If I only knew then what I know now: What’s something you were apart that...
I was thankful to attend my seventh show last week in Chicago and from that I have been inspired to go back and visit previous shows.
My first show was in 2000 on October 14 in Houston. Man alive that was an amazing show! I don’t think I quite knew HOW great of a show it was though. I mean I was in my infancy with listening to Pearl Jam. Only two years earlier had I discovered them. I mean I loved the energy but I wasn’t into tracking the songs I had heard or thought much about songs I would like to hear. I look back now and see (and hear) how great it was they opened with Long Road! Then of course to hear Stone sing Mankind! Then I didn’t really realize how much of a treat that was.
I also wonder how many people were there then doing the kinds of things I am doing now. Tracking songs and chasing songs. Ha! I am sure Mankind blew their minds.
What’s a show or a Pearl Jam event that you were apart of and then only later on realized how special/important it was?
My first show was in 2000 on October 14 in Houston. Man alive that was an amazing show! I don’t think I quite knew HOW great of a show it was though. I mean I was in my infancy with listening to Pearl Jam. Only two years earlier had I discovered them. I mean I loved the energy but I wasn’t into tracking the songs I had heard or thought much about songs I would like to hear. I look back now and see (and hear) how great it was they opened with Long Road! Then of course to hear Stone sing Mankind! Then I didn’t really realize how much of a treat that was.
I also wonder how many people were there then doing the kinds of things I am doing now. Tracking songs and chasing songs. Ha! I am sure Mankind blew their minds.
What’s a show or a Pearl Jam event that you were apart of and then only later on realized how special/important it was?
"A man has the right to be as big as he feels it in him to be." Ken Kesey
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Wrigley for obvious reasons.
Philly started out to be memorable after the third song of TEN was played. We all knew what was going on by then and made it to be an awesome night!
"The Experiment"
with the acoustic pre-set.
8/29/00 - Tweeter Center............5/24/06 - Banknorth Garden............5/17/10 - Banknorth Garden.............08/05/16 - Fenway Park
7/11/03 - Tweeter Center............5/25/06 - Banknorth Garden............6/16/11 - Wang Theatre (EV)............08/07/16 - Fenway Park
9/28/04 - Fleet Center................6/30/08 - Tweeter Center
Fan from the beginning but living in central Alberta Canada, Pearl Jam was not routinely touring in my neck of the woods. They did come through in 1993 but I was too young and dumb to get a ticket (HUGE regret over that)
Anyway, I decided fuck, if i’m gonna see PJ I have to fly to Vancouver so that’s what I did. I loved every second of that show but not gonna lie, I was hoping to hear Release, Black, Alive and I got none of those. But I did hear Love Boat Captain, Get Right, Thumbing my Way, You Are, PARTING WAYS, Soon Forget, Bushleaguer and I Won’t back Down. They were all amazing but now, to have all those songs in one set list, my head would explode.
Missoula was show 20 for me and 4 of those songs I have only heard at that one show.
If I only knew then what I know now.
i honestly feel like this would have been the show to which all live PJ shows are measured if not for the storm delay.
EV- 2008, 2011 Boston
October 27, 1993: I hadn't seen PJ live yet and was only coming around to being a fan in '93 as they were about to release Vs. The 1st show in my area that I could try to go to was a tiny place in Santa Cruz called the Catalyst, only 1,000 person capacity. For context, the show before that was 2 days earlier, Seattle, and they played the Off Ramp. So this was just really getting going on the Vs. tour.
I wasn't a big fan yet but I'd read a lot about them and I had 2 impressions: 1) I had the impression that I REALLY NEEDED to see them live; and 2) I had an impression of Eddie as someone conflicted about their skyrocketing fame (cuz that was a common theme in interviews then) and someone who fans screamed at and chased after and it all sounded a bit traumatic. I felt kind of bad for him.
