I was a student at UConn at the time (2009). Me and a friend had an exam at 8 AM, afterwards met up with 3 other people, drove down from Storrs, CT to Philadelphia (10/30/09). Traffic was unbelievable. Left around 1, got there at 815. Met up with 3 friends at Lasalle to drive us to show at Spectrum. On way there my friend gets out to pee, gets thrown on car by undercover cop. Me and my girlfriend say screw this and take a cab to show while my other friends on way to show wait for my buddy who got thrown into cop car. We make it to Spectrum to get my 10c tix and walk in during the fixer. I'll never forget hearing that chorus as we ran in.
My friend was able to get off explaining it was a mistake and he was on the way to a Pearl Jam show. The cop let him go after showing him the tickets. They arrived like 8 song into main set. Crazy day and night.
Wow, I kinda know that drive a bit, that is crazy long for that! And yeah, sometimes when your friend is peeing and gets pulled by a cop, you just gotta get a cab and go! Maybe I'm a bad friend, but since women usually can't just whip it out and pee anywhere, I'd be like "Hey, I have to hold it, you're on your own dude!" and be outty LOL!
St. Louis 98. Buddy and I have 2 tix a piece. I take my girl, he plans on selling his extra. Tries to sell to an undercover cop FOR FACE and loses BOTH tickets. I guess it was illegal to even sell on the grounds for any price. Spent the entire afternoon in the parking lot crying his sob story to anyone who would listen. Eventually found a saint who just handed him a ticket. Top 2 shows in my opinion.
2 days before Greenville I decided that it would be a show i couldn't
miss. Was able to pick up 2 last row tickets on the boards and booked our plane
before even telling my wife. She is as big a fan as I am so she was totally
down for it. We flew out at 8am Saturday into Charlotte North Carolina, rented
a car and drove to Greenville. On the drive there my wife gets a text from our
friend that they scored tickets right by the stage and grabbed 2 for us, made
it to the pre-party and gave away the other tickets I bought off of someone
here. When we went into the arena i still had no clue where our seats were, as
we kept walking down i realized we had front row side stage next to Mike.
Amazing show and as they played VS my wife just looked at me and said thank you
for being such a nut. Drove back to North Carolina, crashed for 2 hours
and back on the plane home Sunday morning. One of the best day trips we had and
I’d do it again tomorrow.
I'm not sure which I consider crazy, but here's a few highlights:
1) 2000 - Decided to go to Portland and Seattle. Portland get's cancelled. 10c offers to transfer tickets to another show so we choose Boise as it's the next closest. Portland resurrects itself from the dead so we decide to go again and buy TM tix. The Portland and Boise shows were back to back so we drove all the way from Portland to Boise over night in a PoS 1983 honda civic with broken wipers and no heat.. lol!! It also meant we had to drive all the way back to Seattle 1.5 days later.
2) 1998 - Did a cross Canada trip with one of my best friends. We weren't sure we'd make it back for Vancouver so we bought Missoula tickets and slightly cheated by detouring south once we got to Calgary. It turned out we made it back for Vancouver with 2 days to spare so we went to that one too. The crazy part is I get home on 21st. Get one night of sleep, wake up on the 22nd and see my little brother in kitchen. I ask him "you want to go to Seattle". He's in. I'm not even home for 24 hours (after being gone 5 weeks) and off I go again. We race to Victoria to get to a TM outlet. It's not sold out and we get tickets (whole thing was GA). We race to the ferry and just make it. We race to Seattle and get in front of the stage 5 minutes before PJ hits the stage. It worked out amazingly well for a show I never planned on going too.
3) Vancouver 2000 - Listened to 99.3 the fox all the time trying to win tickets to the Commodore show in Vancouver (radio sponsored bar show). It took me 3 or 4 weeks of constant listening and calling to win tickets. It was crazy. I willed that one with sheer determination.
