read, thank you for posting it.
"just be darling, and I will be too"
10/25/13 - H, CT
10/15/13 - W, MA
06/16/11 - B, MA (E.V.)
05/17/10 - B, MA
05/15/10 - H, CT
06/09/09 - A, NY (E.V.)
08/01/08 - B, MA (E.V.)
06/30/08 - M, MA
05/25/08 - B, MA
08/30/00 - M, MA
Wow, great review! It was like she was speaking for me (except for the NYC 1 show, I actually enjoyed it very much). But very true that NJPAC was an altogether different experience. It was an amazing evening!!
Shine on all you crazy diamonds!!!!
Angel
Are we getting something out of this......all encompassing trip?
Paramount, NYC '94; Randall's Island, NYC '96; Brendan Byrne, NJ '98;
EV solo, NYC 1 '08; EV solo, NJPAC '08; Philadelphia, PA 10/30/2009;
Hartford, CT '10; Newark, NJ '10
Got to the arena about 5:50pm. Went to grab some food at the outdoor free festival at the NJPAC, a beer, then got in line to get into the theatre. Got in about 6:40pm, got into the merch line, and picked up 2 posters, EV White Zippo, tour shirt, and sticker/button set. Then got in line to get into the theatre.
Oh by the way, I got 7th Row Aisle Seats from TEN CLUB!! I love you guys.
Front Orchestra, Row B, Seats 2&4. My friend and I were the second pair of people in at Door C when the doors opened and the first to walk down to the front orchestra. As fate would have it, as I walked to my seat, a white little speck was on the ground. I bend down to pick it up and it happens to be a EV White Evil Kinevil guitar pic that Ed had dropped as he took a tour of the NJPAC before the show (he had said during the performance that he walked around the entire building especially the last row of the 4th tier.) So that was special.
On to the show. Liam Finn was absolutely incredible. I can't wait to pick up his album tomorrow after work.
Eddie was redic. Walking the Cow and Trouble were cool, but I couldn't have imagined that he was going to play 12 PJ songs and covers before he started playing ITW songs. Around the Bend, I am Mine, Dead Man, and Masters of War were absolutely spectacular. I was singing my heart out to MOW.
And this was the 2nd time I was in NJ where I got to hear a song Ed had written the night before. The 1st time was at Borgata 2; my first PJ show. The 2nd time was at NJPAC; my first EV show. It's gotta be fate.
The ITW songs were cool but the night, the acoustics, the crowd were so special you just knew he was playing a few to get them outta the way cuz he was supposed to be promoting the soundtrack but this was no ordinary night. Soon Forget and Forever Young, then Throw Your Arms Around Me w/Liam Finn (which is my girlfriend and I's song; I was able to call her in Iowa and let her listen in while everyone was singing - very special to me). Then the Q/A which I will keep for myself, Bruce's Growin' Up, Lukin, the 10+ min sing-a-long of "Let My Love Open the Door" I will never forget as long as I live, then getting to high-five Eddie after Arc and the close of the 1st Encore.
Finally, a very energizing Hard Sun 2nd Encore to close the night made everything Perfect.
Did anyone see the tall guy in the front with the Tan reaper shirt rocking out? Cuz that was MEEEEEEEEE
2005: Borgata 2, Philly
2006: Camden 1&2, East Ruth 1&2
2008: BONNAROO, MSG1, MSG2, Hartford
2009: Philly 1, 2, 4
2010: Hartford, MSG1, MSG2
2012: Made in America
2013: BK1, BK2, Hartford
2015: Global Citizens
2016: MSG 2 (ISO MSG1)
EV Solo: NJPAC 2008; Tower Theatre, PA 2009; Hartford 2011
Got to the arena about 5:50pm. Went to grab some food at the outdoor free festival at the NJPAC, a beer, then got in line to get into the theatre. Got in about 6:40pm, got into the merch line, and picked up 2 posters, EV White Zippo, tour shirt, and sticker/button set. Then got in line to get into the theatre.
Oh by the way, I got 7th Row Aisle Seats from TEN CLUB!! I love you guys.
Front Orchestra, Row B, Seats 2&4. My friend and I were the second pair of people in at Door C when the doors opened and the first to walk down to the front orchestra. As fate would have it, as I walked to my seat, a white little speck was on the ground. I bend down to pick it up and it happens to be a EV White Evil Kinevil guitar pic that Ed had dropped as he took a tour of the NJPAC before the show (he had said during the performance that he walked around the entire building especially the last row of the 4th tier.) So that was special.
On to the show. Liam Finn was absolutely incredible. I can't wait to pick up his album tomorrow after work.
Eddie was redic. Walking the Cow and Trouble were cool, but I couldn't have imagined that he was going to play 12 PJ songs and covers before he started playing ITW songs. Around the Bend, I am Mine, Dead Man, and Masters of War were absolutely spectacular. I was singing my heart out to MOW.
