· Madison Square Garden can fit a lot of people who all know the words to “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town.”· So much bromance. Tickets were only sold in pairs, and apparently girls don’t like Pearl Jam—WTF?—because the seats filled up with pairs of guy friends all in T-shirts or polos and cargo shorts.
· Why do people feel they have to wear T-shirts from previous concert tours they’ve seen? We know you like seeing bands. That’s why you’re here.
· When they set up big screens before the show to which people can send text messages and have them displayed, at MSG the messages will mostly be “Jets kick ass!” “Go Mets!” “NE Patriots 18-1” or guys trying to embarrass their friends with “Ryan, marry me!—Kevin.” Hilarity ensues.
· New York metro area Pearl Jam devotees are also rabid professional sports fans. (Why am I hearing competing “Let’s go Yankees” “Let’s go Mets!” chants? I’m here for a concert, not a smackdown.)
· Very unlike the fans at PJ shows I saw in California, who were much more surfer-crunchy.
· I don’t think Pearl Jam fans in California and New York would get along.
· No matter how many times I see them play, I will always think the fans are booing when they are actually cheering for guest keyboardist Kenneth "Boom" Gaspar.
· Always bring binoculars to an arena show. If I hadn’t, I’d have missed seeing the intricacies of Mike McCready’s spectacular behind-the-head guitar solo and stalking Eddie Vedder on his back-of-stage smoke breaks.
· Pearl Jam has so very many absolutely amazing songs that I only ever hear about a tenth of my favorites played at any one show.
· I apparently only see PJ in election years—2000, 2004, now 2008. Where o where was I in 1996?
· The band members have definitely left behind the skinny, long-haired guys they once were and have filled out into men. Stone Gossard looks like he could be a software engineer for Google and McCready is developing quite the paunch for a bleached-blond guitar hero.· Eddie Vedder is still adorable. And has the most distinctive, versatile, incredible voice in rock. And is relentless in his political fervor, for which I applaud him. I love you, Eddie! :)
NY Daily News review of show
First photo is from last night's concert. Second photo from 1992.
15 comments:
Since you live in Brooklyn, you really ought to go to these two shows (wish I could):
Feist-July 9th Prospect Park Bandshell
Bon Iver-Jul 30 2008 8:00P
MUSIC HALL OF WILLIAMSBURG w/Bowerbirds
Do you people ever just stay home? Ya know........Home is where the heart is. There's no place like home. Oh, give me a home. Home on the range. Home for the holidays. Okay, I'm empty now.
Home is boring. :)
I saw the listing for the show and noticed the tickets were $77. That's more than the cost of seeing R.E.M. on the current tour, and almost twice what Blondie is charging for a show in a much smaller venue. And this is the band that sued TicketMaster? For a band so uppity they won't make music videos, Pearl Jam doesn't seem to have any qualms about selling out. That said, I'm glad you got your money's worth.
$77 would have been a bargain. I got the tickets on eBay and paid a smidge more. But it was worth it, thank you very much. Present to myself and Brian for the new job.
You can't put a price on seeing a band that you've admired and adored for years and years. Well, you can, and I paid it.
A lot of good bands don't have nearly as many fans as they deserve, and can't charge nearly as much for a ticket as they deserve. So when Pearl Jam has 20,000 people buying tickets at upwards of hundreds of dollars, it sounds exorbitant compared to what other bands make. But standing there at the show, you realize they deserve it all.
Fans were chanting sports teams?! Ummm...why?? Especially considering PJ band members are not fans of any of those teams. And lots of mens, huh? That is a big difference than here. We get quite the mix!
Amanda: It was before the concert and I think everyone was just trying to fill the time. Perhaps the fact that we were at a sports arena confused them.
Yeah, I was like: "Why do I smell hot dogs and Bud Lite at a Pearl Jam concert? Shouldn't it be weed and red wine?" And then I looked up and saw Patrick Ewing's jersey hanging from the ceiling.
What happened to Pearl Jam's battle with Ticketmaster so they would only have to charge fans 18 bucks to see the show?
Ah, the 90s.
ps. If anyone wants the Into the Wild soundtrack, shoot me your address and I'll send it to you.
You should have it.
And I don't even LIKE Pearl Jam. They really only have 2 songs (Jeremy, Alive)
There, I said it.
-e
You're right, Carolyn: it's the sports arena. I was at another concert there a couple months ago, and the same thing happened afterward when everyone was mobbing the exits to leave--people started a shout-off, Mets versus Yankees, the whole way down the escalators. Six levels take WAY too long when thousands of people are trying to leave at once!
(After the first level, I was thinking, "Seriously, people!!!")
I looked it up, Eric. The Pearl Jam boycott of Ticketmaster lasted from 1994 to 1998. It started because they balked at the service charges the company was adding on. So for all that time, during which they released three albums, they basically didn't tour the U.S. because the only non-Ticketmaster venues were small and out of the way. Finally, after continued outrage from fans, they gave in for the good of the concertgoers. Their anti-trust lawsuit against the company was unsuccessful.
Look at you, bringing up old sh**. That was all over ten years ago!
And PJ is a way better band than some that you have professed a love for all these years (cough, Frank Black, cough), but to each his own. :)
That is awesome that you got to see them. Again. I have never had a chance to see them and I am the one who is the appropriate age. Yes, that age is 34.
They are very difficult to catch. They don't tour that often and when they do the tickets sell out instantly. You should try, though! They are amazing live. And yeah, I was a tiny bit young (I was 13 when Ten came out), and I didn't really get into them until college. But they've continued to make great albums all these years. It's amazing.
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