If you've read part 1 you'll know the stars must of aligned in the right way and my lucky socks must have worked along with me finding a four leaf clover for me to end up with some Pearl Jam tickets gratis. Ok so my mate won the tickets in a staff incentive draw at work but it felt like the luckiest day on earth when he asked me to go with him.
21st June MCR Arena Pearl Jam
So on the day I headed over to Widnes to pick up Steve on the way to my home city Manchester we wanted to get over there nice and early so we didnt get stuck in any rush hour traffic. We had our afternoon/evening planned first watch Prometheus on the Imax screen at The Printworks, go get some food and then into the concert. As this is supposed to be about my experience at the gig I wont tell you the Film was visually impressive on the Imax but ultimately a disappointment(oops). I must admit when we headed over to The MCR Arena I was still feeling a bit queasy from the experience of the Imax so when we headed for our seats to watch the support and found we were way up in the gods I decided to steady my head with a drink before Pearl Jam emerged. So sorry I can't comment on the support because I was getting my head and stomach back together while they were playing.
Soon though there was a fervour from inside the arena it was time to get ourselves in there. I'd spent most of the day telling Steve how cool the Chris Cornell concert was earlier in the week and that I didn't think the immense size of this one would be able to match the connected feeling you had in such an intimate gig. Well as twenty thousand people roared Pearl Jam onto stage I got the feeling I may be eating my words, I was buzzing right there and they'd not started playing yet. They launched into Go and just left the Stratosphere behind. From our birds eye veiw of the standing area you could just see a sea of people rippling in time to the music they were bouncing man but it just looked like someone had grabbed one end and flicked them from one end like straightening a duvet and you could see the wave of heads rise and fall from the front of the arena to the back and then all the way to the front again. Absolutely amazing! and all controlled by the tiny figures up on the stage. As wave after wave of sound hit me and one song rolled into another I was heading into a musical frenzy and so was everyone else by the looks of it. The whole band had an excitement and intensity that connected you to them even in this huge auditorium. I'll be honest I only recognised some of the songs but I explained my history with Pearl Jam in part 1 the main thing is I didn't care, there wasn't one point during the concert where I felt like I was dipping. I would have been left high as a kite(metaphorically) after better man which is one of may favourites but they proceeded to do two encores the second with the lights fully up with people streaming out as if it was over but me and Steve and a whole host of others still bouncing along as they did Alive and ending onYellow Leadbetter.
It only dawned on me as we headed down the motorway that they hadn't played Jeremy but you know what it just showed the strength in depth of their material and that just gives me a reason to want to go see them again. I spent the first half hour in the car just saying Fuck Yeah! Which as I am now just into my forties would say gives a pretty good indication that that was one of the best concerts I have ever been to.
My suggestion to you my friend it to get your arse to one of their shows! I am presently buying the back catalogue to find out what I've been missing all this time. I genuinely believe my musical life has been poorer up until this point because I didn't indulge in Pearl Jam earlier.
Go listen people........
Thankyou to Steve for inviting me and thankyou to Pearl Jam for one of my most memorable nights out ever!
What a week in music :)))))))
