the waiting drove me mad

yesterday afternoon, i decided to clean my apartment (which, as the state of my kitchen floor can attest to, i do not do nearly enough. sorry, mom) and i thought that while i was doing it i would listen to a CD i haven't heard in awhile. so i stuck my hand into my dark hole of messiness and came out with the molo sessions, the album that eddie vedder recorded a few years ago with a south african choir. i had completely forgotten how much i like that album - and how hard i heart the versions of love boat captain (normally one of my least favorite songs on my least favorite PJ album) and betterman.

so, anyway, the point is that the little act of listening to that CD got me excited about pearl jam again. maybe they'll tour the west coast this summer? ooh.. but maybe they'll play in europe! and maybe i can somehow manage to go to ireland! and maybe the frames will be playing at the same time! and maybe glen and ed will sing together! and... tonight, i took a look around pearl jam's website, which i haven't done in a long time (i made the mistake of logging in to my tenclub account and adding up the purchases i've made since 03. i stopped when it was over 1200 dollars. and that's only since 2003. there's a whole other 11 years of purchasing power to add in to that. and oh yeah it's also not counting plane tickets and hotel rooms. ok, i'm depressing myself), and i noticed that they have a new video section up. one of my favorites is shadow:



on the pearl jam message board i read, there's a thread about favorite moments at pearl jam concerts. since i don't like posting there, i'll do it here because that got me to thinking..

1. the line for tenclub tickets. then getting the envelope with my name on it and wondering where my seats will be...

2. ed doing a set before the opening band. sadly, i have only seen that once but it still qualifies as a favorite moment.

3. the moment when the houselights go off and PJ comes on stage. what will the opening song be? will it be release or corduroy or something else? PJ's opening song can set the mood for the whole show like no other band i have ever seen.

4. going to the bathroom during evenflow. i used to never ever leave during a concert but once i had seen this song 15 times, i decided to break my rule. and it's actually kind of fun - at least in boston last june, there were probably about 50 other people who sprinted out of the front sections during this song. so i'm not the only one. plus, i when i left and came back, matt was still doing his drum solo.

5. i've said it before, but i'll say it again, there is something amazing about looking around a big ampitheatre (or, ahem, a small club) and seeing pretty much everyone doing the same thing at the same time: clapping during corduroy or hail hail, counting down at the beginning of animal, singing hallelujah during do the evolution, singing the first verse of betterman.

6. will there be a save it for later tag on betterman? what will the daughter tag be?

7. baba o riley. or rockin in the free world. either is good. but now i have to stop myself from listing every other song that i love.

8. the signs (mostly). even when i don't get them ("play leash." for the love of god, why that song??) i used to have a tape of the madison square garden concert on 9.11.98, and every time i heard breath, the cheer of the crowd made me feel like i was there. (if you don't know the story of that, basically it was a song that the band hadn't played in a long time but some fans organized to bring signs for it to multiple concerts and then PJ finally played it on that night. i listened to the bootleg so much that i remember that after the first verse ed said something like, "is that okay?" i always loved that)

i'm sure i'll think of more things to add to this list. man, i love pearl jam. i rarely get this excited about anything. tour already!