Pearl Jam in Hawaii

I saw this band last night... I may have already mentioned it. They're called "Pearl Jam." And they're fucking great. Met some amazing amazing people and managed to trade my Row 20 Stage Right tickets for Row 12 dead. fucking. center. Show was almost three hours... not including Kings of Leon opening. Last time I saw them, I left halfway into their show b/c The Helio Sequence and The Secret Machines were FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR better. This time, however, they nailed it. And Ed sang the last song with them. And the guy next to me gave me a little puff on his nice Hawaian... errm... doobie. Yes, doobie. Shared some beer rounds with the guys on my other side too. Very very excellent. That's all for now. Because I have to fly now. And hopefully eventually float back down for a smoke in a tree.

finally...

I got around to playing Charlotte's Web.
After I had to come into work on Saturday.
But, damn, it was a nice day. And I played it alone.
And I found a nice pair of sunglasses... tried to return them to the guys in front of me, but the glasses didn't belong to them.
But I learned some stuff.

- Playing with light orange discs whose color is that of the leaves on the ground sucks. And is kind of stupid.
- Sparks beer/energy drink things are TERRIBLE.
- Especially the ones with extra alcohol.
- But you can get very mildly buzzed if you have two in less than an hour.
- The wind might feel good, but it is not your friend.
- +11 actually isn't actually that awful. (the group in front of me were all hovering around that score as well)

That's all. I already knew everything else.

Oh. And, after about 4 hours dealing with travelocity's crashing website and their (extremely extremely nice and patient, yet) not very helpful customer service, I managed to book my flight to Hawaii. Somehow the final price managed to go up $40 during the time spent dealing with their technical bullshit. And my return flight is almost 3 hours later than I wanted.

But I can't REALLY complain. So I spend an extra $13/hour to stay in Hawaii a little longer. There are worse things.

Oh #2. This Friday there's a Nirvana cover band opening for a Pearl Jam cover band down the street from my house. Hilarious. I'm so there.

Pearl Jam in Amsterdam

It seemed to work last time... so I'll try again. These are the select few that didn't look like total complete shite from the Pearl Jam show day... at least the ones I haven't already posted.
I apologize now for the copious amounts of blur.

These two were in front of the Neuwe Kirche (spelling?) before we left for the day... they're dumb, but also kind of funny. Kind of.		And these... These are the golden tickets... and the pink wristband... which was SUPPOSED to get us way up front... but landed us in the middle/front instead. dammit.
Everybody. In blue. I almost didn't put this cuz of how blurry it is, but it's the best one, sadly, that I got of the whole band.	Eddie doing something weird... I think that's his signal for "Give me all of your money."	And Ed and Jeff...
Also was close to not making it, but there were so many of Mike that were almost good... I decided this one would go. Even though there's no "action." As it were.	Lots of attempts to get something good of Matt. But, damn, drummers are difficult... This sucks but was the best I had. Matt and Stone's back.	If this was a LITTLE less blurry, it would be really awesome. Pretty classic Jeff pose regardless.
Another, shittier, full band shot. But Ed's wearing the george bush jacket and, if I recall, just took to stomping on the bushy mask that just got thrown on the floor. EXCELLENT. :)	Eddie and Jeff again... mostly b/c Ed's actually kind of clear in this one.	Mike finally decided to come hang out on our side (I'm sorry, but Stone is not as much fun to watch)... so this is Mike. Along with that guy who keeps making the band sound worse. grrr...

driving

Yellow Ledbetter is a great fall driving song with the windows down when you're not trying to speed along TOO quickly...

for that matter, almost all of Lost Dogs Disc 1 fits that criteria.

I got Pearl Jam tickets for Hawaii.

hmmm... Can I actually get there now? I have no idea. *Here's hoping*

And here's two more b/c they're stupid and funny and stupid.

We were going to see Pearl Jam.

I would like to be going to see Pearl Jam right now.
I can probably make it to Australia... hmmm...

Or maybe even Bridge School... I wouldn't be FORCED to watch Dave Matthews, I don't think...

Pearl Jam vinyl

I finally got the Pearl Jam vinyl today.

and, holy shit... the booklet is enormous and looks amazing. Well worth it just to see all the artwork really big. I wish the sticker on the center of the record was different from the top of the CD tho...

regardless. Very cool. Even tho the package is a little bit banging up after being dealt with by the gentle hands of the USPS...

