The Halloween show had been hyped for months before on the PJ fanboards....

The week before it picked up into almost unseen frenzied levels. They will play every song they know, They'll play until 2am, Bruce Springteen will be a special guest... and all kinds of other rumors picked up at a frenzied past as the date drew closer.

By this point there was no way the show could have lived up to everyone's expectations....
Which is why I try to usually have none (aside from really wanting to hear 1 or 2 specific songs)...

The SEPTA train ride was more packed than Friday due to the World Series game across the street, but it was fun... a ton of people were dressed in costume (including me!)

Picked up 10 Club tickets... this time 12th row on Mike's side... woot!

Beer Tent time.. and another cover band outside the venue! People watching time..... I saw a dude waiting in line dressed as JT from the SNL "Dick in a box" skit; a guy in a banana suit; Bee Girl; guy dressed as Bret Michael's (he gave me a high five when I laughed at him :P); too many Elvis's to count; Jesus; it was fun to see people get into the spirit!

Then it started to rain, so C and I headed inside.

Up first Bad Religion... Guitarist dressed as skeleton... YAY!



Then its Pearl Jam time! (as before full setlist can be found on any other Pearl Jam site).

Here are the stand out moments, probably in a random order :)

Due to someone I follow on Twitter... I was alerted to Balloons up in the rafters....



Opened with Why Go ... so glad they have resurrected this live... its AWESOME!

Pilate!


Rats!! (A person in a Rat costume appeared onstage ... I thnk they were part of the crew.... various members of the crew were in costume)




OUT OF MY MIND!!!!!!! -- as Vedder said "this isn't even a song" . This is a live improv that was released as the Not For You b-side. Only played twice before....It was awesome because I love this song, and thought I would never hear it live :D


** Bathroom Break*** Bathroom situation at the Spectrum was ICKY!

BUGS!!!! w/accordian :D took a few tries but it was cool to see :)



The Final Encore may have well been perfection from start to finish.... but I think at this point most in the Venue knew the Phillies were losing so I think the crowd lost some steam....

First part....just may have been worth the price of admission for those 5 minutes....

Pearl Jam came out on stage ...Dressed as Devo and performed Whip It! TRULY AWESOME!!



Sweet Lew - Jeff singing and Eddie Basketball dribbling...too funny!


Smile - :)


RITFW - A minute or 2 in and Confetti came shooting out in all directions .... the Spectrum was filled ... and made for some AWESOME pictures.. Then the balloons dropped too cool!






I got a poster :)


So glad I was at this show ..... for all the one-off moments

This show start to finish was amazing. It may be my favorite all time....even counting when I was front row center back in 2000 @ Merriweather :)

The drive up to Philly from DC was not bad... considering it was Friday traffic (Special thanks to EZ-PASS!!!! and my Navigation System.... though DC to Philly is pretty much a straight drive up I-95......)

Anyways... my friend C and I arrived at the venue around 6:30 I think and picked up my tickets.... 7th row center! Haven't been that close in a while ... usually averaging row 12 in DC and NYC shows, so we were stoked!

We wandered around to one side where a beer/drinks tent was set up and got some drinks and proceeded to watch the Pearl Jam cover band that was playing in front of the Spectrum.... Then made our way inside.

Bad Religion was playing and were pretty good... (I admit I only know one of their older tunes...) They finished and it was time to chat with fellow 10 Club members (after so many years.... seated by number you start to see the same people over and over.. which makes it fun!)

You can find the setlist on any Pearl Jam fansite, so I won't go into the whole thing, but they played a good mix.... and the new stuff sounded AWESOME.. especially The Fixer , Got Some, and Unthought Known, I was also happy to hear In My Tree, Off He Goes, Breath, RVM, Mamasan, and Sonic Reducer!!

It really was a perfect night! band and crowd energy was great!!

(Until we got back to the Hotel, and found Friday's with doors locked at 12:40PM.... Late night eating in Philly is a #FAIL)

Next up... thoughts on Philly the city!

The hotel in Philly was 4 miles from the venue so my friend C and I knew we'd be using public transit (or cab) to get to the venue. So I started perusing the PJ fanboards to find out what was the best option. And promptly came across a post about SEPTA getting ready for a walkout ...Zoinks!


Add to that Game 3 of the World Series was in Philly the same night as the last PJ show at the Spectrum (right across the street from the baseball stadium) and all signs pointed to transportation being a clusterf*ck. (Driving to venue from hotel could been done with my AWESOME navigation system... which made this road trip way better than the 2000 jaunt to Jones Beach, NY... I don't ever want to hear about a POW/MIA highway ever again! - but this was a way way way last resort option).


Before leaving Friday I checked online and the general consensus was a walkout wouldn't happen until Saturday.....so I setup a Google Alert and headed out!


Friday evening arrived in Philly checked into the hotel, changed and headed for the SEPTA station. The SEPTA system is much more like NYCs Subway system (none of this farecard/exit fare crap), you use tokens.

Point SEPTA.

The machines to buy fares only took $1, $5, $10, and $20.... and you couldn't adjust the value you wanted to buy if you inserted a large bill.

Point WMATA.

(Luckily I just bought $20 worth of fare for me and C and hoped the strike didn't happen!) Other people were trying to get change from the SEPTA station manager.... no dice! And don't even get me started on the morons that didn't buy roundtrip fare... the line to buy it after the show each night was worse than Gallery Place after a show at the Verizon Center) Some time on Saturday afternoon I got a Google alert that SEPTA would not strike while the World Series was in town... YAY!


SEPTA stations smell like piss... and each station I was in had a fare share of homeless people sleeping in them.

Point WMATA.

The actual ride on SEPTA was fine..... and I don't recall any jerking to a stop. Bonus... on Saturday after the show... the train headed uptown...EXPRESSED!!!!!!!!

Two Points SEPTA!

Also on Saturday.... there were Balloon arches at the SEPTA exits and a SEPTA Employee directing people up the steps with a big foam finger :D (obviously the Nats are no where near being in a world series... but i just can't see WMATA decorating like this... so.....

Point SEPTA.

Looks like SEPTA wins :)


*has WMATA ever gone on strike? (the week long - we will be following all rules craziness that happened about a week ago does not count :P)

Pearl Jam began their 4 date close-out of Philly's Spectrum on Tuesday night, and by Wednesday morning message boards were filled with topics like "Saturday until 2AM..." . It seems Ed Vedder made a comment that by 2AM Saturday night they will have played every someg they know! So teh speculation started ... Could this be true? Will they be playing until 2AM?? People started digging for info. Apparently various Spectrum security staff has confirmed that they will need to stay until 3AM (some policy is in place that security stays around until an hour afterteh show is over).

Currently the longest Pearl Jam show is from 5/3/03 - State College, PA (and I was there!!!!) and clocked in at 3.5 hours. (Though there is some debate that the 3rd Mansfield, MA show is longer due too PJ playing an acoutstic set, then Sleater-Kinney "opening"; then Pearl Jam playing their main set).

Saturday should put the debate to rest!!

Can't wait....updates after I return :D