This was my 25th Pearl Jam show….. so I was hoping for Awesomeness (not really… I didn’t know what number show it was until after I got home and added it to my list…. bad Pearl Jam fan ).

Arrived at MSG after a quick stop for some pizza…. much earlier than the previous night.  [...]]]>

This was my 25th Pearl Jam show….. so I was hoping for Awesomeness (not really… I didn’t know what number show it was until after I got home and added it to my list…. bad Pearl Jam fan ).

Arrived at MSG after a quick stop for some pizza…. much earlier than the previous night.  We made our way to our seats…. but first stopped for …. Beers w/ a Pretzel stick in the mug handle!  (I discovered this 2 years ago.… and think it is the awesomest thing….seriously I talked about it for days leading up to this trip).

Then I of course checked into Foursquare……… and got my Swarm badge!!!!!!!! Woohoo!

We made our way to our seats….. Band of Horses was mid-set…. sounded ok.  They finished their set….and then it was time to wait.  But this wait time turned into spot the celebrity! Michael Moore was one section over!  Some guy in a knit cap came along and was sitting in front of Moore.  I thought he was some NY Ranger that people were talking about… but the next day found out it was actually Matt Damon!!  Half way thru Pearl Jam’s set John McEnroe also showed up in this section.  Then Vedder’s girlfriend/wife showed up about 5 rows in front of us… along with the Olsen twins.

So Pearl Jam opened with Corduroy, Hail Hail, and DTE……  which led me to tweet that this could be an epic show! And it was.  The first set was awesome…… the momentum awesome, the crowd was completely into it.  The floor was shaking!!!  We got some rarities (re done Lukin to be slow… instead of fast, Black Red Yellow…. which hasn’t been played since 1995!, Sweet Lew (though I got to see that in Philly , and Hunger Strike w/ the singer from BoH – this was epicly awesome!) Can’t wait until next time

Set List: Corduroy, Hail Hail, Do The Evolution, World Wide Suicide, Got Some, Breath, Nothing Man, I’m Open – dedicated to Howard Zinn, Unthought Known, Grievance, Amongst The Waves, Present Tense, Not For You/Modern Girl (Sleater Kinney), Push Me Pull Me, Rats, Daughter/WMA, The Fixer, Why Go

1st encore: The End with string quartet, Just Breathe with string quartet, Lukin II with string quartet, Black Red Yellow, Sweet Lew, Given To Fly, Spin The Black Circle, Rearviewmirror

2nd encore: Wasted Reprise, Better Man/Save It For Later (Charley, Cox, Morton, Steele, Wakeling), Black, The Real Me (Townshend), Hunger Strike with Ben Bridwell from “Band Of Horses” (Cornell), Alive, Kick Out The Jams (Davis, Kramer, Smith, Thompson, Tyner), Yellow Ledbetter/Star Spangled Banner

Thursday afternoon I met my friend  “C” on the train to NYC.  (usually I take the bus, but I decided to splurge and take  the train, due to not wanting to deal with Metro on Saturday afternoon, after I returned). 

We ended up at Penn Station  (convienently attached to MSG) around 4:30pm, and picked up [...]]]>

Thursday afternoon I met my friend  “C” on the train to NYC.  (usually I take the bus, but I decided to splurge and take  the train, due to not wanting to deal with Metro on Saturday afternoon, after I returned). 

We ended up at Penn Station  (convienently attached to MSG) around 4:30pm, and picked up the Fan Club tickets.  Score……Mike’s side ! (haven’t been on this side of the stage in years) Woohoo, so I was way happy

Then hiked 20 blocks uptown (10 blocks out of our way… due to not checking the exact cross street for the Hotel…. ooops).  So we turned around and went 10 blocks the other way.  Went to check in… and the room wasn’t ready! (its 6pm by now).  Receptionist said she would put a rush on it while “C” and I went to dinner (and she gave us 2 vouchers for the breakfast buffet… sweet!)

After some Pho for me and a Vietnamese beer,  we went back to the hotel, checked in, changed, and high tailed it back downtown.  Arrived at MSG at about 8:15… and my BlackBerry battery was drained, which meant no tweeting… or checking into Foursquare

We found out we had missed the opening band…. The Black Keys… which was fine with us

Set List: Sometimes, Breakerfall, Last Exit, Animal, The Fixer, Severed Hand, Small Town, I Am Mine, Comatose, Force Of Nature, Even Flow, Low Light, Down, I Got ID, Army Reserve (dedicated to Lt. Colonel John McDonough), Insignificance, Unthought Known, Do The Evolution

1st encore: The End (with string quartet), Lukin (with string quartet), Just Breathe (with string quartet), You Are, Love, Reing O’er Me (Townshend) [Ed has crowd wish Pete Townshend “Happy Birthday”], State Of Love And Trust, Once, Porch

2nd encore: Jeremy, Leash, Mankind, Crazy Mary (Williams), I Believe In Miracles (Ramone, Ray) [dedicated to Joey Ramone], Alive, Indifference

Pretty standard show… nothing epic to me….. Highlights for me  were I Got ID, Unthought Known, SOLAT, Once, Stone singing Mankind, and Indifference.

I should note there was also an annoying girl that seat hopped into the row in front of me and was blocking my view for the first half of the show, until the person who’s floor space she was encroaching on kicked her out of the row … so this probabaly affected my experience

Just as I finally dug out from #SnOMG2 the DC area was getting ready to be slammed by a 2nd storm.  Because I planned so well for the first storm I didn’t need to go to the store on Tuesday (though looking back maybe I should have… I was really climbing [...]]]>

Just as I finally dug out from #SnOMG2 the DC area was getting ready to be slammed by a 2nd storm.  Because I planned so well for the first storm I didn’t need to go to the store on Tuesday (though looking back maybe I should have… I was really climbing the walls).  The snow started falling again Tuesday mid-afternoon… and really didn’t start sticking again until early evening (which I took as a good sign).   Wednesday morning arrived with maybe an additional 3-4 inches accumulation.  Then things went downhill fast…. The wind picked up, the snow really started falling, and I realized we were not going to get lucky and escape with just a few inches.

Sometime before lunch, I went and shoveled the walkways, trying to get a head start.  I did manage to stay ahead on the walkways.  The snow finally stopped late afternoon, and I started on the driveway.  I had really hoped that WMATA above ground service would return Thursday, but it did not which gave me an additional day to get the car out.  I learned from #snopocalypse back in December and parked my car as close to the edge of my driveway to make getting out easier. Again I was also lucky never to lose power or FIOS.

Since it also doesn’t appear that we will have the quick melt that we had back in Dec, I also have nice little paths dug from my porch to my car, and from that path to my garage…. Yesterday I was finally able to get to my garage and take out over a weeks worth of recycling!!!

The other positive is that the snow has caused a bunch of  trees from my neighbor’s yard to hang further over the fence into my yard….. so when all this white stuff really does melt I can use my Lopper to lop off a ton of overgrowth!

I predict a Temple of the Dog Reunion 2010