sometimes i speak of nothing at all

Last night Kellie, Isaac and I went to see Eddie Vedder. I've never seen him solo before and it was quite an experience. The eleven Pearl Jam shows I have be to have all been at large venues. The type of show where you are pretty confident you damaged your hearing when all is said and done.

This was different. It was at the Warner Theater downtown. Most of the "performances" there are filled with an audience that dresses to the nines. The walls are ornate and painted gold. There is a huge crystal chandalier in the middle. It only seats 1700 or so. And the place was built for sound.

EV sounded amazing. We were up in the balcony but a couple times I closed my eyes and it sounded like he was playing in my living room. You know when you are listening to music as you go to sleep and you enter the state between consciousness and sleep where instead of just hearing the music it seems to be incorporated in your thoughts? It sounded like that. It was awesome.

He played a mix of songs, ranging from the Into the Wild soundtrack he wrote, covers and PJ songs. Just him and his guitar, mandolin, and harmonica. It was the most unique show I have been to. A lot of chatter between songs, ranging from political talk to him saying how he hung out at the 9:30 Club earlier in the day (it is right across the street from our apartment!) to listen to a bunch of little kids bands.

Highlights for me were Sometimes, a PJ song I have never heard live. The title of this post comes from a line in the song. Elderly Woman Behind a Counter in a Small Town was great. EV said it was time for the 7th inning stretch and he asked everyone to stand up and sing. At the beginning of the show he requested that everyone take advantage of the theater's fancy seats and sit down for the show. The second to last song he did is Arc, which is just him chanting and written after the PJ Roskilde show when nine fans died in 2000.

Unlike all PJ shows, EV has had a very strict no taping or cameras policy for the audience. This is kind of a bummer, but he had people filming last night, which I assume means they will release the show as a DVD. This would be a great thing.

Big thanks to Kellie for getting tickets. As you may know, even after recruiting many of you to help me try to get 10 Club tickets for their sale I came up empty handed. The day of the general sale, Kellie managed to score tickets from Ticketmaster. Thank you so much for your fast clicks of the mouse.