This American Dream
Hello gremmies, Goof here. I’m taking the lead on gremmie.blog for today because Matt M is currently entrenched in the New York City sidewalk at 4th and Broadway in front of Tower Records. Why you ask? Pearl Jam’s new album. Duh.
But here’s the thing… last Thursday a super-secret Pearl Jam concert was announced… making it not-so-super-secret. The announcement coincides with the release of Pearl Jam Pearl Jam, which goes on sale tomorrow at midnight… which is really tonight you know. At any rate, the first 400 people to buy the new album also get a single FREE ticket to the was-super-secret-is-not-so-super-secret-anymore-but-is-still-exclusive show this upcoming Friday night at Irving Plaza. That’s right, the only people who will be in attendance on Friday night are the very same people who just spent the night on the cold cold concrete. I’d say they’ve earned it. When all is said and done, they will have ridden the concrete for 38+ hours.
Naturally, your Gremmie on the ground, Matt M has been sending me updates on the progress of … well, waiting. He’s made friends with many other Pearl Jam fans, it’s a veritable street orgy of gremmies. Catch my drift? At last check, Matt M is 35th in line. If my math is correct, that puts him well within the first 400. Way to go gremmie.
So, without further delay, I present to you ‘This American Dream: A Gremmie Rock-umentary’.
Friday, 4/28/06, 20:45:00
I received this very dark picture Thursday night. At first I thought Pearl Jam had hired models to promote the new album… then I looked closer and realized that this is in fact Jill, Matt’s super-hot girlfriend. If Pearl Jam wants spokemodels for the new album, they should hire Jill. Plums + Avocados = super tasty guacamole. Either way, posters featuring the new album cover are plastered all over NYC, as shown here.
Sunday, 4/30/06 13:00:00
Matt called to inform me that the great Pearl Jam campout had begun. Actually, he was out buying comfy folding chairs for the masses. They take turns running satellite missions like “get chairs”, “get blankets”, “get breakfast”, and so on. This photo shows the result of Matt’s “get ninja turtles” mission… hey, they’re good luck. The coordinated efforts of a hundred Pearl Jam fans - incredible.
Monday, 5/1/06 03:00:00
3 am: Solid. “Shrinky-dink” solid.
Monday, 5/1/06 04:00:00
4 am: Sleep tight gremmies. “Oh the lights of the city”.
Monday, 5/1/06 07:00:00
7am: Dawn breaks. Rise and shine. Time to face Day 2 with a paper and a bagel. Full gremmie-style.
Monday, 5/1/06 10:23:00
Mid-morning: The line outside of Tower Records has been made ‘official’. There’s no turning back now, this is hour 17.
Monday, 5/1/06 10:42:00
Mid-morning: This is what you look like after window shopping THE SAME WINDOW for 18 hours.
Monday, 5/1/06 11:50:00
Late-morning: As you can see, scores of Pearl Jam fans are firmly rooted on the sidewalk outside of Tower Records. Note the line has been facilitated by New York City’s finest roadblocks, nothing but the best for PJ fans. The second shot, well, this is what it’s all about - Pearl Jam’s self-titled studio release, tonight,Tower Records. And lastly, here’s the line - - thumbs up, WAY up.
Monday 5/1/06, 12:00:00 HIGH NOON
It’s high noon - T-minus 12 hours until go time - and we’ve got wristbands!!!
Monday 5/1/06, 12:30:00
Meet The Players
Marisa
Adam
Dave
Darren
Jeff (sadly, Jeff expired during hour 10)
Monday 5/1/06, 14:45:00
We have promo passes. I repeat, we have promo passes. It’s a done deal now. Midnight, oh sweet midnight.
Monday 5/1/06, 16:49:00
This is the crew. They’ve been in the same spot for 27 hours. Friends have been made. It’s terrific really. Of course, the line extends behind the cameraman, and then wraps around the city block entirely.
Adam, grabbing a quick nap in the shade. This is the calm before the storm. In a mere 7 hours the doors will open.
5/1/06 20:40:00
It’s almost 9pm - that’s T-minus 3 hours. A couple hours ago everyone hunkered down for some well-deserved and much-needed rest. After getting in a few minutes of sleep, it’s time to buckle up for the final 3 hours…
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10PM, TWO HOURS TO GO
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Freshly rested and ready to roll, the entire crew is wide-eyed and the scene is electric. Somehow, we’ve moved about six feet since yesterday and we’re now comfortably approaching the corner of the Tower Records building. We’re all super-excited, except for maybe Marisa, who is unexplainably shy after 35 hours. Darren is excited, or constipated. Not sure. Plums just loves her promo pass.
Of course, there are scalpers. It’s Manhattan after all.
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11PM, ONE MORE HOUR
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I’ve just been told that reps from J Records have been hanging down on Broadway with the crowds. The people from J Records are terrific. After all, they are Pearl Jam’s label. In all seriousness, what an awesome event. I haven’t seen an album release like this…well, ever. Head on over to their website - there’s even an online listening party for the new album. Yes!
Oh, and today’s stats? Just checked ‘em out. Yeah. Gremmie.net racked up an astonishing 49,500 hits.
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11:40PM, TWENTY MINUTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I don’t expect to hear much from our Gremmie on the ground within the next few moments. However, I DO expect a flurry of information shortly after midnight EST. Rest assured, it will be here.
GO GREMMIE GO!
UPDATE: 11:50PM - Clive Davis, yes THAT Clive Davis, just graced the crowds with Krispy Kreme donuts….. unbelievable. To clarify, Clive Davis met with the fans and gave them donuts.
