Pearl Jam: Denver, October 22, 2014

Pardon me.  While I gush.

Emily wrote this on her Facebook page the day after the concert.  I must concur:

"Last night was the most mind blowing, earth shattering, soul shaking, god giving performance I have ever seen. I will literally think of it on my death bed....Pearl Jam played for 3 1/2 hours until the lights went on in the arena and the only song they hadn't played was the Star-Spangled Banner.....So glad I spent it with my sis, the reason I fell in love with 90's grunge....and Eddie Vedder..." 

I actually DID start writing this blog post last fall.  Here's what I wrote then:

I've got to interrupt neverendingblogcatchingupfromsummer to write about Pearl Jam while it's fresh and I still have major concert hang-over.  (Don't worry, I didn't drink or do drugs, but being in Colorado, where pot is now legal, and let's face it - PEARL JAM concert, I inhaled my fair share of second-hand MaryJ.  It's all part of the experience.)

Way back in the spring, a fellow '94 Cottonwood classmate and old buddy, Travis Babcock, posted on Facebook that Pearl Jam would be playing in Denver in the fall, and who wanted to go?

Half jokingly, I responded - yes!  I was thinking it would be so super cool to gather a huge group of old '90s friends together and have a 20th high school reunion extension in October.  Well, turns out, too many of us are adults with too many commitments, and not enough $$ to spend on ourselves.  By the time Travis had posted, the tickets were already sold out and we were buying re-sale.  They weren't the most expensive tickets I've ever bought, but they were close.

Travis decided to bring his wife, and I roped Emily into going with me.  I have felt sick all year about spending that much on myself and "what am I thinking? I'm too old to be running off to another state on an airplane to meet people for a concert."  Even this week, I wondered if I should really be doing this - SO much on the schedule this week, and Harriet got sick on top of it.  Travis' wife backed out at the last minute and he had to sell her ticket.  I wondered if he would still come...
Really.  I should be a responsible adult and stay home.

But, I went anyway.  We had been planning it for too long, and hey, I already had the concert and plane tickets.  But, the major reason I wanted to make it happen was to spend some time with Emily.  I never get to hang out with that girl anymore, especially sans kiddos.  I was so looking forward to doing something with her that was just about us, and not other family members.  We have so few connections, but somehow, Melissa and I, raised her up to like our music.  Somehow she escaped the Britney Spears of the late '90s/2000's and locked into our U2 and Pearl Jam fandom.  I couldn't be prouder to have brought a 31 year old gal to a Pearl Jam concert in 2014.

After all this hemming and hawing and wondering if I did the right thing... it didn't take long for me to know that I did.  Emily and I landed in Denver about noon yesterday.  We rented a car and headed to our cousin, Amanda's house, who had invited us to stay with her and spend the afternoon.  I hadn't seen her in a decade.

She took us to her favorite cool neighborhood for a quirky lunch in an old mortuary (not kidding- this place was so creepy, it was awesome,) got some ice creams, and stopped and saw her beautiful daughters at their school, getting ready for their volleyball games.  As we were driving around Denver, Emily swore she saw Eddie Vedder walking down the street.  We didn't believe her and kept driving.  She obsessed all day that we should have turned around.  After seeing him at the concert, she decided it wasn't him after all.  Her Facebook posts were the best:  "P.S. The homeless man I saw wearing a fedora, that I begged my cousin to turn around for, was not actually Eddie Vedder"
Spending this kind of time with Emily, was worth the trip alone. Spending time with Amanda was worth the trip alone.  We could have hung it up at 6pm and it would have still been worth it.  Then, the concert started.

Dinner, in Larimer Square

Travis met up with us at the end of dinner after driving straight from the airport through unreal traffic.  We walked to the arena together like giddy school kids.  We couldn't wait to get in there and find a great over-priced-new-favorite-t-shirt and figure out who the freaking opening band was?!  A cool little new group from Seattle?  Someone local?  I was kind of excited to maybe discover some new music.  (NO information on an opening band...)  Well, that's because - Pearl Jam doesn't need an opening band.  They ARE the show.  We had no idea what kind of awesome we were about to get ourselves into.

Travis.  He was my date to the Valentine's dance our sophomore year in high school.  

I bought him a tie that matched my dress from The Gap.

Who knew we'd find ourselves at a PJ concert in Denver 22 years later.  The miracles of Facebook!

