Getting What You Want AND What You Need

I've added one final, final date to my itinerary: the Rolling Stones concert at SkyDomeRogersCentre on September 26, with none other than Beck in support. I've known about this for a while now, but couldn't make mention of it here lest my big headed, big hearted girlfriend Bri should pay a visit--the tickets were a graduation gift for her. (And before you accuse me of getting her a Homer gift, as Paul did, please: click here.) So the itinerary is now complete, and it includes no less than nine arena rock shows in the span of two-and-a-half weeks. In a way, I wish the Stones were coming earlier: having seen them live twice already I'm pretty much ready to say they're nowhere near as good live as Pearl Jam is and that they'll almost certainly pale in comparison to U2 as well. But that said, it's hard to resist the allure of seeing a living, breathing group of legends in the flesh; the Stones might no longer be a great live act and our seats (waaay up in the 500 level) are awful, but there's something to be said for sharing a space with the greatest rock n' roll band ever to grace the earth that doesn't include a member named Pete. In this case, we might not be getting what we need, but for Bri and I, we'll certainly be getting exactly what both of us want.

Where Do We Go From Here?

I found this awesome site which is currently hosting both of Pearl Jam's historic 2004 shows from the FleetCentre in Boston, MA. (Is it too soon to call them "historic"? Probably...but you'd never know it from the way they're talked about in the Pearl Jam fan community--particularly the second one, in which both "Alone" and "I've Got a Feeling" were resurrected for the first time in over a decade.) I've done a lot of stupid things in the name of Vedder & Co., but none much dumber than driving from Toronto to Boston to see a pair of concerts that coincided nicely with my third week of graduate studies. (I used the excuse "research trip" with one professor, who saw through it in about 0.2 seconds.) Not only that, but we got lost entering the city before night #1 and missed Ed's preset--which included, naturally, one of the "hear it and I'll die" songs (his cover of the gorgeous Cat Stevens song "Don't Be Shy"). Thank goodness Pearl Jam lets its fans record their concerts; that way, you can make up for a poor sense of direction and an urban grid that makes less sense than a John Gibbons line-up simply by clicking a couple buttons.

I still haven't figured out how I'm going to use this site--whether I'll devote it exclusively to my Pearl Jam Canadian experience or whether I'll use it as a blog for all things Pearl Jam. I'm leaning towards the former, since I don't want to maintain a separate blog: after a while I'll feel obligated to keep it updated and start posting these random, "I've heard 'Last Exit' seven times!" kind of messages. For the time being, I figure I'll leave it more-or-less as is; if I feel moved to make a completely separate, Pearl Jam geek style entry I'll throw it up, but otherwise I'll be focussing primarily on my other blog. Come late August, I'll be giving Touring Steve 2005 the attention it deserves.