Set List: Grievance (from Binaural)

Brian SaenzDeViteri (bsbeamer@yahoo.com):
Wednesday, April 12th, 2000 – The Letterman Experience

8:25am – I awake after a rough night's sleep because of excitement and anticipation. I have a feeling of disappointment at the same time. Not being sure if I will be able to get in to actually see them does not comfort me all that much. But knowing that I will be in their presence for sure does make me feel a little better, but not great. It takes awhile for me to get out of bed and be productive with these thoughts on my mind.

10:30am – I finally get showered and dressed and start calling the standby ticket line. I call for about 15 minutes and do not get through, so I wait until 11:00am, the scheduled time to call. At 11:00am I call again and call for 20 minutes with no success. Since I actually do want to get into the city, I have to leave now to catch the train that will get me into New York on time for the show.

11:30am – I leave from Rowan University to Philadelphia to pick up Tara, my girlfriend.

12:15pm – Tara and I are on the way to Trenton to catch a train to New York Penn Station. She has her cell phone, so I ask her to call once again just to try. So she does and it rings. The Late Show staff member answers and says you'll have to answer trivia to get onto the list. So she gives me the phone. They ask, what is tonight's guest band? I answer, of course, Pearl Jam. The second question is who is the band always on the Late Show? And I answer, of course, Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra. So then she takes my name and Tara's name and gives us number 42 and 43 on the standby list. I feel a little better at this point, but not secure. Since I know about Letterman's policies, standby ticket holders do not always get in. I have more of a shot than before, but still not secured.

1:00pm – I arrive at Trenton after what seemed to be an endless drive. I think that was just because I felt like I was not getting anywhere. But I finally parked my car in the garage across the street and we rushed into the train station. At 1:05pm we purchase our tickets to New York Penn Station from the vending machines. (Amazing how modern technology does not allow for a ticket window person anymore.) The train leaves in five minutes so we are rushing to the platform. At 1:10pm we are seated on the train to New York. An hour and a half ride until we are in the city. So we relax for a little while.

2:40pm – We are now in New York. Such a wonderful city! We try and finally hail a cab in front of a hotel. We make it to the Ed Sullivan Theater around 3:05pm.

3:15pm – We finally find out where standbys are supposed to be. We cannot line up until 4:45, so we decide to walk around a little bit. As I am walking down the street I notice this face that looks familiar to me. I recognized him from the Letterman show. It turns out he has tickets to the show, and you have to answer one trivia question. So the question he asks is where is Paul Shaffer from? We have two guesses because it's for two people. I know it's between England and Canada. I guess England first, and I am wrong. So then Tara makes her guess Canada. We get the tickets and are handed a form with our names on it. We wait under the marquee for our real tickets.

3:30pm – We finally are holding tickets to tonight's show! Real, actual tickets! The feeling has still not reached me completely. We are number 202 and 203 on our tickets, so we are not really sure what that means, yet.

3:45pm – Since we have a little time to kill, we walk over to the half price ticket line for Broadway shows to see what's available. We scored two tickets to Cabaret that night at the legendary Studio 54, so things are looking pretty good right now! We would have waited outside the theater before hand, but there was literally no view of the entrance from the swarm of people. The “fans” were lined up pretty far on each side of the entrance. It was pointless to try and get a pre-show view of the boys. (I say “fans” because many of them do not act as fans of Pearl Jam. From what I gathered a lot of the people wanted an autograph to sell and nothing else. There were a lot of people that were waiting there for a long time that are genuine fans and do not hassle the members at all. But getting pissed off because they will not sign your Ten album, which Matt wasn't even on, is ridiculous!) Matt is the only one that signed anything before the show from what I was told.

4:00pm – Back in front of Letterman's studio. We walk over to the side and there are a lot less people around now. So I put my ear against the door and hear the soundcheck! A new song! I originally thought it was Given to Fly, but after listening more I knew it was not. Could not hear all that well, but still, it was cool. All that could easily be made out over that the door was Matt's drums. Ed's voice would fade in and out as they tested the speakers and occasionally the guitar would come on really loud.

