OP, you are awesome! You are my new hero. I love your passion, and I love that you are going to make it your life's mission to "drink in every note and laugh with all my joy." :thumbup:
This band has been my saving grace, my constant companion(s), and my guides through this life of mine. Pete Townshend got my through my college years, but Pearl Jam has seen me through adulthood. At (soon to be) 46, I am still excited to see the band perform, and eager to hear their next album; I don't see that desire waning for me, and I hope it never does.
I hope I get to meet you at show one day; we can talk Pearl Jam, Henry Rollins (love him!), and Pete Townshend over coffee. Between Don Bejema and Exene Cervenka, my guess is you have some great tales to tell.
Beautiful post. I saved it to read until now when I had the chance to do so uninterrupted. I always love your writing and agree that you are gifted with words. Thx for sharing them with us. Enjoy your shows!
5/3/92 Omaha, NE
6/19/95 Red Rocks
9/11/98 MSG
11/19/12 EV solo Tulsa
7/19/13 Wrigley 10/19/13 Brooklyn 2 10/21/13 Philly 1 10/22/13 Philly 2 10/25/13 Hartford
10/08/14 Tulsa 10/09/14 Lincoln
9/26/15 NYC Global Citizen
4/16/16 Greenville 4/28/16 Philly 1 4/29/16 Philly 2 5/1/16 MSG 1 5/2/16 MSG 2 8/7/16 Fenway 2 8/20/16 Wrigley 1 4/7/17 RRHOF New York City 9/2/18 Fenway 1 9/4/2018 Fenway 2 9/18/21 Asbury Park 2/4/22 EV Earthlings NYC 2/6/22 EV Earthlings Newark 9/11/22 MSG 9/14/22 Camden 9/3/24 MSG 1 9/4/24 MSG 2 9/7/24 Philly 1 9/9/24 Philly 2
Lovely letter. I get it. Most here get it. the rest, well hopefully they'll get it. Every show I've been to has been more of a spiritual awakening then the years I tried to be catholic. To me PJ is as close to religion as I need to be.
"...Dimitri...He talks to me...'.."The Ghost of Greece..".
"..That's One Happy Fuckin Ghost.."
“..That came up on the Pillow Case...This is for the Greek, With Our Apologies.....”
ratmando
Outside of Portland, or somewhere like that Posts: 347
Blush and shuckns.... seriously... and after seeing the interview today from ESPN, I kept thinking of another hero- Stephen Hawking, who thought his life would be over just as he was graduating, because of ALS. He's married, had kids, written books, and is considered one of the mosts brilliant minds... Bodies can do only so much, that interview was just exactly what I meant, and more. SO much.
And everyone who responded, thank you... some long roads can lead to things bigger, but looking left, right, up, and down along the way brings people like you nearer. Thanks for that.
When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.
Most beautiful love letter I've read in ages. Funny how we've never met or spoken, but you've managed to articulate my feelings right onscreen. THANK YOU dear Lady! I sure hope to see you at one of the shows.
I have to laugh at this thread as I am approaching the big 50 year mark quickly myself (sigh).
Pearl Jam was such an unlikely band for me to even like, let alone become such a hardcore fan of. Steve Perry (Journey) was the voice that had made my heart melt for years before. My first exposure to Pearl Jam was not impressive at all either, their music was ‘forced’ upon me at work and I used to cringe every time the Ten CD was played. After months of that though, I heard Even Flow on the radio for the 1st time – and without even thinking, I found myself cranking up the volume and singing along. That was a wild and surprising event, but I owned a copy of Ten by the end of that day and the rest is history.
Oct. 15, 2013 Worcester, MA
Aug. 05, 2016 - Fenway Park, Boston Oct. 15, 2013 - Worcester, Massachusetts
Amazingly beautiful energy here. I hope you're having the time of your life at these shows! Thanks for beautifully illustrating the power of positive thinking... Cliche or not, it really is powerful!!!
Wow, thanks for sharing. Very moving. Although our lives seem quite different, I understand deeply how you feel. I think that's one of the best and most beautiful things these guys have given us. Thank you again x
I'm 54 and went to Worcester 2 and I'm going to Hartford tomorrow night. I've followed PJ from the beginning and gone through 2 heart attacks, a pulmonary embolism and 2 stomach surgery., not to mention the 2 spinal fusions I had before 1991. I still manage to see them when they come around Connecticut and sometimes Mass. I wouldn't miss them for the world. They are the greatest live band on Earth. I also like talking to the many nice fans I have met at shows over the years, young and old, you're great. Long Live Pearl Jam.
