Pearl Jam

Last night Matt and I went to the Pearl Jam concert here in Toronto. Our friend Garo got us tickets and backstage guest passes along with 5 other friends. We met at the Air Canada Center at 6pm and Garo's friend Chris (the sound guy) took us on a backstage tour. We didn't get to meet the band but met the yoga teacher. I was so impressed to find out that they do yoga while on tour! Before the opening act went on Eddie Vetter made a surprise performance. The lights went down and he walked on stayed. Cheers and screams filled the ACC as he began to play. His wife and 2 year old little girl were looking on from the side of the stage. After he played one song he introduced the opening act and they played for about 45mins.

We stayed back stage until 8:15pm when we were told by a huge body guard that we couldn't stay back stage while the show was going on. Chris thought that we would be fine to hang out backstage but apparently they needed to get the VIP's sorted out back stage first and if there was room for us they would come get us and bring us back. We weren't holding our breath at the thought of coming back and assumed that the VIP's were more important than we were. So we said thank you to Chris for the tickets and the tour and headed to our seats. The show started and about 10 mins later Garo got a text message saying that the VIP's were none other than U2! They had a concert 2 nights prior and Pearl Jam & crew went to it. I guess they wanted to return the favour. WOW! We could totally see the whole band on the side of the stage...it was way too cool. The concert was much better than I thought it would be. I have to admit I'm not a huge Pearl Jam fan but loved them about 10 years ago. That was probably the last time I heard any of their songs. I was surprised how many songs I reconized. They did 3 encores and the very last song they turned on all the lights and the crowd went nuts! Then to top it all off Bono came on stage and sung the last song with Eddie and they both played the tamborine! It was awesome! What a night!

Just wanted to share my crazy night...until next time.