4:15pm – Decide to use the facilities inside the theater. THANK GOD WE DID! We heard the rest of the soundcheck! They were all new songs. I heard at least 2 different songs during the soundcheck, but I think 3. (The current word from what people are saying is that they played 4 songs total. I heard 3 songs and that is it. And from what the guy next to me said, he didn't hear anything before hand.) I was trying to recall the listening through the door before, but with the muffled sound it was hard to recall the guitar sounds. I did not hear Grievance at all, or at least a recognizable sound of it. Possibly before at the door the drums were the same, but I was too excited to analyze the whole situation. I know for a fact though the song while I was going to the bathroom was NOT Grievance. That one was TOTALLY different. Unfortunately I did not get any of this on tape. Not much of it would have come out anyways since there was so much talking going on. The way the theater works for using their facilities is that you go in, the ushers ask to see tickets and point you in the direction. I accidentally open a door to the sound booth type area (it's where the producers sit and edit the tape as they film), and the usher looks at me, laughs, and says I wish I could let you in there. I realized what I had done and she must have thought that I really was trying to get in there. If I had known it was a sound booth, then maybe I would have tried a little more. So I SLOWLY walk to the bathroom and stand behind the door and listen. People stare at me, probably questioning what I am doing, but it's ok, I'M HEARING NEW PEARL JAM! I slowly leave the bathroom after a minute and as we are walking out, the soundcheck ends. Beautifully just like that. I am on such a rush right now!

4:45pm – We get in line for our section and at around 5:00pm we are escorted into the theater. We follow through the roped off lines and finally make it in. We are going to the top section, the balcony. A slight feeling of disappointment fills me, but not all that much. I am fine with sitting anywhere I can. Once we are seated I look at the view we have. It's awesome! A much different angle than most people have on a band. I actually enjoyed where we were sitting though. Still the bottom would be better, but our seats were awesome!

5:30pm – Taping begins promptly. Dave does the usual pre-tape warm up with the audience and things like that, but everything is running on schedule. For the next hour I do not look at my watch at all (or the red time clock located in front of the production booth to my left). Dave talks to Paul Newman first and they do two segments with him. The CBS Orchestra plays Hail, Hail!!! That really gets the place moving! After Paul Newman is over, they say Pearl Jam next. The crew then opens the back of the stage and drags out Pearl Jam's gear. Matt's drum kit is very impressive looking. (They have towels in the bass drum to muffle the sound a little though because Matt was pounding the crap out of them before, as he usually does.) They have a tambourine on stage next to Matt as well as a funky looking contraption on the left of their setup. It looked like a record player that had been modified a little, but I wasn't close enough to really make it out. Pearl Jam looks like they have all their own equipment and once it's almost done setting up, they walk out and gear up. Ed grabs a guitar too!! Very excited about that. Ed was in a hooded shirt with a jacket over top of it and pants. It looked very similar to his last Late Show outfit. Mike is looking pretty savvy, as he usually does. He's decked out in a leather jacket, nice pants, and dress type shoes. The collar of his jacket is raised as well. And he's got his hair bleached and spiked! Stone looks his usual self, kinda laid back and mellowed out in casual clothing. It was an informal sweater and appeared to be jeans. Jeff looked like he did back in the old days in a way. Back into the rock star type look it seemed, I couldn't really describe his outfit though. Matt was the most unique looking though. A T-shirt with a long sleeved T-shirt underneath of it and in jeans. They didn't talk amongst themselves too much except for Mike and Ed. Jeff looked relaxed, but Stone appeared to be uncomfortable, and Matt just loved the whole scene. They did not seem to be in the greatest of moods playing there for whatever reason it was, but Grievance was AWESOME!!! Dave Letterman introduces Pearl Jam holding what appeared to be a vinyl of Binaural. I am not sure if it was a vinyl or a promo type picture created for the appearance on TV. Anyway, Mike slams his guitar at the end and Ed picks it up, unplugs it and gives it to Dave Letterman for his birthday. I'm sure Dave LOVED that gift from his favorite band. (For anyone who doubted the sound of this new album, they've got something else coming at them! From what the soundcheck was like, this album is back to the harder edge feel and rock out sounds like Vs. and Ten, except more grown up and experienced. I would say it sounds like a mature Ten from what I gathered.)

