Greatest Day of My Life.....
jlew24asu
Posts: 10,118
soooooooo I wasn't able to share this story since I was severing a lifetime ban :twisted: but thanks to the new site it appears I got a get out of jail free card.
so here is the story of the greatest day of my life....
2010-05-07:
The day started as any other with my cell phone blaring the most annoying sound imaginable at 5:15am. Usually, I would snooze it a few times before pulling myself out of bed, but not on this day. Today was the day I was going to see Pearl Jam.
For those of you who don't know me very well, I have a slight obsession with Pearl Jam. It all started back in early 1994 when someone gave me a mixed tape that happened to have the song Alive on it. I was instantly hooked. I even became a paying fan club member in 1998 and have been ever since. There is something about the music and the lyrics that just click with me. My Mp3 player (commonly referred to as IPOD, even though mine is actually an Mp3 player) has 4 GBs of Pearl Jam on it, nothing else. On my round trip drive home from Arizona back in '03, my CD rotation was almost exclusively of live Pearl Jam shows. Thats 50+ hours. During my dating life, the inevitable question "so what kind of music do you like?" always made me nervous. She's probably going to think I'm some kind of freak when I tell her about my sick obsession. So it should be of no surprise that I decided to drive 200 miles, alone, on a rainy Friday afternoon to see my favorite band play. My brother canceled last minute due to work and no one was able to go on such short notice. one friend even told me she had to do some cleaning!...So alone I went... This was going to be my 21st show since my first @ Solider Field Chicago, July 7, 1995......
So I finally was able to get out of work around 2pm after a fairly brutal morning of trying to keep our trading systems working during an extremely busy volume day in the stock market. Cabbed it home, inhaled a sandwich, and was out the door around 3pm. Traffic sucked and the typical 3 hour drive was now well into its 4th hour when I came to a standstill on Indiana's messed up 2 lane highway system about 15 miles from the noblesville verizon amphitheater <--pic from air.
It's now going on 7:30pm when I begin to idle along with thousands of other cars but thinking I was ok on time. Then it hit me, its 8:30 you jackass! I moved in Eastern time zone. My heart sunk, I entered into full freak out mode because the fan club closes the ticket window 30 minutes after the band takes the stage, and at the rate I was going, I wouldn't show up until just after 9pm. Inching your way down the highway gives one alot of time to think about what is happening. I spent alot of time preparing myself that I very well would have to listen to the concert from the parking lot. When I finally pulled in around 9:15, to my amazement, the band still had not gone on. People were scrambling to get inside when yet another problem occurred, the will call box office had about at hour long line. I just drove 5 hours, 6 with time change, and wasn't about to wait another hour for tickets. So I did something I did not feel good about doing. I cut the line.
Got to the window, show my ID, and he hands me an envelope with two tickets. I open it up, peak down, and see ORCH. HOLY SHIT BALLS!!! Orchestra isn't even a row, its a small pit of people in the front of the rows. It's like row ZERO. Ten Club puts all fan club members into a lottery to receive 1st/2nd or 9th/10th row tickets. To put it lightly, I hit the jackpot.
As I'm rushing to the gate to get inside, I see a lady standing there by herself, presumably waiting for someone. I walk up to her and tell her I have an extra ticket if she's interested. On the inside I'm screaming, I HAVE FRONT ROW, ITS IN YOUR BEST INTERESTED TO JUST SAY YES AND COME WITH ME!...but no, she gives me a creepy look and says no. I didn't care anyway, I just wanted to give someone the chance to be as lucky as I was. I was offering her a free front row ticket, all she had to do was say yes.
The second I enter the gate I hear the crowd start to yell, PJ was about to take the stage. What I did not know at the time was they were actually coming on 45 mins late due to tornado watch in the area. Had that not happened, I probably would have not been able to get my tickets. Not only that, the show was very close to be canceled due to those watches. On my way to the seat, I grab the most delicious mouth watering $9 beer that ever hit my parched lips and hear the first few cords of my all time favorite PJ song, Release. I ran down to the rail just in time to hear the first verse being sung, followed by the greatest 3 hours of my life. It's hard to put into words what it's like to be on the rail. The 25,000 people at your back, the band I've loved for my entire lifetime at arms length, the several times I made eye contact with Mike, and I may have even got Eddie to crack a smile when he saw my Sox hat. (he is a diehard Cubs fan). and to turn around and look back at the sea of people that seems to go on forever is something only rock stars get to see. I literally felt as if I was at my own personal Pearl Jam concert.
