*** Tampa Fanviews Here 6/12/2008 ***

Pay4WhatUGet wrote:

Eddie mentioned before Elderly Woman that he was not sure if they were in Canada, or the US, because of the huge Canadian flag they hang for the hockey games. He then dedicated the song to anyone from Bradenton!!! Thats my home town, where I live, and one of my all time favorite songs!!! Let me say that this was the most personal moment I have ever had at a concert. I was moved to tears, and will never forget the moment. When he said that me and my friend let out a big yell, and we felt like the only people in the room. Thank you Eddie Vedder. You are my hero.

Hey Bradenton buddy! My wife and I live there as well and we both let out big screams when he dedicated the song. We looked around afterwards and thought everyone around us was staring at us .

Both shows were great, sat stones side for wp 5 rows back, the crowd was into it, out on the lawn looking back they looked liked fans usually do on the lawn late in a show, the tampa crowd was more quiet on mikes side sat 4th row, the arena as a whole was wilder as the night went on but arenas are differant. Just like the differance between the spectrum 03 and the camden amphitheaters.

The experience was great and the florida crowd was into them.

Tampa show was awesome the Forum was packed. It was my first time I've been to the Tampa arena but it was pretty cool. My favorite arena to see a band in is Philips in Atlanta but the Tampa forum was cool too.


What's funny about the whole thing about the south doesn't sell tickets is people from the north that are idiots. IF they play big cities they sell out. I've never seen a Tampa show that was not packed out. They sold Philips Arena out from top to bottom and every North Carolina show that I have been to has been sold out. The only show in the south that I have been to that wasn't sold out was in Birmingham and Birmingham is a small city compared to Atlanta, Charlotte, etc.


Also anyone going to the Columbia show? I'm nervous about it. I had no idea where the hell Columbia was and I went ahead and bought tickets to it but Columbia is in the middle of fucking NOWHERE. I don't think attendance is going to be very good because from what I gather the only thing there is the University of South Carolina and it's in the middle of summer so school is going to be out. We'll see. Hopefully the band won't get pissed that it's not a sell out and only play for an hour.

pj is @ 8:45

My daughter and I drove from Orlando and arrived at the venue at approx 2:30. opened my envelope and there it was .. I won the lottery!!! Mike's side of the stage, row 2!!

We then drove to St Petersburg to tour the Salvador Dali Museum. My daughter is a big fan. Very cool museum.

The show was AWESOME as it always is. On this night they played Daughter and Elderly Woman.. two of my daughter's favorites. They also played Nothingman and Black.. I love this band!!!

All in all, it was a great vacation in the Sunshine State. Three days of Disney and two days of PEARL JAM!!

p.s. PJ please play Kansas City next year.. ok?

The band's energy was fantastic for both shows. We had a blast. Setlists and tickets being equal, I think I prefer arena shows. There's something about arena-rock and it is usually louder/more intense in an arena. Because of this and Black, I give my slight edge to Tampa. YO-PJ. Come back soon please, like in the fall, and lend your voice to Florida voters.

I don't want to be negative, as this is my first post, but unfortunately, I do have a beef with the St. Pete Times Forum show. Unlike everybody else who has posted here, I thought the sound absolutely sucked! My guess is, all of you who have posted previously about this show were sitting either on the floor or definitely in the lower level.

Well, let me tell you how it was in the upper level of the arena. It sucked! The echoes in that dump made it almost impossible to hear anything Ed said between songs, as well as the lyrics and the band. Beyond that, it wasn't very loud. I didn't want to sing along, because I didn't want to drown out the band for those sitting near me.

I've read a few posts which said this show had the BEST SOUND EVER, and several other posts talking about the GREAT ENERGY, and that just wasn't the case upstairs. I could see everybody down below having a great time, but I just felt like the party was going on without me.

Now, I'll assume some responsibility for the fact that I had crappy seats. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to go until a couple of days before the show, so I was forced to take what I could get, which was 300-level. I was a 10C member years ago, but let my membership lapse (big mistake) and just never got back around to renewing it.

In other words, I'm not blaming the band or the rest of the audience, I'm blaming myself and the people who designed the St. Pete Times Forum. Unfortunately, however, the face value of my ticket (which I paid in addition to all of the ridiculous service charges and convenience fees) was the same as it was for the people sitting in the front row!

Make no mistake. Pearl Jam's my favorite band, and for what it's worth, I thought the setlist in Tampa was as good as any of the PJ shows I've seen going all the way back to '92 (albeit a fair bit shorter than some of the other shows I've seen). I'm actually looking forward to getting the bootleg since then I'll be able to hear what I missed. However, I've never before left a Pearl Jam show disappointed and was actually surprised that it happened to me this time. I went in fully expecting to have a great time!

Bottom line, I'm probably not going to bother going to the St. Pete Times Forum for any more concerts. I should also rejoin 10C and make my decision to attend future PJ shows much sooner. Sorry to be a downer, but I just wanted to share my experience to let you know how different this show was from my perspective...

Nope. I drove back to the Orlando area right after the show...

prsntnse wrote:

Just got back to NY from Florida. Both shows were great. My buddy in Florida hit the lottery(guacamolejoe), and there we were 1st row Mikes side. It was an amazing experience. I took alot of pics, that could have been amazing if I knew how to use a fu**** camera. Although some did come out pretty good.

http://s306.photobucket.com/albums/nn275/prsntnse/?action=view&current=010-1.jpg

I took alot of video also, if i figure out how to put that on here I will.
Now I am getting ready for 5 more shows up here.

Hey! I'm in your pictures! I was 3 rows behind you (with Keith).

Awww, you got Ed talking to little "emma" and the other guys laughing... how wonderful.

Have fun at your next 5 shows.

West Palam had the same wave backdrop with two big "surfboard/cross" designs on either side of the stage.

It was harder to see from front & bottom but the lights played with the wave designs - made it look like it was moving - my son sat 1st tier back a little and he could see more from his perspective. Really cool.

really liked the set -better than the light shows from last tour.