And this was the 2nd time I was in NJ where I got to hear a song Ed had written the night before. The 1st time was at Borgata 2; my first PJ show. The 2nd time was at NJPAC; my first EV show. It's gotta be fate.
The ITW songs were cool but the night, the acoustics, the crowd were so special you just knew he was playing a few to get them outta the way cuz he was supposed to be promoting the soundtrack but this was no ordinary night. Soon Forget and Forever Young, then Throw Your Arms Around Me w/Liam Finn (which is my girlfriend and I's song; I was able to call her in Iowa and let her listen in while everyone was singing - very special to me). Then the Q/A which I will keep for myself, Bruce's Growin' Up, Lukin, the 10+ min sing-a-long of "Let My Love Open the Door" I will never forget as long as I live, then getting to high-five Eddie after Arc and the close of the 1st Encore.
Finally, a very energizing Hard Sun 2nd Encore to close the night made everything Perfect.
Did anyone see the tall guy in the front with the Tan reaper shirt rocking out? Cuz that was MEEEEEEEEE
Hey man I think i saw you during the show. I was a few rows behind you (row g). I totally forgot to say watsup after the show. ooops
were you the nice person who let the small woman stand by the stage(that was me) during Hard Sun? If so thank you!!!!!!!
I did get out of the way b/c I thought the show was goin to end and I didn't want the small girl I was with to get trampled. I wish we had stayed tho so we could have pushed Eddie back on stage when he was playing Hard Sun, but if it was me (extremely tall guy with tan reaper shirt rocking out the whole fucking time) then you're welcome and glad you had fun
2005: Borgata 2, Philly
2006: Camden 1&2, East Ruth 1&2
2008: BONNAROO, MSG1, MSG2, Hartford
2009: Philly 1, 2, 4
2010: Hartford, MSG1, MSG2
2012: Made in America
2013: BK1, BK2, Hartford
2015: Global Citizens
2016: MSG 2 (ISO MSG1)
EV Solo: NJPAC 2008; Tower Theatre, PA 2009; Hartford 2011
Hi Everyone, It is fantastic to read these reviews! I am in the tenclub and usually a lurker, but I work at NJPAC and believe me it was just as magical for all of us as it was for you! Thank you all for all your kind words about the building and the staff, it's so fulfilling to see our work is appreciated! If anyone has any pics that you could send to me privately that would be great! Take care!
Hi Everyone, It is fantastic to read these reviews! I am in the tenclub and usually a lurker, but I work at NJPAC and believe me it was just as magical for all of us as it was for you! Thank you all for all your kind words about the building and the staff, it's so fulfilling to see our work is appreciated! If anyone has any pics that you could send to me privately that would be great! Take care!
Thats cool. Me and my freind were by the door where the black usher with the scar on his face was. He was really freakin cool I must say.
I went to the show too! I travelled from Chile to see him...I still can't believe I actually saw him.
I got to see the concert thanks to a guy from Pennsylvania! I scaped from were I was staying cause my parents didn't let me go, and I only had 50 dolars. Thanks to this guy I saw Eddie again. So, if you read this, THANK YOU SOOO MUCH, you have no idea what it meant to me.!!!!! I can't explain it, but it was one the happiest moments of my life
I went to see him in both concerts in NY! at the end of hard sun of the second show ( august 5th), Eddie said "THANK YOU CHILE" cause I was with the chilean flag!...those 3 words felt so fuckin good hahaha. If someone has that video, PLEEEEEASE let me know, or help me find it, it means everything to me!!!! I really need to here those 3 words again !
This is my blog entry about the night. For me, the advenuture was GETTING there from Pittsburgh...
This is the story of how I came to believe that God didn't want me to go to Newark yesterday.
First, my friend Andy picked me up from work at 12:30pm. I was blissfully unaware of the torture ahead and was SO HAPPY! I felt like I was going to giggle myself right out of my skin. We parked at the airport and bounded inside. Since we planned to land at 5:15 and head straight to the 7pm concert, we weren't even carrying any luggage.
But... once we got to our gate, a fellow passenger told us that he had received an e-alert stating that our flight was delayed.
We tried to get some information from the employees at the Continental ticket counter. They were entirely unsympathetic. They simply stated that we might be in Newark by 6:30. Yikes--if I didn't arrive on time, the fan club box office would close and I'd be shut out of the concert entirely!
Painful, panic-filled hours passed. We went to the ticket counter again and again, to no avail. They simply did not want to deal with us--other than to say our plane hadn't even started flying to Pittsburgh yet. At that point, it started to dawn on me that I had spent an arm and leg on this trip and I was going to miss Eddie Vedder. I thought was going to throw up, right there at the gate.
