tonight was the first of six pearl jam concerts i will attend in the next week or so. that's right, six. i lack meaningful responsibilities which allow for such glutiny of concerts within my rather light schedule. right now i am "chilling" at a friend's apartment in the good ol' town of kitchener-waterloo. k-w for short.

as everyone's sleeping anticipating their classes in the morning, misty queen and i plan on heading out to london for tomorrow night's show. her drunken mind is in lala land hopefully dreaming of yours truly as opposed to mr. eddie vedder who is looking as good as he's ever had. must say, jeff ament's mighty buff too. but enough of my latent homosexual tendencies towards the band. the first night of the concerts set the mood for what appears to be a memorable week.

to little disappointment i will miss first week of classes. but realistically, there is nothing of interest school-wise till midterms somewhere in october. as to why i am able get on the road and follow this band around.

tonight's gig was simply spectacular. reading the setlist for the prior canadian gigs thus far, the performances seemed standard at best and nothing get overtly excited about. i'd regret going to six gigs and hearing the same tunes night after night. i guess being at a show changes everything. tonight's gig opened with the lovely "long road" and within the first few bars, a massive joint was sparked officially kicking off our week of saying goodbye to youth. in reality, i doubt i'll have an opportunity like the one at hand. usually following pearl jam six shows stretches more a distance than from kitchener to montreal and back. sure, the cost of this is up there, but the memories that are coming out are priceless. meeting new fans, the music, the everything. kitchener was solid. a relatively small venue--about 6 000 capacity--compared to what pearl jam plays making vedder feel as if he's playing a small bar. certainly, the arena had an intimate atmosphere where every section was within eye's view. apart from long road as the set opener, we got treated to blood, faithfull, man of the hour, john lennon's gimme some truth which were the first time i personally got to hear those live. alive was simply beautiful. however, the crowd's pumping of their fists was rather Orwell-ish. i soaked in the mood feeling as if we really are a cult of fans paying our salutes. black seemed to carry on forever. indifference was when i lost my voice. and the unfinished version of soon forget was priceless. and the one-two punch of baba o'riley and yellow ledbetter at the end left me in tears. what a night. what a band.

on a good note, there is no concert withdrawal tonight and won't have it till next monday night when this festive road trip takes us back to our home town where hopefully PJ will rock out in the ACC. but tonight began a week of absolute bliss.

on a sad note, i saw a car with the ontario plate "gvn2fly" burying my hope of getting that one personalized. now, i'll have to think of another pearl jam related plate for which to plunk $250 on.

the band left me with high expectations leading into london. can't wait for tomorrow night.