An early morning drive, A long walk and Eddie Vedder.

Friday Morning September 2, 2005, a morning that I had a a bi-polar, love \hate relationship with. Why you ask?...Well this was the morning that me and the Hetero-life mate were going to see a band that I had long wanted to see, that being the band made up of Mike McCreedy, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, Matt Cameron and of course Eddie Vedder...PEARL JAM....This would also mark the day that I would have to say good-bye to seeing Jen on the daily basis to which I had grown accustomed as she was moving back to school which is three hours away...that however is a story for a different time and post...this is about seeing a seminal band in my musical education, a band that I (like alot of people) put just under the Nirvana entry in bands that had an effect on the teenage years of my life, but they are at the same time a band that has in my mind continued to put out interesting music over the last ten years, a band that has said "Fuck you we are doing it this way"..."Fuck you Ticketmaster"..and ..latley "Fuck you Goerge Bush.!!".
I had never counted Pearl Jam out even when people who were just there for the "Jeremy's" and albums like "Ten"and "Vs" had gone away, they were in my opinion still an important, entertaining, prolific band that bucked the trends and I liked that. But I'm getting carried away in detailing my appreciation for this band, a stand that may get some riddicule from others(I see an email from the home office in Newcastle coming my way with the word Fag in it)but I digress....
So I picked the Sidekick up Sat morning and we of course made a bee line for the giver of life in the morning...Tim Horton's. Where we grabbed bagels and extra large cups of coffee and hit the road for the ferry...conversing and joking all the way. We made the ferry with no hastle, had the ferry breakfast grabbed the newest issue of RollingStone and settled in for the ride. The ferry is always great for people watching...crackheads..junkies standup good citizens(which i found isn't me cause I found 5 bucks and put that shit in my pocket pretty fast...it was mine damn it...and if it was some kids allowance I didn't want to know.)loud obnoxious fans of the very same band that we were going to see. But oh well...so we get of the ferry get on the transit bus where we met two guys from our town who were drunk(it was only noon)who kinda thought they knew usand kept goin on about all the "Hot Bitches in this town", the crowning glory was when they started going on about having the "yellow fever."...I felt a reverse hate crime comin on but they got off soon after that, and continued on with their travels..goin on about the yellow fever in Vancouver...crazy kids. So we get to the hotel and check in and such then decide its time to hit the town and check out the scene downtown..check out the Futureshop, comic store other odds and sodds that the city has to offer, it is then decided that beer is now on the menu and is of the top most importance on the priotiy list.One problem...do you have any idea how hard it is to find a fucking liqour store in the heart of downtown Vancouver...pot not a problem..smelt it everywhere, cocaine , crack, heroin, could have gotten it much easier than finding a leagal governement funded LIQOUR store...so off we went on ther trek of treks it seemed. We ended up like what felt like 10 city blocks from our damn hotel(not to mention the walking we did before), but at last we found a liqour store and got us some beer, warm beer but nothing a hotel ice machine and our rooms kitchen sink wouldn't fix. And we headed back to the hotel, this is where some higher power or something got back us for having too good a time....we walk into the hotel and the sign in the hotel lobby for the resturant says..get this.."Off Sales Sold here"....fuck....a hike for nothing and our beer was warm...fuck......
So we went up and had beers and showers to get ready for the concert and went to the restaurant for dinner were more beers were concumed after which we made the five minute walk to GM place. after about a half hour of being out side witnessing a homeless person going off about how he had showered that day to ask us for money we went in side...I was now officially looking forward to this show...then we saw the seats. I didn't buy the tickets some body bought them and they then ended up in my hands, but the seats were the worst I had ever had for any concert,hockey game, or any other event Ihad ever attended at the GM Place. So we passed the time calling those back home(he called the wife, I called Jen) we then decided to place a call to the home office located in the heart of picturesque Newcastle Ontario, shortly after which the opening act came on. A band by the name of the Supersuckers, an ok band with crappy songs. The one High light was the last song of their openiong set, Eddie Vedder dressed in a silver Lame siut and a mask came out to sing a song with them, kinda cool.
The lights went down not to long after and Pearl Jam took the stage. They opened the show with the slow very melodic song from "Ten","Release". Eddie and the boys continued to rock the place for the next 2 1\2 hours, mining mostly "Ten","Vs","Yeild" for the set list but also played songs from "Vitology", and "No code". They also threw in two covers, one being The Whos-"Baba O'Rielly"they played for 1 1\2 hours before the first of THREE encores...they played there hearts out and the crowed loved them for it. It was a truly amazing concert. One I'm finally glad I got to see. Can scratch one more concert of the list of ones to see before I die.(Now if Phish would just get back together..lol...)
After the concert we met the friends I got the tickets from at their hotel but they were boring and didn't feel like wasting our night with them, so we left to get something to eat and drink more beer...it was an extreamly fun filled day and an amazing concert.The only black spot was the damn Denny's...the next morning...arrgghhh....never waited so long in a resturant for breakfast damn it and whats this not offering refills on coffee..what you were busy, then call somebody in damn it, this is why you have staff!!....I am tired now as I had to work this morning at 6 am didn't get much sleep last night....but now it is poker night with the boys and I do plan on coming out on top....