I called the concert venue. I called the Ten Club. Both were polite but told me the same thing: Just get to Newark as quickly as possible.
And so, Andy and I ran down the other gates, desperately searching for ANY flight anywhere NEAR Newark. Most of the ticket agents acted annoyed by our pleas, but one nice lady was putting passengers on a 5:05 flight to Laguardia. She offered to seat us on her plane if Continental would transfer our tickets to US Airways.
Since the plane was about to take off, Andy and I tore across the airport back to the Continental gate. Our agents were even more annoyed with us and said it would be "unfair" to transfer us to a good plane --one that was actually FLYING-- when they hadn't transferred anyone else. I felt like screaming, "IT'S NOT MY FAULT YOU DUDES ARE BITCHES. SEND ME TO LAGUARDIA!" I asked for their customer service number, and they finally agreed to help us. We bolted to the other plane and boarded just in time.
And so, we were in the air. If nothing else bad happened, we'd get to the concert just in time to see the whole show.
But. Argh! Then there was a traffic jam on the runway in NYC. For some reason, we wasted a painful 45 minutes in a cluster of other planes. This gave me time time to make frantic phone calls and research our next plan of action. We could hire a driver for $84, but risk sitting in rush hour traffic. Or, we could get a cab to Penn Station, catch a train to Newark, and hoof it four blocks to the concert. The locals in the seats around us advised the train, which would at least avoid traffic.
When the doors FINALLY opened, we made our way to the front and pounded down the airport corridors to ground transport. We found a cab and told the driver to step on it, explaining that we had just 1 hour to get to Newark.
If nothing else bad happened, we'd get to the concert in time to claim my fan club seats and only miss a little bit of the show.
That's when the cab driver pulled over on the highway. His trunk was malfunctioning and kept flapping open. He got out a screwdriver and went to work.
I thought about how sad it would be to puke in a cab.
Once we finally started out again, we inched along at an agonizing pace through Brooklyn traffic. It was all surreal. I kept thinking, "At no point was I supposed to see the HOLLAND FUCKING TUNNEL today!"
We finally got to Penn Station. I threw a fistful of cash at the driver and bolted into the street. The whole world seemed to move in painful slow motion as we pushed blindly through crowds. We finally, finally found out how to buy tickets to Newark and waited tensely for the 8:04 train. I had 30 minutes to get to my fan club tickets before the box office closed.
If nothing else bad happened, I would at least get to go inside the venue.
At this point, sweating in a mosh pit for 11 hours--like I had done exactly a year before at Lollapalooza--was starting to seem like an easier way to see Eddie Vedder.
Finally on our train, we rolled at a freakishly slow pace out of New York City. Andy got directions from the attendant and we sat, practically in pounce position, waiting for the chance to burst into Newark. My mom kept calling my cell phone to get my despondent updates.
But - joy of joys - it turned out to be pretty easy to get to Newark from NYC! We finally hit the pavement in Newark and took off on foot. I felt like my lungs were going to pop in the hot New Jersey night as we sprinted across the city.
And finally, finally, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center loomed ahead. It took a couple minutes to find the last remaing open door, but...we got our tickets!!! And slid, sweaty and breathless, to our seats....JUST AS THE LIGHTS DIMMED.
And then, well, from there it was just magic. Eddie ambled out in his sweet, modest way. I was happy to join in the appreciative applause, which, for several minutes, seemed like it might never stop. Eddie blushed and stared into his guitar while we showered him with love and grateful cheers.
Eddie was in a great mood. He played his work from Into the Wild, offered us some covers, and sprinkled in some Pearl Jam tunes. And when he offered us all a sing-a-long in the form of "Small Town," I giddily raised my arms in the air with the rest of the room as we sang, "I just want to scream...HELLO!"
But the best, most magical part was when Eddie said, "This next song is dedicated to whoever is having a birthday tonight."
And I simply froze. I could have yelled out--I was just 12 rows back in a quiet theater. But it just came out as a whisper when I yelped, "That's me!" I was going to have a birthday at midnight.
And somehow, through the sheer magic that has always connected me with Pearl Jam, Eddie sang the following birthday wish:
May God bless and keep you always,
May your wishes all come true,
May you always do for others
And let others do for you.
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung,
May you stay forever young,
May you stay forever young.
May you grow up to be righteous,
May you grow up to be true,
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you.
May you always be courageous,
Stand upright and be strong,
May you stay forever young,
May you stay forever young.
May your hands always be busy,
May your feet always be swift,
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift.
May your heart always be joyful,
May your song always be sung,
May you stay forever young,
May you stay forever young.
Oh gosh. Just re-reading those words right now made me start sobbing again. I was completely overwhelmed when he sang this, thinking that I couldn't have possibly dreamed of a more magical, more appropriate birthday wish. I kept thinking, this is my song. I know Eddie doesn't have my birthday in his little Palm Pilot or whatever, so I can only conclude that it was magic.
