Pearl Jam

I know I'm late on this. Its going to be short. I feel like shit right now. I think I have a cold. Not fun.


Well on October 3, I went to Philadelphia to see Pearl Jam at the Wachovia Center. The whole night got started off in a typical way. We decided to meet up at my friend Matt's house. This is the same Matt who I've spoken about before on this blog and my old one. So the girlfriend and I get to his house at 4:30pm and meet up with Matt, Jenna (his girlfriend), Billy, and one of Matt's friends. I mention to Matt how I plan on following him to the concert. The conversation went something like this.

Me: Ok, so I'll just follow you down there.
Matt: blank look
Me: ...um cuz I kinda like to weave in and out of traffic and I'm not sure if you'll feel comfortable keeping up.
Matt: blank look and a smirk

This is about when Billy started to laugh and told me that even though we met at Matt's, Matt hadn't gotten directions. Now, I always assumed that whoever's house you meet at to go somewhere, it kinda falls on them to get the directions from their house to wherever you are going. Well Matt didn't do this.

That's about when I found out that Matt's house doesn't have an internet connection. Yeah, I'm not sure how that works either. But that's when I started making phone calls to people who might know how to get there. When I couldn't get through to anyone, I started calling people that I knew would be in front of a computer. Problem with that was that a lot of people were still working since it was about 4:45pm on a Monday.

I finally got through to a friend of mine from college who gave me directions. The only problem was that once we were off of the Turnpike, she kind of missed a step in the directions and we almost ended up in Delaware. I had no desire to go to Delaware for some sales tax-free shopping. I did have a desire to go see Pearl Jam. By now it was about 6:45pm and the concert was planned to start at 7pm. There was only one opening band so we knew we had to get there quick. So a few phone calls later, and we were on the way with correct directions.

Lucky for us, we got into the arena just as Sleater-Kinney was finishing their set. No one had any desire to see them play so it wasn't a big deal. Although they covered Danzig's "Mother" for their last song which we got to hear in the concourse and it sounded pretty cool. It was funny to hear an all-female band do that song.

The girlfriend and I split from the rest of the group and took our seats.......behind the stage in the upperdeck. I hate when this happens at concerts. I feel like its just a way to sell a couple hundred more tickets. I also felt kind cheated that I woke up early, the morning after a wedding to call ticketmaster for these tickets and that was the best I got. Not happy.

Fortunately, Pearl Jam (specifically leadsinger Eddie Vedder) made sure to notice the people behind the stage many time throughout the show.


The Actual Show
They sounded great. Better than when I saw them in Seattle. They had a ton of energy and the seats actually turned out to be pretty cool cuz we were able to see everything going on on stage. It was almost like having a birds-eye view of things.

If anyone is interested, the set list is here. A few things to point out. I was impressed that they played so many songs off of CD singles and Lost Dogs (the recorded songs never put on any major album). Stuff like Wash, Leatherman, Sad, Alone, Hard To Imagine, Last Kiss, Sonic Reducer, and Leaving Here.

I was really surprised the number of covers they played. They played two Neil Young songs (Harvest Moon and Rockin In The Free World), a Dead Kennedys song (Bleed For Me), "Last Kiss" is a Wayne Cochran song, a Motherlovebone tune (Crown of Thorns), and even the Elvis song "Little Sister" which was awesome.

One of the strangest part of the night was during their version of "Crazy Mary" (which was another cover). During the song, a loud noise filled the arena (sounded like a big bang, almost like an electrical short or a blown amp). The song came to an abrupt halt as Eddie carefully backed away fromt he microphone. He then went back to the mic, said the song was "the scariest fucking song we've ever played", made a reference that he believed crazy mary was haunting the show and noted that he "don't even know who mary is". It was pretty funny. Especially since he refused to continue the song for a few minutes. But with the help of the audience cheering loudly, the finished the song with no problems. Definitely one of the stranger things I've ever seen at thes how.

Another highlight was when they played "Betterman". Eddie started the song solely on stage but before he could finish the first line, the entire arena was singing along with him and he backed away from the mic and allowed the audience to sing while he played guitar.

The show was great mainly because they seemed to just be having a wonderful time on stage. They brough out Sleater-Kinney for a couple of their encore songs (they played 2 encores). During Rockin In The Free World, Sleater-Kinny took over their respective instruments during the second verse of the song which Eddie and the S-K singer danced on stage. Eddie was also running around the stage catching tambourines that were being thrown like frisbees to him by one of the roadies/stage crew.


Conclusion
The show was great. Much better than the Seattle show (they played way too much off of Riot Act at that show). Although I was a little disappointed in the song selection. While it was great to hear them play songs that they reserve for special occasions (Eddie mentioned that Sonic Reducer and Crown of Thorns were two songs only played on special nights), I would've liked to hear song of my all-time favorite Pearl Jam songs (mainly Porch and Leash). But hey, guess you can't get everything. I was just thrilled to be able to see what turned out to be a very memorable, enjoyable, and fun concert.