As for the setlist, I'm rather bias. PJ can do no wrong and I love it everytime, but the show did have some highlights for me.
Main Set List:
Release <--all time favorite song
Last Exit
Got Some
Why Go
In My Tree <--personal fav
Small Town
Unthought Known
Even Flow <--amazing Mike McCready solo in middle of song
Supersonic
Down
Daughter/WMA/Blitzkrieg Bop (Ramones)
Goin’ Back To Indiana (The Corporation) [partial version]
Rats <-- one of my favorite live songs
Wishlist
Insignificance
Force Of Nature (dedicated To Hud Mellencamp)
Jeremy <--well its Jeremy
The Fixer
1st encore:
Just Breathe
Off He Goes <--the song dedicated to his Chicago friends in the crowd.
Given To Fly <--probably thee best live PJ song.
Lukin
Better Man <--25,000 strong sang the entire first verse.
Do The Evolution
2nd encore:
Garden
Whipping
Alive <---well cuz its Alive.
Baba O’Riley (Townshend)
Yellow Ledbetter/Star Spangled Banner
After the show, it took about 45 minutes to get out of the parking lot and 3+ hours to get home. I finally hit the pillow around 3:30am, a good 23 hours after the day began. For some, this could probably be explained as the worst night of their life, but thats ok, this was my night...and one I will truly never forget.
Phone pics is all I got, but I'm lucky to have that, phone died as soon as I took the last one.
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t30/ ... pics/1.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t30/ ... pics/2.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t30/ ... pics/3.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t30/ ... pics/4.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t30/ ... pics/5.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t30/ ... pics/6.jpg
One last really cool thing, I caught FIVE Mike McCready picks. During the show he is known to throw out handfuls into the crowd. Well he did, twice, right onto my head. I ended up giving away 3 of the 5 to fans around me. Diehards wait a lifetime to even get a chance at 1 pick and I got 5. oh what a night.
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t30/ ... pics/7.jpg
so here is the story of the greatest day of my life....
2010-05-07:
The day started as any other with my cell phone blaring the most annoying sound imaginable at 5:15am. Usually, I would snooze it a few times before pulling myself out of bed, but not on this day. Today was the day I was going to see Pearl Jam.
For those of you who don't know me very well, I have a slight obsession with Pearl Jam. It all started back in early 1994 when someone gave me a mixed tape that happened to have the song Alive on it. I was instantly hooked. I even became a paying fan club member in 1998 and have been ever since. There is something about the music and the lyrics that just click with me. My Mp3 player (commonly referred to as IPOD, even though mine is actually an Mp3 player) has 4 GBs of Pearl Jam on it, nothing else. On my round trip drive home from Arizona back in '03, my CD rotation was almost exclusively of live Pearl Jam shows. Thats 50+ hours. During my dating life, the inevitable question "so what kind of music do you like?" always made me nervous. She's probably going to think I'm some kind of freak when I tell her about my sick obsession. So it should be of no surprise that I decided to drive 200 miles, alone, on a rainy Friday afternoon to see my favorite band play. My brother canceled last minute due to work and no one was able to go on such short notice. one friend even told me she had to do some cleaning!...So alone I went... This was going to be my 21st show since my first @ Solider Field Chicago, July 7, 1995......
So I finally was able to get out of work around 2pm after a fairly brutal morning of trying to keep our trading systems working during an extremely busy volume day in the stock market. Cabbed it home, inhaled a sandwich, and was out the door around 3pm. Traffic sucked and the typical 3 hour drive was now well into its 4th hour when I came to a standstill on Indiana's messed up 2 lane highway system about 15 miles from the noblesville verizon amphitheater <--pic from air.
It's now going on 7:30pm when I begin to idle along with thousands of other cars but thinking I was ok on time. Then it hit me, its 8:30 you jackass! I moved in Eastern time zone. My heart sunk, I entered into full freak out mode because the fan club closes the ticket window 30 minutes after the band takes the stage, and at the rate I was going, I wouldn't show up until just after 9pm. Inching your way down the highway gives one alot of time to think about what is happening. I spent alot of time preparing myself that I very well would have to listen to the concert from the parking lot. When I finally pulled in around 9:15, to my amazement, the band still had not gone on. People were scrambling to get inside when yet another problem occurred, the will call box office had about at hour long line. I just drove 5 hours, 6 with time change, and wasn't about to wait another hour for tickets. So I did something I did not feel good about doing. I cut the line.
