It was a no brainer.  I clicked on the purchase ticket button and feverishly scribbled dow nthe confirmation number.  Then, of course, I realized the credit card I have preset on TMO was about $400 over the limit.  DOH!  I checked the credit card website and it looked like it went through...I waited about eight hours to see if I TMO would email a denial or my credit card company would or something--nothing. I didn't care.  I wasn't staying home.  Even if that order was ditched, I could still get a crappy seat at the venue.  I got some cash and hit the road at about 0330 on Saturday.

Got into Tampa at around 1330 and found the venue, parked, and prompty made my way to the Ten Club ticket window where Bob's eyes grew to the size of baseballs.  He immediately gave me a hug.

"GLEN!  I can't believe you're here!"

I was glad to see the bugger in such high spirits.  This man already felt like an old friend.  He had fan club tickets to the show and *score* the lady he was selling it to was on the guest list and already had good seats, so she let me have it! 14th row on the floor--not too shabby!  I sold my ticket for $20 outside to a fellow fan, just happy to recoup any of the $38.80 charged to my card.

Turns out Bob has been having a halacious time trying to tape with his mics, and also with the Super Bit Mapper I loaned him.  He was frazzled and just about pleaded with me to tape the show--"well of course I will tape the show silly" -- more about this l8r :(

I rigged up to get through the metal detectors and got through them easily with my gear, set up in the bathroom, and then we went to find our seats...had a few butts in the smoking section as Sonic Youth played (i'm not really big into them), and came back for the boys.

After all the roadies did what they do, the guys came out on stage, and, w/o a word, launched into a bit of Intersteller Overdrive--a song i didn't know or recognize--later Bob todl me it was a C Average tune--a band Ed and the boys have had dealings with as of late. Then straight into a positively bewildering version of Corduroy.  I was almost shaking.  This night would be a show to remember.  I could tell even then.  They waited about ten seconds and literally LAUNCHED into Grievance.  The band was simply on fire.  The crowd was already going nuts.  The energy level was the highest I have ever seen it.  From there, straight into Last Exit...oh I lvoe thuis punky tune...Animal...I LOVE the mixing of Stone on this song this tour--he's so strong and just crystal clear...it is quite easy to pick his part out as the demo he wrote so many many years ago as prt of the "Gossman Demos". 

And they were still just warming up!  God's Dice next.  This has got to be one of my favorite songs off the album....and so much sicker live. 

and THEN, Tremor Christ.  Only one of my mostest favoritest PJ tunes.  I hadn't heard it live in fucking forever it seemed like...Seattle 1996.  They played it in Sacto 95--my first show ever.  All through the night I was drawing comparisons to that show--they both had just an insane crowd and this connection with the band. 

And this venue...from the outside, from inside, from the seating chart--it is so your typical arena setup, and I thougth that the sound would be terrible.  IN fact, it was quite the opposite.  Everything was so clear and crisp.  The tape I am listening to right now is so awesome...I can't describe how much I wish the whole show was captured thus...

The band settles down for a few minutes as Ed does his "hello" bit, addressing the venue as north, east, west, and south (the people sitting behind the stage--"Watch our backs"). 

They catch their breath on NAIS...I just love this song.  It's been a staple in their set so far this tour, and I so hope it remains as such.  Being the first single, I think it will.

Then for the first time this tour, they kicked into Jeremy.  Even having heard this song so many zillion times, I was compelled by it last night.  This band is always doing things like that--somehow transforming even the most mundane (to me) songs back into what they were at the beginning, when Ten was the only album when everything was still so new.  Just about the whole venue was singing along...especially the guy standing next to me...He could have been a lot worse though--he wasn't too loud and his voice was actually kind of similar to Ed's, so it slipped through mostly unnoticed.

and I'm going to stop going through the show song by song like this...i hate reading reviews like this.  Evacuation, though, was next, and deserves props.  I love the crunchyness of this song--reminds me of when Vitalogy first came out.

