I know I’ve mentioned my good friend John on here before. We’re both big music fans. When we first started hanging out back in Starkville, MS, we spent a lot of time introducing each other to new music, mostly songs by Tori Amos and Pearl Jam. He’s a big Tori Amos fan. I had heard some of her big hits, but he introduced me to many more of her songs. I’m a big Pearl Jam fan. He had heard some of their big hits, but I introduced him to many more of their songs. I made copies of many of my Pearl Jam albums for him and he did the same for me with his Tori Amos albums.
John has hundreds of CDs. A lot of time he had to shuffle through his many CD cases to find a particular song that he was looking for. If we were going somewhere together, sometimes it would take a long time to leave because he had to find the right song to listen to. I suggested that he get mp3 player. He got the idea, but never got around to buying one. At one point I was researching a Zune (yes, a Zune) for myself even though I didn’t have nearly as many CDs as him.
We became roommates after a while. When he got a job out of town and had to move away, I got him an iPod as a going away present. I didn’t get myself an iPod until later that year. John had to leave pretty quickly, so he didn’t move all of his stuff out of our apartment immediately. I spent the next few weeks ripping all of his music to his iPod. I even put a lot of Pearl Jam songs on there.
This is around the time of the year that he started that job 6 years ago. He tells me that he still uses his iPod every day at work. Every once in a while I’ll get a text or email with a lyric from a Pearl Jam song that he’s discovered or gotten into lately. Today he sent me lyrics from a song called “Wishlist” and I immediately starting getting nostalgic.
Man, why are most of my close friends so far away?
This past weekend I went to New Orleans for Voodoo Fest. I met my friend John down there. We’d been looking forward to this since we last met up in Reno back in June. This was the first time I had been to New Orleans and Voodoo Fest since Voodoo Fest 2007.
On Friday, I flew to New Orleans. It is a LONG way from Portland to New Orleans. My first stop on the way there was at L.A.X. My plane landed around the time of the L.A.X. shooting that was in the news. We did sit on the runway for a while before we parked. Maybe the shooting was why. Everything was calm in the area I was in. I didn’t even know about the shooting until I got on wifi and checked Twitter. Once we made it to New Orleans the local news interviewed some of the people on our flight about it. John picked me up at the airport. He was worried because one of the flights from L.A. to New Orleans was delayed because of the shooting. After taking my stuff to the hotel and catching up a little bit, we headed to Voodoo Fest. We missed Macklemore & Lewis, but soon it was time for Pearl Jam. They put on a great show! They are an excellent live band! They played a few songs from the new album, but it was mostly older favorites. They played the songs I would’ve been disappointed if I didn’t hear: “Given to Fly” and “Do the Evolution”. I was surprised to hear “In My Tree”. John’s not as big of a Pearl Jam fan as me. He really likes “Do the Evolution”, so I’m glad they played it. After the show, I think we drank before calling it a night. We slept for 11 hours. I blame it on the jet lag and staying up late.
On Saturday I think we got something to eat and then headed back to the park. While walking around the park, we heard the end of Paramore’s set, but after that it was time for Nine Inch Nails. They started a lot earlier than the schedule said, so I’m glad we got there early. They also put on a great show. I’m not as big of a NIN fan as John. They played the song he really wanted to hear: “Reptile”. I think they played a lot of new songs, or maybe just songs that I’m not as familiar with. I got more pumped up during “Wish” than I did the entire night. They played one of the songs I really wanted to hear: “The Hand that Feeds”. I wish they would have played “Closer”, but it was still a great show.
On Sunday, we skipped Voodoo Fest entirely. We had talked about going to see Kid Rock and The Cure that night, but decided against it. It was too much of a hassle going to the park and back. We did some shopping and then hung out with one of John’s old friends, Elizabeth. She lives in New Orleans. I’ve hung out with her a few times over the years. She’s very cool. We did a little bar hopping and lost some money at the casino. Then we went to a club where Elizabeth’s boyfriend was DJing later in the night. We ended up leaving before his 2:30am performance because we were all tired.
On Monday, I flew back to Portland. It’s always sad coming back after having a great time with friends. I’m grateful that I got to go. Both Pearl Jam and Nine Inch Nails play in Portland later this month, so I’ll get to see them again. I got sick on this trip like I did at P.A.X. John is suffering the same symptoms I am. I think my next trip will be February at the earliest. It’ll be nice to spend time at home on weekends.
Pearl Jam is releasing their new album called Backspacer on September 20 (a Sunday), which is less than 2 weeks away. Of course I’m excited!!! The video for the first single, “The Fixer”, has been on iTunes and Youtube for a couple of weeks now and I can’t stop listening to it.
Earlier this year they were saying this album could end up sounding a lot different than their other ones. Judging by the few songs I’ve heard so far, that could be true. Eddie’s experience with making the Into the Wild soundtrack may have had a little influence on the way it sounds. They made it sound like the lyrics on this album were more straightforward, without all the multiple meanings. I like that. Simplicity can be good.
Take a look at the video. They’re getting so old now :).
I’ve been thinking about going to one of the music festivals this summer. All the ones that I saw near here were happening either a little too early (May/June) or a little too late (October). Plus, the lineups were pretty good, but there were only one or two artists that I really wanted to see at each event.
A week or two ago I found out that Pearl Jam was well on their way to finishing a new album and were rumored to be going on tour and also headlining Austin City Limits Music Festival this year. The ACL people didn’t want to confirm that Pearl Jam would be there, but they said it was the worst kept secret around. I went to the website and saw the bands they had confirmed so far. I put that with Pearl Jam and I decided that I need to book a hotel room right away, which I did. The official lineup came out around midnight this morning. It is great!
Pearl Jam
Dave Matthews Band
Beastie Boys
Ben Harper and Relentless7
John Legend
Mos Def
The B-52s
Sonic Youth
Coheed and Cambria (don’t know much about them, interested in hearing them)
The Virgins (a band I recently discovered)
Lily Allen (I keep hearing her name, don’t know any songs)
Follow Me