Got to the window, show my ID, and he hands me an envelope with two tickets. I open it up, peak down, and see ORCH. HOLY SHIT BALLS!!! Orchestra isn't even a row, its a small pit of people in the front of the rows. It's like row ZERO. Ten Club puts all fan club members into a lottery to receive 1st/2nd or 9th/10th row tickets. To put it lightly, I hit the jackpot.
As I'm rushing to the gate to get inside, I see a lady standing there by herself, presumably waiting for someone. I walk up to her and tell her I have an extra ticket if she's interested. On the inside I'm screaming, I HAVE FRONT ROW, ITS IN YOUR BEST INTERESTED TO JUST SAY YES AND COME WITH ME!...but no, she gives me a creepy look and says no. I didn't care anyway, I just wanted to give someone the chance to be as lucky as I was. I was offering her a free front row ticket, all she had to do was say yes.
The second I enter the gate I hear the crowd start to yell, PJ was about to take the stage. What I did not know at the time was they were actually coming on 45 mins late due to tornado watch in the area. Had that not happened, I probably would have not been able to get my tickets. Not only that, the show was very close to be canceled due to those watches. On my way to the seat, I grab the most delicious mouth watering $9 beer that ever hit my parched lips and hear the first few cords of my all time favorite PJ song, Release. I ran down to the rail just in time to hear the first verse being sung, followed by the greatest 3 hours of my life. It's hard to put into words what it's like to be on the rail. The 25,000 people at your back, the band I've loved for my entire lifetime at arms length, the several times I made eye contact with Mike, and I may have even got Eddie to crack a smile when he saw my Sox hat. (he is a diehard Cubs fan). and to turn around and look back at the sea of people that seems to go on forever is something only rock stars get to see. I literally felt as if I was at my own personal Pearl Jam concert.
As for the setlist, I'm rather bias. PJ can do no wrong and I love it everytime, but the show did have some highlights for me.
Main Set List:
Release <--all time favorite song
Last Exit
Got Some
Why Go
In My Tree <--personal fav
Small Town
Unthought Known
Even Flow <--amazing Mike McCready solo in middle of song
Supersonic
Down
Daughter/WMA/Blitzkrieg Bop (Ramones)
Goin’ Back To Indiana (The Corporation) [partial version]
Rats <-- one of my favorite live songs
Wishlist
Insignificance
Force Of Nature (dedicated To Hud Mellencamp)
Jeremy <--well its Jeremy
The Fixer
1st encore:
Just Breathe
Off He Goes <--the song dedicated to his Chicago friends in the crowd.
Given To Fly <--probably thee best live PJ song.
Lukin
Better Man <--25,000 strong sang the entire first verse.
Do The Evolution
2nd encore:
Garden
Whipping
Alive <---well cuz its Alive.
Baba O’Riley (Townshend)
Yellow Ledbetter/Star Spangled Banner
After the show, it took about 45 minutes to get out of the parking lot and 3+ hours to get home. I finally hit the pillow around 3:30am, a good 23 hours after the day began. For some, this could probably be explained as the worst night of their life, but thats ok, this was my night...and one I will truly never forget.
Phone pics is all I got, but I'm lucky to have that, phone died as soon as I took the last one.
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t30/ ... pics/1.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t30/ ... pics/2.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t30/ ... pics/3.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t30/ ... pics/4.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t30/ ... pics/5.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t30/ ... pics/6.jpg
One last really cool thing, I caught FIVE Mike McCready picks. During the show he is known to throw out handfuls into the crowd. Well he did, twice, right onto my head. I ended up giving away 3 of the 5 to fans around me. Diehards wait a lifetime to even get a chance at 1 pick and I got 5. oh what a night.
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t30/ ... pics/7.jpg
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Comments
2010: Newark 5/18 MSG 5/20-21 2011: PJ20 9/3-4 2012: Made In America 9/2
2013: Brooklyn 10/18-19 Philly 10/21-22 Hartford 10/25 2014: ACL10/12
2015: NYC 9/23 2016: Tampa 4/11 Philly 4/28-29 MSG 5/1-2 Fenway 8/5+8/7
2017: RRHoF 4/7 2018: Fenway 9/2+9/4 2021: Sea Hear Now 9/18
2022: MSG 9/11 2024: MSG 9/3-4 Philly 9/7+9/9 Fenway 9/15+9/17
2025: Pittsburgh 5/16+5/18
Too bad I was about 40 rows farther back.
Much better than the 1st time I saw them there in 2000, from the back of the lawn!
Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?
Sammi: Wanna just break up?