Black Hand Productions

Our main purpose of stopping in Belfast was to see Pearl Jam with Ben Harper & The Relentless 7 at the Odyssey Arena; granted it was a great city to see for other reasons.  We used Julie’s Ten Club seats for the show and they ended up being GA floor seats.  In other words the best seats I’ve ever had at a Pearl Jam concert.  We waited about 20 minutes before the gates open and then managed to hit the vendor booth for a poster before heading to the floor.  By the time we got to the stage we were about 8 people back from it.

Ben Harper played about 7 songs during a quick set but it was good.  Pearl Jam sounded really good but I wasn’t that into the set list.  Maybe it was just the second encore but the first three songs of the show might have been may favorite songs from their respective albums:

Side Note:

* Being in General Admission we had to deal with people all night trying to move their way up to spaces that didn’t exist.  Julie and I nearly had to throw down but luckily we made a strategic move.  There was a group of girls behind us who were insisting on moving up and gettting in everyone’s way.  About two people in front of us were two Italian guys who weren’t putting up with anyone’s shit.  We stepped aside and watched the madness as these girls tried to get past these guys.  They nearly smacked the girls in the face and the one guy literally did the ‘Momma Mia’ thing with his hands while saying “You don’t fuck with an Italian!”.

** I took this picture because of the amazing advancement in beer transport technology:

Last night Julie, Nick and I went to Parkwest to see The Nightwatchman and many others on the Justice Tour.  The show was $10 and over three hours long.  We missed the opening set, which I’m pretty sure was just Tom Morello as The Nightwatchman but we saw everyone else:

• Ben Harper w/Juan Nelson
• Perry Farrell
• Boots Riley of the Coup
• Shooter Jennings
• Wayne Kramer of MC5
• Sen Dog of Cypress Hill

It was completely bad ass.  I ran into Tom Morello on the way to the bathroom.  We slapped hands with Ben Harper, Perry Ferrel and Sen Dog on their way out of the venue.  The only thing that would have been cooler is if we found our way to the floor.  The setup of Parkwest was more like a nightclub than a rock venue.  There were a lot of booths and tables and the main floor seemed to be separated from where we were at.

Honestly.  It was the best $10 I’ve ever spent.  

We showed up at the gate at around 11:15am and there was a huge line full of insane pearl jam fans. The insane posse ran in a full sprint to the main stage an entire 9 hours before the show. Kelly and I (after leaving behind everyone else) swiftly strolled to the prime location that Dom and I would man for virtually the next nine hours in what had to be 90 degree tempatures. At times we were fighting off delirium and people from all sides. I think it was worth it but time will only tell.

Kings of Leon were badass, their bass player is the most ‘Rock Star’ bass player of all time. I’m pretty sure he didn’t sweat the entire show even though it was a thousand degrees. Eddie Vedder closed out the set with the band.

Pearl Jam was awesome as you would imagine. They played a couple songs with Ben Harper and the show ended with Eddie singing ‘Rockin’ in the Free World on the shoulders of Dennis Rodman. It was awesome. Best Pearl Jam show I’ve ever seen.

The Whole Gang:

The guy in the back of the photograph was with us the entire day. His name is Shamus and he shared his deepest, darkest thoughts with Myles Tersnak. Just look at the dread on Myles’ face.

Random facts:

• Photographs taken in three days at Lollapalooza: 562
• Times I used the bathroom on Sunday: 0
• Bottles of water drank on Sunday ?
• Bands Myles Tersnak saw in 3 days: 1,203
• New careers that were started the day after spending 9 hours in the sun: 1
• Times Eddie Vedder was on stage without Pearl Jam: 3
• Masks worn by Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs: 7
• Times the steriod guy next to me went on beer runs: 32

* Note: The rest of the photographs are on Flickr.

Tonight Julie and I went to Central Park to see Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals. We got there early enough to hear the opener, Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, finish their set which was peferect timing considering that’s when everyone hits the beer stand. We were able to move up to about 10 feet from the stage to see Ben Harper.

The show was one of the better one’s I’ve seen this summer considering they even did a cover of Neil Young’s Heart of Gold. Also, the opener Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley and his band came on stage during the set and played Get Up Stand up which was really good. Ben finished the night with an acoustic set that included some crazy guitar stuff that I can’t even begin to describe.

*Note: Click on the images below to view larger images.

ACT: America Coming Together is teaming up with MoveOn.org to organize Vote for Change tour this fall. The tour will consist of 34 stops in 9 ‘swing states’.

The lineup includes:

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band

R.E.M.

Pearl Jam

John Fogerty

Death Cab Cutie

Ben Harper

Bonnie Raitt

Jackson Browne

James Taylor

John Mellencamp

And More…

Tickets go onsale August 21st.

ACT: Unprecedented in scale and strategy, ACT is building the largest voter mobilization effort in history to elect progressive candidates to federal, state and local offices in November. For more information on ACT visit www.act04.com.