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MAY 2, 2006 12:00am. ‘Pearl Jam’ is released!!! IT’S GO TIME!!! STAND BY FOR UPDATES AS SOON AS THEY ARE AVAILABLE
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5/2/06 00:11:00
Most likely the first image to hit the internet of long-sought-after secret show tickets. These gents were the first three. Rest up fellas, you’ve got an exclusive Pearl Jam show to see on Friday. Way to go!!! Hopefully they remembered to pick up a copy of the album 
And the Gremmie crew - 35 hours in front of Tower Records, tired, bruised, but not beaten. Tickets and albums and t-shirts and posters in hand. This is what it’s all about - the glory felt by all Pearl Jam fans across the world! Tonight it’s about Pearl Jam.
5/2/06 00:52:00
The ‘after party’ continues here on Gremmie.net. Hi(er)-res photos of the whole thing on the way.
OK everyone, here they are… a clearer view of the whole thing. Sunday afternoon to Tuesday morning. I’m happy to report that all Gremmies have checked in and they’re all home safe and sound. Some are showering, some fell asleep already. All is well.
All the pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mammerman/sets/72057594122861297/
The really REALLY good one, Clive Davis, what a guy:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mammerman/138881729/
And thanks to Rachel and Bob, here’s a shot of the pay off!! How’s that for a slice of fried gold?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chules/138874077/
5/2/06 10:42:00
I never knew how much of a creature comfort cardboard could be until I waited in line for 36 hours to obtain Pearl Jam tickets. You see, cardboard – if arranged properly - makes for a handy mattress.
Good morning gremmies, this is Matt M here with a post-game follow-up. As nearly 189,000 (as of 5/3/06 at 8:30am) of you have already seen, through the dual efforts of both myself and Goof, the long road to get tickets to the Secret Pearl Jam Show at Irving Plaza on Friday May 5th paid off in spades. Not only was I fortunate enough to get tickets, but more importantly I met some great friends who were laced with the jovial and intense spirits that I have come to associate with my fellow Pearl Jam fans.
Since Goof has already done a marvelous job at recapping the scene, I’ll try and stick to the atmosphere. The first word that comes to mind and indeed the first I’d written on this page when I first started writing this post-game was “camaraderie”. Merriam and Webster define camaraderie as the following:
Pronunciation: “käm-’rä-d(&-)rE, “kam-, “kä-m&-, “ka-, -’ra-
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from camarade comrade
: a spirit of friendly good-fellowship
To me it looks more like this:
Pronunciation: “käm-’rä-d(&-)rE, “kam-, “kä-m&-, “ka-, -’ra-
Function: noun
Etymology: ROCK, from camarade comrade
: a spirit of friendly good-fellowship……of Pearl Jam fans
To say that I couldn’t have asked for a better group of fans to share my time with over these past two days would be the understatement of the year. When I assembled my survival kit for the wait, I packed more technology than X. Between my iPod, my PSP, my Cellphone, and my Digital Camera, you would have thought I was going to a nerd competition for where the winner has the most hi-tech gear. By 1am this morning, all except my cell phone were fully charged. I figured the best way to kill time was by listening to music and playing video games; little did I know how wonderful the people around me were going to be.
Jeff and Darren are from New England and were both Red Sox fans. Darren is a riot and kept telling passer-bys that we were in line for Barbara Streisand tickets. Jeff is a lovely gent whose amiable nature lent itself to a whole host of hysterical antics. Adam and Marisa are from New York City, but originally California. They are engaged and getting married in less than a month. The story on how they met is something yanked out of a novel. Dave, or as I call him – Eric Stoltz – is also from New York City – though originally hails from Texas. Great guy. Funny as the dickens. Aside from their character, each one was also a die hard Pearl Jam fan. Naturally, my best girl Jillian was there too. By my side. We’re all planning on getting together before the show at Irving Plaza this Friday night.
The scene resembled a campgrounds. We originally showed up between the hours of 1pm and 4pm on Sunday. With our fold up chairs strewn about, various blankets and pillows, we made the most of the space we were allotted. As the hours pressed on and the line grew, I felt like we had invested in prime real estate and it was paying off big time. You could read envy across the foreheads of fans who were counting heads in an effort to see if their spot, which was presumably much further back in line, was going to yield them a ticket. We spent the days chatting about everything from the gaggle of thugged-out scalpers in front of us (25 or so who by the way only showed up last minute and the 5 people who were their friends let them into the line and no one did anything about it, they even bragged about scalping the tickets) – we dubbed them the Wu Tang clan, to the age old question, if you were stranded on a desert island and you could only bring ONE Pearl Jam record - which Pearl Jam record would you bring with you?
The air was charged with invisible electricity as midnight approached. Clive Davis, the founder of Arista Records, even made an appearance at 11:30pm last night. A gentlemen if I ever saw one, he greeted each fan with a smile and handshake all whilst his staff were handing out boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts (kudos by the way to the person who chose Krispy Kreme over Dunkin’ Doughts!) He even gave Jeff a promo t-shirt! A handful of people from Arista, including Chris Herche and a lovely woman named Jaime (spelling?) even thanked me for putting together this whole blog post about the event. To those folks: it was my pleasure, thanks for treating the fans with such respect.
We were all around number 65 in line (out of around 450) and we were in an out lickety-split. Buy your disc, get your ticket, go home and sleep on something other than concrete and hope. Thanks to everyone who made this event one of the most cherished in my life.
Friday – here we come!!!