Set List: Grievance (from Binaural)

Photo credit: Smirks

SOLAT8 (chupiwa@hotmail.com):
This was my first time seeing Pearl Jam live and it was incredible, not just in their performance, but all the crap I went through to get there and back, but it was all worth it!!! Before I start, I just want to say two things!!

1) Grace, I'm sorry I didn't ask you to go with me, I didn't know if you were as crazy as I am! Thanks for lending me your SVT copy!!

2) I hope Footsteps29 had a good birthday, I'm sorry you didn't get in, at least you were at the '98 Madison Square Garden show with the "Breath Campaign"!! Also, I thought your PJ tattoo was awesome, best detailed "Alive" guy I've seen yet!

Traveling from Boston, I had already encountered numerous skeptical remarks about "why I shouldn't go" from tons of naysayers, so I didn't really tell anybody that I was really going, including diehard fans like my buddies Grace, Tom Lake, Mr. Robinson, and Matt Gagne! because I didn't want to hear anymore negativity. I met Smirks [Chris Smirks] thru the Synergy site because he was looking for people to go with him to see the first PJ performance of the Millennium! So, of course we corresponded and set plans for meeting up in NJ and going to NYC!

11:00 am - The hunt for Letterman tix was on! We got into NYC by bus which left us about 12 blocks from the theatre, Smirks got on the cell phone and dialed the standby number he programmed in the night before. Of course, it was busy, since every PJ fan in the tri-state area was probably trying to get through!

11:30 am - We walked all the way to the Ed Sullivan Theater and scoped the place out like a pair of professionals. There were some people milling around in front of the entrance under the Late Show marquee. They were talking to some lady in green wool trench coat, but she had a clipboard, A-HA! She must be giving trivia questions in exchange for tix to the show! Smirks is still on the phone trying to get through to the standby line, so I hop in line to answer questions. I notice three blonde girls who seemed very distressed and I wonder where they are from because they seem to have an accent. Later, someone told me there was a trio of girls from England who didn't get in. I felt bad for them but maybe I'll see them at Wembley!

Anyway, fans in front keep missing the answers left and right, but I remain confident. Here will be my moment of glory. Carpe Diem, here I come! Alas, like an idiot I didn't research any info about the show, so of course, she threw us a really random one about the cue card holder guy's name? I don't know that one!! I think it's Jose or something? Now I could see this was an unpleasant woman, who obviously did not enjoy standing out in the cold, dispensing trivia to diehard PJ fans. I POLITELY begged her for another chance. I told her that Smirks and I came all the way from Boston and NJ just to see the show. Another random question later, I am cursing her under my breath.

Some out-of-towner was next in line and she wasn't even fan of Dave or PJ, and she got an easy one and got tix!! She said she doesn't even watch the show! Smirks and I were dumbstruck! This trivia lady was severely ruining our chances of getting inside, and she was one of those mean-asses! She was rude to just about everybody I talked to who scored tix to the show! I dubbed her the Trench coat Lady, and we kept an eye out for her because she kept looking for us, since we weren't supposed to get anymore trivia chances from the other clipboard guys and we weren't about to just give up.

12:15 am - We hung around at the entrance for a bit, but no dice. Smirks couldn't get thru on the cell phone, so I tried for a while, but then my fingers got cold and even I gave up calling for a while. Meanwhile, fans were networking with others who knew previous trivia answers [they kept asking the same ones over and over] and they scored tix from Trench coat Lady, while we looked in envy and disbelief!

12:30 am - We got cold and hungry waiting around, so we ducked into the Roy Rogers across the street to eat and drink our sorrows away. I sat down dejected with my Philly cheese-steak, but then Smirks got thru on the standby line! We got the question about "What's the name of the band?" "Paul Shaffer and the CBS band orchestra," said Smirks, and we got numbers 36-37 standby tix, but that didn't mean we were guaranteed in. It raised our spirits however and we went back outside to hound the clipboard dudes who were giving out guaranteed tix.

1:00 pm - We walk up to this pretty girl with a Letterman jacket and a clipboard, and we try all over again, but she asks us another random one, and we get it wrong AGAIN! ARRGGGHH! The frustration of being a diehard Pearl Jam fan! There is one more clipboard dude left, so we, very incognito, walked up next to him as someone was giving him a wrong answer. Yet, there was this other guy with the clipboard dude, looking like the Head Honcho supervisor type, because he dressed nicer and looked important with his suit and tie. The diehard PJ fan notices everything, you know?