Zod those are amazing, you really got around!! You totally have to join in our PJ travel agency, where we work out tour travel logistics for dedicated fans. You've got some serious experience!
I skipped an ethics class in grad school for front row Kansas City 03' - prof docked me an entire letter grade for skipping cos' I arrived the next day for class sunburnt & wearing an 03' tour shirt. Only 'B' in my program. Worth it though!
Brutal! I professor allowed me to reschedule a test so I could go to a U2 show out of town. Some teachers are nicer than others I guess.
Sounds completely exhausting! How was the show, did it feel worth it?
It was totally worth it at the time. Then Ed announced another leg of the tour in the Midwest within a 2 hour drive of me and I felt like an idiot - ha. At the time this was Ed's first solo tour so you didn't know for sure if this would be it for a few years or if it would turn out like it has where he tours every couple of years. I was last row but the concert was amazing (even if one of my ears did not pop from the flight). That San Diego show had some interesting moments including Ed doing a Barry White voiced narration of Satan and George W. Bush (acted out by crew members) having an "encounter".
I would never do that again without getting a hotel. I'm too old for that shit.
In 2003 my trip to Orlando to see pj from Newark, nj was also under 24 hours lol. I hit up magic kingdom and Epcot too. Again totally worth it, first row in front of mike in a very small club.
That would be awesome. I would love some more opportunities at club shows.
I once got a bus 6 miles into the city to see Pearl jam - totally crazy!
Aaaah, you young'uns! You have no idea how easy you've got it! In my day, you had to kill a cow, make your own leather shoes, and then hike/walk for 8 days to get to a PJ show... You guys are so spoiled, just taking a bus that same day for 6 miles...
Went to the St. Louis show in 2014 with a friend, we were flying from Raleigh to St. Louis but had to connect through Chicago... as we landed and they were making announcements, they announced that our connecting flight from Chicago to St. Louis had been cancelled and the next flight that we could get on wasnt going to be leaving until 7:30pm... no dice! - - We rented a car and drove from Chicago to St. Louis for the show, stayed the night and then drove back to Chicago the next day to return the rental car and catch our flight home... No excuses, play like a champion!
Was a great show and great time, the Wishlist pre-party was great too!
Charlotte 10/4/96 Raleigh 8/31/98 Charlotte 8/4/00 Raleigh 4/15/03 Asheville 10/6/04
Bonnaroo 6/14/08 Spectrum 10/30/09 Spectrum 10/31/09 Atlanta 9/22/12 Wrigley 7/19/13
Baltimore 10/27/13 Charlottesville 10/29/13 Charlotte 10/30/13 OKC 11/16/13
St. Louis 10/03/14 Greenville 4/16/16 Hampton 4/18/16
Columbia 4/21/16 Wrigley 8/18/18
Nothing crazy for me. I guess the tightest schedule was the Lexington show last year. I put in for Lexington and MSG in the 10 club lottery, fully expecting to miss MSG because of the low odds and just get Lexington. Well I won tickets for both Lexington and MSG2, and then scored tickets through tm for the other MSG show. So I was like, uggh, I guess I'll just eat the Lexington tickets now that I'm doing a 4 day weekend in NYC. I can only take so much time off from work.
Then as it got closer, I'm like - there's no way I can have tickets to see PJ and not go. That's crazy. So I asked for the day of the show off. I work 2nd shift, which helps here. So I drove down from Chicago the morning of the show. Got there around 5pm Lexington time. Even got there early enough to score that awesome poster. And when the show ended, I drove right back home. Got home I think around 6am? Slept for about 4 hours, then went to work. Only missed one day of work. It was tiring but soooo worthwhile!
I quit my job to go to 3 shows on the last Euro tour. Tickets went on sale and we put in for them figuring it wouldn't happen. We got them all 3 and planned a vacation on a whim. I'll never have that much fun again in my life, it was an amazing trip. Hiking the Dolomites, Kayaking the Adriatic, climbing in the Austrian Alps, getting lost in Venice, 3 shows that each blew away the best shows we've seen in the states, amazing food, beautiful (not obese) people everywhere...
