Drop the leash, drop the leash...

I am going to do my best in covering the last two days and nights. This entry may take me awhile, but I have to do it. I have been out of touch with reality during this time, so I need to go back and try to relive it all. What an amazing two days and nights. I will try to post pictures later, but here's the story.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

My friend got to Boston the night before (and we went to see the free Damone show at Newbury Comics), and we left the house early to pick up our Pearl Jam tickets for the night. We got to the box office at 10 AM, and there was only one person waiting on line to get them. We chatted awhile, and by noon the line got longer. We picked up our tickets... they were already in an envelope, and they were loge 22, awesome seats right along the side of the stage (where Stone usually stands).

With tickets in hand, we wandered around the city... down some side streets, through the Boston Common, and to the food court at Downtown Crossing. We wasted a good couple of hours catching up, talking about old times. At around 5 PM, we decided to head back to the TD Banknorth Garden area. One of the PJ message boards was having a private party for its members, and we got in. Free food, and live PJ on the big screen TV. We went inside about 7 PM, and my friend was pissed because all of the posters for this show were all sold out. We sat down, watched My Morning Jacket open up, and waited for PJ.

And here's the setlist for that show:

Set: Release, Severed Hand, Worldwide Suicide, Corduroy, Animal, Red Mosquito, Love Boat Captain, Betterman, Unemployable, Even Flow, Sad, Wishlist, Gone, Green Disease, Down, Jeremy, Life Wasted, Why Go
Encore 1: Forever Young (Ed & Jeff Solo), Masters of War, Crazy Mary, Inside Job, Alive
Encore 2: Spin The Black Circle, Do The Evolution, Whipping, Rats, Comatose, Rockin' In The Free World

I kept telling my friend that they should open with Release, and they did! We had an awesome view of the stage, and I have about 75 pictures to prove it! It looked like the band was having so much fun, especially Mike McCready, who loves interacting with the crowd. He dedicated some songs to graduating and graduated students... funny when he dedicated "Unemployable" to them! I was psyched when they played "Sad," one of my favorite songs I have never seen live yet. Ed dedicated "Down" to Howard Zinn.

For the first encore, Ed sat down and played two Bob Dylan songs, since he turned 65 today. And what I noticed with the second encore was that they played all these hard songs... not letting up all night! They were all bouncing around the stage the whole time, and Ed downed two bottles of wine. Someone threw some t-shirts that said "Stone" on stage, and Jeff put one on, and Ed put one on too during "Evolution" and was bowing to Stone. And he changed a lyric to say "admire my Stone." In all, they played for 2 1/2 hours. We left, got home, went to bed around 1 AM, and thinking about how we will do it all over again the next night.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Got up later this day, and took public transportation to North Station to pick up tickets for night #2. While waiting for the box office to open, I noticed a guy with a "Stone" t-shirt on so I went up to him to ask him about it. Turns out this guy made the t-shirts, and was giving them out for free, and just asking people to make donations online. After we picked up our tickets, we followed him outside and got a cool Mike McCready t-shirt (looks like the guitar pick I got from him) and told us we could get some Stone t-shirts later before the show.

We then took the T to Copley and hung out there... went in the library so my friend could e-mail some people that were gonna meet us tonight, and then sat outside on the library steps (and it was an awesome day out, weather-wise), and we were watching these guys kick around a soccer ball (we think they were some of the PJ crew). Then back home, relaxed for a bit, then drove back for our second PJ evening.

We went back to that bar with the message board people, and got some free food and chatted with some people. We then saw the guy with the t-shirts at this other bar (I forgot his message board name, but I will recognize it when I see it). He was eating with some of his friends, so we hung out with them and got Stone t-shirts. Then we split to go inside... got posters this time (we got 2... so hopefully we can trade with someone who got some from the first night). Then we went to our seats, and here's the setlist:

Pre-Set: Porch
Ed w/MMJ: It Makes No Difference
Set: Severed Hand, Corduroy, Worldwide Suicide, Do The Evolution, Given To Fly, Dissident, Even Flow, Marker In The Sand, Low Light, Insignificance, Army Reserve, Garden, I Got Shit, State Of Love And Trust, Comatose, Inside Job, Rearviewmirror
Encore 1: Wasted Reprise, Man Of The Hour, Elderly Woman, Parachutes, Black/(We Belong Together), Alive
Encore 2: Why Go, Life Wasted, Smile, Indifference, Leash, Rockin' In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter/(Star Spangled Banner)

Ed came out around 7:30 to play an acoustic version of "Porch" which was amazing. He then did one song with My Morning Jacket, and then left. And around 9 PM PJ came out for their set... probably played longer than the 2 1/2 hours from the previous night. Started with some songs they played the night before, but then played "Given To Fly" which was cool, and got to see "Army Reserve" and the updated version of "Garden." Ed made a lot of comments about how awesome the weather was all day, and how his daughter was in another state now (sounded like he was missing her). "RVM" was awesome, of course. For the first encore, they toned it down a bit, with some slow songs, and played my personal favorite, "Black." Everyone sang along to the "do do do do do do" part at the end, and Ed added the "we belong together" at the end, which I loved.

For the second encore, they played a good mix of hard and soft songs, and Ed brought this little girl up on stage that had flowers for him, and played her request, "Smile." But the highlight of the night was when they finally played "Leash" for the first time in about 11 years. Everyone went absolutely nuts when they played it! Then they mentioned how they were donating money to a Boston charity for homeless children, and that Theo Epstein was going to match their donations. Theo then joined the band on stage for "RITFW" - Theo was wearing a wig with a baseball cap, and then passed the wig to Stone, who put it on, and other band members were pretending to fix his hair. And they ended it with "Yellow Ledbetter," with Mike played the star spangled banner at the very end.

After the show, we ran into the guys from earlier, and decided to drive them back to their hotel and get a drink at the bar a few blocks away. These guys have been traveling around and have gone to a bunch of shows and were going to more. They were also going to join up with these guys who actually have a "Pearl Jam touring van" - some old van that they put a bunch of black tape on listing all the destinations for the shows. I guess these guys are going to all of the shows on this tour. I wish I had the time to ever do that, but that would never happen! Anyways, we had a drink and then headed back home... ended up going to bed just after 2 PM.

And today? I am back at work, and after today I will only be here two more days. I am exhausted, my throat hurts and is all hoarse, I have no motivation to any work, but I am in a really good mood. I had an awesome time at the shows, and everything else related, but now I am ready to get back to real life, and spend time with Melissa, feel the baby moving around, deal with the house/condo stuff, try to do some schoolwork, and get psyched about the new job. Good times.