So I took a bus to Santa Cruz because the venue was so small and I had a sense it would be special. There were tons of people everywhere by the Catalyst looking for tix. Then PJ started soundchecking and tons of people (including me) gathered at the gate to the venue, where you could hear but not see the stage. But you could see some of the front hall and you could see a merch stand. Once soundcheck ended, everyone but one other girl and myself wandered away because it was still quite awhile to show time. I don't know what she was waiting for, and I'm not really sure what I was waiting for, and we didn't talk to each other, we just kind of looked through the gates and waited. Pretty sure we were both waiting for a magical ticket fairy to appear and grant us 3 wishes, but we only needed 1: tickets!
And after a little while as we stood there looking off into the hallway, Eddie quietly appeared. He never looked right at us, but he had to have seen us standing there before we saw him because of how it was set up. He walked up to the merch stand and stood there for a long while looking at what was there.
Neither me nor the other girl said a WORD. I think maybe she, like me, was afraid to say anything, because we didn't want to upset him or be too pushy. And eventually, he turned and walked away.
If I knew then what I know now about Pearl Jam and Ed, I would have realized that as long as we were mellow, and chill, and didn't yell, and had a conversation... it all would have been fine, and most likely we both would have ended up with tickets. The more I think about him walking up to the merch stand, in retrospect I realize it would have been TOTALLY OK to say hello. And probably ok to nicely ask if there were any extra tickets he knew of. Quietly and without raising the attention of 100 other people. But we said nothing, the moment passed, he walked away, and neither of us ever found tickets to see the show.
We and many other people without tix still stood outside up to the show and for the show, because you could hear the music and it was amazing. We didn't realize it but the last song before the encore, a lot of people started leaving because they must've realized it was almost over. Because it was quite a few people, the security guys took pity on some of us and let us in. We walked in mid-song (turned out to be Porch) and the place was INSANE. What we didn't know and didn't find out until after the show was over was that literally right before we'd been let in, Ed had climbed from the stage up to the balcony, hung out on a balcony a bit, and then had literally just jumped off the balcony into the audience right before we came in, so the floor was a sea of chaos and insane energy. Then they were off.
They did a 1 song encore, Indifference, and it was beautiful, but it felt SO PAINFUL to get a sense of what we'd missed being part of from the end of Porch and Indifference.
I stood a long while on the side of the floor as people cleared out and crew packed up gear and staff started cleaning the floor. Then out of the blue, Ed bolted from somewhere backstage and ran right up to someone standing very close to me. Once again I felt like I shouldn't say a word, and I didn't, but as he finished talking to them he looked over, and we nodded at each other, and then he was gone again. And that was the beginning of realizing SHIT, should have said hi earlier, he probably knew we didn't have tix and would have been willing to help, but we were too afraid to cross any lines.
So that's my show and my "If I'd have known then what I know now, that's what would be different."
The end of that story is that the next night they played my city, and I got a ticket even though it was sold out (thanks someone from back then who was always awesome!). I was front row center and I got one hell of a show. Charlottesville 2013 was literally 20 yrs and a day TO THE DAY of my first full show, and it was insane in a very different but equally awesome way. Seattle 2 was 25 yrs of being a fan and seeing them live. So many intense moments and gorgeous energy and emotions, onstage and in the audience that night.
Crazy journey; totally grateful.
And that was just the preset. Let’s not forget it being a 10c only show in a tiny venue, or hearing Love Reign O’er Me for the first time, MC singing on Black Diamond, or closing out with Indifference with Ben Harper. I think that was the first show where I also truly bonded with other fan club members despite being to multiple shows before.
Indo 1993
I missed Ed's preset, what was "I Used To Work In Chicago" like? Was that an improv or has he ever done it again other than the Vic?
Best festival lineup of my lifetime tho
I legitimately at the time expected Matt was just going to help the band get through the 1998 North America tour until they could figure out what would happen next. I did not expect that from 5.1.1998 through now, that Matt Cameron would always be Pearl Jam's drummer.
http://www.hi5sports.org/ (Sports Program for Kids with Disabilities)
http://www.livefootsteps.org/user/?usr=3652
Was there. Glad to do it once, not again. Fortunate to have picked Wrig1 this yr only.