I forgot where/when this is from, and I can't find it on the Net... so I'll assume I was right when I originally copied this from somewhere to somewhere else as far as the attribution goes...

"It's my fuckin' life, let me be as weird as I fuckin' want!" - Eddie Vedder

Pearl Jam in D.C.

Driving is fun, sometimes. But expensive... damn. I thought I'd have enough time to listen to all of the Pearl Jam studio albums before I actually got to Annapolis. But that didn't work out. Luckily, I got to skip the last few songs on Binaural and only play the ones I liked on Riot Act, thereby leaving the new S/T as the only record I didn't spin on the drive up. Awaiting me after the 390 minute drive were three nights of... well... debauchery... Starting with what is, apparently, the best Mexican in Annapolis (i.e. Margaritas)... downed a pair of those and then downtown for some bar hopping and expensive beers. Unfortunately, I have very few stories to tell. There was one girl who kept eying everyone who walked in the door. I thought Kennedy had her nailed for sure. You know... so to speak. But it didn't work. She's a bitch. If I recall correctly, the cab ride home was uneventful but let to one member of our party redecorating the bathroom. After which, we went to the dock with some sweet sweet Coronas and talked about things that were wrong with the world and then yelled at Scott by way of this new fangled thing called a "telephone"...... While the first full day afforded Tyler and myself the opportunity to saunter around downtown Annapolis, eat at Ruth and Chic's Deli, and search for national secrets at the Naval Academy, night two saw only Kennedy and myself heading back to downtown Annapolis. Dinner and drinks on the water. It was very romantic. Until I posed the question, "Dude, the Pearl Jam show is TOMORROW, right? Not tonight?" At which point stomachs sank and cellphones began ringing. And noone answered. I resorted to calling ticketmaster... "Uhhh... what time is the Pearl Jam show in DC? Cool. That's tomorrow, right? Thanks." So that was nice. And allowed us to go bar hopping again. And for me to play poorly at Cricket (Darts, not the British thing) yet still roar to victory. Twice. dum-dum-dum. And that was, pretty much that. For the first time in, like, 8 months or something, I actually watched a little late night TV and then took to bed. (Has anyone ever heard of some guy called Jon Stewart and the Daily Show? That shit's funny.) ....... Day Three. Tyco arrives with plenty of time to get ready, chill in DC, and get to the show. Yet we somehow manage to dick around Annapolis long enough going to McD's and the bank that we had to go back to the house to refill the beer cups. And get my phone. But this time we remembered to toss the bottles of Captain and Skyy into the trunk. Finished the drinks on the way to the train station, refilled, and got onboard. Got to the MCI Center a couple hours ahead of time and decided to just wait in line... and take turns walking back and forth to McDonald's bathroom to refill the beer cups. Two Yuenglengs were casualties of war as we were forced to leave them behind to get inside quickly enough to snag some show posters. And thank God. These are seriously sweet. (and on ebay for $150?!?!?!?!? wtf.) From the show, all I can really recall is screaming. A lot. And I now have a bunch of bruises from something. Opening with Release was badass and exactly what I was hoping for. Despite the presence of Betterman, Small Town, Man of the Hour, and Come Back, it was a great show. Encore 1 was mildly disappointing (Man of the Hour, Masters of War, Small Town, Come Back, Alive), but the last encore more than made up for it with Comatose, Leash, Fuckin' Up, and Yellow Ledbetter. I haven't heard YL live before. Nice. I guess that's all I'm really saying. Oh. Except that Wasted Reprise -> Life Wasted was frickin' beautiful. oh yeah... also... that I really did not enjoy My Morning Jacket. I don't know if it was the fault of the sound guy, the beer, the band, or my aural preference. I thought they were decent on Austin City Limits, but I don't like "Z," and I didn't enjoy the live sound. Although it looked like they were probably doing cool stuff on stage. It may have also been due to the fact that I REALLY wanted Sonic Youth to be opening instead. This has been an exercise in indulgence and I dearly hope noone wasted their time reading this far down. This isn't even interesting to me. I just felt like typing.
Oct. 29, 2007: Tyler sent me these photos a while ago, but I just scanned them in last weekend. I'm pretty sure they're from the night of the show...

Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam.

I posted this over on CrazyTalk... figured I'd mash it here too.

So... May 2nd is long gone... There's a new Tool album out. It's pretty good. With some amazing artwork ideas. But, you know, it didn't really blow me away as being incredibly new and different and, well, amazing. It's good, but it's not my favorite album to come out this year. Or even on May 2. Turns out that being a member of the Pearl Jam fan club is nice. My record showed up the Saturday prior to the release date. But I didn't get it until I got to work on Monday... still a day ahead of time. And the pre-order version has this sweet hardcover book format thing to it that the general release does not have. And I got a free copy of a show they did NYE '92. Neat. oh. And first crack at concert tix... but that didn't work out so well... but I still scored some good seats for DC in a couple of weeks. Ah yes... but I did get my fan club tix for the GA show in, you know, Amsterdam. Also neat. And now, it turns out, my boss is going to buy plane tickets for my girlfriend and me. Also neat. Aren't I supposed to be talking about a record? Well, actually, there is no record as of yet. Even tho Letterman somehow had a copy of the sleeve. That wasn't the new record inside. So, CD, then. We'll talk about that. Perhaps. I was, somewhat, hoping that someone more flowery than me might post about this, but it came to my attention that the Sufjan Stevens crowd just might find Pearl Jam... dare I say... "irrelevent." From some other blog whose link I have, unfortunately, lost: (and so I paraphrase) "Pearl Jam became irrelevent when Eddie Vedder became too old to climb stuff." Well... that is pretty funny, actually. I wish I would have thought of it. But I wouldn't have meant it. Another thing that has come to my attention is that damned near everything that has even a passing interest in music is reviewing this CD. Way to go, Clive. At first, all this promotion caught me off guard... I mean, really... Entertainment Weekly? C'mon, guys... but from that same article Ed was able to shed a little light on the subject for me: (EW article) This is all so subjective and in a way self-important, but when you have completely commercially produced acts and artists kind of taking up the space that you used to, then it's like, Do we want to allow ourselves to be pushed out in the mainstream again, to do our part to have it be a real experience? I'm not talking about the young bands that are good, I'm talking about the crap that is a insult to what I think of as good rock & roll. I feel like we have a lot to offer. And so in order to do that, it feels like we're being shot out of a cannon. And that brings those feelings of, Okay, are we going to that same place where we had to climb the barbed wire fence to get the fuck out of there? Being outside of all that is a much more comfortable place to create and to live. So we're searching for that balance. I think I can dig that. And, hey, the album is actually pretty damned good. But does the Net really need yet another review? I don't think so. Perhaps I can leave you with some feelings instead. (as an aside, the girl next to me just started playing the most goddamn awful song I've heard in quite a while... and I've been hearing it multiple times a day... every day. fuck you, James Blunt.) Right. Feelings. The first four tracks give me that energetic angsty feeling with which I generally feel like driving. Have you heard World Wide Suicide? Is it possible to have not heard it? Life Wasted, Comatose, and Severed Hand are all right there with it. And, depending on my mood, I can like any one better than the other. Although Life Wasted might resonate most with me - lyrically, anyway. The fifth song, "Marker in the Sand," just might very well be the best song on the album. Despite the presence of Boom Gasper's B3. I am NOT a fan of organs in rock bands. The Gossard penned "Parachutes" brings the flow of the album down. Far down. And quickly. It's quirky and artsy but sounds way too much like his side band Brad for me. Skip button? Most of the time. Unless I'm, you know, "altered." Tracks 7-10, however, build for me. I didn't like Unemployable when it was first released as the "B-Side" to WWS. But it's growing on me. 8, musically, pulls me back to the place I was during the beginning of the album. The place I really enjoy being. I haven't spent a lot of time with the lyric sheet yet, but I'm afraid they might be kind of lame. But it still feels good. And then "Gone." When released on the Christmas single, I was more than a little unsure. But this is one of those songs that starts out slow and unassuming and, by the end, just soars. Gone makes me happy. Like "Given to Fly." Not quite there, but close. And Eddie likes The Who. Now... tracks 10-13... If this CD WAS a record, I don't think I'm far off in saying that I'd wear Side A out REAL fast while the top of my turntable might see Side B long enough that I could listen to it by putting the record back in the sleeve. (Did anyone catch that? I suck at similes. Or metaphors. Or onomatopoeia. Or whatever.) It's not all the songs... don't get me wrong. On first listen, Wasted Reprise was a fitting break to what had come before. And "Army Reserve" really does feel heartfelt and meaningful... and, at this point in the record, I'm ready for this. (BANG! Buuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... Hah. I'm not so bad at that after all.) But then we get "Come Back." The song some people are likening to a cross between "Black" and "Yellow Ledbetter." Those people are wrong. It's 5 1/2 minutes of blah. I've heard some pretty good interpretations of the song... almost to the point where I can respect the song without liking it. (Those good interpretations don't include "You've obviously never been dumped.") I don't like it. I just. don't. like. it. I made my own version wherein I chopped out the entire first verse thereby bringing the length to about 3:30. That I can almost handle. As it is, this song kills the re-listenability of this album to me. Where Yield (still their masterpiece) pops in the always amazing "In Hiding", Vs. has "Leash", No Code has "Mankind", and even Riot Act has "Bushleaguer"... this album has a total mood killer. Yeah, I left out Ten, Vitalogy, and Binaural from that list. I had my reasons. I don't listen to Binaural anyway. Shit. I think I had a point. My point was this... "Inside Job" is a frickin' amazing song, and I think it's a great album closer. But "Come Back"... dammit. If it weren't for this song, Pearl Jam would pretty well hop right up there to 2nd favorite studio behind Yield. As it is, I think it's fighting it out with No Code and Vitalogy for number 3. Since you asked, Vs. is number 2. If only for the opening of Go->Animal. What else can I say... give the record a spin. Or, if you can't, at least try to find "Marker in the Sand" or "Gone." Most importantly, however, if you've never been to a show, this is the year to do it. The rumors abound that this will be the last big tour, and I don't find that completely unbelievable. Get thee to a show. Or a nunnery. Whatever. Oh. And back on the Indy scene? www.dustinedge.com New album coming very soon. And no arena tours. And no EW articles. This is the shit. More later. Oh.  And Tool outsold Pearl Jam in week 1 by almost 300,000 copies.  And I have no idea what the title of this post has to do with anything.

