July 5th, 2003
Tweeter Center
Camden, New Jersey
The Buzzcocks

Ed Solo Pre-Set...
Throw Your Arms Around Me
Main Set...
Can't Keep, Brain Of J, Save You, Do The Evolution, Spin The Black Circle, Green Disease, Cropduster, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Faithfull, Wishlist, Rockin' In The Free World, 1/2 Full, Love Boat Captain, Breath, I Believe In Miracles, Corduroy, Rearviewmirror
First Encore...
Last Exit, Better Man, Down, Black, Blood
Second Encore...
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, Last Kiss, Baba O'Riley, Yellow Ledbetter

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When I think back to the two Camden shows from 2003, I kinda think, "eh." In my memory, those two shows were "nothing special." The thing is, now that it is a year and a month later, I look at the setlist above...and I'm like...why did I think these shows were poopy? Time to examine my memory...but I know before I even examine it, why I wasn't thrilled at the Philly shows...

Rich and I left for Philadelphia on the night of the 4th. We planned on driving straight through the night to get to Philly. It was kind of a fun adventure [because it was the 4th], we saw many firework displays on our drive through Ohio. We stopped at a rest stop about 4 or 5 am to get some zzz's. Then we were on our way. Now, I had flown to Philadelphia before, but never driven there. Rich and I ended up missing some exit and ended up noth of the city. Yeah, awesome, a detour when the only place we needed to be was the box office. Fan club ticket line: yay, fun.

We probably got to the box office early. It was insane. But we had to do it: we knew fan club requests for Philly were going to be ridiculously out of hand. Dan and Lynn had gotten there before us, so it was nice to have some familiar (and FRIENDLY) faces waiting for us.

Little by little, the rest of the peeps arrived. And it was an AWFUL day waiting in that line. It was SO hot. Miserable. Chris Doerr was my saint that day and brought me a slice of oh-my-gosh-yummy pizza. Mmmm.

Since Chris and I have very very close Fan Club numbers, we ended up with seats right next to each other. Kirk, Doerr, Getto, and I rocked it together for this show. Before the show, we went to an aquaintance's house and hung out for awhile. I remember eating a hardshell taco minus the meet and a Dove bar for dinner: food on the road is always so healthy.

We ended up missing Ed's pre-set because we were late getting back to the venue. This was the only pre-set of Ed's I had ever missed. I mean, I cut it real close in Toronto, but this was the real deal. We were walking to the venue and could hear Ed playing. And the thing is...it was Throw Your Arms Around Me. That is the bestest Ed solo ever and it just totally sucked shit that we missed it because we were being schmucks about getting back to the venue. Let's mark that as negative factor number 1.

Before this show, we walked around trying to get earplugs. I had decided that I needed to start wearing earplugs at PJ shows because I see too many and I don't want to be deaf. The four of us goofballs walked around the venue trying to get earplugs from venue workers. I was the only one that was able to score a pair. At least it kept us busy during The Buzzcocks set. Poo poo to them. It turned out I couldn't wear the earplugs during the show because the muffled sound drove me crazy. Deaf at 24 anyone?

The show opened with Can't Keep...as I've mentioned before, one of my favorite show openers. And then they rocked into Brain of J. So why did I not like this show? Come on, they played Green Disease, Faithfull, Rockin' in the Free World (in the MIDDLE of the set, even, prompted by a fireworks display), Breath, and Down. I know why. It's because I was miserable the entire time because of that stupid venue. I talked about it in my recaps of the Camden 2000 shows: there is no ventilation and when you are down in that pavillion, every ounce of water that is in your body is sweated out. I even recall rolling my shirt up because I couldn't take it...and I am not about to go exposing my belly in public like ever. I was just ready to pass out. I think that can make a person grouchy. Then you throw in Last Kiss...and she may want to kill someone.

Sorry, my Pearl Jam experiences sometimes can be ruined by stupid little factors. I'm sorry. I'm human. Perhaps it also means that I'm a spoiled Pearl Jam brat that should probably see less shows. Who knows. My bitching shall continue on...
 
 

08.08.03

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