Wow, that does sound like an awesome trip. and a pretty cool story too.
driving in and out of Camden NJ 8 times I think qualifies as crazy.
I took the subway back from Camden to my hotel in Philly after a show in 2003 (the fireworks over the Delaware during the July 5th show was awesome). Got off the subway at the wrong stop and had to walk back to my hotel several blocks. I had to walk by this guy on my side of the street while a group on the other side of the street was yelling at him that they were going to shoot him. I'm literally 5 feet from this guy when they are yelling at him. It seemed like all talk but still.... Great times!
Sitting in the airport in Manchester the day after the show in '09. We spent the previous night after the show drinking a bit too much and lamenting we weren't doing the London show as well. We were sitting at the gate in the airport for our flight when they announced it was boarding. At last call we both kind of looked at each other and said 'fuck it'. We got on our phones, told the wives we weren't going to be home and then called work to say we needed another day off.
We tried to fly down to London but they wanted crazy money so we walked out of the airport and took trains to get to London. We had no hotel and no tickets for the show. Hotel was easy but getting tickets was a nightmare.
Sitting in the airport in Manchester the day after the show in '09. We spent the previous night after the show drinking a bit too much and lamenting we weren't doing the London show as well. We were sitting at the gate in the airport for our flight when they announced it was boarding. At last call we both kind of looked at each other and said 'fuck it'. We got on our phones, told the wives we weren't going to be home and then called work to say we needed another day off.
We tried to fly down to London but they wanted crazy money so we walked out of the airport and took trains to get to London. We had no hotel and no tickets for the show. Hotel was easy but getting tickets was a nightmare.
2005 HoB Katrina show in Chicago. Decided about two hours before the show that I need to at least try to see Pearl Jam and Robert Plant. Went to the venue, asked people in line if they had an extra (mind you, these were $1,000 tickets). And even though a ticket cost more than rent and my car payment at the time, I went to the box office and said "If Mastercard is dumb enough to let me buy a ticket, so be it."
Of course it swipes with no problem, I freak out with excitement then "oh shit I need to make some money" and spend my time in line starting to post things for sale on eBay and reach out to friends looking for a freelance designer. Well worth the gamble.
2005 HoB Katrina show in Chicago. Decided about two hours before the show that I need to at least try to see Pearl Jam and Robert Plant. Went to the venue, asked people in line if they had an extra (mind you, these were $1,000 tickets). And even though a ticket cost more than rent and my car payment at the time, I went to the box office and said "If Mastercard is dumb enough to let me buy a ticket, so be it."
Of course it swipes with no problem, I freak out with excitement then "oh shit I need to make some money" and spend my time in line starting to post things for sale on eBay and reach out to friends looking for a freelance designer. Well worth the gamble.
Perfect! Buy an impossibly expensive ticket and then posting things for sale to pay for it while on line, I love that!!!
Glad it was worth it, sometimes you just gotta use that dangerous plastic...
Comments
2 days before Greenville I decided that it would be a show i couldn't miss. Was able to pick up 2 last row tickets on the boards and booked our plane before even telling my wife. She is as big a fan as I am so she was totally down for it. We flew out at 8am Saturday into Charlotte North Carolina, rented a car and drove to Greenville. On the drive there my wife gets a text from our friend that they scored tickets right by the stage and grabbed 2 for us, made it to the pre-party and gave away the other tickets I bought off of someone here. When we went into the arena i still had no clue where our seats were, as we kept walking down i realized we had front row side stage next to Mike. Amazing show and as they played VS my wife just looked at me and said thank you for being such a nut. Drove back to North Carolina, crashed for 2 hours and back on the plane home Sunday morning. One of the best day trips we had and I’d do it again tomorrow.