0
ratmando
Outside of Portland, or somewhere like that Posts: 347
Awesome post.... BUT Pearl Jam never played at the Kiva... as far as I know? For 130 people? First NM show was Convention Center, Nov '93 wasn't it?
YES convention center!!! :? You were there too? Wasn't it the least crowded show you'd ever been to? I was stymied. I think half my students got autographs, but I was just standing in awe of all the music. I remember before the concert playing in the courtyard where they had those audio based sculptures so you could whisper at one end and hear the person a full 20 yards away. Loved that area. We met Angelo from Phish that night at some bar that Jonathan Richman played and sang songs in Spanish around that same time. I was living in Las Vegas, teaching at Highlands.... I didn't know AlbaQ well...
What's the name of the club that was near a record store in Santa Fe, a mom and pop, not a big chain...blank.. .. I couldn't remember.. not the mall one, (Strawberries was the mall, right?) but there was a band called Monkeyshines that played there a lot. I do remember Primus played the convention center not long after Pearl Jam and my students pulled me up to the very front where we arm and arm prevented any of other folks from getting between us and Mr. fishn' man his ole self. In 1994 after SXSW, there was a vigil for Kurt Cobain cos he died just around the time of that event..and there was a Seattle band in the area... do you remember that at all? I cant figure it out as it was all during the AOL years, and my blog wasn't that detailed.
interesting town, Santa Fe- no big airport... some pretty great art centers... I saw Amiri Baraka do a reading there with a guy who ran a bookstore, and my downstairs neighbor. It was free for students. I couldn't believe how much you could do there.. I drove from Las Vegas to Santa Fe, Taos, AlbQ, Hermits Peak, .... Always something going on... whether Pow-wow on route 666 by Window Rock, or just hanging in Las Vegas, NM, and finding Jr from HeeHaw or Robert Plant hanging at the Plaza Hotel, or going to my first cake walk in the town square, or having my students take a field trip to the drive in. (is it still there?) Huge Antique barn near the LV airport, that I remember..and the rainstorm at 4pm that had hail the size of a VW bug, with the skies turning green just before the lightening bolts would dance across the plains for a cuple of hours. Then ending the day sitting in Montesuma Springs..Hopefully without the scary pervs who wanted to see ladies "tats"...One night I sat there, snow on the ground, bald eagles flying overhead and shooting stars ...staying in that water until I had nothing left to me.
Nice place to live... I keep hoping to bring hubby there sometime. I just felt so landlocked. So much I remember like it was this morning.... some of it has been lost to my illness and I may get drifts here and there when the medications aren't clouding m.
BTW--- really adoring EVERYONE posting especially the folks who happened to have been born before me... YOU inspre!!!!! (NOW off the the Red Sox wins of the World Series and listening to our boys peppered in and out of the show!)
Cathe, (aka Ratmando, rhymes with Cat Man Poo)(ew ick)
When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.
This makes me - Love love reading...and am hopeful I'll get to rock with you someday at a show (and perhaps scooch in (and take notes) on that coffee shop convo on Rollins, Pete and the transforming miracle magic that is music) Cheers!
got a car...got some gas...oh let's get out of here-get out of here fast...
I hope you get this message but your not home...I will be there in just a minute or so...
I want to go but I want to go with you.
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. -MT
I've had enough, said enough, felt enough. I'm fine, still in it.
Comments
This band has been my saving grace, my constant companion(s), and my guides through this life of mine. Pete Townshend got my through my college years, but Pearl Jam has seen me through adulthood. At (soon to be) 46, I am still excited to see the band perform, and eager to hear their next album; I don't see that desire waning for me, and I hope it never does.
I hope I get to meet you at show one day; we can talk Pearl Jam, Henry Rollins (love him!), and Pete Townshend over coffee. Between Don Bejema and Exene Cervenka, my guess is you have some great tales to tell.
6/19/95 Red Rocks
9/11/98 MSG
11/19/12 EV solo Tulsa
7/19/13 Wrigley 10/19/13 Brooklyn 2 10/21/13 Philly 1 10/22/13 Philly 2 10/25/13 Hartford
10/08/14 Tulsa 10/09/14 Lincoln
9/26/15 NYC Global Citizen
4/16/16 Greenville 4/28/16 Philly 1 4/29/16 Philly 2 5/1/16 MSG 1 5/2/16 MSG 2 8/7/16 Fenway 2 8/20/16 Wrigley 1
4/7/17 RRHOF New York City
9/2/18 Fenway 1 9/4/2018 Fenway 2
9/18/21 Asbury Park
2/4/22 EV Earthlings NYC 2/6/22 EV Earthlings Newark 9/11/22 MSG 9/14/22 Camden
9/3/24 MSG 1 9/4/24 MSG 2 9/7/24 Philly 1 9/9/24 Philly 2
http://boe.jeff.k12.wv.us/education/staff/staff.php?sectionid=948&
"..That's One Happy Fuckin Ghost.."