They played Lukin with, go figure, new lyrical variations.  Another one I hadn't heard in a long ass time.  And of course I couldn't pick them out. Ed did the abitwII tag with Daughter...and I couldn't help but sing along.  With it confirmed by Brett that soundboards will be released for the NA tour, I go into these shows just to get a few really good songs, not the whole show.  I feel not the least bit inhibited about ruining my recordings ;)  hehe

Slight of Hand saw me getting fet up with the pot smoking drunkards to my left.  I put my best pissed off person face on (wasn't hard--i really was livid)  and essentially told them to shut the fuck up I was trying to enjoy the show.  For the first time in all recorded history, it worked.

They played State again too.  I can never get enough of this song.  I so want to hear it's counterpart at one of these next six shows though.  Bob and I harmonized with Ed :)

Insignifance...
Of course, right as that song was ending was when my tape just stopped picking up sound.  I can only theorize that I hit pause by accident when I was checking levels.  I later relized this right before the encore...but i think that by that point I had accidetally turned the levels knob on the SBM1 to zero :( while hitting it on somethign while jumping around or what, I really can't figure out how. 

RVM closed the main set...oh it was just amazing.  Stone went nutso at the end with his guitar, getting all up on the base of the neck.  It was just bad ass sounding.

The encore...wow.  I would have driven the ten hours just for the encores.  They did the same thing they did at the begging with DTE and Hail Hail.

Then the boys did something I have prayed and wished and hoped and cried over for five years.  I saw them play Garden.  The venue was nearly dead silent during this one.  It was almost like a religious experience.  I nearly cried.

Then Immortality.  I will never in life grow tired of this song.  I love it dearly and everytime they play it I fall down in love and this was no exception.

Soldier of Love.  Despite all the hardcore fans that can't stand this or Last Kiss, I love them both.  It was so cool to finally see this one live.  I was positively swooning with glee. 

They left after a great great (but still virtually stock damnit!  I miss the long jammy/improved version of yesteryear!!!!!!!!!!!) Porch.  The entire crowd clapped along in time.  It was solidifying.  I turned around several times during the night to look at the crowd--all the standing people, all of us there united in our love of music, together in our joy...all of us there sharing those unforgettable moments.  It's a beautiful sight to see.

Ed came out to do a flawless (finally!) Soon Forget. and the next thing I see is Jeff with his mini stand up base.  In my head I was just like "whazzah huh?  wait they did daughter.  Couldn't be glorified G?  They hate that song...and then the familiar strains of Indifferance...With everything else that preceeded it, I nearly shit my pants, blew a load, whatever.  The all time best closer IMHO, and this was only the second time I'd ever seen it played.  I was just beside myself.  It was the perfect show, being closed with the perfect song. 

and then, before I could ever understand, the song was finished.  It seemed they didn't want to leave.  I knew that the show had just been as incredible for them as it had been for us it was over. 

I was thinking about all of this when it suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks.  the house lights hadn't come on.  The instrumental version of Baba wasn't playing over the house system.  Bob was just as flabbergasted as I was.  they were coming back for another encore.  I didn't understand it.  How could they come back and ruin Indifferance by playing Yellow Ledbetter?  What else could they possibly play after Indiff?  WRONG as it would be, i could think of nothing else. 

After a short break, the band leaps back up onto the stage.  Ed tells Keith to hit the houselights and just for a second I thought Ed was just going to say goodbye again...

but then it began.  I couldn't believe it, but there I was, 14 rows from the stage as the boys scorched through Rockin in the Free World.  Not only did they play garden and state and tremor christ AND Indifferance...but they played ritfw.  I thought the energy and intensity was high throughout the show...I was simply knocked flat by this one.  Everyoen in the crowd, and i mean EVERYONE, was going ballistic.  I was pogoed and thrashing about like mad.  It was like a dream come true.  The entire show was like a dream come true.  Even now I have trouble believing it really happened.  How can the rest of the tour possible compare to this one show?

Friday night I will see just how.  Six shows.  I still have SIX SHOWS left to see.  the thought makes me giddy as a schoolboy.  I may even fly out for the Las Vegas show now--the tenth anniverasy of the band's first concert--of Eddie Vedders actual audition at the Off Ramp Cafe in Seattle--just seven days after they all met each other.  That will truly be a show and I am honestly going to try to get there I think...Bob was saying he's seen airfare under $100...definately affordable if that is the case...
 
 
 

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