At 8 p.m. Jack played to an estimated crowd of 70,000 people. Hillary (Vote the Environment) and I were on the side of the stage with Kim Johnson and others from the crew watching the enormous crowd go wild for him. 1/2 way in Eddie Vedder, wearing a Boy Scout shirt (in memory of the scouts who died in Iowa) came and stood by us (with Jeanine Garafalo) before going to join Jack on stage for one song. After the song he came back to the side of the stage and I seized my opportunity to introduce myself as being from Surfrider and being on tour with Jack. I thanked him for all he has done for Surfrider and he said something like "so long as we can still surf..." And I said, "we are working on it!" He shook my hand a couple times (no hug, damn!) before he retreated to his dressing room to prepare for his set.
And what a set it was! Pearl Jam played for a solid 2 hours and 45 minutes with only 2 short breaks, rocking out a crowd of 80,000++. Our "Jack Johnson All Access" laminated passes got us to the same place to watch the whole thing: from the side of the stage. I was about 10 feet from Mike McCready the whole time; any closer and I would have been on the stage itself! I was taking photos with my Optio without a flash, so they aren't that good, but I am hoping to get some better ones from Hillary who has an SLR digi camera. Many of you know that Pearl Jam has been my favorite band for a long, long time, so seeing them play such a blowout show at such close proximity has to be one of the highlights of my life. A couple guys on my bus had never seen PJ play before, and even though they were out in the audience, it blew them away - best concert they have ever seen. Eddie is just so intense, and the band absolutely solid. At the end, Eddie spoke to the crowd about the war, about taking action to change the way things are going in this country and the world, and asked the crowd to shout back that the time is now, the place is here. He was visibly moved when the crowd roared back in response. This is a man who takes social responsibility, and his role in influencing people, seriously. (We had to leave Bonnaroo before Kanye went on at 2 a.m.)
Today it all seems like a dream. What other highlights will this tour bring?
2 comments:
wow! Rock on!!! sounds like you are having a good time and making a big difference to people. What a good idea to leverage rock/music to promote environment issues and then get good people on board to work the scene.. you go girl!
xoxo
your sis
sweet. the eagle has landed.
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