What's with you and Pearl Jam? III

PART THREE: Lightning Bolt European Tour, 2014

PART THREE: Lightning Bolt European Tour, 2014

Pearl Jam’s six January 2014 shows in Australia were too far to travel at that stage in our lives, but the Summer 2014 European Tour presented an attractive opportunity for everyone.  We looked at each of the twelve possible cities, but the draw of “The Land of Pasta,” as my then-nine year old daughter Molly named it, was undeniable.  The bangers in Bletchley, UK or spaetzle in Wein, Austria never stood a chance against the culinary appeal of Italy!   

The June 24^th Milan show gave the four of us the opportunity to wrap a 10-day Italian Tour around a simple three-hour concert, so went my logic.  As a city, Milan doesn’t present much of interest to families, but Rome and Venice are on everyone’s “life bucket list.”  We spent hours at the Colosseum (built by slaves), tried Rome’s Hop-on-Hop-off tour bus (looks more useful than it is), rode in a few Gondolas, and saw an awesome show of François Pinault’s collection of Irving Penn photographs at Mr. Pinault’s Palazzo Grassi Museum in Venice.  We even had our own mussel-eating contest (Emerson won, with > 100).

Pro Tip: Go to the effort of using a combination of Trip Advisor and word-of-mouth advice to make the most of your family tour time in these world famous cities. Splurging on a €100 tour guide in The Colosseum, for example, is going to give the kids the best chance to learn as you wander around. And figure out your meal plan as best you can; while there are thousands of restaurants, knowing where you plan to eat helps prevent an “Urban Trip Failure.” If you love artichokes, you could do worse than Il Giardino Romano, for example.

At this phase of our touring, Molly still wasn’t ready for her first show, so Emerson and I left the girls at the hotel pool and headed out to our first Ten Club General Admission lottery experience.

The San Siro Stadium is one of the largest in Europe, and the steep angle of the stands seems well-suited for a concert.  It was close to 100F, but we spent a few happy hours that afternoon sitting on the ground, watching Italy play Costa Rica in the 2014 World Cup on Pearl Jam’s repurposed video screens. 

It turned out that we didn’t have to go as early as we did, as there were two versions of General Admission.  One for 10 Club ticket holders that was closest to the stage, requiring a 10C wristband, and then a “true” GA behind us with its own, separate, paddock.  I can only assume that this was a decision made by the local promoter, and we had no idea until we arrived, around 4pm for an 8:25pm show.  (Pro Tip: Unless you don’t mind hanging in the rear 15 feet of the section, I’d avoid GA until your kids are at least 12 years of age …particularly in the “beer drinking countries” of Europe.  The kids won’t be able to see anything {which defeats the purpose of the night}, the young male slam-dancers of Central Europe are indifferent to anyone around them, and holding a 60 or 80-pound child on your hip for a couple of hours {as I tried to do in Prague} to give them a view is a Herculean task for most of us.) 

San Siro might have opened in 1926, but the slit-trench bathrooms were a throwback to Roman times.  During one line-up, a young woman approached Emerson and shared a beautiful, if wistful, moment: “My Dad took me to see Pink Floyd when I was around your age, and I can remember it to this day.  When you’re 35, you’ll remember this night.”

We met folks from around the world, and Emerson was asked to pose for photos by fans from Hamilton, Ont., Leeds, UK, Rome, Santa Monica, CA, and so forth.

At one point in the late afternoon, hours before showtime, Ed came out onstage alone to check-in on how we were all faring in the hot sun.  Perhaps he was trying to cheer the Italian fans up in the wake of Italy’s 1-0 World Cup loss that we’d all just witnessed. He played Porch on an acoustic guitar, which hinted at the very special night to come. 

The show itself was one of our all-time favourites.  And it wasn’t just because the band extended the evening for an incredible 34 songs!  Although Emerson only got three of his nine song requests, he danced up a storm to Lightning Bolt, and lucked out with #1 favourite Sad for the second time in four shows (surprising considering it appears just 13% of the time). 

Ed talked a lot that night, and the crowd liked the idea of the band and their families moving to Italy, rather than having the crowd move to Seattle.  This show’s rendition of Daughter goes down as my own all-time favourite, of the 26 different live versions that I’ve seen so far.  I particularly love the “tags” that he often adds on to this particular song, and we got three different ones in a row: W.M.A./Let It Go/ It’s OK.  These three tags also happen to be the best of the dozens of different ones that he’s utilized across 551 airings (to date); fellow parents will recall that Disney’s Frozen movie was huge that summer, and Ed’s young daughters were very visible on the side stage at this point in the night.  When the song was over, he looked over at them and shouted, with a smile: “Let it Go!” 

I’ve always thought he was telling his two daughters: “you see, I can do Frozen,” which also happens to be Disney’s most-streamed song in history.

By the time the first encore came around, things were quite warm in the GA pit, so Emerson took off his shirt and kept right on dancing.  He would have fit right in at Woodstock, perhaps!

After the show was over, we humped our way for a couple of miles before finding a taxi.  I was surprised by his energy level as we approached midnight, but that was the last time I didn’t pre-arrange a pickup from a non-North American show.  While I have a natural sense of safety within a crowd that’s streaming out of an arena at 11:30 p.m., you’re in a foreign country with no ability (I expect) to converse beyond your Mother Tongue should the need arise.  Pro Tip: You don’t want your seven year-old’s memory of the show to be muddled by any extended confusion around getting to bed. Nor do you want your better half to justifiably question the wisdom of the next tour!

MRM ©

(this post, like all blogs, is an Opinion Piece)