I said most of what I’d like to say in my L4LM review, linked here and below, with a couple things to add.
Allow me to address the encore in a friendly forum. First off, while techically a Neil Young song, Pearl Jam and Uncle Neil are forever entwined and Fuckin’ Up will always be a PJ song to me, just as so many of the songs we lovingly attribute to the GD or JGB are covers of other artists. Last night’s encore, while slightly goofy amidst Fallon’s unabashed drunkenness, was fuckingawesome. Jimmy was a buffoon. Whatever. But that opened a window of opportunity for one of my favorite bands to transcend as they improvised and adapted and carried on in general fuckingawesomeness. None of that shit in the middle was planned. Loved it all. I’m not above fun and I’m sure not above a WWE flying elbow to put a hoodie out for the count. I hope I never take myself so seriously as to bash artists I respect for having fun, taking a chance, and going with the flow. That was a blast and I loved it and it felt like the nexus of my entire musical life in one song… JRAD, who covers the Grateful Dead, playing a song with lineage to my current best-of-all-time band, Pearl Jam. I lost my shit. Actually.
Next, the Wharf Rat, or, should I say, the FUCKING “Wharf Rat” with a DICK this big! Click the link, trust me, it’s worth your while.
I also tried to sneak this paragraph into L4LM. Alas, I was caught in the act by the professionalism of their editing team:
One fan was reported to have measured his dancing output in steps, a quantitative measure of a good time, if you will. Results are as follows: 16,780, 19,065, and 18,499 on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, respectively, for a grand total of 54,344 steps, the rough equivalent of 29.35 miles of dancing for a hypothetical six-foot male. Wow.
It’s been my honor and my privilege to write about these shows for L4LM. None of this would have happened without all of you, from the shows themselves to my writing to the Freaky love-fest that shaped every second of my weekend, just as it has my life since I was first welcomed into this community. I say it often and I mean it every time, perhaps a little bit more so with each passing utterance…
I love you all.