The guy before us leaves and we step up, Big Cheese wants to know where we're from. Boston and NJ are the replies, and he asks if we have already answered any of the trivia before. I stammer and Smirks says, "....uh, ...no." The clipboard dude looks us up and down, HAUGHTILY replying that we had been here since 11:00 am and he leaves. A POX ON HIS HOUSEHOLD! How did he know? I guess he saw us talking to Trench-coat Lady before [hey that rhymes!] The filthy snitch! I could've strangled him right then and there, well not really, but I was WICKED PISSED! as we say in Boston. Boss Man looks at us and says to meet him at TKTS in Times Square in a "little while", what did that mean? We thought he was just trying to get rid of us. We were pretty persistent, you know, just hanging around trying to score tix. We thought we should give it a chance, even though it was a longshot.

2:15 pm - By this time, I was starting to give up hope. That guy was just screwing with us PJ fans, I bet. Smirks paid a visit to the Olive Garden across the Street, while I stood watch. This was bad, because while were waiting 6 blocks from the Theater, they already set up the barricades so PJ could enter in the building. We might miss them, if this just a wild goose chase to score tix. I killed time by making fun of the eMpTyV teenybopper TRL crowd that was assembling for mass worship of the latest boy-group sensation that was appearing in that giant glass booth thingy. I yelled out "Look over there. It's Eddie Vedder!!" I swear, NOT one head, turned around. I bet PJ could walk through this crowd unnoticed at all!

All of a sudden, it was like a classic gangster film, Mr. Suit and Tie rolls up the street with his red-haired clipboard henchman and nods to me. I get nervous, because I think they are going to give some more of that dreaded random trivia. I wanted to tell them to wait until Smirks got out of the little boy's room, because I didn't want to blow our chances. He asks me why we are here, I say "We are big Dave fans!" He says that's "what he wants to hear," but he knows that we are really Pearl Jam fans in disguise! Damn! I thought, there goes our cover!

He proceeds to give me the best Pearl Jam fan compliment I have ever heard. "I admire you guys for following Pearl Jam, because they are a very elusive band, and they are very hard to book for our show. It must take a lot to be fans like you guys." Smirks shows up from the bathroom, not believing his eyes. We give him our names and he puts us on the list and gives the name-sheet in order to get tix. The guy says it's good we are not wearing Pearl Jam shirts, because he wants this to be a Dave show, not a Pearl Jam show. He makes us promise not to scream, crowd surf, go crazy, etc., basically all the fun parts of a PJ show! I asked to shake his hand and I wonder why the other clipboard guys weren't as nice as this guy. Smirks shakes his hand too, in case you were wondering. By the way, A BIG THANX to Caryn of the MFC board of fivehorizons.com for the tip on not wearing Pearl Jam shirts when trying to score tix! It helped us get these tix! THANX!

3:00 pm - So we go back to the theater and we are in shock the whole way there! We are going to see Pearl jam live!!!!!!!!!!!!! We hang out with some fans at the barricades at the back door on 53rd street waiting for the "boys" to show up. I meet some really cool people there and I helped at least three people find tix to the show by giving them that tip about Mr. Suit and Tie and steer clear of Trench-coat Lady! It made me feel good I was helping other people get in the show!

I met Footsteps29 because she had a cool PJ tattoo of the "Alive" guy on her ankle. Yeah I know we have all seen it before, but hers was done in really good detail, said she got it done somewhere in Long Island. It was her birthday, and she only had standby tix, her friend happened to snag the tix, but gave her the tix because of her birthday, now that's a real friend right there. Sadly, no one on standbys that I knew got in. Smirks and I were fortunate to have run into that nice supervisor guy. Footsteps29 happened to be at the NYC show where "Breath Campaign" achieved its success, which is my dream show, I don't know how many times I have listened to that boot pretending I was there, so it was cool hearing it from someone who was there firsthand.

I also met PJFreak, who was the girl who tried to give Eddie a personalized gift, but was stopped by the cops. Her name is Carolina and she came all the way from Toronto with her friend Sandy to see Pearl Jam in NYC. It was her birthday as well, which I thought was strange. Why is it everybody's birthday today? She IS a diehard fan, bigger than I am I have to admit, she has met the band members including Eddie more than once, and she had the pictures with her to prove it. Of course, I asked her fan secrets and know-how but she would not divulge them.

She shared some concert memories [Letterman '00 being my 1st live PJ experience, I felt like a rookie], her friend Sandy missed a chance to meet Ed by mere minutes at some show in Canada because she decided to go to the bathroom right before he showed up, and Carolina got to meet him AGAIN! She had called up the Letterman ticketing office way back in March, after they first posted the Letterman appearance and somehow snagged tickets for the 4th row!! She was on a different list than the rest of us tix-holders so they went to get their tix earlier, some people are resourceful I guess!

3:45 pm - Smirks and I almost forgot to get in line at a certain time to get our guaranteed tix or else they would have gone to those with standby tix. We were waiting for PJ to show up at 53rd Street for such long time, that we forgot what time to show up in the line. Actually, thanx to Carolina who reminded me to get in line for them or we might have missed our tix opportunity. We got in line for tix, but it figures PJ shows up at back door on 53rd Street while we were in line, man...I had my camera already and everything! Oh well, at least we secured the tix!

