Pearl Jam Tour Diary #1: So It Begins
Shaun Gibson is trekking across Canada following Pearl Jam as they tour from coast to coast. This is his first tour diary for ChartAttack.
George, WA and Vancouver, BC

Think of your favourite (non-Canadian) band. Now imagine that band announcing plans to cross the border and play a 16-show cross-Canada tour. What is the logical reaction?

Well, if it were me and that band was Pearl Jam, I'd buy tickets through their fan club to 13 of those shows, as well as tickets to their home-state warm-up show, invite four guests to accompany me to different shows and not think twice about the whole thing. And that is exactly what I did.

On September 1, I saw Pearl Jam play a warm-up show for their Canadian tour in the town of George, Washington (seriously, check your atlas kids), at the most scenic amphitheater I could ever imagine. Living 1,500 miles away from George presented difficulty in getting to the venue, which is situated on a mountain/cliff in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, I had my trusty sidekick at my side to quell this dilemma: you would not believe how quickly my credit card conducted online flight booking, and car rentals.

My plane took off from Winnipeg on Thursday morning at 7 a.m. and got me and a friend to Vancouver by 9:25 a.m. local time. From there, a four hour car ride to the Gorge Amphitheatre gave me adequate time to become familiar with a friend's loaned iPod.

By 4 p.m., my travel companion and I had arrived. We picked up our tickets and found ourselves admiring the hundreds of people sitting on cliff edges within the venue while waiting for the show to begin. With no opening band, I had no idea what was in store for us. By the end of the show, the band had played a 36-song set, including a nine-song acoustic set, the revival of most welcomed b-side "Hard To Imagine" and several unsuccessful pleas for the venue's next night headliner Tom Petty to come down to the venue.

Instead of braving the three-hour line-up to leave the parking lot, we decided to sleep in the car instead. It wasn't until we were awoken by a man in a batman costume, walking by the car that we drove back to our hotel. An hour of sleep later, it was time to head back to Vancouver to start the Canadian tour.

Crossing back into Canada was weird. We got yelled at by a border officer who was playing with his nipples (some things I was never meant to understand). I dropped my guest and the rental car off at the airport in Vancouver. Then, through clever use of hotel shuttles, met up with my second guest, my mother, who had flown into Vancouver the night before to prepare for her third Pearl Jam show (coolest mom ever!).

I should note that fan club tickets can only be picked up the day of the show from the venue box office and we have no prior knowledge of where our seats are. My motherly guest and I went to G.M. Place to get these tickets. Tenth row, on guitarist Stone Gossard's side of the stage, was fine by her. Within a few hours, opening band The Supersuckers took to the stage to play a rocking 45 minutes, including bringing a masked Eddie Vedder to sing a song with them. Pearl Jam's 29-song set that night consisted of most of their hits ("Black," "Alive," "Even Flow") many staples of their set ("Wishlist," "Grievance") and some rarities ("Bee Girl," "U"). The band's intensity, combined with the amazing sold-out audience made for a very memorable show.

The band had a day off on Saturday, which is nice because it gave me time to travel to Victoria to visit family and catch a Ted Leo & the Pharmacists gig. Next stop: Calgary and Edmonton!

—Shaun Gibson