July 12th, 2003
Hersheypark Stadium
Hershey, Pennsylvania
Sleater-Kinney

Ed Solo Pre-Set...
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
Main Set...
Love Boat Captain, Last Exit, Animal, Do The Evolution, Help Help, Grievance, Get Right, Elderly Woman, Immortality, Even Flow, Deep, Lukin/Corduroy, Thumbing My Way, Thin Air, Once, Insignificance, Rearviewmirror
First Encore...
Driven To Tears, Whipping, Glorified G, Daughter/ABITW, Crazy Mary, Alive
Second Encore...
State Of Love And Trust, Rockin' in the Free World

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Oh Hershey, Pennsylvania. What an adventure that was.

The day before the show, Bob, Kirk, and I drove to Pennsylvania and met up with Rob. We spent the night and left early in the morning to get to Hershey. From what I remember, we made pretty decent time. Probably "too" good time. There were no fan club tickets. We probably could've gotten there later...but you get anxious, and you just gotta get to the venue.

None of our buddies were really around, save for Simon, so the four of us decided to try to have as much fun as we possibly could have in Hershey, PA. We tried to have fun for free at Hersheypark. We ate very bland overpriced food at the food court. We messed around with souvineers. We were not very entertained. Eventually we decided we had to leave the world of Hersheypark and see if the sky was brighter on the other side. First, we went to the outlet mall. What a pathetic outlet mall. We drove around the entire thing, and there was nothing that sparked our interest. So then we decided to drive all around Hershey to find something fun. It didn't take long for us to discover Hershey is not that fun of a town when we saw the Dairy Queen had gone out of business. I would say the most entertaining thing that happened pre-show this day was that we found a "free" table set up in front of someone's house. It had a bunch of toys and useless junk on it. We stopped. Rob took a Marge Simpson figurine and decided she would bring us good luck in Atlantic City the next day (turns out Marge was not good luck and Rob abandoned her ass somewhere on the eastern side of this country).

Things started to feel more normal and exciting when we got back to the venue and saw that more faces were showing up. Then things turned poopy when around dinner time, a travel buddy decided it would be a good time to fight with me...over nothing. It was awesome! It was then it started accumulating in my head: people are being poopheads, this is my 50th show... and then I realized that I was sitting alone...for my 50th show.

I never have problems with sitting alone. I've done it before. But one of the factors that makes going to multiple shows that much more fun and interesting...is being around your Pearl Jam friends at the shows. And everyone was going to be sitting near each other for this show...and there I was going to be, up in the stands, by myself, "Happy 50th, Jessica!"

I was so bummed, that I didn't even care to get into the venue for Ed's pre-set. I sat right outside the gate, my back turned to the stage, listening to the pre-set. Did I really have to go into that venue? An aquaintance decided to be my "angel" that night and make sure I sat with everyone else. I was so thankful for his persistance and how he went out of the way for me. I couldn't have been any more thankful.

This show turned out to be sooooo good, too. Help Help...HELLO! I was just wishing for one Help Help this tour...and I got a second helping in Hershey. I was more than pleased. And then Glorified G later in the set...

The spectacularness of that is ALMOST enough to make me ignore Ed's comments at this show. As a female lacking double D breast's, I did in fact take offense to his comments he made to the girl who flashed her breasts. I just thought it was way lame and way too macho to comment on the size of her breasts. It made me think that if she had big boobs, he wouldn't have even made the comment. It makes me think like WHY he even had to say anything...Philly 2000 was a total Boobfest; I had never seen so many naked boobs at a Pearl Jam concert, EVER...why was it not a big deal three years ago...but it was a big deal with one chick with small boobies in 2003? I thought Ed was a complete asshole this night...and if I were 15, I would've been crushed and probably lost all faith in the band because of his comments. Really, I'm serious. Out of line.

And with that said...it was a great show (aside from his lame comments). I was excited about going to Atlantic City the next day (haha, yeah, I know, I shouldn't have been all that excited over that place) and then the final stop on the tour...
 
 

08.08.04

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