Pearl Jam RULES!!!

Sorry for this being a tad late, but after my mini tour of Pearl Jam concerts and work to catch up on, I was too tired to write anything during the week. I'll give a day by day account of the concert trip:

Thursday 7-6
Kathy and I are scheduled to depart from Burbank Airport at 6:30 pm, for an hour (approximately) flight to Las Vegas, in which our show starts at 8 pm. That would give us a bit of time to check in, get our tix at the window since they are tickets bought thru Pearl Jam's fan club. Now, there had been some weather issues in Vegas that day that had me worried our flight would not be on time. I see that there is a flight that leaves Burbank at 5:55 pm, and I ask the guy at the Southwest Airlines counter if we can get our tix switched to that flight. It ends up not being a problem (as i find out later why that was the case) and so kathy and I are thinking we're gold, gonna have more time to get to the hotel, get a drink, and go to the concert on time.
I come to find out, that our flight is delayed due to weather issues, and the flight I was orginally suppsed to go on, has been cancelled. The flight was to be delayed an hour, so now we aren't leaving for Vegas til 7pm at the earliest. 7 pm comes by, and we board the plane, not actually leave the ground til 7:20 pm. The pilot says the flight is 32 minutes long (I love flying to Vegas!) and we should arrive shortly after 8 pm. Timewise, not too bad, our tickets will be available til 30 minutes after Pearl Jam takes the stage, and with an opening act, that gave us til approx. 9:30-9:45 just in case. We end up landing in Vegas at 8:10 pm, catch a taxi to MGM where we are staying, I check in, Kathy leaves her stuff with me, goes to the MGM Box Office to get the tix, and we agree to meet up when our shit gets taken care of. I check in, drop off our bags in our room, kathy got the tix, we have good seats, and we meet up at 9:00 in front of the arena. I get the ticket, we go in, get to our seats, at 9:10 pm, and then 5 minutes later, PEARL JAM TAKES THE STAGE!!!!!! The rest of the night was a bit of a blur, so many great songs, the show lasted about 2 and a half hours, which wasn't long enough for me or Kathy, but considering it was the first of 3 shows over the next 5 days, it was a good way to start things off.

Friday and Saturday 7-7 and 7-8
Nothing really exciting to report, had breakfast each day at my favorite place at the NYNY Casino called America that has the best pancakes EVER!!! Then onto some gambling at a couple different casinos including Hooters, which was the old San Remo hotel just remodeled and Excalibur, all these places took my money at craps, and i wasn't too happy about that. Friday night we went out to dinner and see my bestest friend Rachel at Postrio for fine dinner and drinks. It was great to see her and her co-worker Terri Lynn, whom I'm madly in love with everytime I see her. I tell her all the time, if she ever breaks up with her b/f, i'm on the first plane out to marry her in Vegas :P The drinks were flowing, the laughs were to be had by us all, and it was a fun night. The best part of it, which touched me deeply, was that we didn't have to pay for a single thing we ordered, food and drinks included. NOTHING. Rachel took care of it all. Needless to say, we left a fat tip for each of the girls, the least we could do for them for hookin it up and taking care of us in our time there. Kathy and I will be back in Vegas on Sept. 23rd, for Frozen Fury 9 to party with Rachel.

Sunday 7-9
This Pearl Jam show is here in LA, at the Forum, which is an outstanding venue to go see a show. There are no luxury suites in here, just a lower bowl and upper bowl. It used to be home to the Lakers and the Kings, and there isn't a bad seat in the house. Our seats on this night were to the left of the stage, on Mike McCready's side, 4 rows up from the floor and 2 sections over from the stage. I would consider tonight's show to be their greatest hits show. Every big song by them you can think of was played tonight from all their cds, all 8 of them. Even Flow, Alive, Jeremy off of Ten to Rearviewmirror and Last Kiss, with some other songs like Crown of Thorns and Why Go? mixed in there. For a sunday night show, it felt like a friday or saturday night show, and the time relfected that. The show was 2 hrs and 45 minutes long!! Mind you, I had work to go to the next morning, and still hadn't slept much from the Vegas trip, but hey, that's the price you pay to see your favorite band of all time play!

Monday 7-10
Our seats for tonight were on the opposite side of the arena from the night before, a few rows back further, but still great seats. The one thing I will say, is that sitting in the Fan Club area, you are surrounded by other "devoted" fans like yourself. I saw in other parts of the arena where if the song wasn't one of thier bigger hits like Alive or Daughter, they were sitting. Not in our area for any of the 3 nights, everyone, including Kathy and I were on our feet the whole show, singing and screaming at the top of our lungs with the other die hard fans. This night was different from the night before, in that they played a bit more obscure songs, but great songs none the less. I still knew them all, and sang along to them, but as the show was winding down, they played a song in one of their encores, that made me realize my 5 days of bliss was about to end. It's a song off of thier 4th studio CD, No Code, called Off He Goes. The words speak to me so much about them and how i feel for them. I wait all this time in between their studio releases and concerts, and then it's all over in a flash. Off they go, into the sunset, and I never know if the show I'm seeing will be my last of them. This tour came 3 years after their last one, and they're getting up there, I don't know how much longer they'll want to do it. I appreciate every show they've ever put on, but it also speaks to how fast time flies in life. I first saw them when i was 19, and now, I'm 27.

Viva Las Vegas!!

So the day has finally come, tomorrow is the day I've been waiting for now for over 3 years. PEARL JAM IN CONCERT!!!!! Not only that, but the show will be happening in beautiful Sin City, Las Vegas! I can't wait, it's like Christmas Eve for me right now. I'm packin up my bag, go to work early tomorrow so I can get outta there early, board a flight to Vegas, and by 8pm, will be rockin out at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. \m/ (-_-) \m/

After the show, my sister Kathy and I will be chillin at the MGM hotel, which will be the first time I've ever stayed there, and am looking forward to that. The next two days are chill days, mostly days that I will spend drinking or already be drunk. I will meet up with my friend Rachel who lives and works in Vegas, and get to kick it with her for a bit. She's one of my closest friends, and I do miss her very much. It's not often that I get to see her now that she lives in Vegas. Friday night, she will be working with a friend of hers that I absolutely adore, named Terri Lynn. If she wasn't already taken, I would move up there and marry this girl. She's smart, sassy, sexy, the whole package! I can't wait to see her as well, and when the two of them work together at Postrio Restaurant in the Venetian, the drinks are a flyin! The party won't end in Vegas either, I fly back saturday afternoon, and proceed to see PJ here in LA on Sunday and Monday. It will be 5 days of heaven for me in July.

I hope you all have a good weekend, and I will be back with pics to share of my trip to Vegas!