PART TWO: Lightning Bolt North American Tour, 2013
Although the adventure wasn’t going to be as cosmopolitan as Berlin (see prior post “What's with you and Pearl Jam?,” Sept 3-23), the 2013 North American tour saw the successful launch of “@PearlJamFamily.” We even set up our own anonymous Instagram account as a way to connect with other fans on the road. Initially, PJ management had announced just two shows for 2013: London, Ontario and Wrigley Field, which meant that we had to strike fast. An outdoor stadium seemed too massive for a good first experience, so I set our sights on the London, Ontario evening. That I’d been born there, and returned later in life to attend university, meant that we wouldn’t need a tour guide.
A short 90-minute drive from our Toronto home, London was almost perfect for Emerson’s first Pearl Jam concert at the age of six. The car ride was long enough for him to have a quick nap, but it was certainly a handy destination relative to what is now a normal intercontinental trip for us (we’ve had the good fortune to see shows in 14 different countries, and counting, over the last decade). London’s not a very big town, and I wasn’t able to swing tickets via the approved methods given the i) small arena and ii) what seemed to be a huge interest from New York City denizens, who hadn’t had a hometown show since the Spring of 2010. Lucky for us, the in-person scalper industry was still alive and well at the time, and I was able to buy a pair of reserved floor seats, perhaps 20 rows back. (Pro Tips: i) go for reserved seats when your kids are under 10-12; ii) proximity to the stage will likely have a big influence on your kid’s ability to fully engage in the show; iii) before you gasp at the price of better tickets, recall what it costs to be 20 rows from the ice at an NHL game, for example)
My son was fascinated that I could go to a bank machine and withdraw a bunch of $20 bills and exchange them for tickets with a guy (“Johnny”) I’d never met. I’m not sure this was the first “life-lesson” I wanted to flow from the trip, but what can you do?
After loading up on root beer and nacho’s at Joe Kool’s Restaurant, we headed in. (Pro tip: child-sized PJ attire is essential but requires some planning, so don’t leave it to the last minute. The ballcap came from Berlin’s merch booth, and the T-shirt was from the band’s web store. The glow-stick around the neck was Mommy’s neat idea. For those of you who think it’s anti-cool to put your kids in PJ gear, that’s your call. If you’re going to go “all-cool” with an Iron Maiden shirt, make sure your kid knows the name of at least one song, in case they bump into Mike McCready — ‘cause he’ll ask the question, and you’ll feel foolish if it turns out they have no idea why he’s asking!)
If you think this photo looks familiar, that’s because the Pearl Jam social media team reshared it on March 21, 2020 with the question: “How old were you at your first Peal Jam concert?” The post generated over a thousand responses, and I’m sure the PJ team would agree that it was one of their highest engagement Twitter posts ever.
Some of the Twitter replies included a fan by the name of Rick Friel: “I was at the first one! So I was 24.” @TyJQ posted a photo of a concert ticket from 1993, along with: “15…Blind Melon, Pearl Jam and Neil Young at the Gorge. Changed my life forever – long live rock ‘n roll.”
The setlist was the perfect collection of familiar hits (Small Town, Corduroy, GTF, Even Flow, Not For You, Black, Porch, Daughter, DTE, etc.) for my six-year old newbie. As a bonus, he got 5 of his 7 song requests. (Pro Tip: the kids had fun making their signs for the show, it helps with their engagement that evening, and other fans love seeing them as well.) The London show was Emerson’s first introduction to “Sad,” which somehow became the unlikely favourite of the entire PJ song catalogue. I’m not sure what was more distracting that night: the fellow with the ZZ-Top beard joyfully head-banging in the row behind us, or the MLB All-Star game that was on display at the pizza concession and faintly visible from our seats. (Pro Tip: Coca-cola {caffeine} is better than candy {sugar} if you’re worried about how a kid under 10 can get through the entire evening of festivities; recall that shows at that time might go until 11:25 p.m.)
The poster for that evening was impossible to come by at the time, but I was able to get it off E-Bay many years later and it is the only one of the 19 shows he’s seen so far to make the cut to hang in Emerson’s bedroom at the cottage. Will it make it to a university dorm wall someday? Excellent question.
That following morning, we toured the University of Western Ontario (it’s never too early to start lobbying for your alma mater), my old residence, the Sigma Chi fraternity house, had breakfast at the same diner where I’d nursed the odd hangover in decades gone by, and headed home.
Before too long, the balance of the Fall 2013 North American tour was released. The Friday/Saturday combo of Pittsburgh, PA / Buffalo, NY stood out as being both handy geographically and feasible with his school schedule. There’s no doubt that we missed a kindergarten class or two that Thursday/Friday, but I was hoping that we’d have time to make it up at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, for example.