So, basically, the concert was totally worth it.
Eddie is so genuine it's almost heartbreaking. I sat in that seat and I watched in awe as a beautiful human being poured out his heart to us.
At one point, he decided to take a question from the crowd. The fan asked, "What are the lyrics to 'Yellow Ledbetter?'" -- the notoriously mumbled tune. Eddie explained that the song was about a man who was killed in the Gulf War, and when he deciphered the line "I see them, on the front porch, but they don't wave," his voice cracked with tears. It was amazing. I can't even tell you the level of emotion he transfers to his work and his audience.
...
After the show, we headed out to the tour bus. I had high hopes of getting another autograph, this time with a "Happy Birthday" on it! But the security guards at this venue would have nothing of it. They literally chased our small group of fans to the opposite side of a gate. When we tried to stick around on the sidewalk, they called the cops on us.
The police forced us down the street. But eventally, I guess the cops had more pressing matters to tend to than loyal Pearl Jam devotees in Newark, so they left, and we headed back to the gate. We and our new friends Sirina, Kate and Kathy watched Eddie's hair go by in the window as his tour bus exited the gate.
By then it was 2am. Our new friends took us back to their hotel so we could get a cab from there. Since our flight was at 6, we had only four hours to kill and hoped the airport would be a welcoming place to crash. I just wanted a coffee and a soft chair.
It turns out that a hotel would have been a worthy investment. The airport was about 30 degrees and the rude security guards treated us like we were hobos. But we found a piece of freezing-cold floor and dozed in and out until dawn.
Now that I'm 28, I can officially say that I'm too old for this. Every bone in my body aches today. I hope it's from sleeping on the floor and not a flu, since it's the same cold, awful ache. I just scheduled massages for Andy and me at 5:00 today. Because, this is the funniest part of all:
Tomorrow, my mom and I fly to Montreal to see Eddie Vedder.
Wish us luck. PLEASE!
u are so lucky guys to have being in a PJ concert or EV solo, I´ve wished for so long to be in one, and I haven´t being able to, I just wish they last long enough for me to see them on stage.
I bet the adrenaline is streaming so hard as they play... hope to be in one soon.
Rodrigo
Guatemala
Amazing STORY Joline! You write well, too! I was on the edge of my chair waiting to see if you made it!! You even had me laugh out loud!! Most of all, thanks for the photos..I was there, too, that glorious thursday evening and it will remain emblazed in what's left of my memory cells, which is why I really really appreciate the pix! Thank you and hope you had an easier time of it in Montreal!
"Dream the dream others then...you will be no one's RIVAL!"
"Doo do do do doo do doo, Doo do do do doo do doo..."
Comments
The NJPAC show just rocked my world! Thanks for a great memories Ed!
can anyone spread the "I'm Open" played on the uke????
thanks so much
www.myspace.com/oceansweb
8/7/08, 6/9/09
No...I wasn't planning on going to any...this just seemed to work out for me. So this was it. Can't wait for the next tour.
Hahahaha!!! Gotta love that Eddie!
Thanks for posting -- great review.
GO EDDIE!
The show was GREAT!!!
Thanks to the 10c for such great seats!! 6th Row Center!!!!
The Q&A session was cool, and the explanation of Yellow Ledbetter was incredible. Eddie got choked up when he was telling the story. He was in such a great mood all night long, I felt like it was a buddy of mine at a local bar or somthing!
Got to meet a few message board members too...Firecrotch23 and Tim Something, lol
Just an all around great night...my only complaint was that I didnt get a program/playbill, they were gone by the time i got into the venue. But thats hardly a complaint at all!!
Philly-8/28/98, 8/29/98, 9/1/00, 9/2/00, 4/28/03, 7/5/03, 7/6/03, 10/3/05, 5/27/06, 5/28/06, 6/19/08, 6/20/08, 10/27/09, 10/28/09, 10/30/09, 10/31/09, 10/21/13, 10/22/13, 4/28/16, 4/29/16
Jones Beach-8/25/00
PSU-5/3/03
Irvine-6/2/03
San Diego-6/5/03
Hershey-7/12/03
Reading-10/1/04
The Gorge-9/1/05
Vancouver-9/2/05
AC-9/30/05
E. Rutherford, NJ-6/1/06,6/3/06
Bonnaroo-6/14/08
VA Beach-6/17/08
MSG-5/20/10,5/21/10
Baltimore 10/27/13
Liam Finn opened … he's a bit of a goofy looking guy, quite young, like he is just figuring this rock and roll thing out, and I’m sure he’s watched way too many White Stripes videos, but something about him I still liked, maybe it was just knowing that he had those incredible Finn genes … those boys are pretty damn talented…
Ed has such command of a room, although it is the first time I’ve seen him solo, but when he walked on to the stage he got the most heartfelt several minute long standing ovation, just a blast of pure unadulterated love from the audience to him, and he knew it, and even though he was a bit taken aback by it, he stopped to revel in it for a few moments before settling in…
He played acoustic and electric guitar, then pulled out the mandolin for a beautiful version of Rise, and he brought out the uke for Soon Forget … here he told a hilarious story about how he had just gotten his first bad review (the NYTimes panned the NYC shows a few days before), and he joked about how they called him “…righteously brooding…” He said something funny about there being a difference between being right and being righteous, and that he had been right, no doubt referring to some anti war rant the reviewer was talking about…he completely ridiculed the review, saying that he has been much more righteous and brooding at times, and how he really didn’t believe he had earned such a review, and that he was feeling like a bad assed motherfucker tonight as he sat here holding his ukulele, which he then strummed furiously a few times to prove it!! It was really funny!
