Eddie Vedder Tour 2011

A few months back Eddie Vedder {front man to Pearl Jam and my favorite of all time since I was 12} announced that he was going to be doing a solo tour. Ty and I are HUGE concert goers and have been to many shows....we just LOVE it! So we of course instantly hopped on it to get tickets to see Eddie in Oakland. The day I went to purchase our tickets off the 10 club website ended up being a nightmare! The tickets sold out in about 20 mins. I tried to get these tickets, but their servers were so overloaded with people that we were all getting kicked off in the middle of a purchase. Needless to say it was VERY frustrating. So in a matter of a VERY short time the Oakland shows were sold out. I was very bummed! My loving husband, as I was on the phone with him, instantly told me to try to get the Santa Barbara tickets! I of course tried and got them!!! I was soooooooo excited!!! We were now going to be taking a trip down South for a few days! Well, this all changed pretty quick. Tickets for the Oakland show ended up having more tickets so we decided last minute to try again for those. We were lucky enough that we got tickets for that show too! The places Eddie was playing at were small theater's which makes it really intimate since they aren't BIG venues. I LOVE that!!! We got balcony seats which are ok since really no seat is a bad seat in a theater. As soon as I purchased Oakland tickets a show was added in Oakland. I know...I am crazy and I couldn't help myself. There I was just purchasing ANOTHER pair of tickets! This time it was only 10 rows back.....SWEEEEET! So I now all of a sudden have 3 shows to go see! Seriously this is a disease I have! I guess it's a good one to have though!!! Sometimes I think people think if you are married with kids you can't be doing things like this anymore. I don't agree with that at all. This is what Ty and I love and it works for us! We love to live on the edge sometimes and be teens again!!! So lets dive into the shows we saw and our trip. Also HANDS DOWN to the MOST amazing night that we have EVER had!!!

Pathway into the outdoor venue in SB 

I am not usually a poster girl, but I loved this one since there is a surfboard on it! 

This was the view of the beach at our seats in the venue. The venue was small and gorgeous!

My friend Christi went with me to the Sat. night show! Ty and I had decided  for me to just fly to SB since we bought Oakland show tix.That way it saved us money.Christi and I had a blast! Thanks Christi for the fun weekend!!!

This is Ed. Bad picture, but I wanted to show an idea of how close we were! Not too bad!!!

Tyler picked me up from the airport on Monday afternoon. We drove straight to Oakland and had some time to kill before the show, so we decided to go visit the Temple where we got married almost 9 years ago!

It's always gorgeous there, but that day was very chilly and overcast! This is a pic from the top of the temple.

Inside the visitors' center. Tyler had never been.

Little did Tyler and I know that this was going to be the best night of our lives!!! Let me explain...

I had heard that Eddie Vedder's bodyguard was handing out tickets for FRONT ROW seats at every show! So I decided to see if we could actually make this happen for us!!! Tyler was skeptical, but was a trooper and tried to accomplish this with me. We got to the Paramount Theater {which is beautiful} a little earlier to be one of the first in line so that as soon as the doors opened we could get inside and look for Ed's bodyguard. As we stood in line I had anxiety, was nervous and going crazy! I just needed to get inside to know if this was going to work or not! At 6:30pm the doors opened. I quickly went inside to look for Jesse {bodyguard} and spotted who I thought had to be him. There he was standing at the bottom of the stairs that led to the balcony seats....EXACTLY where Ty and I were to be seated that night! I didn't want to approach him or say anything. I just stood near him knowing he knew I was there. Tyler stood at the merchandise table close by. I said to Tyler as I was pointing up the stairs that I thought we were up that way, knowing that Jesse would hear me! He then approached me! I was flipping out inside! I couldn't believe it! Was this going to REALLY happen?? He said, "Are you two together?" I responded, "YES!" As he pulled out 2 tickets from his back pocket and said, "I will give you these tickets in exchange for yours, but you have to promise me NO pictures." I of course told him, "DEAL!" Now, I knew these were suppose to be front row, but I thought they will probably be on either side of the stage. I never have good luck...however Tyler always gets lucky. As the usher showed us to ours seats I just couldn't believe it! My brain couldn't wrap around what was actually happening. We kept walking closer and closer and closer to the middle! We had FRONT ROW, DEAD CENTER!!! BEST SEATS IN THE HOUSE!!! As you can imagine I was SO STOKED and my heart was racing. I mean really was this happening? Was I going to see my favorite performer perform for over 2 hours right in front of me? YES I WAS!!!!

Tyler and I in front of the Paramount Theater in Oakland! 

Glen Hansard opened for Eddie. He was actually really good and entertaining! One of the best openers I have seen!

Eddie's bodyguard who gave us the tickets!

My best friend, Pareesa, also loves PJ and went to the show that night with her BF

We stayed at her BF house in San Francisco after the show that night.

This is the only pic I could get of the stage as we were walking out since I couldn't take pics during the show. We were  more in the middle,but I had people shoving us out to leave.

If you don't believe me here is the proof! When we arrived in the pit where are seats were they put this wrist band on us so all the usher's could know we were front row!

That's right!!!! This is Eddie's pick!!! The show had started and about 7 songs in he looked straight down at us and threw me his pick!!!

He had to know we are HUGE fans since we sang just about every lyric! At the end of the show he had the front row stand up right against the stage. He came over and shook my hand!!! 

Ed's bus.

There's the man!!! We decided to go catch him after the show and see if we could meet him!!! 

He came out and talked to a group of us one by one. Here he is talking with me! I shook his hand and said, "hi I am Lisa." He said, "hi Lisa, how are you?" I told him thanks for the show and tickets! He knew who I was from front row!!! He was very generous and humble. Really loved all his fans.

At the second show in Oakland it was a lot of fun still being only in 10th row. We did have some people around us that were really boring to sit by though. When we left that night Tyler had surprised me with this Poster. Each show the poster changes. This one they did off of what movie theme!!?? I had SUCH A GREAT time!!! I couldn't thank my hubby and friends enough....Jesse and Ed too!!!