On this date in PJ history- 6/21/03

8 years ago today, i attended the best rock concert of my life. I've seen quite a few shows with better set lists. But the combination of the venue, weather, crowd, and of course, that band that was playing make this my all time favorite. One of my friends used to have a cottage right down the road. (would come in handy on Labor day weekend but he no longer has it )

All around perfect weekend spent in a cottage by a lake and seeing the greatest band in the world!!!!!!!

Anyone else there? Thoughts?

06/21/03 – Alpine Valley Music Center: East Troy, WI
attendance: 22,000
support act: Buzzcocks
soundcheck: Rival (1 partial; 1 complete), Smile, Leaving Here, Soldier Of Love, Evacuation (slower version), Once (partial), Romanza (Ed on acoustic), You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away (ending, 2X)
set: Sometimes, Corduroy, Green Disease, Save You, Gods’ Dice, Faithfull, Immortality, Love Boat Captain, Insignificance, Deep, I Believe In Miracles, You Are, Better Man/(Why Can’t I Touch It?), Jeremy, Even Flow, Daughter, Rearviewmirror
enc 1: Go, Animal, Elderly Woman, Glorified G, Bushleaguer, Do The Evolution
enc 2: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away (Ed solo), Breath, Crazy Mary, Know Your Rights, Fortunate Son, Baba O’Riley
enc 3: Yellow Ledbetter/(Little Wing)
notes: PJ takes the stage early (while it is still light) to a deafening ovation. Jeff has the standup bass out and the whole fan club section goes wild as soon as Ed hits the first note of ‘Sometimes.’ After ‘Immortality,’ Ed greets the crowd and recalls how cold it was last time they played Alpine, and how that crowd must be the “toughest audience in rock and roll history.” “We made a pact after the show never to play that fucking place again.” He jokes about the smoke and introduces Boom as coming from the land of the best smoke, leading to ‘LBC.’ During the break in the middle of ‘Insignificance’, the band stops but Mike keeps playing. He holds his hand up, laughing, as if to say “Yes, that was me that fucked up.” ‘I Believe In Miracles’ is dedicated to Johnny Ramone. ‘Jeremy’ (introduced as “Here’s a new one for you”) and ‘Even Flow’ are both loaded with energy. Soothing ‘Daughter’ tag: “Hush my baby, don’t you cry. Sing yourself your own lullaby. Hush my angel, go to sleep. You have your own soul to keep.” On returning for the encore Ed says they can’t go yet as it just got dark. ‘Go’ and ‘Animal’ keep the crowd frenzied. Ed says they want to make sure the show is longer than the drive for those who came from Chicago and anywhere else while ‘Elderly Woman’ is for those who didn’t have to drive far. Ed holds back the band and has them repeat the final “hearts and thoughts” to let the crowd continue singing along. Introduced as the “president’s favorite song,” ‘Glorified G’ is a big crowd pleaser and has modified lyrics: “Got an army; in fact I’ve got two. That’s OK man ’cause I love money. He reminds people about voting and to “stand up and be counted,” leading to ‘DTE,’ which includes “Admire me, admire my home, admire my son, he looks like Stone.” To quell the screams when Ed returns for the second encore wearing the silver jacket, he says, “Don’t be seduced by the jacket,” and he tells about getting the jacket from The Frogs. He begins speaking about voting and being active and goes off on a big tirade:
“Power to the people man…. The real people, the people that work, not the people that sit in their towers, and try to run the whole thing, thinking that we’re too stupid to notice what they’re doing! They get us in our little holes, and our boxes, and our cages and they show us American Idol and American Gladiators and American …. blowjob, buttfuck, whatever. And everyone watches with baited breath. Oh, who’s going to get a blowjob tonight? What American’s going to get a blowjob tonight? When in reality, you could be getting one yourself instead of watching the fucking TV, I don’t know. I digress. I’m going to get a guitar. But we were just talking in the back, and we were thinking that maybe uh, on the strength of a night like this, and uh, really, uh, so you understand how much we appreciate it, we were thinking that instead of uh, waiting 2 years or even, uh, after we finish the next record, maybe just next summer, we could come back and play, just a few places that we’ve been to and this would be one of them. And hopefully even in a year, the world will be a little more straightened out.”
Then he talks about how his Uncle’s friend and how Ed used to steal his Beatles’ records and sometimes kept them, He taught Ed how to cuss at age 4 and he dedicates ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’ to him saying, “Thanks, you did a great fuckin’ job.” Just before Boom’s ‘Crazy Mary’ solo, a big, drunk guy makes it onstage with security hot on his heels. Ed calmly shoos away security and lets the guy mumble a couple of things (including “God bless Eddie Vedder”) into the mic and Ed he dances a bit with the man, then spins him off into the arms of the security. The the conclusion, he says “Boom Gaspar,” to big cheers, “and some drunk idiot!” which gets laughs from crowd, band, and crew. Kerry Wood from the Cubs was there and Ed got mixed up and thought it was him for a second and Ed goes to Kerry’s side of the stage and laughs with him. With the house lights up, ‘Baba’ seems to be the show closer with Ed tossing tambourines to Kerry Wood and others, but after Ed says the goodnights, Mike stays onstage with guitar leading to a brief huddle and the ‘YL’ close, Mike adding a nice ‘Little Wing’ tag. Great intensity, beautiful night, awesome crowd with Ed obviously feeling better and the band rested, ready to play and having fun after a two-day break.