Just Ed and the electric guitar sounded so great, haunting at times, and his guitar playing has improved so much over the 15 years I’ve been seeing him, I was amazed at how good he played tonight … there were some very funny comments from Ed about how he loved the room so much, that from now on when people asked where his favorite place to play is he’s gonna say New Jersey!!
It was so cool to see Ed acting this comfortable and at ease with us, getting real chatty with the audience, and fortunately there were only a few assholes who shouted out their usually absurd requests, but at one point Ed did say, “OK, are there any questions?” One guy in the front row asked for a song request, and later in the show Ed said “OK, here’s a song for the guy in the first row, but it isn’t the song he asked for…” Then when Ed called on another guy way up in the balcony, the guy asked if Ed would tell us the lyrics to Yellow Ledbetter, and Ed said, “What, you’re tellin’ me there’s words to that song?” Then he said, “Where’s Mike McCready when you need him?” But then he got serious, and you could have heard a pin drop for about five minutes as Ed explained the lyrics to a song that nobody has ever been able to totally figure out, a song with some of the most inscrutable and indecipherable lyrics ever … and it was a great story too, about a fellow Seattle freak, who looked like a freak but was one of the smart and good ones (“we weren’t all drug addicts” Ed said!), but he died in the first Gulf War, and one day his brother is walking down a residential street, trying to deal with the loss, when he passes a home with American flags flying everywhere and people on the front porch, so he waves to them but they just look at him and see that he is a freak and they don’t wave back, they just look at him like he’s scum…that is the essences of the song, Ed explained, then he chokes up when he says, “and it’s happening again now, and some people are just too stupid to realize it…”
His delivery on Masters of War was brilliant and chilling … and then he just killed on Let My Love Open the Door, as he also did on Porch and Lukin. At the start of the show Ed asked us all to sit down and enjoy the beautiful seats in the theatre, but later he asked us all to stand and sing for Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town, and we did! The Cat Stevens song Trouble was stunningly beautiful, and so was another Dylan classic, Forever Young … at the end of the show Ed slipped on his white lab coat and created the most magical version of Arc, that just gave me goose bumps. Then he brought out Liam for a beautiful version of Society, with Ed just blowing a lot of us away with his great lead guitar work, and then the finale of Hard Sun, a totally rocking song that brought dozens of fans up front for a mini stage rush, and at the end of the song Ed actually crowd surfed! He came up to the lip of the stage and turned his back on the crowd while jamming on his guitar, and fell backwards into the arms of the crowd for several seconds before they pushed him back on stage.
All in all it was a perfect evening, with incredible fan club seats in the 2nd row, just a little off center. Ed is the real deal, and seeing him perform in such an intimate setting just proved it to everyone lucky enough to witness it.
Thank you Ed, Pearl Jam, and of course Ten Club for the great seats once again!!
...I was always a DeadHead, but when I first heard Winston Rodney, aka the Burning Spear, sing, I became a SpearHead too!
here is a link to her reviews of the three shows she attended. I thought I'd pass it along.
http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_272622009.shtml
Kathy
That was an awesome read, thank you for posting it.
10/25/13 - H, CT
10/15/13 - W, MA
06/16/11 - B, MA (E.V.)
05/17/10 - B, MA
05/15/10 - H, CT
06/09/09 - A, NY (E.V.)
08/01/08 - B, MA (E.V.)
06/30/08 - M, MA
05/25/08 - B, MA
08/30/00 - M, MA
Angel
Are we getting something out of this......all encompassing trip?
Paramount, NYC '94; Randall's Island, NYC '96; Brendan Byrne, NJ '98;
EV solo, NYC 1 '08; EV solo, NJPAC '08; Philadelphia, PA 10/30/2009;
Hartford, CT '10; Newark, NJ '10
PLEASE 10C!!!!!!!!!!!