so I got 10c tickets to see Pearl Jam... in Amsterdam. yessir.

Pearl Jam in DC... Section 102 Row O... not great, but it could have definitely been worse.

And, holy shit, I just noticed that Nine Inch Nails actually scheduled a date in Charlotte!
I'm so there.

sweet...

Best. Band. Ever.

If this is true...

I will soil myself straight away.

In anticipation of their upcoming studio release, and to follow up on their Canadian Tour, Pearl Jam along with the Ten Club are proud to announce a 25 city tour of the United States. The tour opens on September 29th in Charlotte, NC. and ends up in New York City on November 30th. The Ten Club pre-sale starts Monday May 23rd, 2005, at 10:00 am pacific time, and ends Tuesday, June 9th, 2005, at 5:00 pm pacific time.

Fri- Sep-30, Charlotte, NC Charlotte Coliseum
Sat- Oct-01, Winston-Salem, NC Joel Coliseum
Sun- Oct-02, Myrtle Beach, SC, Myrtle Beach House of Blues

I can't imagine they'd be so kind to NC... but wow... I couldn't possibly ask for more.

YES!

Got 'em.
third row, side stage.
Mike's side.
yes.
yes.
yes.

now to ask for the week off work.

so... nervous...

PJ tickets... 20 minutes....
tick
tick
tick

*please don't let me get pulled away from the computer*

So I'm actually watching the last friends episode...
Ross can't catch up to Rachel, and what do they play as the sad background music? Yellow freaking Ledbetter.
That's right.
I think...

oh!
and I watched the 08 April 1994 PJ concert... when they found out that Kurt had died. It's eerie...
Ed is so emotional... Porch was RIDICULOUS, and, at the end, Ed smashed a hole in the stage floor with the mic stand. Manages to break the stand along the way, and just ended up with a big hole in the floor. Crazy Crazy.

