My long history with Pearl Jam, Part Two

Anyway, when we last left me, I was telling you that because of Pearl Jam I also boycotted Ticketmaster.

Well, they released Binaural in 2000, and I really wanted to see them in concert if they came around, even if it meant having to deal with Ticketmaster. Around the time I headed to the Exton Target to grab the new album they announced a tour, with the evil giant, and they were playing in Camden. I had a shot.

Thankfully, I was dating a smoker, who incidentally went to get smokes around the time tickets went on sale. She came back to the apartment we lived in and told me "if you want tickets, you better get somewhere fast, they added a second show."

Note to all of you out there: Boscov's have TicketMaster windows.

Thank God, she was a smoker, and that the Coventry Mall Boscov's was so close to the apartment.

Got there in time, and waited for the guy in front of me to get tickets to Chicago (seriously!). I got a pair for the second show of the set in Camden. Now I just needed someone to go with. I asked her to go, and she gave me the same answer she gave a friend of hers when they mentioned Pearl Jam to her at lunch at college: "Yeah, I used to like them, but then I graduated high school. "

For the record, I went with a friend of mine from college. Also, things between us (the girl and I) continued to slide south until she moved out about a year later. We lost touch, and I couldn't even get a hold of her to break up with her officially till 2004. Not that her answer aboout going to the show caused the break up, but it didn't help.

The concert was awesome, and I was so happy to actually see them in concert that I could barely contain myself. The fact that they started the bootleg program with this tour came in handy too because I could buy the show, even if I managed to lose it for years (I'll explain later). Hell, I didn't even care that I got lost in Camden trying to find my friend an ATM before going back across the bridge. OK, I lie. That part scared the shit out of me. Big time. Have you ever been to Camden? Enough said.

Thankfully, they built a Target in Oaks, which is much closer than running to Exton, and that is how I snagged Riot Act and Lost Dogs, the album of b-sides. Also, around this time, they came back and played the Spectrum. I had a co-worker who was also a huge Pearl Jam fan, who went and made a copy of the show, which managed to get me in trouble one train ride home.

On Vs. , there is a song called "Animal" and it features the line "I'd rather be with an animal." Well, long story short, back then, I had a habit of singing along to the Walkman, and apparently, the fact that I sang that particular line freaked the young lady next to me out.

The group also helped me to break a rule I have about movies, thanks to providing a song in Tim Burton's movie Big Fish called "Man of the Hour." I usually don't buy I a movie if I haven't seen it first, but I figured what the heck. Who knew it would be that good? The Golden Globe nod was well deserved.

Things with the group were quiet for a while until the beginning of 2006, when I heard the buzz that a new album was coming out, just not on Epic. They also put out a video. Who were these guys? Guys that were touring and damn it I had to go, that's who! And I almost won seats ahead of time. Except....

that my damn cell phone gave out. Let me explain. WMMR, the local station, was giving tickets away, provided that you could identify the songs in a sentence made from song lyrics. I could, and I was able to get through. Sadly, the phone died as I was starting to give my answer. I could hear them, but they couldn't hear me. I still got to go.

By the time tickets went on sale, I had made the Target run to Oaks for the CD, and was digging it. The show went on sale on a Saturday, and the girl who was my girlfriend at the time recommended that if I wanted to get seats, I might want to go stand in line at the Exton Strawbridge's for her and I, and my friend Mike, also a big fan.

Before I go any further, I just realized that I had to explain that I lost a cd of the Camden 2000 set. It was around this time that things were getting serious between the new girl and I, which meant I spent a good chunk of my free weekends at her place in Bear, DE. More of my cd's started to find their way there, including the one in question. Long story short, I lost the second cd of that set for about two years, until she found it after I had moved out, and she came across some things I manged to have left behind.

In case you're wondering, I did get up and get to the store and stand in line to get led back to the Ticketmaster window. Tenth in line to be exact. Around the time tickets went on sale, someone from the store came out and informed those of us standing in line, who by this point had to be around 75 people, that they would do a drawing to see who got first place in line at the box office. We were given a number based on our place in line, and the person with that number would be first, and all those behind him would be next in line, with those before him/her at the end. While not exactly fair to the early crowd, I sort of saw the point. So, they get this little kid to draw at 945 (tickets went on sale at 10), and give you one guess what number she drew--mine! I couldn't even get the word "Me" out when they asked who had number 10, the guy behind had to speak for me.

Needless to say, getting tickets was easy. I went and informed the girlfriend of the luck I had, and also thanked her for pushing me to get out of bed and get to Strawbridge's, especially since I really did owe her.

As for the show, I wasn't big on it at the time, but after getting a copy of it recently, I realized something. The show actually was really good, since it was a band clearly at the height of their powers leaving everything they had on the stage.

Side note: The girlfriend and I later got engaged, but ultimately ended up breaking up early last year, not because she didn't like Pearl Jam (she actually liked them more because of being with me, or at least that is my impression), but simply because things between us ultimately fell apart.

Since I mentioned my friend Mike, I should make a note here that he got me at least one of my rarities, thanks to independent record store collections. He is the reason I scored Live at Easy Street, an EP of a show played for an independent record store meeting in Seattle. Also, through a friend, he is the reason I scored the copy of the Camden show in 2006 recently.

I mentioned the girlfriend (and later fiancee) who went to the 06 show with me, and I bring her up because she figures into my getting to go again last year to see them in Camden again. She got me the tickets for my birthday, since they were playing two days before it in June, but we broke up between when we got the tickets and the show. Needless to say, it was hard for me at that point to go with her, mainly because I think I was still emotionally raw, but I had fun, thanks to her friend Chrissy. She had bought tickets for us, not realizing that we had gotten our own. Thankfully, I sold the tickets my now ex bought to a friend of mine I knew would love to go, and I hung out with them for most of the night.

I got to buy the show again, and also got one for free. Let me explain. The Camden venue was known as the Tweeter Center till early last year, when it became the Susquehanna Bank Center. When I received the Camden show in the mail, I actually received the Tweeter Center show from Massachusetts. I called the Ten Club, which I actually finally joined at this point (only took 17 years), and they told me just to keep it, and they would send me the Camden show. Pretty damn cool.

Then, recently, in an effort to make me feel old, Pearl Jam re-released Ten. OK, maybe not to make me feel old, but to celebrate the fact that is going to be out for almost 20 years.

I listened to it in its remastered form, and the effect is still the same. It still blows me away, much like the group did the other night playing "Get Some" on Conan.

A lot of things have changed in my life, be it the girls I date, the year of school I'm in, or the town/state I live in, but one thing has remained a constant--Pearl Jam. They have been there through the good, the bad, the ugly. The good breaks, and the painful ones.

They are truly, the soundtrack to my life. And that makes me proud to say that I have been having a love affair with them since 1991.