September 12th, 2011
Air Canada Centre
Toronto, Ontario

Setlist. . .
Go/Animal/Ole/Hail, Hail/In My Tree/Sad/Dissident/Setting Forth/Corduroy/Gods' Dice/ Deep/Garden/Wishlist/Even Flow/Present Tense/Rats/State of Love and Trust/The Fixer/ Porch
First Encore. . .
Last Kiss/Just Breathe/I Got Shit/Light Years/Jeremy/Why Go
Second Encore. . .
Do The Evolution/Alive/Kick Out The Jams/Baba O'Riley/Yellow Ledbetter

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This show was going to particularly bittersweet for me. Here, I was at a show that I had not planned on being at and had the fortune of attending relatively last minute - yet I was not ready to go home. Back to reality. And yet again another instance where a Pearl Jam tour continues on --- gasp --- without me.

My sister and I had a particularly wonderful lunch on this day. The best veggie burger I think I have ever had. All while looking across the street at The Loving Hut - a chain of veggie restaurants that I am fond of. Multiple vegetarian restaurants in one city is seriously the best thing ever.

My sister's plan was to galavant around Toronto while the show was going on - as she had the night before. The only downside is that we were not staying at a hotel at this point so her "homebase" would be the parking lot where the car was parked. She met up with us prior to going into the show at a sports bar where me and Rich and Jay had dinner.

Went on into the venue late - got in towards the end of Mudhoney's set. Took my seat next to Peter. After Mudhoney's set, he was super awesome and handed me his extra ticket and said I could have it for my sister. The challenge was - getting in touch with my sister. I had about 30 minutes to get her a ticket and be back in my seat for the beginning of Pearl Jam's set.

Up for the challenge!

I immediately tried calling her. Like 60 times. She was biking somewhere - so I had no idea how far she was at this point. I tried texting. Everything. Finally, she called me back and was cross (such an old-world word, huh?) I said, "Get your ass over to the venue! I have a ticket for you!" So we talked it out and I told her to meet me at the doors and I would pass the ticket out to her.

I was sooooo antsy, though. As I waited by the doors, someone at the venue asked if I wanted to have my ticket scanned out so I could leave.

Huh?

They do that in Canada?

You mean you can actually LEAVE the venue and come back in? On the same ticket? WOW.

I jumped at this opportunity and darted over to the box office and left my sister's ticket at will call. I frantically texted her to let her know the new game plan. Then I looked down and realized I had a bottle of water that Peter had brought from backstage for me --- how was I going to get this back in the venue?

I got back in the crazy security line to get back in the venue. I put my hoodie over my bottle of water - and bam! I was back in. So grateful! Who wanted to pay for a bottle of water!?!

My sister did not end up getting in until the end of the first/or sometime during the second song but I was so thrilled she got in and was able to rock out with everyone!!! She was also so happy - stating that Peter's ticket was the closest she had ever been to Pearl Jam (I think this was her 4th show not counting the Ed solo show she saw earlier in the summer).

Alright. I was just ready to rock out - my LAST Pearl Jam show for 2011. I didn't like the sound of that - but it makes you appreciate EVERYTHING that much more - yes, even Last Kiss (especially when the band plays it facing the back of the stage).

Show started out great - Go into Animal (what? is this 1993?) Ole was played third and I immediately felt sad that Mike was not there to witness it. He was SO geeked on this song, he may have played it 800 times over on repeat.

In My Tree into Sad and then into one of my favs? Dissident?!? Yes. This is where I belong. So, so, so glad to be there at this point!

Everything that followed was great - Gods' Dice? Nice!!! Feeling SO nostalgic coming off PJ20 - Even Flow was so great to hear, along with everything else from Ten. I swear everything since PJ20 off of Ten felt so much more amplified and kickass!

The remainder of the set was so great...Present Tense, Rats (strangely enough out of the 4 shows my sister has seen, 2 of them have contained Rats, not sure what the band is trying to tell her). Found it was interesting that for a second night in a row, same city, the first set closed with Porch, but again, my buzz from PJ20 was there and I was eating it up!!!

As mentioned previously, the first encore started with a "backwards" Last Kiss...into a now-typical Just Breathe. I Got Shit was awesome - with a nod to Neil with Cinnamon Girl tagged at the end - love it! First encore closed out with Why Go - which is always a good question to ask at a Pearl Jam show.

Second encore seemed a little...foreced? Lazy? I don't know. Do the Evolution to open into Alive...
Kick Out the Jams with Mudhoney - would've been awesome if Ed had paid attention and sang when he was supposed to sing. Poor Mark Arm had to pick up the slack. As if the band hasn't covered it before...but my sister loved it.

Baba O'Riley led into Yellow Ledbetter. One of the grossest things I've witnessed at a Pearl Jam show happened during Baba O'Riley. Ed cut himself on a tamborine (which of the million, one will never know). He was gushing blood from his thumb. I felt bad for him but it was also pretty gross to see the scarlet gushing from his hand. During Ledbetter, he would sometimes blot it with a towel, but otherwise it was exposed. Didn't affect his performance (you gotta give him that) - but again, it was gross. Stone was making some incredible faces during Ledbetter - who knows, maybe it's cause he saw all the blood...?

And that was it. I was so sad. Had to say good bye to my band - good bye to Rich who was continueing on to do the entire tour. I had to go back to work the next afternoon. Would've been so much better to tour Canadia...

Until next time...
 
 

12.31.11

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