Not bad Wall232, going from very very last row to very very FIRST ROW! I love stories like that!
Hell, I love ALL of these stories! Love how often things work out even when they seem crazy or like they won't...
Tried uploading a pic from my phone but it didn't work. It was such a fun night.
1) 2000 - Decided to go to Portland and Seattle. Portland get's cancelled. 10c offers to transfer tickets to another show so we choose Boise as it's the next closest. Portland resurrects itself from the dead so we decide to go again and buy TM tix. The Portland and Boise shows were back to back so we drove all the way from Portland to Boise over night in a PoS 1983 honda civic with broken wipers and no heat.. lol!! It also meant we had to drive all the way back to Seattle 1.5 days later.
2) 1998 - Did a cross Canada trip with one of my best friends. We weren't sure we'd make it back for Vancouver so we bought Missoula tickets and slightly cheated by detouring south once we got to Calgary. It turned out we made it back for Vancouver with 2 days to spare so we went to that one too. The crazy part is I get home on 21st. Get one night of sleep, wake up on the 22nd and see my little brother in kitchen. I ask him "you want to go to Seattle". He's in. I'm not even home for 24 hours (after being gone 5 weeks) and off I go again. We race to Victoria to get to a TM outlet. It's not sold out and we get tickets (whole thing was GA). We race to the ferry and just make it. We race to Seattle and get in front of the stage 5 minutes before PJ hits the stage. It worked out amazingly well for a show I never planned on going too.
3) Vancouver 2000 - Listened to 99.3 the fox all the time trying to win tickets to the Commodore show in Vancouver (radio sponsored bar show). It took me 3 or 4 weeks of constant listening and calling to win tickets. It was crazy. I willed that one with sheer determination.
Brutal! I professor allowed me to reschedule a test so I could go to a U2 show out of town. Some teachers are nicer than others I guess.
It was totally worth it at the time. Then Ed announced another leg of the tour in the Midwest within a 2 hour drive of me and I felt like an idiot - ha. At the time this was Ed's first solo tour so you didn't know for sure if this would be it for a few years or if it would turn out like it has where he tours every couple of years. I was last row but the concert was amazing (even if one of my ears did not pop from the flight). That San Diego show had some interesting moments including Ed doing a Barry White voiced narration of Satan and George W. Bush (acted out by crew members) having an "encounter".
I would never do that again without getting a hotel. I'm too old for that shit.
That would be awesome. I would love some more opportunities at club shows.
Was a great show and great time, the Wishlist pre-party was great too!
Bonnaroo 6/14/08 Spectrum 10/30/09 Spectrum 10/31/09 Atlanta 9/22/12 Wrigley 7/19/13
Baltimore 10/27/13 Charlottesville 10/29/13 Charlotte 10/30/13 OKC 11/16/13
St. Louis 10/03/14 Greenville 4/16/16 Hampton 4/18/16
Columbia 4/21/16 Wrigley 8/18/18
Then as it got closer, I'm like - there's no way I can have tickets to see PJ and not go. That's crazy. So I asked for the day of the show off. I work 2nd shift, which helps here. So I drove down from Chicago the morning of the show. Got there around 5pm Lexington time. Even got there early enough to score that awesome poster. And when the show ended, I drove right back home. Got home I think around 6am? Slept for about 4 hours, then went to work. Only missed one day of work. It was tiring but soooo worthwhile!
We tried to fly down to London but they wanted crazy money so we walked out of the airport and took trains to get to London. We had no hotel and no tickets for the show. Hotel was easy but getting tickets was a nightmare.
That could have been the longest week of your life but it sounds like you made a new friend instead. Awesome.
Didnt really help with the directions
Of course it swipes with no problem, I freak out with excitement then "oh shit I need to make some money" and spend my time in line starting to post things for sale on eBay and reach out to friends looking for a freelance designer. Well worth the gamble.
Glad it was worth it, sometimes you just gotta use that dangerous plastic...