Zod those are amazing, you really got around!! You totally have to join in our PJ travel agency, where we work out tour travel logistics for dedicated fans. You've got some serious experience!
It's hard on the West Coast. Everything is spaced so far apart. Vancouver is 3.5 hours away (driving/ferry/driving), Seattle is 5 hours away (driving/ferry/driving), Portland is 8 hours, Gorge is about 8, Calgary is about 13, Edmonton is about 14. That's about it. Always traveling. I get a little envious of people who live on the East Coast of the US. The double edged of sword of how many shows they can see in a short drive, but how insanely hard that makes getting tickets.
I'm not quite as ambitious as I was in my youth though. I now tend to stick to Vancouver/Seattle shows except Wrigley, because well, why not?
I once got a bus 6 miles into the city to see Pearl jam - totally crazy!
Out of the 25 shows I've seen, the easiest I ever had it for travel was when I lived in Edmonton and they played Calgary in '09. About a 2.5 hour drive there, and a 2.5 hour drive back. The only time ever, that I've actually been able to go home after a PJ show and not sleep in a hotel (or ferry lineup).... That's the easiest it's ever gotten for me
PJ20. Woke up early. Drove three and a half hours to drop my kids off with family Savannah. Flew from Savannah to Milwaukee and did the entire thing in reverse after the weekend.
In 2016, literally 3 days before the show I decided to drive from Michigan to Hampton and bought tickets on StubHub since I couldn't find a 10c ticket. One of my tickets worked and my buddy walked in, the last then scanned mine and it was a fake even tho it was StubHub. Instead of spending an hour on the phone with StubHub, I decided to just sneak in and I did just that! And honestly it was super easy. There was no way I was being denied from that show tho, especially because I was supposed to be in Raleigh a couple nights later.
All the fans from northeast are scratching their heads reading this thread thinking "you guys had to do what?"
Funny that you say that, because one of the posts about about going to a bunch of shows and only missing 1 day of work reminded me that I didn't post my craziest schedule of shows ever, and I'm a northeast person: 1996, and don't judge me but the 2 bands I was most enmeshed in as a fan and most likely to travel for posted their tour schedule and: horror of horrors! In my area AT THE SAME TIME!! You know who one band was, but the other was Dave Matthews Band (who, at the time, I would still stand by how good their shows were. I don't feel that way now...). And then just to make things interesting, Ben Harper was playing a club show before opening for PJ at Randall's Island.
The fun logistical wrench to throw in this though was: I didn't know how to drive then! I lived in Boston but was from NYC and didn't know how to drive. Yet somehow I managed 7 shows in 10 days, and only ONE was in Boston. And only missed 1 day of work!
So I think the schedule went something like this and keep in mind this was ALL ON GREYHOUND BUSES!!!:
Fri 9/27/96 Ben Harper, Tramps Club, NYC Sat 9/28/96 Pearl Jam & Ben Harper, Randall's Island, NYC Sun 9/29/96 Pearl Jam & Ben Harper, Randall's Island, NYC Mon 9/30/96 Work, Boston Tues 10/1/96 Work & Dave Matthews Band & Soul Coughing (loved them!), Fleet Center, Boston Wed 10/2/96 Work & Pearl Jam & The Fastbacks, Hartford Meadows, CT (Pepper Spray show) Thurs 10/3/96 Work (conference in Hartford), Dave Matthews Band & Soul Coughing, Madison Sq. Garden Fri 10/4/96 MISSED Work, DMB & Soul Coughing, Madison Sq. Garden Sat 10/5/96 day off NYC Sun 10/6/96 DMB & Boxing Gandhis, Amherst, MA
Soooo... even us Northeast dwellers can have insane travel schedules! That said, no doubt, we can pack a lot more shows into a short time because bands did tend to play at least 1 if not 2 dates in Boston, NYC, Philly and DC, so if you can make that whole run (which I did for PJ and DMB in '96, '98, and '00 (and DMB toured like at least 2 X/year so multiple times in those years)) then you can see a lot of shows with not too much drive (or bus) time in between.
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I'm not quite as ambitious as I was in my youth though. I now tend to stick to Vancouver/Seattle shows except Wrigley, because well, why not?
thinking "you guys had to do what?"
The fun logistical wrench to throw in this though was: I didn't know how to drive then! I lived in Boston but was from NYC and didn't know how to drive. Yet somehow I managed 7 shows in 10 days, and only ONE was in Boston. And only missed 1 day of work!
So I think the schedule went something like this and keep in mind this was ALL ON GREYHOUND BUSES!!!:
Fri 9/27/96 Ben Harper, Tramps Club, NYC
Sat 9/28/96 Pearl Jam & Ben Harper, Randall's Island, NYC
Sun 9/29/96 Pearl Jam & Ben Harper, Randall's Island, NYC
Mon 9/30/96 Work, Boston
Tues 10/1/96 Work & Dave Matthews Band & Soul Coughing (loved them!), Fleet Center, Boston
Wed 10/2/96 Work & Pearl Jam & The Fastbacks, Hartford Meadows, CT (Pepper Spray show)
Thurs 10/3/96 Work (conference in Hartford), Dave Matthews Band & Soul Coughing, Madison Sq. Garden
Fri 10/4/96 MISSED Work, DMB & Soul Coughing, Madison Sq. Garden
Sat 10/5/96 day off
Sun 10/6/96 DMB & Boxing Gandhis, Amherst, MA
Soooo... even us Northeast dwellers can have insane travel schedules! That said, no doubt, we can pack a lot more shows into a short time because bands did tend to play at least 1 if not 2 dates in Boston, NYC, Philly and DC, so if you can make that whole run (which I did for PJ and DMB in '96, '98, and '00 (and DMB toured like at least 2 X/year so multiple times in those years)) then you can see a lot of shows with not too much drive (or bus) time in between.