What's with you and Pearl Jam? VI

PART SIX: NORTH AMERICAN TOUR 2016

PART SIX: NORTH AMERICAN TOUR 2016

Between Miami, Columbia, SC, Toronto (x2) and Fenway (x2), it was a memorable year.

All of which started with a low moment:  Emerson was desperately trying to cut open a coconut from our Miami hotel property using a sharp steak knife that he’d found poolside, and almost severed a finger.  Six medical staff and security guards came to his aid, which serves to remind how well we are taken care of in North America.  He missed the Miami show and our GA tickets as a result, although the wound healed without a scar. (Pro Tip: although we didn’t need it in this case, it’s a reminder that out-of-country medical insurance is a good idea).

The B-B-Q in South Carolina was fantastic, and Fenway is unique in its own right (Pro Tip: some Boston fans are there to get very drunk, first and foremost; and the wafting of nearby Pot smoke may be a problem for your little ones). Fortunately, we were able to get a photo at the end of the show without the aforementioned cloud of smoke (only half-joking). 

Molly (now age 11 at this point) finally broke down and started attending the shows (Toronto #1 being her first), rather than just seeing the sights of the cities in question.  As fate would have it, a chain of events led us to being very close to the stage for her inaugural outing.  She danced most of the evening, sung along to her favourite songs (Better Man, Elderly Woman) as part of what I’d call was otherwise a “tough setlist,” and was rewarded for her enthusiasm with a tambourine from Eddie Vedder at the end of the night.

More importantly, her sign for night #1 requested just a pair of songs. It read: “For Me – DAUGHTER For My Dad: BREATH, and we got them both at hometown night #2.

Now, I can’t guarantee you that EV had an opportunity to take careful note of her sign’s song requests over the course of that first of two Toronto concerts.  What I do know is this:

-  i) Both Daughter & Breath were played at Toronto 2016 night #2, which was the very next opportunity;

- ii) Of the 68 PJ shows that were mounted between 2014 - 2016, Breath was only played seven times (Breath appears in just 9/100 shows, on average);

- iii) Of the seven shows where Breath made the set list between 2014-16, Daughter was played just twice during those seven concerts (at Toronto #2 and Hampton, VA). Given that Daughter has made the cut at 67% of Pearl Jam’s concerts since the track’s live debut in 1992, according to PJ StatTracker, one can’t ignore that it made the set list immediately after Molly’s request – and not on 5 of the 6 other night’s that Breath was aired over that three year period;

- iv) Molly is justifiably convinced that she got my song onto the setlist, and who am I to argue? Particularly when she and Ed had met six months earlier in Argentina. As you’d suspect, “he knows me” makes these tours all the more fun for any kid.

After the show was finished, we had the good fortune to spend some time with Ed backstage, and spoke about his avid support of Venture Philanthropy (there’s an explainer on the topic from Stanford here). As someone who has worked in-and-around entrepreneurs and Venture Capitalists for more than two decades as a venture debt General Partner and later, innovation banker, the depth of his insight into our sector — and how to harness it for the good of humankind — was impressive. These were no talking points, and considering he’d just expended a few thousand KJ of energy over the 33-song setlist, EV was incredibly engaged and focused. He asked Molly about all of her various travels on previous tours, recalled their time in Argentina, and kindly cracked: “ Can your Dad adopt me?”

Now, given Ed’s well-documented experiences with his own Father and Stepfather, I took it as the highest compliment.

Emerson missed the show, thanks to a poorly-timed school overnight bike trip, and Ed was kind enough to send us home with a memento as a modest solace.

It doesn’t get any better than this for a PJ fan, now does it?

MRM ©

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