Pearl Jam!

Anyone who knew Ryan knew how much he loved Pearl Jam. After his funeral and service (where we heard all his favorite PJ songs), I noticed Ev (whose always been a PJ fan) become a PJ "super fan," listening to old PJ CD's in his truck, humming PJ tunes at home, and listening to PJ radio on XFM at the gym (non-stop Pearl Jam! Wow, you have a to be an amazing band to have an XFM radio station strictly devoted to you!) So, it was a no-brainer that we try our hardest to get the best PJ tickets possible and hit them up in Saskatoon - and so glad we did...what an unreal concert!

Hey Eddie! Can you smell skunk?

Our seats were 10 rows up, directly to the right of the stage. We could basically see up Eddie Vedder's nose when he tipped his head back (it's clean :). I could just hear Holowaty's high pitched girlie squeal, "Look at your f'n seats, bro!" Although, not a PJ "super" fan (well... I did listen to "Better Man" on repeat for 3 weeks straight post painful grade 10 break-up), I was so impressed with the performance. It's not often that you get to witness the act of a true rockstar. Eddie really has that whole "rockstar" thing down to a science: pointing to his fans in  the upper deck (those are your true fans because they paid money for shit seats - thanks, Jamie Adrian for clarifying that), jumping on the speakers (while playing the guitar, of course), running your hands through your hair (like you're a tortured soul), hanging off the mic (backwards, forwards, sideways), and my favorite: the giant arm windmill on the guitar. As a Speech-Language Pathologist, I was also very pleased to see Eddie's fantastic vocal hygiene regime, which consisted of frequent hydration in between songs (water, wine, beer, whatever - it's liquid). The crowd was also very entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed the twenty-something guy next me who felt the need to scream "Whoo Hoo!" every 3-4 minutes whilst (hehe:) dumping half his beer on the man in front of him who calmly replied, "Do that again, and I'll 'fn kill you (Whoa. A touch excessive?). And who can forget the middle-aged dude in the Boston Bruins jersey on the floor who recognized someone in the stands every 5 minutes, yelling, "It's Me! Look at my seats!" What surprised me the most; however, was the marijuana. Did I not get the memo? Is pot legal at Pearl Jam concerts? I will have to consult my lawyer on this one.  At one point (during "Alive" - Awesome!), I thought the crowd was waving lighters. You, know, to show Eddie that they were feelin' it. Nope. Those were joints. Well, whatevs. I'll stick to the wine (That's right. I drank wine at Pearl Jam. Don't judge me).

Anyways, Ryan would have LOOOOOVEd it. I thought about him a lot. I know Ev did too.  During "Elderly Woman Behind a Counter in a Small Town" (what a title! I call it "fade away"), I felt sad. I missed Ryan. I love the lyrics and Eddie's smooth deep voice:

"I just want to scream...hello
My God, it's been so long, never dreamed you'd return
But now here you are and here I am,
hearts and thoughts they fade...away."

I'm sure there's some deep rockstar meaning to those lyrics, but I chose to listen to those words and remember our friend Ryan - his energy, his uniqueness, his enthusiasm, his friendship...So Ev and I held on tight, swayed to the music, wiped the tears from our face, and rocked on...because Holowaty would want us to rock on.