Once Grievance was over, the band starts to leave and the feeling and vibe of the audience changes a little. They were expecting another song, as was I, and I think disappointed that nothing else was played. (Some of the people outside the theater later on would say the f***ers ripped us off again and only played one song. Whatever! They suck and Pearl Jam kicked ass and sounded great while doing it!) They remove the equipment back to behind the set and start to pack up.

6:30pm – Taping has ended now and we are all escorted out of the theater. The stage is opened up when we are walking by to exit and Smitty was seen. (God that guy deserves so much credit for what he does! He really is the man!) Eric was also there outside gathering up the equipment and things, making sure that everything was going as planned. There were a few other faces I recognized from their crew, but I do not know the names unfortunately. Not many other people, just Eric, Smitty and probably another guy or two were there. We waited a long time and there were two “party vans” outside the studio. They were decked out in tinted windows and such. Tons of people were they and I recognized many of their faces from the Ed and Pete Letterman appearance. First to leave was Jeff and Stone together and they went right in the first van. They may have put a piece or two of equipment into the van, but nothing major. The cargo van was holding most of their equipment (which showed up a little later). Next out was Matt. He talked to a few people, signed a few autographs and such. Walked back in and then walked out again into the second van. He waited a little bit and then left the van and hailed a cab! I guess he was sick of waiting. So the cab took him out and NO ONE followed it to my surprise. (Someone at CBS got the whole thing on tape.) Then a pizza delivery! It looked like 4-6 pies total in heat bags. Nothing much is going on at this point. Just removing some equipment (which I got a picture of) and packing up. Some people got a piece of tape that has Pearl Jam written on it that was stuck to the cargo boxes for the identification of what was it in. Nothing more than rolled up bright orange tape. Then more waiting and a NYC Police car arrives. I'm like s**t, we are gonna have to leave now. But no, the police car goes into the studio through the side doors. So lots of people leave at this point. My view slightly improves. So now Ed and Mike finally walk out after a long delay. They get into the second van and drive away. I was able to get shots of Jeff and Stone, Matt, and Ed (I hope they at least come out clear). I think I missed my shot of Mike though. Whatever pictures I do have though will not be all that great, but I will share them as soon as I get them developed. Then once they leave people start talking about where to go. People were talking about the hotel they were staying at the whole time, but then this was not good at all. A lot of people were going over to the hotel to try and get in. I'm sure they didn't, but once the swarm of people was going towards it, Tara and I did not even bother to try. I heard that the security was tight there and that barricades and such were put into place. I did not feel like ruining this great day by being surrounded by lunatics trying to attack the band and getting aggravated, so we left.

7:30pm – We were waiting in the cold for almost an hour and we decide to go over to Studio 54 for Cabaret. It was a great show! A wonderful topping to a great performance by Pearl Jam.

10:45pm – Hail a cab back to Penn Station. We get a hot dog, fries, and a Sprite each while we wait 40 minutes for our train. We then leave Penn Station at 11:37pm.

1:01am – We arrive at Trenton. I find my car in the garage and pay only $10 for parking! I was very pleased with that. We then make our way back to Philly at 1:45am and watch the Letterman tape a few times and are awed by it as we watch. Still not getting over how we managed to have such a great day and actually got into Letterman to see Pearl Jam! I still don't know how we really did it. Luck is all I can say, and especially since we saw Ed and Pete there last year! Our wonderful day now comes to a close. Thank you Pearl Jam (and crew) for another great performance and a wonderful trip to New York!