to americans or europeans who have crossed the atlantic to see pearl jam...

Thierry Henry wrote:

Good stuff.

Howz the mullet??

Ive seen many pictures!! Was it the 06 or 07 tour you were on??

Started in Perth 06 in Australia, decided to take it with me to Europe in 07

Didn't go to Europe in 06 Jeez, World Cup and jumping on a tour bus for Pearl Jam GA shows? That'd be my heaven.

The major difference between US and Euro shows is that there's more of a sense of community at Euro shows. At most shows in the US, you pick up your 10C tickets during the day and have a pre-assigned seat. In Europe, you wait all day for the best spot and end up hanging around others with the same motivations.

There's also a stronger international following on European tours, so you get to meet people from all over the world.

Finally and most importantly, you get to see Pegasus heckle scalpers and organize the 10C queue in Europe.

Still paying off my 07 Europe trip--45 bucks a month for the people I met, AMAZING beer I drank, stories I have, and most importantly the killer PJ shows I saw is so worth it. For U.S. travel the things to remember are (some as stated before)
1. EAST COAST- for more shows at a shorter distance. The Boston and NY shows are always a good time
2. WEST COAST- Longer drives, but much better weather--no matter what season you come in. The San Diego, Santa Barbara (the venue alone is worth it), and especially last tour, San Francisco shows are not to be missed. Of course any Seattle show is just SPECIAL, and the GORGE, you just can NOT miss. That's another one that will take your breath away from the venue alone.
3. Cheap Hotels- Usually, our group has a "as long as you can breathe" rule for hotel rooms. We will pack as many people who can horizontally fit for the night as we can. It will cost you about 10-15 bucks a night if you do it this way.
4. Seating- it is "seated" but barring its some sort of acoustic show (and even then) no one sits down for the shows and claps lightly at the end. It’s no EUROPE show for sure, but listen to the Boston, Seattle, San Diego shows and you will see there is something special going on between the crowd and the band. Lots of Ed talking. At the bigger shows (New York, L.A., Seattle) you will have a big chance of seeing or even sitting next to a famous fan. This has happened to me so many times, and a lot of the times you have better seats then them because of the fan club numbers...which brings me to the last point
SENIORITY- while most of the seats are organized this way there are always chances to get closer. Last tour there were the GA shows and also the Grand Rapids ticket switch (which I am almost sure was not an accident;) )

Once they announce a tour (:)) take all of these things into consideration and remember that most pairs of tickets cost around 110-130 U.S. Dollars

God, you are going to have such a good time~

I'm from England and in 2003 went to the 2 MSG shows, Boston 3 and Lollapalooza in Pittsburgh. New York is pretty easy, good public transport (well seemed okay to me) with the underground stopping at MSG (Penn St I think) and just find somewhere that fits your budget to stay, near Grenwich Village would be my suggestion as it's a cool place to go out. More difficult places are the Ampitheatres which are often out of town eg the Tweeter Centre (Boston) is in a place called Mansfield which is about an hour train from Boston from memory. We stayed at a motel near by and got taxi's too and from the venue. I'm glad we didn't get the train back to Boston as we'd probably have missed the last one back with them breaking the curfew. Book accomadation early would also be my advice as otherwise you could get stuck further away or with something outside your budget. If you drive and can hire a car that's a good option also for these out of town amphitheatres.
We picked the NY and Boston shows as I knew PJ had a reputation of putting on great shows at these cities and they didn't disappoint, 3 of the best on the tour. Good luck with it and feel free to ask any questions, I'm envious!!

mol.cameron wrote:

basically, ive come into a little bit of money, and im planning to 'invest' it in pearl jam. i think there are strong-ish?? rumours of a north american tour this summer. if so, i thinking about going state-side for a few shows. does anybody have any idea how much this will cost/any methods of reducing costs. im from england, and furthest ive ever travelled is dublin...to see pearl jam, so im pretty inexperienced with regards to travelling. any help will be much appreciated. thank you.

One of the best things you can do is find someone to stay with ... like a fellow Pearl Jam fan.
If they play New York, or anywhere reasonably close, you can stay with me for instance ... many other Pearl Jam travelers have, and when I went to see the Wembley show last year I stayed with friends in London that I met through the Synergy website. In 2005 I did a few of the Canadian shows, and I met the Touring Van guys on the road there ... when they were in the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia area for the 2006 shows they parked the van in my driveway and pitched tents in my back yard ... that is how you save money and increase your enjoyment!