Selling the Drama

Example #54,294 of why I'm the biggest dork alive: I spent no less than three hours of my day today following the on sales for Pearl Jam's fifteen Canadian concerts. I also devoted an hour and fifteen minutes to fruitlessly dialing the Fort William Gardens box office in the hopes of getting my friend and his girlfriend a pair of seats, and was duly rewarded when I got through and found out that the show, despite being held in a 4,000 seat venue, wasn't yet sold out. This is what happens when your venue doesn't have an on line sales method--the only way you could get tickets for the Thunder Bay concert was by phone or in person at the box office (which is why some people were camping out as early as two days ago). Afterwards, I followed the rest of the on sales because...well, because this is what I do. London reportedly sold out in ninety seconds, with Kitchener following close behind; Toronto took fifteen minutes, and what with the release of the rear view seats is still technically not sold out. Hamilton is the one southern Ontario show with any kind of decent tickets still available, but even then they're largely side view seats. The rest of the tour sold just as well. Winnipeg, for instance, was originally supposed to be a 270 degree show; but demand led them to open the seats behind the stage, and soon those were all gone as well. And Newfoundland--Newfoundland!--sold out so quickly that the band added a second show. Two shows in St. John's, one in Toronto...yup, the apocalypse is officially upon us.

What does it all mean? Nothing--except that Pearl Jam made a lot of money today at the expense of the Canadian public. But it's much, much better seeing your favourite band in a rammed-full venue...and when you've already got guaranteed best seats in the house, it's fun watching everybody else fall into line.

On a semi-related note, I think I'm going to turn this into a de facto Pearl Jam blog for the next few months. I've always wanted to write about the band, but have usually failed to find the appropriate words; now that I've got this space, I may as well give it a whirl.

"we all walk the long road..."

Greetings, and welcome to my second official blog! Whereas Attend the Tale of Stephen Johns was designed as a general forum my ramblings on any number of topics, Touring Steve 2005 has a much more specific purpose: to document my life from September 8-19, 2005, during which time I'll be chasing Pearl Jam around the province of Ontario (with Montreal thrown in for good measure). The trip is still more than three months away, yet already the anticipation has me on tenterhooks. Check out this itinerary:

• Sept. 8: Toronto-Thunder Bay
• Sept. 9: Thunder Bay; Pearl Jam at the Fort William Gardens
• Sept. 10: Thunder Bay-Toronto
• Sept. 11: Toronto-Kitchener-Toronto; Pearl Jam at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium
• Sept. 12: Toronto-London-Toronto; Pearl Jam at the John Labatt Centre
• Sept. 13: Toronto-Hamilton-Toronto; Pearl Jam at Copps Coliseum
• Sept. 14: Toronto; Toronto Blue Jays vs. Boston Red Sox
• Sept. 15: Toronto-Montreal; Pearl Jam at the Bell Centre
• Sept. 16: Montreal-Ottawa; Pearl Jam at the Corel Centre
• Sept. 17: Ottawa-Toronto; U2 at the Air Canada Centre
• Sept. 18: Toronto; Toronto Blue Jays vs. New York Yankees
• Sept. 19: Toronto; Pearl Jam at the Air Canada Centre

Like I said: I'm on tenterhooks. The details are slowly falling into place; I got my official ticket confirmations earlier this week, I've booked flights to and from Northwestern Ontario, I've found places to crash in the cities where I'll be staying overnight...the organization will be nothing if not meticulous. I'll sure I'll have about a zillion things to write about in the weeks and months ahead; when the actual tour commences, I'll be using this blog to post reviews, setlists, pictures--the works. For the time being, I'll confine any tour-related news to this blog; I wouldn't want to bore you with the details, and I'm not exactly keen to show you just how insane I actually am when it comes to Pearl Jam. When I do update, however, I'll be sure to make note of it on my other site; that way, those who love me unconditionally can have a peek. For the time being, there are only 102 days until I walk the long road (or fly it, as it were) up to Thunder Bay for the first of seven shows.

(By the way, I'll also be experimenting with the setup for this page in the next few days, so if it looks unprofessional my apologies. Also, the name is a blatant reference to Pearl Jam's 2000 DVD, Touring Band 2000...and you thought I wasn't a geek!)