3 Concerts in Review

And just like that, the era of my life that I like to call "touring steve and frantically trying to secure tickets at the last moment Bri" has come to an end. As much as I've neglected my blog this summer, I feel like it deserves a second chance. Something about the semi-publicness of this space kind of got to me; I couldn't decide whether to take the "fuck-it" attitude and write whatever I felt like writing, or try to please the throng of admirers (usually telling me that they like my blog, keep up the good work, and have I been to their travel site recently?) and write something that might actually be worth reading. THEN, I realized that unlike my word-slut boyfriend, I'm not a writer. Not for other people, anyway, and attempting to write something worthwhile and failing is much more embarrassing than pretending like I don't care.

Where does that leave me? 2 weeks into the new year and 4 concert reviews behind! The blog must go on, if only because I promised myself that it would, and it really has become an exercise in self-discovery. And while I may only aspire to the likes of the blog-greats, I still want to hope that my words could mean something ... even if only to myself ... in 50 years. I constantly think about Ann Frank, who my best friend bears a striking resemblance to; she had NO idea her diary was going to be published in 36 different languages and read by millions of people. Shouldn't I at least be considerate of the possibility?

Right - the concerts. I won't attempt to write an intellectual and well-constructed review, but I do have a few notes about seeing Pearl Jam 3 times on their cross-Canadian tour, and U2 wedged inbetween for good measure. Most of them are positive. My first PJ experience, in particular, was extraordinary. The London venue was gorgeous, small, intimate and packed with genuine die-hards who had an energetic wave going before the show started. It was electric. At that point, not having ever seen the band in concert, everything that I heard was a treat. Seeing the show with Steve made it 100% more meaningful to me -- knowing how excited he was to be there was something that I fed off of. in a strange way, I was really proud of him. He was surrounded by people who claimed to be PJ's biggest fans and he held his own. I was proud to tell the couple sitting next to us that he was sitting 7th row at the Thunder Bay show. I was proud when he knew the names of obscure Bruce Springsteen and Dead Kennedy covers that I had never heard before. I was proud that he knew all of the hand signals to the song Animal. Like, he just glew. Couple that with a blistering set-list, including oft sought after but rarely played "Hard To Imagine" and I was TOTALLY satisfied.

Being satisfied didn't stop Michael and I from being complete idiots, however. He came home from work the following night and asked me how the concert was. After gushing about it to him, I casually mentioned that the Hamilton show that night hadn't quite sold out yet. He eyed me cautiously. "We should go", he said. I tried to gage if he was serious. "Could you imagine how crazy that would be?" I replied. And we looked at each other. After a drawn out silence, he suggested, "do you want to?"

And that was it. We got Alana, who probably could name two Pearl Jam songs, tops, to drive us to Hamilton, picked up 40 dollar scalpers tickets and took it in from the back of Copps coliseum. The set list was solid, I heard a TON of songs I hadn't heard the night before and I was totally fucking proud of myself for being such a bad-ass.

The third show, in Toronto, I managed to get a ticket to from Alana, who decided after the Hamilton show that PJ wasn't her groove. I was more than happy to agree, if not persuade her that she was right. Again, an awesome performance, an awesome setlist, an awesome crowd.

HIGHLIGHTS:
- hearing "Small Town" for the first time live
- seeing Stone, who had been asked to sing, approach the mic and say, "What I really want to do is dance" ... with sexy butt-shaking to follow
- Bono and Eddie, along with a trio of tambourines, ripping up "Keep On Rocking in the Free World" together during the second encore in Toronto
- All of the solid, friendly and gracious PJ fans that I met and had wild conversations with
- Phone calls from Steve from each of the 4 venues that I didn't go to, with his cell held up toward the stage so that I could hear whatever was playing
- Hearing "Hard to Imagine", "Thumbing My Way", "Oceans", "You Are", "In My Tree", "I Am Mine" and "Present Tense"

DISAPPOINTMENTS:
- sitting up in the 300s was a lot different and a lot less special than being on the floor
- not hearing "Long Road", "Baba O'Reilly" or "Last Kiss"

So I guess, in the end, I completed a little tour of my own! More on the U2 concerts later (well, concert singular). I'm off to sleep.