http://www.twofeetthick.com/2011/06/edd ... e-29-2011/
NOTES: One of our Twitter followers Tyler Tate (@GoodHenchman) pointed out that Ed played songs from every Pearl Jam album except “Avocado” over the past 2 nights (11 each night if my count is right). Sandwiched in between the 31 total tunes on the setlist this evening, a chatty Ed told some great stories. Fortunately, our eyes and ears in attendance tonight were able to jot down a few notes for us; thanks to SMM and AKM for the fine reporting.
Ed false started “Sleeping By Myself”, saying I’m sorry I feel bad because there is a little boy, an 8-year-old in the front row and this next song…He had the boy stand up, asked “What’s your name?” (Stephen), and said ‘I’m sorry, kid this won’t happen to you until you’re at least 12 or 13’, and then sang the song.
After “Goodbye”, he said “I’m doing one more depressing one and then I’m off to the fucking races.”
After “Can’t Keep”: Ed started to do something, had the red/green flannel shirt on, unbuttoned, looked down and said “What the hell happened here?” There was a giant hole where pocket should be, big enough fit his whole hand through –which he did from behind the shirt. Said “This probably happened in the mid-‘90’s and I’m just now noticing it…speaking of the mid-‘90’s at least I think this was the mid 90’S I don’t know I forget …then went into “Soon Forget”.
Chicago Theatre story: After “Off He Goes” Ed tells a longer story- spoke about when he moved back to Chicago at the age of 17, he was living with his Mom, talking about the Chicago Theatre –that it used to be a movie house that showed porn – only without the porn. He and Mom were going through hard times, and were coming downtown to go to some Government building to apply for Food Stamps. They got in there, and it was a long wait so his Mom told him you don’t have to wait why don’t you walk about for a few hours. It was mid- January, cold outside…he had 17 bucks on him and it cost 2$ to get into Chicago Theatre to watch 2nd run movies, so he came in to watch Superman 2. Got in there, and had to go down to bathroom, at the bottom of the theatre – there were lots of people are down there, since for $2 is was a good way to get in from the cold…Some guy told him they’d sell him 5 joints to 10$ -, to Ed that sounded like a deal, so the guy let him try it. He took one hit & “that was the real deal, so I gave him the ten bucks before I even exhaled. He said that left him with “5 bucks for the rest of the week, but I have 10 joints – what else do you need?” He took those, went to the balcony, which was closed off - you weren’t supposed to go up there because it was dangerous. Ed mentioned, “at this point I don’t think anyone was even working inside the theatre.” He lit up the first joint, started coughing profusely; teling the crowd “I don’t know if you’ve ever smoked pencil shavings before…” – Ed had been scammed. “So I figured out to go back with Mom for last ½ hour of waiting, which was more like 4 hours”. He remembered sitting there in the government building waiting on the food stamps, and thinking “We’ve got to get out of this situation.” He paused and said “Let’s just say Mom’s got a nice place to live now.” Another pause as people cheer, he added “It’s not paid off yet, but….” And then went into ‘I Am Mine’
Rolling Stones story: Prior to “Speed of Sound”, Ed said he wrote the song for Ronnie Wood, but Ronnie never got around to it…Asked the crowd “do you want me to tell a story about Ron Wood & The Stones?”… After the cheers, talked about how when they were opening for the Rolling Stones (in 1997), on a night off Ronnie says to come back to his room, Ed though that “sounds like fun” and it was. When the Stones get a hotel room, each band member has his own floor, with security guards at each end near the elevators. So you have to get past all the security to you get to the room – and that’s where the trouble started. Ron had two huge road cases that travel with him, one with all of his equipment like a TV, CD player, DVD player and turntable, and another with all vinyl and CD’s and DVD’s. Amongst other things. So they spent the night smoking weed and listening to music from hard cases, (impersonating Ron Wood) ”Did you ever hear Junior Walker?” So they are smoking out and listening to music, and the phone rings. Woods’ wife Jo answers saying someone is calling to complain about the loud music, and Ron says to “tell ‘em to fuck off, we’re the Rolling Stones we know what we’re doing!” So she hung up. A few minutes later, the phone rang again with the same complaint; Ron again told Jo to tell them to fuck off, and Jo says “It’s Charlie.” It was Stone’s drummer Charlie Watts calling to tell him to turn it down, because his wife had just flown in to see him. Jo asked Ron ‘how do I turn this down?’ to which Ron replied…”Don’t turn it down, put on something romantic.” Ed later dedicated “Just Breathe” to Charlie Watts & his wife.
Comment about Dad: Someone in the crowd called out something about being Ed’s Dad, and Ed replied “I know you’re not my Dad because my dad’s dead.” Someone called out “I love you Eddie”, he said “It’s okay that my Dad didn’t love me he just didn’t know how…my Dad didn’t even know who I was!” Ed stopped himself and said “What am I getting into up here?”
Explained the reason he was singing “4th of July” was because it reminded him of being in (Chicago’s) Grant Park & riding his bike down there in the summer.
‘Brilliant’ London Bridge Studios: Glen came out for the encore, and Ed told a story about taking his first trip overseas, being at London Bridge Studios when Pearl Jam were making Ten. The recording studio was in the back, and the band were all staying at the house in the front. Ed went into the kitchen, and there was really cool British lady who worked at the house, and she had heard Black. She asked who that was singing, and Eddie said ‘that would be me’. And she replied ‘brilliant’. Ed got all excited because “God knows the guys in the band would never tell me that.” So he went upstairs to write a postcard to tell little brother about it and wrote “Yeah man, I think we’re really on to something here”, so thrilled that the woman thought Black was “brilliant”. He goes downstairs the next morning and Stone is in the kitchen, and the woman is also down there and Stone is making toast (presume the woman asked him to help?-KD), and he puts it in the toaster, pulls down the lever of the toaster, and the woman says “Brilliant.” Ed makes an extremely annoyed face, showing how incredulous he felt upon hearing her referring to the action of Stone pulling the toaster lever down “brilliant.” Later, she hands Ed the peel from an orange and says “Could you put that in the receptacle (trash)?” which Ed does. And the woman says…”Brilliant.” After which Ed heads up stairs, gets the postcard he wrote to his brother tore it into pieces (the gestures of which he reenacted animatedly with ‘tearing’ motions) and “threw it in the receptacle with the orange peel”.