I have already gone on and on about it on Facebook, but it warrants a blog post.  I don't know how many concerts I've been to.  I lost track a long time ago, but it's probably in the 150 range.  I've seen so many different bands in so many different settings.  I've even seen Pearl Jam before, back in 1995.
This. concert. was. the. best. I've. ever. seen. by. a million. miles.  It blew us away.  We just couldn't get over it.  Every song was a true gift from an artist to their fans.  Pearl Jam were at the top of their game.  Musically, they have never played better.  Eddie's voice is as amazing as ever.  He must take excellent care of those vocal chords - I can't believe he has sung those crazy wild songs for as long as he has, and can still sound like that.  24 years, to be exact.  Last night was the 24th anniversary, to the day, of their first gig playing together in Seattle.

I read a review of the concert today that said it best:

Sometime during Pearl Jam’s main set, perhaps around when McCready tore into a cover of “Eruption” right after the band had played a brilliant and fiery “Do the Evolution,” I figured I was at the best rock show in Denver in 2014.

By the time the band launched into “Alive” during its second encore, I was wondering if I was at the best rock show I’ve ever been to. Considering that my concert attendance is well over 500 shows, and might be approaching 1,000 shows at this point, that’s no small feat.

I am not even kidding one little bit.  This concert just kept getting better and better, and just when you thought they had seriously done their job and deserved to exit the stage, and thought for sure they would say "thank you and good night," someone tore up another guitar riff or played another drum beat, and they were off like wildfire into another song.  The songs just kept coming.  After they took their first break, we thought they'd come back for a 3-5 song encore.  Nope, that was just half time.  They played another set, equal to the first.  Then, they took a break, and came back for more, and not just 3-5 songs.  more and more.  You never even got a minute to wonder if they were going to play your "other" favorite song, because, yep, sure enough, when one ended, your next favorite started right up.  We just kept turning to each other with wide eyes, screaming "no way!" every time another one started.  38 songs total by the end of the night, and many of them, they improvised and played for 6-8 minutes a piece.  They weren't just rattling off the new album and throwing in some old stuff for the old guys.  They played their library.  They played some mind-blowing covers. They were having as much fun as we were.  They are masters at what they do, and to watch someone at the master of their craft is just God's gift in a nutshell.

Emily said "they played everything they could on the planet, and then when they didn't have anything left to play, they picked up a guitar and played the Star Spangled Banner."  The end of the show was Mike McCready playing Jimi Hendrix's version of it.  I mean it just doesn't get more epic.  Look at this set list!

Yes, that's a giant, flying, bird, of sorts above the stage.  

(This is about where I left off writing last fall...)

We walked out of the Pepsi center on cloud 9.  It was so late, and we were so tired, but we knew sleeping would not be an option.  Still, the three of us looked at our watches, knowing we had early flights, knowing we all had to work or be somewhere in a matter of hours, and like Cinderella at midnight, turned back into pumpkins.  Travis got in his rental and waved a "see-you-later" kind of wave that means it might be a year or twenty before we see each other in person again.  Emily and I found our rental and headed back to Amanda's.  We crept back into Amanda's house and crawled into her fluffy pull-out bed that smelled so good, I still want to ask her what she washes her blankets with. In my packing haste, I forgot to bring pajamas. (The one where I was more worried about my cherry red doc martens than bringing pajamas... note to self... wearing boots that lace half way up your leg to the airport is not too smart when you get to security.)  No worries, I had my new lightning bolt t-shirt to sleep in, so all was right with the world.

Emily and I dragged ourselves to the airport early the next morning, only to find out that both of our flights had been delayed significantly because of an air control tower outage.  Like hours delayed.  She ended up canceling her work day and I canceled my plans for the day in ABQ, and we gratefully spent a few more hours together, eating a slow breakfast, comparing pictures and videos from last night, and soaking in our just-went-to-a-seriously-epic-concert haze.  I've never had such a good time hanging out in an airport.  I was genuinely sad when my flight was finally rescheduled and I had to leave her to wait alone.  

I am incredibly grateful for that 24 hour sister trip.  It made my year, and maybe even my decade.  Emily will think of it on her death-bed?  I might too.  I just downloaded the boot-leg of the whole concert yesterday and listened to the whole blessed thing.  Man, boot-legs have come a long way since the 90's!  (They actually sound good now, and you actually want to listen to them!)  It took me right back to all those memories that I knew I would soon lack the brain power to remember.  Music is awesome like that.  No need to waste brain space.  The music will remember for you.

Thanks, David.  For putting up with your crazy wife.  And her sisters.  And her blog posts.