Tag Archives: Pearl Jam

San Francisco: Bridge School Benefit.

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This past weekend I headed out to San Francisco for the Bridge School Benefit show with Jack & Eddie.  Of course the weather was what one would expect when I travel to your city.*  We had initially planned to attend both nights but considering the weather, personal wellness and Jack & Eddies’ pre-dawn flight on Monday we skipped out on the second day.

The way the Bridge School is setup is each group/performer has about 20 minutes on stage which usually translates to about four or five songs and then they break to reset the stage.  The first band up when we got there was Modest Mouse which I’ve never seen before and I was really interested in how they were going to play their songs acoustic.  They just rocked.  Nothing more to it than that. We also got to see Billy Idol perform the closest thing he’ll ever get to an acoustic set.  Needless to say it was amazing.**  I think one of the first non Ice-T cd’s I have ever owned was Rebel Yell so there was a lot of fist pumping.

I thought Pearl Jam’s set was really good, a good portion of the songs I’ve never heard.  This is the entire setlist:  Last Kiss, Unthought Known, Santa Cruz, Nothingman, Dancing Barefoot, Better Man, Walk With Me, Just Breathe, and Black.  Santa Cruz I guess is a song Eddie Vedder has done on his solo tour and Walk With Me is from Neil Young’s new album Le Noise.  I thought those two were the best songs we heard all night.

Besides the rain and the $10 non-premium beers the only other complaint I have was Elvis Costello just dragging on his set.  I last saw Elvis Costello back in Columbus when he toured for his ‘When I Was Cruel’ album.  What he’s up to now is not for me.

Side Notes:

* Last time I went to San Francisco it was an unseasonal 90 degrees and I received one of the worst sunburns of my life.  This time around it didn’t stop raining for more than an hour my entire trip.  This is how I roll into your city, with blatant disregard for seasonal norms.

** The one issue with seeing a show like this with such a range of musicians is different people are in to different groups and they can be total assholes when some one they don’t care about is performing.  In other words, don’t talk when Billy Idol sings.

Belfast: Pearl Jam & Ben Harper.

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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:

Sometimes
Do The Evolution
Animal

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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:

This is the Tour Guide/Body Guard/Drinking Partner that I hired for my time in Ireland. His references were good...

Pearl Jam at the UC.

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Last night Julie and I went to see Pearl Jam at the United Center for the 4th show of their limited North American Tour.  The show was good (not great, but part of that had to do with me pretty much running on empty).  What was cool was the amount of songs from No Code and the three new songs.  They started with Hard To Imagine which I’ve never witnessed.  Also, these were probably the best seats I’ve ever had to a Pearl Jam show.  Julie has fan club tickets, I think the Vote For Change Show I saw in Toledo was similar seats but these were much closer.

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Side Note:
*Boom Gaspar did his part during the show by playing in a noticeable way during two songs.  Please some one explain to me what he actually brings to the band?  Is Crazy Mary really that much better?  Outside of the Life Wasted transition what’s the point?  Sorry for the blurry photograph but this what Boom does most of the time.

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