April 25th, 2003
Gund Arena
Cleveland, Ohio
Sparta

Main Set...
Can't Keep, Corduroy, Grievance, Save You, Do The Evolution, Given To Fly, Small Town, Love Boat Captain, I Am Mine, Even Flow, Present Tense, Jeremy, Lukin, Not For You, Thumbing My Way, Spin The Black Circle, Alive
First Encore...
You Are, Animal, Daughter/WMA/People Have the Power, State of Love and Trust, Black
Second Encore...
Patriot, Driven To Tears, Better Man, Crazy Mary, Sonic Reducer, Rocking In The Free World

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The week between Nashville/Atlanta and Cleveland/Pittsburgh flew by. I got home from Atlanta and was not bummed in the least---I had a mere four more days to go until I saw Pearl Jam again. Heh.

We left quite early in the morning from Detroit. Arrived at the box office relatively early and there was a decent line started. All morning long it was great. The weather wasn't too bad and the sun was beaming down. Then, the sun disappeared and I went off to the mall. I can't take "cold" at all.

Rich and I ended up with front row tickets for this show. I swear, I'm super spoiled. It also happened that Kirk was going to be sitting next to us in the front row. How cute, the three travel buds sitting together...

I skipped watching Sparta. Not cause they entirely suck but because I really had no interest in them what-so-ever and I did not want to look bored while sitting in the front row. Plus, they are too loud for my poor ears.

When we had walked into Gund Arena and all purchased our posters, we noticed Mike McCready was sitting around in the concourse doing a radio interview. We were quite intrigued by this. A line formed for autographs. Though we were standing a distance from the autograph line, the autograph line grew quickly and we ended up being in the autograph line like three times. We had to keep moving. A-nnoy-ing.

So yeah, we had great seats. We were ready to rawk. We were dead center up on Ed. I was closest to Stone out of the three of us (sigh! LOL). They came out and opened with Can't Keep...which was great but I wasn't as amped on it then as I am now. I really love that song but I was sorta tired so I guess I wasn't all with it. 2nd song was Corduroy...nothing like one of the greatest Pearl Jam shows to be the first rocker of the set, eh? They continued to pound away at the guitars and threw more rockers at us (Grievance, Save You, and Do The Evolution).

Then came the calm time...Given to Fly through I Am Mine---not that I am complaining. And I don't care what anyone says...I welcome Elderly Woman with open arms at every show. I think it's a great live song, though I think it's more effective outdoors.

Couldn't believe we got Present Tense. I love that song...but being up close and seeing/hearing it is another experience altogether. Song is great. No doubt about it.

Lukin went straight into Not For You which was really rad and felt so oddly natural. Kind of weird that they would go into Thumbing My Way next and then go into Spin the Black Circle...but I have no say in these things. And plus, this was a good thing for me. After Thumbing My Way Ed gave me a pick. He probably gave it to me because I was probably the only person in the arena singing the song because I just know how much everyone loves this song. And now looking back...it had such a great position in the set;-P But yeah...got my first Ed pick. Fun times. Cleveland, Ohio.

Alive closed the set. And You Are opened the first encore. This is another one of those songs I enjoy hearing live and the majority doesn't. Plus, Stone does that sweet little dance with his legs from side to side. Totally wedding-singer-like or something. He's such a dork...but so much fun at the same time!

During Black...the crowd sang so loudly during Mike's solo. It was quite beautiful...though by the time we got to hear it in other cities...the effect sort of wore off;-)

Second encore began with the "new" Patriot...which I very much enjoyed. I have seen Patriot (old school Ed solo) a couple of times...and loved it...but I think this is an interesting re-do. I give it two thumbs up.

I got my first Driven to Tears next. Which is fun stuff. Hell yeah. I also got Sonic Reducer again: ain't no complainin' here!

During Crazy Mary...Ed gave his wine bottle to Kirk. The bottle was not passed to me. I was upset :-( I had been starring at that damn bottle all night because it looked cold-ish and I was hotter than hell. I guess I need to grow up a bit more...become at least 6 feet tall so I can be more aggressive;-) Oh well. Maybe some other time. My life has gone on! Haha...

Rocking in the Free World...left me scared and also pissed. Let me tackle scared first. Ed had gone off to the side of the stage (Stone's side) like he usually does with his tamborines to throw one into the crowd/get the crowd amped. On his way back to the stage, he lost his footing and fell off the stage. It was the scariest thing I have ever witnessed at a Pearl Jam show. It was an intense fall and Ed should be thanking his lucky stars he didn't knock his noggin on the stage. Everyone came rushing over to him to help him and he kept putting his arms out to leave him alone. He just sort of stood there for awhile hunched over to collect himself. People, again, tried to help him and he started getting pissed off. His shoe had been jacked up on his foot and it took him awhile to fix it. When help was offered (again) to get him back on the stage, he started sorta flail some fists. He was very upset. And this is why the show ended with Rocking in the Free World. Everyone else grabbed their guitars for what I am assuming WAS going to be Yellow Ledbetter...but Ed had it. Ah well.

So why did I end up getting pissed? At the end of Rocking in the Free World, Stone threw his pick and it landed right in front of me on the other side of the rail. Rich started to lift me but I got all freaked out about landing on my head. And that's when my pick was picked up by someone else and handed to a stupid person who shall remain nameless. It's just a pick...but it was Lucky Lucas and I missed out on owning a Lucky Lucas...

Anyhow...
Besides my "upsets" (which were all trivial...'cept for Ed falling), this show was pretty solid. I give it my stamp of approval...
 
 

05.05.03

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