Friday, 25 Jul 2008
Some eight days after my 15th birthday I hitched a ride with a classmate’s older brother headed to Milwaukee to see my favorite band of my youth, Pearl Jam. At that age, saying I was a die-hard Pearl Jam fan was very much an understatement. Each morning, after delivering all the papers on my route, I would scour the classifieds hoping for a reasonably priced ticket. That never happened, but I collected money a few days early from my customers, came up with the $70, and approached my friend’s older brother (who was in college) who I’d heard was going and basically begged him for a ride. Thankfully he obliged, and I’m grateful, as it’s one of my most vivid concert memories ever.
I remember the drive and what we listened to, we played the Jeremy single countless times, and I remember really wanting to hear Eddie Vedder tag on Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2″ to the end of “Daughter” (he did) like he’d done on some of the many bootleg tapes I’d traded with distant strangers, and something my parents watched in disbelief trying to understand my relentless passion/obsession with the group.
I remember where we parked and the steps we took from the main entrance to the Marcus Amphitheater entrance. I watched as my travel companion bought not one, but two beers with his fake ID and handed one to me. We made it into the venue in plenty of time to catch an incognito Eddie Vedder join the hometown weirdo outlet, The Frogs for their song “I Only Play For Money.”
The actual Pearl Jam set started with “Act of Love” from their Neil Young collaborative record, Mirror Ball. From there the set was heavy on Vitalogy and Vs. material combined with all the heavy hitters from Ten. And I sang along, the whole set. However, they did throw some curve balls my way, like an alternate take on “Jeremy”:
Pearl Jam – “Jeremy” (Milwaukee, 7/9/95)
This was also the show with the now infamous encore that included a blistering combination of Jimi Hendrix “Little Wing” flowing into Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain.” The guitar work of Mike McCready cemented in legend at that point, but they carried on after to close out the night with “Betterman” and “Porch.”
Pearl Jam – “Little Wing>Maggot Brain” (Milwaukee, 7/9/95)
The drive home was one of those silent ones. I had so much fun, but I also couldn’t process any words to even touch what I’d seen. I knew that rock and roll would be big in my life from that moment on. It’s rare when you have such high expectations of a group and you walk away having real life seems to play out just as it always had in dreams. That’s a feeling you don’t soon forget.
That’s my first brush with rock and roll folks. I could bore you with every detail like seat numbers, what I wore, how I talked about it for months after, but I’ve probably already said to much.
What shows were big for you growing up? What show(s) made you really love rock and roll? Were you at this Pearl Jam show at Summerfest in 95? What was the first Pearl Jam show you saw?
Set: I Only Play for Money (EV w/ The Frogs), Act of Love, Go, Last Exit, Spin the Black Circle, Tremor Christ, Corduroy, Not for You, Why Go, Jeremy (original, teaser), Deep, Daughter/Improv (This is How I Feel)/(Release)/(ABitW-II), Jeremy (new), Rearviewmirror, Elderly Woman, Lukin, Animal, Dissident, Even Flow, Black, Alive, Blood
Encore: Star Boy, Little Wing/Maggot Brain, Better Man, Porch
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July 25th, 2008 at 7:06 am
What a great story! Well, I was also 15 in 1995 and almost an equally big Pearl Jam fan, but with the difficulty in getting tix, the price and the lack of shows in my town, I never saw them. As they became even more popular, and my friends told me of legendary shows they saw in 200 seat venues, I figured it wasn’t worth seeing them in a stadium anyway. Then about 3 years ago, my husband one tix through some radio PJ trivia contest and we saw them in Boston. I went in with no expectations, but left thinking it was one of the best shows I had ever seen. I sang so loud, I was hoarse the following day.
Oh, and I guess I should mention that before then, I did see Eddie perform solo at the 2000 Ralph Nader rally at MSG (I know, I know, we were really naive back then). Only time in my life I’ve ever been star struck.
July 25th, 2008 at 7:30 am
I agree. That is the best show I’ve seen to this day. I don’t know that another concert will ever top it.
July 25th, 2008 at 10:08 am
I actually was at this show, and the night before as well. There was a real fear going into these shows (they were makeup shows from canceled dates from their battle with Ticketmaster the summer before, if you remember), and these were also the first shows since Ed had his illness that caused him to leave the stage in San Francisco, so these shows were very up in the air. I remember the cool lamps on stage, the big carpet, how they opened with a great version of ‘Oceans.’ It was a great show. My friends and I had too much to drink during the show, so when Ed brought out a Neil Diamond tribute act to sing with him on ‘Forever In Blue Jeans,’ we were all convinced it was actually Neil-it sounded just like him, but, looking at pictures afterwards, it didn’t look a thing like him. Fun times. Great shows, both of them. Very memorable.
The first time I saw PJ was a free concert at Marquette University in ’92. You had to pick up the tickets at the Mathew Sweet show the week before. There were so many people at the show, that it had to be moved from the Student Union to a theatre on campus. We went to the Union and no one was there, so we asked this guy where the show was moved to. He was really nice, and very specific about his directions which led us right to the show as Eleven opened up. When PJ came onstage, my friend and I couldn’t believe that the guy that gave us directions to the show was Jeff Ament, the bass player. Cool guy. Great show(Ed’s brother showed up, Matt from the Pumpkins played drums on I’ve Got A Feeling, I heard State of Love and Trust for the first time, I could go on and on.) They’ve been my favorite band ever since. Very excited to see Ed at the Riverside in August-hope my Ten Club tix are right up front. Cheers!
July 25th, 2008 at 10:33 am
ryan, what a great post. we are both pearl jam nerds – i was at the san jose show that fall, my first PJ experience, and I remember every detail about it. (http://fuelfriends.blogspot.com/2007/11/dont-mean-to-push-but-im-being-shoved.html – you can even see the scan of my ticket)
and i also have parts of the summerfest show(s) on a cassette tape of recordings from that whole tour. someday i should convert that cassette to mp3, and if i do, i will zip you a copy.
thanks for this post, fellow nerd.
July 25th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Thanks Heather, I figured this post would require a comment out of you!
I’ve got those same shows on tape, along with countless others. I wish the band would open up their vaults – at least digitally.
July 27th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
The first PJ show I saw was the double bill of PJ and Petty at Summerfest two years ago. I must admit that I was there to see Petty before Pearl Jam, but I was truly blown away by PJ’s set that night. That was probably one of the top five shows I’ve ever been to.
October 13th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
This was the first time I had ever seen PJ. It was amazing! I remember that we all kept hoping they would turn on the big tv screens (our seats were pretty far back) but they never did. It didn’t matter though, the show was a marathon rock show that I will never forget. We all kept hoping to see Neal Young come out on stage and rock out to “Keep on rockin’ in the free world.” I can still remember getting so excited because my friend’s fake ID had worked and we were getting beer all night long. Great memories…