Pearl Jam Diary #2: Just Show Them The Shirt

When we last left our traveling fan, Shaun Gibson, he was just at the beginning of his cross-Canada Pearl Jam expedition. After a couple of shows, he's handling the road pretty well, calmly encountering a nipple-rubbing border cop and attending a concert with his mother. Now the tour stops in Alberta, where two cities have been battling it out for provincial superiority for years...

Calgary and Edmonton:

Arriving in Calgary by plane Sunday morning, I met up with my third travel partner who had driven west from Winnipeg. Jeremy (appropriate name, don't you think?) is with me from Calgary to Saskatoon and then from London until my last show of the tour in Quebec City.

He was excited as I had imagined he would be for his first show of this tour (his fifth Pearl Jam show overall). We headed to the Calgary Saddledome to retrieve our fan club tickets, and several friendly fans greeted us with the same mission. Over the course of several shows, I have come to learn that this fan bonding is almost as fun as the actual Pearl Jam performances.

We gladly accepted our ninth row floor seats, and made our way to the lovely Broken City Social Club for a pre-show meal with several of our Calgary friends.

After discussing our song wishlists, and excitement, we drove back to the Saddledome just in time for the opening of the doors. It was here that I first encountered problems. Security at this show was terrible. I have never been so hassled going into a show in my entire life. Ridiculous searches and ignorant security guards left me very distracted as we arrived at our seats.

Once there, however, there was absolutely nothing to complain about. The view was incredible and the fans around us were so friendly (several of whom sat beside us again in Edmonton, and we can expect their company for a third time in Saskatoon).

The show was pretty great. I realized that, except for one song change, The Supersuckers would be playing the same set every night (sadly, not every band can cater to touring fans). The stage banter from Pearl Jam was a bit tamer than the previous two shows, but Eddie Vedder still had the crowd chuckling on quite a few occasions.

Guitarist Stone Gossard had one of his more energetic shows and was much more animated than I have seen in recent years. In contrast, Pearl Jam's touring keyboardist, Boom Gaspar, was barely showcased at all in that night's set, not even taking a single solo that I can remember. Little did I know he was saving it all for Edmonton.

We arrived in Edmonton on Monday afternoon, still reeling from Sunday's post show Humpty's grilled cheese sandwiches. The ride out was generously donated by two Pearl Jam fans whom we had met only hours before the Calgary show. In exchange for the ride, Jeremy gave them his extra fan club tickets. It was a great trade, as they ended up sitting only a few rows up off the floor, directly to the side. We were even luckier, with seats just left of center in the fifth row on the floor, in Edmonton's lovely Rexall Place.

Earlier I spoke of the friendly fans at Pearl Jam shows, but this sealed the deal. Our newfound friends from the Calgary show showed up chatty as ever, invited us to a post-show party; the girl in front of us had a giant "Thank you" poster that she would give to the band later in the night; and there was a chatterbox Australian woman to our right.

As for the show itself, aside from Eddie's ragging on Saskatoon, guitarist Mike McCready ruled the night, with Gaspar on the keyboards in a close second. Tearing it up with his guitar soloing on the majority of the songs, McCready had the entire audience in awe as he stood at the edge of the stage during "Even Flow" and "Yellow Ledbetter."

During the once-rare "Crazy Mary," McCready and Gaspar stood together having a multi-minute dueling solo session, much to the delight of the crowd. Even the security guard near us (who was friendly and happily told us tales of how he saw every Stanley Cup win by the Gretzky-led Oilers) loved the show.

I walked away feeling like this was without a doubt the better of the two Alberta shows, but in typical Pearl Jam fashion, our ride back to the hotel was adamant about Calgary being far better (possible hometown bias there).

To close this Alberta session of Pearl Jam 2005, Jeremy conducted a test as we walked the halls of the West Edmonton Mall: "What will happen if I unzip my hoodie, and expose my Pearl Jam shirt underneath?" Sure enough, within about two minutes we were engaged in conversation with a fellow touring jammer about what shows we'd been to and where we were going to.

—Shaun Gibson