So. I made it to the Pearl Jam shows and back. In one piece. Raleigh was great night with a good setlist. A decent number of new songs (which are what I wanted to hear), and a few nostalgic ones as well. (read: Alive) True to form, Evenflow showed up, and I got a good Corduroy and Given to Fly. Eddie's funny in GtF. Also, he says practically nothing during the whole show... mighty strange. I didn't get to see the opening band, but they came out for Fortunate Son and Rockin' In the Free World for the encore. It was alright. Growing tired of RitFW tho.

Charlotte was a really weird show too... not in that Eddie didn't talk, but that they played pretty much every single off Ten (Black, Jeremy, Evenflow, and Alive) and very few Riot Act tracks (Save You, Green Disease, Love Boat Captain). We did get another Corduroy, so that was cool. Not to mention getting to hear Breath. No State of Love and Trust either night tho... disappointing. I did see Sleater-Kinney this time, however, and I liked them. They played hard and their voices were really interesting. Nice to have fun with the opening band. Oh, and we heard Eddie at the pre-set singing Driftin' by himself. I REALLY like that song and wish we would have seen him, but hearing it was pretty cool too.

Didn't go to Nashville and Atlanta. Should have. They FINALLY played Bush Leaguer in Nashville for the first time since those 24 people walked out in Denver, Know Your Rights made another appearance, and Steve Earle sang Fortunate Son in the encore. Other than that, tho, I don't suppose I was THAT thrilled with Nashville. I really really would have liked to have gone to Atlanta tho. Baba O'Riley AND Yellow Ledbetter in the second encore. Plus Crazy Mary with Boom's amazing keyboard solo. The rare You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, State of Love and Trust, Glorified G, Porch, 5 new songs, AND Crown of freaking Thorns. I can't believe I didn't go to that show... Live and learn... I guess... but I'm not too sure what I was supposed to learn...

Enough about Pearl Jam I suppose... CIF played a really good show at the Visulite here in Charlotte the Saturday before. Dustin's voice was back on track, which was GREAT. I know Mike, Mason, and Brian are all really really great musicians, but, really, I have the most fun when Dustin's voice is %100 and he really makes the show his. He can do the rhythmic singing thing very well. But anyway, all-in-all, the band was tight, and I thought the show went really well. A kick-ass Soky was the encore and the energetic crowd got them out for a second encore and a rockin' rendition of Baba O'Riley. (So take THAT, Pearl Jam. Bitches.) I was pretty stoked about this show and was hoping to post a more in depth review thing that really would just make me feel good about writing even if noone ever read it. And I wanted to post it so everyone else could hear it. Unfortunately, the CD was over in the middle of Soky Fair. Sucked, but I figured the Baba encore was a cool thing to have saved just for the crowd. Sucked even more to find out that the recording of the whole show got screwed, so we ended up with nothing. Hope that everyone who went enjoyed it. If you didn't go... Shame on you. It was well worth the ten bucks.

CityFest is this weekend... Live was supposed to play on Saturday. I'm a big Live fan. If you ever looked at my cd database, you know this. I was excitied. Bought my tickets way in advance. Foo Fighters'll be there on Saturday too. Sounds awesome. Then I hear that Collective Soul (?!?!?) is going to show up on Friday. I thought they were heading out due to some lineup changes... guess I was wrong. So, I was super-psyched, cuz I like Collective Soul too. They're a GREAT radio band and I like most of the CD's as well as the singles. But then I found out that Collective Soul was REPLACING Live instead of supporting them. Last time I saw them, I had to sit through Counting Crows as the main act. Then, they skipped this area all together for the V tour, and now they cancel the show?? NOT happy with Ed and the boys right now. I don't think I have anything else to whine about or criticize right now. If something comes to me, it'll probably be here. I'll do my best to get another good CIF show uploaded by the end of next week.

Today was Shakespeare's birthday, btw. RIP
And my dad's birthday too. RIP

life and transience and whatnot...

ahhh... Pearl Jam... seems like they've pissed some people off with their anti-Bush stance and smashing masks at the end of Bushleaguer. Go Pearl Jam. If you're going to go to the show, you should probably know what you're going to. They've got something to say, and they're going to say it, dammit. If you're going to get offended and walk out b/c you disagree with them, that's up to you. They probably don't want you at the show anyway. Even if you disagree, you should respect their right to say what they think. And realize that it's THEIR show, and that's what you paid for. Ugh. Can't believe that made the news. I'm going to a party now. Go download some Cast Iron Filter.