4:40 pm - The ushers gave us the whole shebang about laughing and clapping when you are supposed to and to really hamming it up for Dave's birthday, I felt a little restricted since we weren't allowed to yell out and stuff, but who's complaining, I mean we got tix baby!!!! They told us to hurry up and go use the bathrooms while we had a chance because you couldn't go in during the show. Like an idiot I used one in a restaurant next to the theatre, what I should have done is gone to the one in the theatre, because PJ was doing their sound check, you could hear them pretty good from there. I am still kicking myself in the head for that one. One PJ bathroom patron told me they played 3 or 4 songs, but he didn't recognize any, maybe one or two sounded like Given to Fly and NAIS.

5:10 pm - Smirks and I got seated way up in the balcony in the second to last row, right side of the stage. It was a pretty cool looking set. Kinda of weird view of Letterman's desk! If I could describe it would be something akin to having the view of that "director guy on the artificial moon from the film The Truman Show" I see the top of the desk pretty clearly and his mug, etc. There seemed to be this excitement in the air, a certain sense of electricity of tension if you will, to see PJ get on stage.

5:30 pm - Show starts taping, Letterman is REALLY a funny guy, the jokes are good, Newman does his thing, gives Dave a blue denim cocktail dress for a birthday present?!?!? We all wish Dave a Happy Birthday, and PJ was mentioned in the Top Ten - Signs that Dave is getting old, they were listed as #4 - "Told Pearl Jam that I am calling the cops if they're loud."

6:15 pm - The roadies start setting up the drum kit and all the gear! This further heightens the excitement level. I could see a beautiful vinyl album cover with "Binaural" on it on Dave's desk. Suddenly I found myself wishing I was also a Late Night talk show host. You could see Matt getting his drums ready, and Jeff and Stone plugging in and stuff. Mike was SURPRISINGLY looking thin compared to the SVT video I saw just two days ago! He has this awesome PUNK ROCK look about him! I knew this performance is going to be awesome! Eddie has his back turned to the crowd, getting prepped for the sonic onslaught we are about to receive.

Dave introduces them and I thought, here we go!!! I was expecting to hear NAIS, but Matt starts pounding on the drums and I'm trying to figure out what song it is!!?!? Like a true fan I had exercised the new album blackout, but wait a minute this SONG is AWESOME!!!

Eddie is clearly into the lyrics, Stone and Jeff are not as animated, but they doing their thing. Matt is banging away in a passionate fury, but the real scene stealer was our beloved Mike who was JUMPING all around the place as if this was PJ circa '92! I wanted to yell out Mike's name, but I didn't want to get hassled by the Letterman goons, so I had to contain my admiration for one greatest live guitar performances I have ever witnessed since I saw Neil Young live cranking out "Rockin' in the Free World" with some help from CSN in Boston 3 weeks ago!

The studio audience went wild when Mike took off his guitar and threw it on the ground !! Then he picked it up and threw it AGAIN! At the end, Eddie picked it up and unplugged and handed it to Dave as a birthday present! Man, I wish I was Dave for a few seconds! Champagne Breakfast for everyone!!!!! I pledge my grievance to the flag! The performance of this song was great! Fast-paced, guitar-driven song, Mike wailing on guitar, where are all are those naysayers saying Pearl Jam has gone soft??!?!

The song was named "Grievance," but all I could feel was unbridled excitement from the intensity of this performance!! Can't wait to hear the new album! This was my first time seeing them live and they BLEW me away!

After the show - Smirks and I went back to 53rd Street so wouldn't miss our last photo op for PJ. We got there late because I saw Beth getting on stage and I thought Ed might poke his face out, but he didn't. The barricades were full, so we went across the street to get some better angles. It was getting cold, so I put on my mittens [leave me alone they were an X-mas gift from a dear friend!] and got my camera ready! Half an hour rolls by, the NYC cops are acting like jerks mocking the fans and crap! I said something to one of them, and he made a snide remark directed at me, remarkably no one in my mini-crowd laughed. He laughed at his own joke, glared at me, and went back to the entrance. Footsteps29 however made a funny joke about him, and I laughed with my little mini-crowd, definitely a warm bonding moment between PJ fans who hardly know each other.

Pretty soon, some pizza delivery dudes rolled up to the door and the cops let them in, every time the door opened in the next 20 minutes, we all hold our breath, but it's just the make-up lady or one of the roadies. Oh the torturous agony!! and plus it's cold! Awwww, the dedication of being a diehard fan!!

Meanwhile, for some odd reason, large buses and vans keep passing by blocking my camera shot! The band about to appear any minute and there's a truck blocking my view!! The little mini-crowd I was in, starts yelling at the driver to please MOVE before PJ shows up!

