I regret that I have not posted in a couple of months. To my 3 readers out there: Mom, Dad, Ned...I sincerely apologize. That being said, it has been a remarkably busy summer for music. I really should've posted about each of them individually...but here goes.

Back in July, Pearl Jam came for a three-night stand at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield. At first, some of my buddies and I decided to just get a ticket for the 2nd show on July 3rd. Then news broke out: the band announced at the first show that they had decided to play all three shows without repeating a song! Well, fuck. So we proceeded to the 2nd show where we almost got our asses kicked by a bunch of South Shore kids due to one of them denting my friend's car...long story. The Tweeter Center is not known for its great crowds.

The show itself was spectacular and we had great seats about 20 rows back. They opened with "Release" and went through classics like "Corduroy," "Animal" and "Alive." The encore was a cover of The Who's "Baba O'Riley"(which they dedicated to Joe Strummer and Pete Townshend) and an amazing version of their own "Yellow Ledbetter." I had been waiting for 10 years to see these guys and finally it happened. Forgive me for sounding cheesy, but after listening to these songs over and over again in my junior high and high school years-- hearing them live gave me chills.

Well, listening to the radio at work I found out that they were doing an hour-long acoustic set before the opening act on the 3rd show. How could we pass it up? Thankfully, we didn't. The acoustic set was great, as was the rest of the set. They ended up playing 44 songs (about 3 and a half hours). Eddie Vedder was getting increasingly drunk as the evening went on. He really fucked up the words to "Wishlist" but somehow snapped out of it and got back on track.

Oh, one other thing about the Tweeter Center...there's an 11 pm curfew! Ricidulous right?! Due to complaints by a neighboring trailer park, bands are not allowed to play a lick past 11. Pearl Jam decided to break this curfew in order to finish the set that they wanted to play. Eddie exclaimed "so it looks like next time we'll see you at the Fleet Center." He changed words to yet another show-ending "Yellow Ledbetter" to be "I never have to play this outdoor place again." Preach on Eddie, I'll go see you anywhere.

A few weeks ago, Nedward, Albany Dan, Plumby, and I went to Montreal to go see Radiohead. It was yet another brilliant performance. It was a little more loose than the Field Day show, Thom would sometimes keep singing acapella after the song was over and encouraged the crowd to sing along with him on "Karma Police." They played 10 of the songs off of the new album, "Hail to the Thief," as well as incredible versions of "Lucky," "Paranoid Android" and "Street Spirit" among others. They reaffirmed my belief that they are indeed the best band on the planet.

The venue was the Parc Jean-Drapeau, which is on an island on the St. Lawrence. There were 22,000 people there, even though it looked like a lot more. The crowd when compared to the Tweeter was much cooler and more well-behaved. I'm not sure if it was the crowd (mostly Canadian) or the band that had an effect, my guess wold be the former. Canadians seem to be a much calmer people than us. We are more uptight but feel the need to let loose every once in a while and act like idiots. We stayed in Montreal for that weekend and had a great time, biding our time with drinking and topping it off with strippers (of course). Montreal has to be my favorite city in the world. It is an american and european city mixed together, with the best of both worlds...and the girls are hot.

Last Wednesday, I went to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the Tweeter Center. I didn't have a choice as to where to go this time unfortunately, but now that summer is over there will be no more shows there, thank god. Anyway, the show was really good even though our seats were far away. For some odd reason they don't have much speaker action in the back of the place, the music is barely loud enough. The band played pretty much everything that I wanted to hear. They played a few of the singles from the newest album, a bunch from "Californication", along with "Suck My Kiss" and "Give It Away." They sounded really tight and had a lot of energy. For the encore, Flea busted out his trumpet and played unbelievably well. They then broke into a great rendition of "Under the Bridge" (what a classic, I never get sick of this song) and a cover of Hendrix's "Fire." But of course, they had to stop at 11 because of the stupid curfew.

It has been a successful summer for concert-going. I've gotten to see a couple bands that I'd been waiting to see for along time. I also saw my favorite band twice! If there is lesson to be learned though its: stay the hell away from the Tweeter Center if you can help it.