Before The Deluge: Why Go Home

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Why Go Home

This last weekend I went home, or to my roots, I should say, and visited the family in Virginia. Ostensibly, the purpose of the visit was to attend a conference in DC, but really I was all about seeing the fam, and heading up to Philadelphia with my brother to see Pearl Jam play the last ever concert at the Spectrum.
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The Philly Spectrum is a historic building, having hosted many great athletic and music events over the last forty years, like Laettner’s shot, Dr. J and Charles Barkley, Joe Frazier, Jerry Garcia, and Bobby Clarke and the Flyers. Pearl Jam was scheduled to play the final four shows in the building before it is shut down, and the buzz was large. The “Wreckin’ the Spectrum” shows. To make things even larger, it turns out the Phillies were playing the Yankees next door in the World Series at the same time. Crazy.
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My brother Will and I went up early, parked the car, and hit the subway for Philly. It was great to spend time with him. We did a bit of "speed work", checking out the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and Reading Station, all in the afternoon. Reading Station is sort of like Pike Place Market, with a crazy assortment of eating options and ethnic markets. Highly recommended. We rode the subway back, which was packed with folks in Phillies jerseys and Pearl Jam shirts.
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Pearl Jam came on-stage to the theme song of Rocky, as 40 years of sports clips from the Spectrum played on the two big screens. Eddie Vedder in boxing gloves. First song: Why Go (home!). The crowd went absolutely nuts, everyone on their feet, bouncing, singing, yelling. It was Halloween, so lots of people were in costumes, and I’m guessing the majority of the audience were Ten Club members. The show never stopped. 3.5 hours, 41 songs, a completely over the top, amazing tribute to the Spectrum. I'm proud to be a fan of this band--they do it right.
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Highlights included PJ coming out dressed as Devo for the first encore, and doing a full cover of Whip It, whip it real good. All the “hits” were played—Jeremy, Alive, Small Town, Black—it’s a long list. Several had extended guitar solos and even one or two drum solos. Daughter merged into Another Brick in the Wall ("Leave this builidng aone!"). Die hard fans were stoked to see the band play Bugs, with Ed on the accordion. Rats. Pilate. Sweet Lew. Out of My Mind. Many rarities. This is a big deal for the fanatics, who go to show after show hoping to check certain songs off their list.
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And let me tell you, there were fanatics—folks who know every word to every song. I thought I knew PJ, but no way. Happy to be there, just the same. The predominantly Ten Club audience made the show so much better---the band seemed to feed off it all. Ed put the mic out and let the audience sing parts of several familiar songs--Betterman, Daughter, Small Town. The Ten Club is not just a music club--it's an advocacy group of sorts. For picking up my tickets early, I scored a free DVD of Food Inc., a food activism documentary featuring Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan (Omnivore's Dilemma).
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The show finished with Alive, Rocking in the Free World, and then the usual coda of Yellow Ledbetter, with a Mike McCready guitar solo of the full Star Spangled Banner thrown in at the very end, balloons falling from the rafters and confetti cannons filling the Spectrum.
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The rest of the weekend was relatively low key. I knocked off a few two hour run/hikes in Great Falls National Park, site of the Mid-Atlantic North Face 50. Right now I just seem to be maintaining sort of. I need to settle on some winter running/fitness goals, and start thinking about next year. I’ll probably throw a few photos up of the Park later—it’s pretty special in its own right.
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