“..That came up on the Pillow Case...This is for the Greek, With Our Apologies.....”
very nice indeed
at 48 myself...i hear you
10-25 CT coming soon
And everyone who responded, thank you... some long roads can lead to things bigger, but looking left, right, up, and down along the way brings people like you nearer. Thanks for that.
Henry David Thoreau
2013 Wrigley
2013 Dallas
2013 Oklahoma City
2013 Seattle
How I choose to feel is how I am.
There's just one word I still believe...and it's LOVE.
"Take care of one another..." -EV
Most recent: 2018 Stadium shows: Seattle 2, Missoula, Fenway 1 and 2; 2022: Oakland 1 and 2
You are AMAZING!!
2013 Wrigley
2013 Dallas
2013 Oklahoma City
2013 Seattle
How I choose to feel is how I am.
There's just one word I still believe...and it's LOVE.
"Take care of one another..." -EV
New Mexico Pearl Jam Fans (New Mexico, USA) on Facebook!
Pearl Jam was such an unlikely band for me to even like, let alone become such a hardcore fan of. Steve Perry (Journey) was the voice that had made my heart melt for years before. My first exposure to Pearl Jam was not impressive at all either, their music was ‘forced’ upon me at work and I used to cringe every time the Ten CD was played. After months of that though, I heard Even Flow on the radio for the 1st time – and without even thinking, I found myself cranking up the volume and singing along. That was a wild and surprising event, but I owned a copy of Ten by the end of that day and the rest is history.
Oct. 15, 2013 Worcester, MA
Oct. 15, 2013 - Worcester, Massachusetts
I will be 62 when they hit Los Angeles in November......and cannot put into words what this band means to me!!!
YES convention center!!! :? You were there too? Wasn't it the least crowded show you'd ever been to? I was stymied. I think half my students got autographs, but I was just standing in awe of all the music. I remember before the concert playing in the courtyard where they had those audio based sculptures so you could whisper at one end and hear the person a full 20 yards away. Loved that area. We met Angelo from Phish that night at some bar that Jonathan Richman played and sang songs in Spanish around that same time. I was living in Las Vegas, teaching at Highlands.... I didn't know AlbaQ well...
What's the name of the club that was near a record store in Santa Fe, a mom and pop, not a big chain...blank.. .. I couldn't remember.. not the mall one, (Strawberries was the mall, right?) but there was a band called Monkeyshines that played there a lot. I do remember Primus played the convention center not long after Pearl Jam and my students pulled me up to the very front where we arm and arm prevented any of other folks from getting between us and Mr. fishn' man his ole self.
interesting town, Santa Fe- no big airport... some pretty great art centers... I saw Amiri Baraka do a reading there with a guy who ran a bookstore, and my downstairs neighbor. It was free for students. I couldn't believe how much you could do there.. I drove from Las Vegas to Santa Fe, Taos, AlbQ, Hermits Peak, .... Always something going on... whether Pow-wow on route 666 by Window Rock, or just hanging in Las Vegas, NM, and finding Jr from HeeHaw or Robert Plant hanging at the Plaza Hotel, or going to my first cake walk in the town square, or having my students take a field trip to the drive in. (is it still there?) Huge Antique barn near the LV airport, that I remember..and the rainstorm at 4pm that had hail the size of a VW bug, with the skies turning green just before the lightening bolts would dance across the plains for a cuple of hours. Then ending the day sitting in Montesuma Springs..Hopefully without the scary pervs who wanted to see ladies "tats"...One night I sat there, snow on the ground, bald eagles flying overhead and shooting stars ...staying in that water until I had nothing left to me.
Nice place to live... I keep hoping to bring hubby there sometime. I just felt so landlocked. So much I remember like it was this morning.... some of it has been lost to my illness and I may get drifts here and there when the medications aren't clouding m.
BTW--- really adoring EVERYONE posting especially the folks who happened to have been born before me... YOU inspre!!!!! (NOW off the the Red Sox wins of the World Series and listening to our boys peppered in and out of the show!)
Cathe, (aka Ratmando, rhymes with Cat Man Poo)(ew ick)
Henry David Thoreau
I hope you get this message but your not home...I will be there in just a minute or so...
I want to go but I want to go with you.
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. -MT
I've had enough, said enough, felt enough. I'm fine, still in it.