Pearl Jam in Tampa
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When Pearl Jam announced their summer tour, I thought, "Hey--Tampa! Why not?" and bought tickets. So, on Thursday morning, Andy and I took off for my 20th Pearl Jam concert.
We landed and shuttled to our hotel, which was already filled with Pearl Jam fans. We recognized each other by our t-shirts, tattoos, and obvious exhuberance. Andy and I dumped our luggage in our room and joined the other fans who were boarding a shuttle downtown. The couple in front of us had just come from the previous night's concert and were completely enthused. It was great to see so many happy Pearl Jammers, and it felt like we were all a part of something big and wonderful.
I call myself a writer, but that sentence is so much smaller than what I mean. What I felt seemed gigantic and important, the way I imagine people feel when they go to the same church and recognize the same basic faith in one another. I recognize a positive energy in these people, and I'm drawn to them as much as I am the concerts.
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Once downtown, Andy and I surveyed our dinner options (all national chains--welcome to Tampa!) and I thought Bennigans was appropriate because it is hilariously referenced in this infamous YouTube video of the song "Yellow Ledbetter." So, we ate there.
We were so happy!
We ate our food and happily joined the other fans outside the arena. I gleefully spotted Eddie's familiar tour bus... but it was much less accessible this time! Oh well!
Anyway, that's when the real fun began. I claimed our tickets, which turned out to be great, and Andy went to buy t-shirts. That's when I heard someone yell my name completely out of the blue. It turned out to be two Livejournal friends, who I'd never met in real life, but recognized me! So, I happily met witchchild and mandyann.
mandyann is a native Floridian, but witchchild had come all the way from Connecticut. We were all properly geeked. They ended up being super sweet girls and I'm very happy to have met them.
Then, before long, I ran into another fan I knew, a guy named Kevin who had also waited outside Eddie's tourbus in Santa Barbara. We swapped stories and, when I mentioned that we were planning to walk back to our hotel, Kevin insisted that we let him drive us. So, we swapped numbers and ended up meeting up with him and his sweet, pretty wife after the show. They were awesome people, and thanks to them, we didn't have to wander down the dark streets of Tampa with maps in our hands.
I just can't express how cool that was ... that I just randomly arrived in Tampa, of all places, and found friends there. It's really true what they say about Pearl Jam fans being friends you haven't met yet.
We finally got inside the arena, and we saw that Verizon had installed two large screens on either side of the stage. In between messages about Pearl Jam's various causes (Obama 08, Free the West Memphis 3, discover alternative energy sources, and so on), fans could send up their own words via text message. And, it was amazing. People sent up words of thanks and noted their home towns, which were all over the map. I felt the pulse of electric energy that was surging from people who had come from far and wide to bask in this great experience together.
Finally, finally, the concert began. It was wonderful, of course.
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Eddie seemed to have grown more confident, post-solo tour, and chatted us up quite a bit. Being that this was my 20th concert, I was actually able to peel my eyes off the band this time. And when I did, I just thoroughly enjoyed the crowd. Every single section throbbed and danced and pounded their fists in the air with excitement. Pearl Jam's songs have evolved, over the years, and there are now lines and screams and even hand motions that Eddie lets the crowd provide--and they did. Everyone, from the fan club section to the highest rafters, hung on Eddie's every word. It was an awesome experience. I don't know any other band that inspires that sort of blissful energy.
And of course, I was so happy. There were times that I would feel big laughs bubble out of my entire being, I was just that thrilled to be where I was. Other times, I would just stare at the stage and feel myself fill with sheer love. I felt like love was radiating out of me, towards the stage and across the entire audience. I even thought, "How wonderful it is to just stand here and love like this."
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The photo above is when Eddie caught a beam of light with his guitar, and moved it slowly across and up and down the crowd to light up our faces.
This is Eddie flirting with a two-year-old girl in the audience, Emma. He's such a dad now.
It was over all too quickly, and we floated out to the sidewalk. Our new friend Kevin took us back to the hotel, and we ended up sharing a drink (literally) with two more fans at a nearby bar.
That was our Thursday.
On Friday, Andy and I got up, had breakfast in the hotel, and took a streetcar to Centro Ybor, the gloriously tacky Cuban district.
Why yes, it says "Pearl Jam" on my back. :)
Whenever I travel, I always seek out the local vintage clothing stores. Even if I'm not planning to bring back clothes, they're a good barometer for finding the artsy, independently-run neighborhoods as opposed to the strip malls. In this case, I hit the jackpot.
I heart this dress!
In between the many tattoo parlors and cigar shops, we found an adorable little creperie. We ordered a spinach and ricotta crepe, a quattro formaggia crepe and frozen coffees. That was my favorite meal of the trip.
After that, we shuttled over to another neighborhood, but it ended up having just William Sonomas and Banana Republics and other stuff we have at home. We ended the day with a dip in the hotel pool and dinner at an upscale bowling alley.
This is getting long, huh? Okay, well, on Saturday, we had about five hours to kill before our flight back home to Pittsburgh. We killed them with cupcakes and a trip to the Florida Aquarium.
It was okay. I actually think Pittsburgh's small aquarium has better sea life, but this one was set up in an interesting way. You could look left, right, over your head and beneath your feet to see fish and turtles darting past every crack and crevice.
My favorite part was the seahorses--the tank of babies, and the tank of big pregnant daddies, who seemed to drag their swollen bellies around just like tired pregnant ladies do in the summer.
And, I got to touch a Stingray! But I didn't read the directions until after Andy yelped that I had poked the poor thing right in his Danger Zone.
After that, we killed some more time by sipping smoothies and looking at a big ship. Then, we reclaimed our bags and shuttled back to the airport.
The plane ride home was gentle and uneventful, and I read the new David Sedaris book while the sun set over our side of the plane. Andy took this picture of the puffy clouds that lolled alongside my window.
Back in Pittsburgh, Andy and I drove home from the airport with the windows open. I caught a whiff of honeysuckle at the Greentree exit. The scent wavered as the city skyline burst into view, and then returned full-force by Squirrel Hill, flooding the car with its punch-drunk scent.
I thought about how travelling is my very favorite thing, and how part of what I love is coming home.
It was a wonderful trip.