Pearl Jam for Life!!!!!!!!!!!
Continental Airlines Arena
Jones Beach
5/27-28 2006 Philly - Camden
6/24-25 2008 MSG
Eddie Vedder Solo - NYC 8/3 PALACE & NJPAC 8/7
5/21 2010 MSG
www.facebook.com/mattlinda
Oh by the way, I got 7th Row Aisle Seats from TEN CLUB!! I love you guys.
Front Orchestra, Row B, Seats 2&4. My friend and I were the second pair of people in at Door C when the doors opened and the first to walk down to the front orchestra. As fate would have it, as I walked to my seat, a white little speck was on the ground. I bend down to pick it up and it happens to be a EV White Evil Kinevil guitar pic that Ed had dropped as he took a tour of the NJPAC before the show (he had said during the performance that he walked around the entire building especially the last row of the 4th tier.) So that was special.
On to the show. Liam Finn was absolutely incredible. I can't wait to pick up his album tomorrow after work.
Eddie was redic. Walking the Cow and Trouble were cool, but I couldn't have imagined that he was going to play 12 PJ songs and covers before he started playing ITW songs. Around the Bend, I am Mine, Dead Man, and Masters of War were absolutely spectacular. I was singing my heart out to MOW.
And this was the 2nd time I was in NJ where I got to hear a song Ed had written the night before. The 1st time was at Borgata 2; my first PJ show. The 2nd time was at NJPAC; my first EV show. It's gotta be fate.
The ITW songs were cool but the night, the acoustics, the crowd were so special you just knew he was playing a few to get them outta the way cuz he was supposed to be promoting the soundtrack but this was no ordinary night. Soon Forget and Forever Young, then Throw Your Arms Around Me w/Liam Finn (which is my girlfriend and I's song; I was able to call her in Iowa and let her listen in while everyone was singing - very special to me). Then the Q/A which I will keep for myself, Bruce's Growin' Up, Lukin, the 10+ min sing-a-long of "Let My Love Open the Door" I will never forget as long as I live, then getting to high-five Eddie after Arc and the close of the 1st Encore.
Finally, a very energizing Hard Sun 2nd Encore to close the night made everything Perfect.
Did anyone see the tall guy in the front with the Tan reaper shirt rocking out? Cuz that was MEEEEEEEEE
2006: Camden 1&2, East Ruth 1&2
2008: BONNAROO, MSG1, MSG2, Hartford
2009: Philly 1, 2, 4
2010: Hartford, MSG1, MSG2
2012: Made in America
2013: BK1, BK2, Hartford
2015: Global Citizens
2016: MSG 2 (ISO MSG1)
EV Solo: NJPAC 2008; Tower Theatre, PA 2009; Hartford 2011
Hey man I think i saw you during the show. I was a few rows behind you (row g). I totally forgot to say watsup after the show. ooops
8/7/08, 6/9/09
I did get out of the way b/c I thought the show was goin to end and I didn't want the small girl I was with to get trampled. I wish we had stayed tho so we could have pushed Eddie back on stage when he was playing Hard Sun, but if it was me (extremely tall guy with tan reaper shirt rocking out the whole fucking time) then you're welcome and glad you had fun
2006: Camden 1&2, East Ruth 1&2
2008: BONNAROO, MSG1, MSG2, Hartford
2009: Philly 1, 2, 4
2010: Hartford, MSG1, MSG2
2012: Made in America
2013: BK1, BK2, Hartford
2015: Global Citizens
2016: MSG 2 (ISO MSG1)
EV Solo: NJPAC 2008; Tower Theatre, PA 2009; Hartford 2011
Thats cool. Me and my freind were by the door where the black usher with the scar on his face was. He was really freakin cool I must say.
8/7/08, 6/9/09
2000-PARIS
2006-ANVERS-MARSEILLE-PARIS
2007-LONDRES-NIJMEGEN-WERCHTER
2008-ED SOLO-LOS ANGELES1-LOS ANGELES2
2009-LONDRES
2010-DUBLIN-ARRAS
2012-AMSTERDAM1-ARRAS-STOCKHOLM-OSLO-COPENHAGUE
2014-MILAN
2024-BERLIN1-BERLIN2-BARCELONE1-BARCELONE2
96)Randalls Island I,II
98)NJ,MSG I,II
00) Virginia Beach Jones Beach I,II,III Saratoga Springs Seattle I
03)Nassau Camden I MSG I,II NJ
04)Boston I,II Reading
05)Montreal Ottawa Toronto Borgata I,II Philly
06) Irving plaza Albany Hartford Camden I,II NJ I,II LA I,II Gorge I,II
07)Lolla
08)Roo Camden I,II MSG I,II Hartford Beacon
09)Chicago I,II Philly II,III,IV
10)Hartford Newark MSG I,II
11)PJ20 I,II
13)Wrigley Brooklyn I,II Hartford
14)Moline,milwaukee
15)Central Park
16)MSG I,II
17)Wrigley I,II
18)Wrigley I,II
22)MSG,Camden
I got to see the concert thanks to a guy from Pennsylvania! I scaped from were I was staying cause my parents didn't let me go, and I only had 50 dolars. Thanks to this guy I saw Eddie again. So, if you read this, THANK YOU SOOO MUCH, you have no idea what it meant to me.!!!!! I can't explain it, but it was one the happiest moments of my life
I went to see him in both concerts in NY! at the end of hard sun of the second show ( august 5th), Eddie said "THANK YOU CHILE" cause I was with the chilean flag!...those 3 words felt so fuckin good hahaha. If someone has that video, PLEEEEEASE let me know, or help me find it, it means everything to me!!!! I really need to here those 3 words again !