This would be our first time crossing an international border, which required some serious planning. We had arranged to get NEXUS cards (Pro Tip: a must-have US/Canada I.D. program; paired with U.S. CBP Global Entry), which means you’ve attended a special interview and have had your background checked in great detail (criminal, professional, prior travel history, etc.). The program makes for far shorter customs lines and an easier overall entry process, whether travelling by air or car. No matter where you’re from, if you’re going to travel solo with pre-teen kids, my additional (Pro Tip) advice is to get a notarized travel authorization letter executed by the other parent. Not something handwritten by your spouse, but an actual legal document that can’t be refused as evidence that you’re not some crazy Rocker, spiriting the child away under the guise of a concert. It sure came in handy when I pulled up at the Lewiston Bridge U.S. Customs and Border Protection Security booth in October 2013. After I presented our passports and Nexus cards, the Q&A went something like this:
Female CBP Officer: “What’s the purpose of your trip?”
Me: “We are going to see Pearl Jam in Pittsburgh.”
Officer: “You’re taking that little kid to a rock concert?” Emerson hadn’t yet turned seven.
Me: “Yes.”
Officer, now incredulous: “Really?
Me: “I have a letter here from his Mother…. We are going to go to some museums, too.” I tried to hand the notarized letter over at that point, but she didn’t take it.
Officer: “Alright. You’re free to go.”
As we drove off, I turned to my son and said something that I later regretted: “Don’t tell Mommy about that. She’ll be convinced that the Border Guard thinks that she’s a bad Mom.”
Compared to London, Ont., Emerson’s song request for Pittsburgh was both larger (11 songs) and went beyond the usual hits: Sad, Down, Hail Hail, YLed. Although he only got 6/11, I was blessed with Unthought Known into Rearviewmirror at the end of the first set, which to this day remains on my Apple iTunes “Dream Concert” playlist. The Pittsburgh show had a crazy moment when Jason Grilli, a Pirates relief pitcher at the time, jumped up and down on-stage during Whipping (his favourite song, we assumed) as though he was on a pogo stick. Although Emerson hadn’t heard of “Grill Cheese” at that point (Instagram: @GrillCheese49), our son is an avid sports fan. It was immediately clear to him that the band had some cool friends -- professional ball players who were very excited to be at a concert. Grilli would later wind-up with our Toronto Blue Jays, and we cheered extra loudly whenever he was called to the mound (Even Flow was his walk-up song, as I recall). The Pittsburgh setlist was also notable for the absence of both Corduroy and Even Flow (how often has that ever happened in a thousand concerts?), but Emerson got his first Pendulum, Lightning Bolt, Animal, and Faithfull.
Hitting the in-arena merch line when the good stuff is still available is usually very tough (or unwise) when you have kids in tow, and this show was no different. For whatever reason, Munk One’s 2013 Pittsburgh poster has been impossible to acquire at anything less than $1,000, even a decade later. Not happening! (Pro Tip: Lining up at 12:45 pm for the outdoor merch tent is a bad use of time; that’s going to spill into either nap time, a chance to spend 45 minutes at the local Art Museum, or an opportunity to do something fun in the eyes of your Little One — a sure way to turn what should be a fun “show day” into a grumpy one for all concerned.)
While driving on the Interstate to Buffalo the following day, we saw a roadside Go-Cart track and made an unscheduled stop. (Pro Tip: the benefit of these trips is that you can be much more spontaneous than is normally possible in our kid’s otherwise heavily-programmed lives.)
As we were walking from the parking lot to the arena on the night of the show, a fellow fan came up to Emerson and asked: “Is this your first show?” “Number three,” was his reply. “Your third? How old are you? This is only my second, and I’m 26.”
His two Twenty-something friends found this all quite funny, and I got the first of many approving nods that you get in such interactions from younger men. Had this been your usual Buffalo Sabres vs. Toronto Maple Leafs NHL game, no one would have been surprised to see a six-year old boy in attendance. But a concert? A very rare occurrence. I have no idea why we do one but not the other. (Pro tip: eat dinner before you go to the show, and then supplement should the need arise; you’d be surprised what they serve – and don’t – at the concession stand in Santiago, Chile, for example.)
If you asked Emerson today, he’d tell you that the Buffalo show stands out in his memory as it was the first time that he had to deal with very drunk fans. As luck would have it, we had a couple of vintage, middle-aged Canadian Hosers sitting in the row right behind us. They’d driven almost six hours to see the band, and they were not going to miss their Saturday Night Party! We were still in the first set when Emerson turned to me and said: “Dad, they’re spilling beer on me!” The second time it happened, I turned and tried to reason with them. They were apologetic, but between double-fisting huge 16 oz. cups and the jumping around to the music, there was no avoiding it. All I could think about was what the Canadian Customs guard might say when we crossed over later that evening to sleep at our Niagara Falls, Canada hotel (Pro Tip: pay in the cheaper currency whenever you can, and get a USD VISA from CIBC to save on the currency friction costs.)
The Buffalo setlist brought him his first live versions of Go, Rats, SOLAT and Baba O’Riley. (Pro tip: plan your bathroom breaks, particularly on Friday / Saturday nights when the beer is flowing.)
I doubt that we didn’t make up for whatever was missed in those Kindergarten classes, all those years ago.
MRM ©
(this post, like all blogs, is an Opinion Piece)