My Favorite Moments

So I was a latecomer on the Pearl Jam scene. I didn't really start listening to the band until 2001, and the first show I saw was in 2003. But over the years, I've been fortunate to see quite a few shows and was thinking back tonight on my favorite memorable Pearl Jam moments, all from memory:

2001 - When I was a freshman in high school, listening to all the live bootlegs that I had bought and being stunned by the energy and differences between songs. Every bootleg was different. Nothing seemed rehearsed, but it was so tight sounding.

2002 - Trying to win over a girl with a Pearl Jam compilation CD. She liked it. We still are together today.

2003 Irvine Night 1 - My first Pearl Jam show. I went with my dad and we had a blast. The band talked about playing overtime and "passed the hat" to earn money. It was hysterical. I couldn't make the second night because I wasn't allowed to make the drive all the way to Irvine by myself. I talked my dad into letting me go to the San Diego show 3 nights later, which started a trend of seeing WAY TOO MANY SHOWS

2003 San Diego - They opened with Betterman and Do The Evolution, and it was the loudest I had EVER heard a crowd. Ed also did a crazy thing with the lights reflecting off of a mirror into the crowd. Beautiful.

2006 Vegas - Seeing Pearl Jam in Las Vegas, getting people to buy me and my 20 year old friend alcohol, enough said

2006 San Diego - Opening with Oceans checked Ten off my list, to this day the best version of Crazy Mary EVER, and Long Road Mid-Set. Big Wave debut and Kelly Slater plays guitar on RITFW.

2006 LA 1 and 2 - My girlfriend's first Pearl Jam shows with me (she's seen them 6 times now)

2006 Hollywood - stood outside ALL day to get into the Henry Fonda Theater. Made some amazing friends, played football, saw the band, yelled at security, and wound up getting in.

2007 Lollapalooza - Eddie playing "Slow Night, So Long" with Kings of Leon, and "Masters of War" with Ben Harper. And then Pearl Jam's set. Greatest hits performed for 80,000 people is still pretty amazing.

2008 San Diego - Eddie solo show. Ten Club gives me and my girlfriend different seats by accident. They feel badly and upgrade us to front row center. Arc is amazing, Into the Wild is amazing, and Eddie tears up during a version of Forever Young dedicated to his mom, whose birthday was the next day. The Barry White impression is amazing, and the George Bush mask the next night is even better.

2008 Boston - Took a limo to the show with guys from Bermuda. Wash and Hard to Imagine open the shows. Bee Girl is played. There were people in Pearl Jam shirts all over the city. Stone sucks on a fake cow's udders onstage.

2009 LA - Chris Cornell shows up and does Hunger Strike, Jerry Cantrell helps with Alive and Kick Out the Jams, my buddy and I sneak up to 8th row center, and sneak backstage after the show. Unfortunately, we met none of the band. I hear "Nothingman" live for the first time and the "Into the Sun, Into the Sun" part was amazing.

2009 Philly 4 - The band is on fire, and "Bugs" is played. Not to mention a 3.5 hour insane set with a Whip It cover thrown in for fun. I meet a buddy out there from the Ten Club, and we've been to shows together since! Pulling up to the Spectrum was amazing -- it was raining out, the World Series was going on, and there had been a Flyers game that day. It's all a shared parking lot, and Halloween only made it crazier.

2011 Long Beach - Eddie solo show - Falling Slowly is amazing, and seeing one of my favorite musicians (Glen Hansard) open for Eddie is unbelievable.

2011 Santa Barbara - Eddie solo show - Eddie sings Hurt by Nine Inch Nails, and Redemption Song by Bob Marley. Two of my all time favorites.

2011 PJ20 - Met up with a friend I hadn't seen in a while, made tons of new friends, drank, drank, drank. Had a few moments where I teared up - mainly Release, It's Okay, and the song that Eddie wrote about being in the band for all these years. Both shows were insanely powerful, but day 2 knocked it out of the park. Still one of the best Pearl Jam shows I've ever seen.