ps: sorry for my english, I'm still learning
This is the story of how I came to believe that God didn't want me to go to Newark yesterday.
First, my friend Andy picked me up from work at 12:30pm. I was blissfully unaware of the torture ahead and was SO HAPPY! I felt like I was going to giggle myself right out of my skin. We parked at the airport and bounded inside. Since we planned to land at 5:15 and head straight to the 7pm concert, we weren't even carrying any luggage.
But... once we got to our gate, a fellow passenger told us that he had received an e-alert stating that our flight was delayed.
We tried to get some information from the employees at the Continental ticket counter. They were entirely unsympathetic. They simply stated that we might be in Newark by 6:30. Yikes--if I didn't arrive on time, the fan club box office would close and I'd be shut out of the concert entirely!
Painful, panic-filled hours passed. We went to the ticket counter again and again, to no avail. They simply did not want to deal with us--other than to say our plane hadn't even started flying to Pittsburgh yet. At that point, it started to dawn on me that I had spent an arm and leg on this trip and I was going to miss Eddie Vedder. I thought was going to throw up, right there at the gate.
I called the concert venue. I called the Ten Club. Both were polite but told me the same thing: Just get to Newark as quickly as possible.
And so, Andy and I ran down the other gates, desperately searching for ANY flight anywhere NEAR Newark. Most of the ticket agents acted annoyed by our pleas, but one nice lady was putting passengers on a 5:05 flight to Laguardia. She offered to seat us on her plane if Continental would transfer our tickets to US Airways.
Since the plane was about to take off, Andy and I tore across the airport back to the Continental gate. Our agents were even more annoyed with us and said it would be "unfair" to transfer us to a good plane --one that was actually FLYING-- when they hadn't transferred anyone else. I felt like screaming, "IT'S NOT MY FAULT YOU DUDES ARE BITCHES. SEND ME TO LAGUARDIA!" I asked for their customer service number, and they finally agreed to help us. We bolted to the other plane and boarded just in time.
And so, we were in the air. If nothing else bad happened, we'd get to the concert just in time to see the whole show.
But. Argh! Then there was a traffic jam on the runway in NYC. For some reason, we wasted a painful 45 minutes in a cluster of other planes. This gave me time time to make frantic phone calls and research our next plan of action. We could hire a driver for $84, but risk sitting in rush hour traffic. Or, we could get a cab to Penn Station, catch a train to Newark, and hoof it four blocks to the concert. The locals in the seats around us advised the train, which would at least avoid traffic.
When the doors FINALLY opened, we made our way to the front and pounded down the airport corridors to ground transport. We found a cab and told the driver to step on it, explaining that we had just 1 hour to get to Newark.
If nothing else bad happened, we'd get to the concert in time to claim my fan club seats and only miss a little bit of the show.
That's when the cab driver pulled over on the highway. His trunk was malfunctioning and kept flapping open. He got out a screwdriver and went to work.
I thought about how sad it would be to puke in a cab.
Once we finally started out again, we inched along at an agonizing pace through Brooklyn traffic. It was all surreal. I kept thinking, "At no point was I supposed to see the HOLLAND FUCKING TUNNEL today!"
We finally got to Penn Station. I threw a fistful of cash at the driver and bolted into the street. The whole world seemed to move in painful slow motion as we pushed blindly through crowds. We finally, finally found out how to buy tickets to Newark and waited tensely for the 8:04 train. I had 30 minutes to get to my fan club tickets before the box office closed.
If nothing else bad happened, I would at least get to go inside the venue.
At this point, sweating in a mosh pit for 11 hours--like I had done exactly a year before at Lollapalooza--was starting to seem like an easier way to see Eddie Vedder.
Finally on our train, we rolled at a freakishly slow pace out of New York City. Andy got directions from the attendant and we sat, practically in pounce position, waiting for the chance to burst into Newark. My mom kept calling my cell phone to get my despondent updates.
