Pearl Jam-Live!

Megan and I were lucky enough to see Pearl Jam at the Xcel a few weekends back. They played for over three hours, giving Minnesota a 32-song set for their first appearance here in eight years. I got to see them at the X when they were here in 2003. Megan and I had just started dating and she was out of town for that show. I went alone, and was amazed at the show they put on back then.

Now it's not an Alice Cooper-type of show with theatrics and everything. Pearl Jam are professional musicians who play their asses off for the night. A lot of bands will give you an hour, maybe 90 minutes if you're lucky. They played for over two hours in 2003. This was Megan's first time seeing them live, and she actually shed tears of joy when the concert started 45 mins past the start time.

As we sat in our seats waiting for the show to start we checked Facebook, not only to brag that we were there, but also to see who else was there. We knew quite a few people also in attendance. A couple  were my cousin and her husband. They fundraise for the U of M Children's Hospital, and I knew that Eddie Vedder was there the day before. As we looked at Facebook in the bleachers we saw why the show hadn't started yet. Vedder was posing for pictures backstage. With them.

Husband, Vedder, cousin

That was pretty cool to see, but I was ready for the show to start. The whole time after 7:30 we were thirsty, but didn't want to get beverages and have the show start while one of us was away. Finally at 8:05 I risked it and went to the concessions stand. I was about 10 people deep in one of four lines. There were two people working behind the counter, and only one beer tap was working. I stood in the same spot for 10 minutes as my face grew more red as my temper rose. At 8:15 I heard the ROAR of the arena. I said screw it and ran back to my seat empty handed.

I was excited as Pearl Jam played the entire No Code album start to finish at the show before ours. Our show was on the anniversary of the release of the album Vs. so I thought naturally they'd play it. They didn't play it, but of course the show was awesome. It really kicked in for me on the 10th song, Even Flow. Megan had left to get our drinks during the song before it, and when Even Flow started I had room to move, and I rocked out. 

Waiting for the start "selfie"

View from our seat

At one point during the concert Vedder introduced the members of the band. He introduced the drummer, Matt Cameron, as the greatest drummer in the world. When he did, the man sitting next to Megan felt the need to pipe up to her "greatest in the world, huh? I think Neil Peart might have something to say about that."

First of all, we don't know you. 

Second of all, even if we did, right now isn't the time to debate who is the greatest drummer in the world. 

Third, it's Janice Weiss of Sleater-Kinney, so let's just enjoy the show.

Three hours is a long time for anything, even excellent rock and roll. I was glad that we had seats to rest in during the slow songs. They ended the set with the house lights up for the last three songs. The lights signifying that it really is the end of the night and PJ isn't going to do the stupid encore ritual for a third time. 

Winding down

I was excited to be with Megan for her first PJ concert. It was a great night, but I gotta say that I enjoyed the show in 2003 more. I know it's partly because that was my first live experience with them, but also now we have satellite radio. Pearl Jam has their own channel on it that plays their concerts. We both listen to it in our cars, and it made the live experience a little less special for me.

I've been seeing a lot of live music lately (Spoon, Pixies). This was the last concert I thought I'd see for a while. I had to work early the next morning. When my alarm went off at 5:30, my ears were still ringing, I'd only slept about four hours, and my throat was sore. I had a music hangover. The difference between it and a real hangover is a music hangover feels kinda good. It's a reminder of how I (soberly) cut loose for a few hours the night before.

At work the morning after I saw some music news online that I'll detail in my next blog, but I know that I'll be seeing another concert in February. BIG (for me) news.

The Pixies-Live!

“I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off The Pixies.”

-Kurt Cobain on Smells Like Teen Spirit

Someone at work asked me the other day who my favorite band is. I couldn't think of one on the spot like that. After reflecting on that question, I can say that my favorite band is The Pixies. They played at my favorite place to see music, The State Theater, on 10/11. I remember when the show was announced. I wasn't crazy to get tickets because Megan and I saw them the last time they were here playing the Doolittle album at Roy Wilkins in 2011. 

Then I learned that she would be out of the house with Ozzie on the night of the show. I started looking at tickets by owner on Craigslist. I didn't know how lucky I'd be finding just one ticket for sale, but there was one for $75. I emailed the guy saying that if it comes down to the day of the show and there's no interest, I'd offer him $40 so he won't have to eat the ticket. 

I got some money for my birthday (10/1) that's been burning a hole in my pocket, and this was a great opportunity to spend it. The guy emailed me 10/10 saying that he can't go lower than $50. I took him up on it. It was worth the extra $10 to know that I'd have a main floor seat for the show. I texted him as I was walking to the theater from the parking ramp, and he met me in the lobby. He told me that he was wearing glasses and a black shirt. I found him, but he should have said "I'm the guy who looks exactly like a 25-year-old Vince Gilligan. Exactly." 

Vince junior's girlfriend couldn't come to the show, so that's why he sold his ticket. That also meant that we sat next to each other. He was a really nice guy. He liked the same music as me, and was even at the last show I went to at The State: Spoon. We chatted about music between the opener, Royal Blood, and the start of the real show. The Pixies took the stage at 8:40. 

Frank Black, Joey Santiago, David Lovering, and Kim De… Wait. Kim's not with them on this tour. In her place was a woman named Paz Lenchantin. Let's call her what she really is. Not Kim Deal. Deal's absence was another reason I didn't jump on tickets right away when they went on sale. Kim Deal is The Pixies bassist, and anyone else has enormous shoes to fill. 

The show opened with Ed Is Dead. I wished everything was a little louder during the 1st song. It was plenty loud, but it was at about 9 and could have been turned up to 11. The 2nd song was Nimrod's Son with a reggae style second half of the song. As the show went on, the music got louder, and was at 11 about halfway through the 95 minute set. It was so loud, in fact, that the instruments sounded distorted. 

This tour is in support of the Pixies latest album, Indie Cindy. They mixed in newer material with classics. The new album as okay, but I'm probably biased knowing the older catalogue  so well. Anything new is going to take some getting used to. I craved some stage banter from Black, but there was none. He never addressed the crowd. 

Left to right: Santiago, Black, Lovering, Not Kim

The Pixies wrapped up their set with Hey, and came back for a 2-song encore of Debaser and Planet of Sound. (See the full 32-song setlist here) The encore. When can we do away with this stupid ritual? They were off-stage for about 60 seconds before coming back for their encore. Fiona Apple did a great thing when I saw her in 2012. She reached the end of her set and said something like she thinks "encores" are silly "so pretend that I left, and came back, and this is the rest of the show." That was classy.

As for Not Kim's performance; I wanted to not like her. Like if your parents get divorced, and your dad starts seeing a new woman. But what if you can't find a reason to hate her? That's how I felt about Not Kim. Her hair covered her face most of the time, but The Pixies aren't known for the "show" they put on. (I even heard that the last "Not Kim," who was actually named Kim, did a stage dive at a gig and that's what got her bounced from the band.) The Not Kim I saw tonight was efficient and sounded good on her backing vocals. 

Driving home I felt happy about the expenditure of my birthday money. If Vince Gilligan Jr. hadn't come through, there were scalpers out front who told me that they were taking $20 for tickets. I'll pretend that they were all in the back row of the balcony. This was a great seat in a great venue watching rock and roll legends. 

P.S. Do you like my reviews? This is a crazy idea, but if some kid can get over $55,000 to make potato salad, I thought it couldn't hurt to throw this out there. 

Can't make it to a show you want to see? Any show. Music, movie, play, etc. Buy my ticket and I'll go and write a review of it.  If you're interested you can PM me, or leave a comment below.