All of sudden, Jeff, Stone, and Mike come out of door! Jeff stops to sign an autograph. He has this cool hat on, I think someone called it the "evil goat" hat, whatever that means? Stone is waving and smiling at the fans, for some reason, I lead a chant of "Stoney Pony!" with other people. Must be that Mother Love Bone CD I was listening to earlier in the week. I heard Mike signed an autograph on the way in to the show, but I didn't get a good look at him when he came out. I snapped some pics, hope came out good. It was kinda hard, because those cops kept getting in the way of the camera shot, and I had such a small window time to get the shot! They all get in a black van with tinted windows and drive off. It was really exciting seeing them from a only a few feet away!

Matt comes out next and walks in to the other van, but then he actually gets out of the van and starts signing autographs and stuff. I got some really good shots of him, since my mini-crowd moved to the left side of the entrance instead of across the street! He got back into the van, but then I guess he called a cab on a cell phone, because he exited the van and got into the cab. Maybe he was in a hurry somewhere, that he couldn't wait for Eddie.

Now I have to admit I was little anxious by now waiting for Eddie to come out, I have always wanted to get, not an autograph from him, but just a decent photo of him and chance to someday meet him briefly and shake his hand.

There was a woman named Cari, I think, who was standing next to me with a video camera, and she was also holding a framed photo of her and Ed [blonde-haired] when she met him at Pete Townshend's benefit for Maryville. By this time I thought I was the only one who hasn't met any PJ member in the whole crowd, someday....

One of the roadies came out and he starts to give out picks! Sadly I didn't get any!!

Later the same roadie comes back and says he has a cup of tea that belonged to Eddie and would anyone want it? I still don't know why I reached for it and took it. Maybe because I didn't get a pick, or because no one else wanted it, or I just wanted something to remember the show by? I read a cool PJ story by Boula23 once about him saving a cup of beer that Eddie drank out of. I can't explain it, I guess other PJ fans would understand why I took the cup home and saved it. [It's empty, unless you count the teabag] At first I thought the roadie was screwing and I debated getting rid of it. I asked the fans next to me whether they thought it was really Ed's or not. They said it probably wasn't, but I said why would a PJ roadie screw over a fan like that? PJFreak told me to throw it away, but a big, tall guy next to me in a button-up white shirt said he believed me that it was really Ed's cup of tea!

So he convinced me to keep it as memorabilia, but don't you auctioneers get your hopes up, this cup is never going for sale on eBay EVER! It is a personal reminder of the show and a cool artifact. [out of sheer curiosity, I actually took a sip of it, and guess what it tasted like?!?! That's right just like lukewarm tea!] It was the Lipton brand and I was secretly hoping it would kinda be some secret potion to enable me to wail on the mic like our beloved Ed, but it didn't work because I still can't sing! Smirks got a good pic of it too!

All of sudden, Beth comes out of the door, followed by a friend of the band, and then out comes Eddie!! He is a lot of shorter than I expected! I am guessing he is about 5 feet 6, and I am only 5 feet 4, so of course I have to fight to get a good photo while standing next to FRICKIN' GIANTS!!

Anyway, let me explain about the "supposed" mob scene when Eddie came out! First of all, I met PJFreak, whose name is Carolina and she was just a diehard fan who wanted to give Eddie a gift. I think she made it herself and it had something to do with the Who logo, Ed's favorite band. I didn't get to see it, because she had it wrapped up and stuff in a gift bag for Ed. She told me she had presented Ed with a gift before, a Who pin, and she told me how his eyes lit up when she gave it to him. I guess not a lot of fans give Eddie Who memorabilia or something, I myself am a Pete Townshend fan. It was her birthday, and she was so grateful for getting 4th row, she wanted to thank him personally.

Now of course, the cops didn't like that and they grabbed her, before she could give the gift to Ed. This of course made everybody's favorite lead singer duck into his van quicker. The fans waiting for the perfect op, I think I got a good shot of the back of Beth's head, were not happy since the cops got in the way of everything and they blamed Carolina for everything. There were a lot of threats shouted out in the cold air, but no one acted out on them. The cops were real !@#$%^&*s about it, of course. I don't think it was her fault, she just wanted to give Ed a gift, but c'mon she was only like 5 feet 1, what was she going to do? tackle Ed and stab him with him a pocketknife? It doesn't take 3 or 4 cops to stop one person does it? She kinda just walked up quickly. It's not liked she bumrushed him or anything. If the cops were cool about it, she could have given him the gift, said thanx and that's it, would made a cool photo I think. I am sure next time she can give the gift to a cool roadie or somebody and they could give it to Ed. Or maybe she will meet him again, since, she has already met him more than once! Me? I just want to shake his hand and say thanx for loving what you do and being true to the fans. Oh and thanx for a great performance of "Grievance"! I really dig Mike's punk rock attitude!