But - joy of joys - it turned out to be pretty easy to get to Newark from NYC! We finally hit the pavement in Newark and took off on foot. I felt like my lungs were going to pop in the hot New Jersey night as we sprinted across the city.
And finally, finally, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center loomed ahead. It took a couple minutes to find the last remaing open door, but...we got our tickets!!! And slid, sweaty and breathless, to our seats....JUST AS THE LIGHTS DIMMED.
And then, well, from there it was just magic. Eddie ambled out in his sweet, modest way. I was happy to join in the appreciative applause, which, for several minutes, seemed like it might never stop. Eddie blushed and stared into his guitar while we showered him with love and grateful cheers.
Eddie was in a great mood. He played his work from Into the Wild, offered us some covers, and sprinkled in some Pearl Jam tunes. And when he offered us all a sing-a-long in the form of "Small Town," I giddily raised my arms in the air with the rest of the room as we sang, "I just want to scream...HELLO!"
But the best, most magical part was when Eddie said, "This next song is dedicated to whoever is having a birthday tonight."
And I simply froze. I could have yelled out--I was just 12 rows back in a quiet theater. But it just came out as a whisper when I yelped, "That's me!" I was going to have a birthday at midnight.
And somehow, through the sheer magic that has always connected me with Pearl Jam, Eddie sang the following birthday wish:
May God bless and keep you always,
May your wishes all come true,
May you always do for others
And let others do for you.
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung,
May you stay forever young,
May you stay forever young.
May you grow up to be righteous,
May you grow up to be true,
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you.
May you always be courageous,
Stand upright and be strong,
May you stay forever young,
May you stay forever young.
May your hands always be busy,
May your feet always be swift,
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift.
May your heart always be joyful,
May your song always be sung,
May you stay forever young,
May you stay forever young.
Oh gosh. Just re-reading those words right now made me start sobbing again. I was completely overwhelmed when he sang this, thinking that I couldn't have possibly dreamed of a more magical, more appropriate birthday wish. I kept thinking, this is my song. I know Eddie doesn't have my birthday in his little Palm Pilot or whatever, so I can only conclude that it was magic.
So, basically, the concert was totally worth it.
Eddie is so genuine it's almost heartbreaking. I sat in that seat and I watched in awe as a beautiful human being poured out his heart to us.
At one point, he decided to take a question from the crowd. The fan asked, "What are the lyrics to 'Yellow Ledbetter?'" -- the notoriously mumbled tune. Eddie explained that the song was about a man who was killed in the Gulf War, and when he deciphered the line "I see them, on the front porch, but they don't wave," his voice cracked with tears. It was amazing. I can't even tell you the level of emotion he transfers to his work and his audience.
...
After the show, we headed out to the tour bus. I had high hopes of getting another autograph, this time with a "Happy Birthday" on it! But the security guards at this venue would have nothing of it. They literally chased our small group of fans to the opposite side of a gate. When we tried to stick around on the sidewalk, they called the cops on us.
The police forced us down the street. But eventally, I guess the cops had more pressing matters to tend to than loyal Pearl Jam devotees in Newark, so they left, and we headed back to the gate. We and our new friends Sirina, Kate and Kathy watched Eddie's hair go by in the window as his tour bus exited the gate.
By then it was 2am. Our new friends took us back to their hotel so we could get a cab from there. Since our flight was at 6, we had only four hours to kill and hoped the airport would be a welcoming place to crash. I just wanted a coffee and a soft chair.
It turns out that a hotel would have been a worthy investment. The airport was about 30 degrees and the rude security guards treated us like we were hobos. But we found a piece of freezing-cold floor and dozed in and out until dawn.
Now that I'm 28, I can officially say that I'm too old for this. Every bone in my body aches today. I hope it's from sleeping on the floor and not a flu, since it's the same cold, awful ache. I just scheduled massages for Andy and me at 5:00 today. Because, this is the funniest part of all:
Tomorrow, my mom and I fly to Montreal to see Eddie Vedder.
Wish us luck. PLEASE!
04/26/03 - 06/28/03 - 10/01/04 - 10/02/04 - 09/28/05
10/03/05 - 05/20/06 - 05/27/06 - 05/30/06 - 06/03/06
06/23/06 - 06/24/06 - 08/05/07 - 04/10/08 - 06/12/08
06/22/08 - 06/24/08 - 06/25/08 - 08/07/08 - 08/09/08
08/16/08 - 06/11/09 - 06/12/09 - 08/21/09 - 08/23/09
08/24/09 - 09/21/09 - 10/30/09 - 10/31/09 - 05/09/10
05/10/10 - 05/17/10 - 08/28/10
I bet the adrenaline is streaming so hard as they play... hope to be in one soon.
Rodrigo
Guatemala
"Doo do do do doo do doo, Doo do do do doo do doo..."